About

Mikasa provides cutting-edge products to over 120 countries through its network of 80 regional distributors around the world!

Before there was a cross-trainer, instant replay or endorsement deals, Mikasa Sports has been creating and perfecting the most important part of the game: the ball. It all started in Hiroshima, Japan over 89 years ago. We set the standard before there was one, and never lost the thing that makes all sports great: Passion !!!

While the rules of the game haven't changed much, the athletes, coaches, arenas, and fans sure have. Athletes are faster, strategies more complex, stadiums have become monuments, and fans are more demanding. Competition has been raised to a whole new level and every athlete has come to expect the best. Every sport revolves around one thing: the ball.

We understand the passion and inspiration it takes to be an athlete, no matter what level. We feel the same way about our athletic game balls. We put that same passion and inspiration, coupled with the best technology, into every ball we make. The balls we manufacture roll off the production line as close to perfect as possible. It's the only way we know how to make a ball.

Ron Foxcroft was a referee with a whistle problem!

Since an injury ended Ron Foxcroft's football playing days at the age of 17, he gained satisfaction as a basketball referee. Eventually refereeing became a very successful part-time career. Ron was in demand around the world as a referee of professional, and even Olympic basketball games, but he found himself frequently let down by his one piece of essential equipment.

"I always had a problem with whistles," he explains. "They have a cork pea in them and when you blow a pea-whistle really hard, nothing comes out. When they're frozen or wet or get some dirt inside, they lose their efficiency."

Eventually Ron decided it was up to him to improve the situation. He made a wish list of features for a better whistle, and Foxcroft showed it to a plastics molding company in Stoney Creek, Ontario. Through much dedication and determination, the Fox40 whistle was perfected.

The Fox 40 Pealess Whistle is much like a harmonically-tuned instrument, because it produces three slightly different frequencies simultaneously. The different frequencies are superimposed on one another out of phase, and thus alternately reinforce and cancel out each other. The result is a loud, piercing vibrato that has no moving parts to get stuck. The whistle is a plastic-molded injection process that is ultrasonically welded together, rather than glued.

The Fox 40 Pealess Whistle was a success from the first time it was used professionally, at the 1987 Pan Am Games in Indianapolis, Indiana. The pealess whistle has become the whistle of choice for the National Hockey League (NHL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Football League (NFL), the Arena Football League (AFL) and the Canadian Football League (CFL). Fox 40 Pealess Whistles have since been used in numerous world-class tournaments, such as the Olympics and the World Cup.