So how did it all start?

Not sure of the exact year but it was around 1993 when the NZFRU brought in a rule that all kickers had to use a kicking tee when attempting a conversion to speed up the game. At the time yours truly was kicking goals for the mighty Teddy Bears who were a social rugby team based in Wellington.

Anyway, I was about to kick a conversion and a tee was rushed onto the field – it was a plastic funnel with the top cut off and I kicked like crap. My team was never one to provide support when things went wrong, so I needed to find a solution.

Initially, the idea for a new kicking tee was to make a tee that had the same principals as sand, something like a hacky sack. I borrowed a sewing machine and developed a fabric pouch filled with plastic beads placed on a hard plastic cylinder. Upon completion, I used the prototype in a game and it worked.

The new tee gave me the confidence to reach out to a high-profile rugby player to trial. Through loose connections, I touched base with Mathew Cooper, a current All Black at the time, and asked for a few pointers to improve the kicking tee design. Matthew said he really liked the concept and intended to use the rugby tee for an up and coming National Provincial Championship game, I think against Taranaki. I was both nervous and excited when the big day came to see the tee tested on a televised game - I couldn’t wait until the opportunity for Matthew to take a shot at goal. When a try was finally awarded, I thought this was it. The ball boy rushed onto the field however much to my dismay, without the tee?! I couldn’t work it out. The following day I gave Matthew a call to better understand what had happened. He said before the game he was practicing with the tee and his boot struck the fabric cover and it ripped. The plastic beads sprayed the field! What a disaster.

The kicking tee idea then got placed on hold until a night when I was at a Teddy Bears rugby practice, which involved a few beers down at the Bond Street Tavern, and I bumped into a new recruit who worked for a plastic company. We got chatting about dumb ideas and I mentioned the kicking tee with the objective to have a malleable product. He said there were plenty of plastics that were malleable, so why not come down to the factory.

The factory visit provided confidence to commission a mould and a few samples. Then in the summer of 1994, the new rugby kicking tees were ready to trial. The unique idea was for a player to mould the plastic with their hand and then place the ball on the newly shaped tee. We quickly learned malleable plastic has a memory when exposed to heat i.e. it will return to its original shape. When this occurred, the ball would roll-off, which it did! Another disaster as we could not rely on a tee that could only be used in temperatures under 10 degrees. It was another fail and again the new kicking tee idea was on hold.

Then a couple of years later I was watching a footie game at home with a few mates and old tee samples were lying around the floor. One of the lads asked what the weird cylinder-shaped plastic thing was, so I explained. He said he knew of a smart company in Wanganui called Inztep, that could provide a solution to the memory issue.

As it turned out I was off to Maxwell that weekend, a little township just out of Wanganui so I reached out to Inztep and took the samples along. They were fantastic and really helped to better understand plastic properties. We ended up making the tee slightly larger and also made the shore A rating higher, which means the plastic was harder. We again commissioned a mould and the first functional Supertee was launched!

The most notable feature being the tee could be moulded by hand and while the plastic still had memory, the conditions needed to be super-hot for the tee to fail. So the way we saw it, the tee would work 95% of the time and that would be good enough.

We raced to Stirling Sports on Dominion Road and asked if they would try the new tee. The owner loved the “point of difference” and agreed to stock the tee providing it had packaging. To resolve the tee was placed in a plastic bag with a simple header stapled. Being focused on budget, it was good enough and the Supertee was in the market, this being 1996.

We also managed to get the tee into a few other Stirling Sports stores and after the first year had sold about 500 tees. During the mid-1990’s my business partner Daryl Halligan was arguably the number one goal kicker in the world and as it turned out he was also my 2nd cousin. Daryl and I never saw a lot of each other as young fellas although our parents were very close. We had played footie against one other a few times.

Then in 1997, I decided to get Daryl’s feedback to see if he could offer any tips on how to improve the tee. I called Daryl and he said he would be happy to assist. After trialing the Supertee he said he loved it and was going to use the tee the following weekend, OMG!! I was back to that moment with Matthew Cooper – I was terrified something would go wrong. That weekend I was glued to the TV. I’d played a few first-class rugby matches myself so I understand nerves, but that night I was in overdrive. The tee came on the field this time, Daryl placed the tee, moulded the groove with his thumbs and placed the ball. The ball is staying on I said to myself, he’s actually going to kick off the tee, he strikes the ball from a sideline conversion, it’s missing, it's way out right – despair, wait its shaping, it's curling from right to left, it’s over the black dot, you’re a bloody legend, Daryl Halligan!!!!

I couldn’t wait to call Daryl back on Monday but he called me on Sunday to say thanks for the tee. I asked him if I could brand the tee, the Halligan Supertee, and he agreed. I asked what sort of payment he would need? He said not to worry about that sort of stuff, the first thing to do was to market the tee, then see what happens from there. I took a few weeks to think about a structure with Daryl.

How I looked at it, we were selling 500 tees and with Daryl’s name, I was sure we could sell 1000 tees. Therefore, to give away 50% of the company was a no brainer as we would not be any worse off. So that was the offer and Daryl said awesome, but on one condition – it had to be fun! In 1998 we formed a company. To establish a name we looked up the word “Super” in the thesaurus and found 2 alternatives, Jim Dandy or Boffo. Jim Dandy just didn’t sound like a sports distribution company, so we decided on Boffo Enterprises, now Boffo Sports.

Daryl’s input to tee development and reaching new markets was invaluable. He emphasized a tee needed to have many qualities including;

• Sweet spot of the ball is exposed

• A variety of heights

• An ability to allow the ball to be placed forwards, straight up or from side to side

• The tee to be light so there is almost no impact on contact

• The design to provide minimal impact upon the ball's flight

• Must have a firm base so not wobble in windy conditions

Daryl also wanted a tee that was visible in every game. He identified the Australian National Rugby League competition required a tee to be used at the start of every game and kickers were not precious about which tee they used. He, therefore, designed a tee that could be exclusively used for kickoffs by the NRL.

Subsequently, the Supertee Kick-Off (Rock) and Supertee King were developed. Boffo now has 10 different Supertee models all designed by Daryl.

Boffo sells tees in New Zealand, Australia, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, and Japan. There are numerous internet sales all over the globe via our retailers and distributors.

As part of our joinery we would like to mention the following people and organizations who have supported our company growth:

• Linda Halligan and Lisa Williams

• Brian and Bronwyn Halligan, and Peter (senior) and Nancy Williams

• Inzetp (Axiam) • Parmen Marketing and Distribution, Taiwan

• Benefitz

• Rebel Sport

• Sportsman Warehouse

• Carta Sport

• WRS

• Jonathan Thurston

• Cameron Smith

• Beauden Barrett

We would like to make a special mention of Dan Carter. Dan was an original supporter and has a tee named after him – Carter Supertee. He is such a top bloke that we asked him to join the company in 2018.

Lastly, we want to say a massive THANK YOU to every person that has used or purchased a Supertee as without your support this journey could never had happened. Daryl and I are both very proud of our company. It’s not often any of us get an opportunity to turn an idea into a global product.

It is especially rewarding having our wives Lisa and Linda are involved. As boys, we saw each other every second Christmas and played the odd game of rugby against each other. For the last 10 years, we would speak every week and have never lost sight of why we started the business, to have FUN.

- Co-founder Peter Williams