SUNBURY, Pa. — Mats are seen in ninja warrior, parkour, wrestling, and other athletic competitions nationwide
But did you know that some of these mats are actually handmade right in Northumberland County?
The family-owned, woman-owned mat company business, Resilite, is the sole supplier of classic mats for NCAA wrestling championships, the Super Bowl of wrestling for many, as vice president of sales Matt Gilbert says.
"We have two styles of wrestling mats. We have the lightweight mat, which is one-sided, and this is typically used in a lot of competitions, stuff like that, and then we have our classic mat," said Matt Gilbert, Vice President of Sales for Resilite, 3rd generation.
Resilite has been supplying the mats to the NCAA wrestling championships since 1963.
"So every roll that you see at the NCAA or every mat that you see at the NCAA or major wrestling college wrestling rooms or really any classic mat out there. They all start off as this size roll, and then we actually hand glue each one of these mats, and then we actually hand assemble them together, we piece them together, and that's done for every mat all the mats that go through," explained Gilbert.
And apart from handmaking these championship mats all of these mats are handpainted as well.
"It's very, very detailed, and we have a lot of really, really skilled people who can do it," said Gilbert.
Resilite is the only company that manufactures classic mats, which the company says is highly valued by the NCAA.
"Reason is because it leads on impact protection. There's not a wrestling mat on the market that even comes close to the impact protection of the classic wrestling mat. and also the durability and the feel of the mat for the competition," added Gilbert.
The company prides itself on being a tight-knit business of 87 employees. All of the hard work that goes into making each mat is done in Northumberland County.