From warehouse in Baltimore, nonprofit Leveling the Playing Field is turning used sports equipment into opportunities

Dayson Brooks recently went shopping for sporting goods, and the director of Level Up, an organization that seeks to mentor Baltimore City youth, filled a large rolling bin with basketball shoes, football cleats, lacrosse sticks, soccer balls and baseball gloves that he estimated would cost “a few thousand dollars.”

The bill? $0.

The transaction was made possible by Leveling the Playing Field, a nonprofit that accepts new or gently used sports equipment and offers them free of charge to coaches, teachers, schools and leagues that serve youth. After browsing the shelves at the company’s warehouse on Union Avenue in Hampden off Interstate 83, Brooks was grateful that a majority of the 180 students from 41 schools who make up his Level Up program would be able to access the gear.

“We would not be able to have the robust sports program that we have” if not for Leveling the Playing Field, he said. “We just wouldn’t be able to afford it.”

Since January 2018, Leveling the Playing Field has been operating out of its warehouse in Baltimore. The brainchild of Max Levitt, a Rockville native, who launched the company from the basement of his parents’ home in 2013, the company has expanded from Washington to Baltimore and then branched out to Philadelphia in 2021 and Buffalo, New York, and Columbus, Ohio, earlier this year. The plan is to continue that expansion southward next year.

“We know that the needs don’t stop at the city line, and they certainly don’t stop at the state line,” said Kaitlin Brennan, director of operations for Leveling the Playing Field who said the organization has donated more than $4.6 million worth of sports equipment.

Brennan said the company views youth sports as a table with four legs — coaches, facilities, transportation and equipment. To that end, Leveling the Playing Field’s objective is to find eager hands and homes for gear that others no longer need or have outgrown.

In 2018, Friends School mothballed its football team and kept its equipment in the event it would revive the program. This past August, administrators called Leveling the Playing Field, which collected about $20,000 worth of gear.

Within a week, the company hosted a Baltimore City Football Day with the Ravens, inviting coaches to scour tables of equipment for their players. “As quickly as we got it, we turned it around and gave it away,” said Brandon Wright, a program associate for Leveling the Playing Field.

Since 2018, the company has partnered with the Ravens, who have donated more than $100,000 worth of equipment and a van with a trailer, Wright said. He said the NFL franchise annually gives boxes of unused football cleats to Leveling the Playing Field, which in turn redistributes them to football organizations.

Wright said the Ravens even refer individuals or groups to Leveling the Playing Field. He said the company was able to provide a freshman at Rising Sun High School who could not find size 17 football cleats with several pairs for home and away games.

“It’s a really big deal,” said Wright, who doubles as the public address announcer at UMBC sporting events. “Having the Ravens partner with us means that we are able to join an incredible organization from top to bottom that can legitimize what we do. Coaches look forward to the Ravens gear that we get, and the Ravens help us in so many ways.”

Heather Darney, vice president of community relations for the Ravens and executive director of Ravens Foundation, Inc., said Leveling the Playing Field is a charitable partner with Ravens Foundation and is nearing the end of a seven-year grant worth $25,000 per year. She said the nonprofit has an important role.

“It seems like a no-brainer when you think of the extra stuff that the Ravens have, extra stuff that families have, different schools have, teams have, leagues have,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense for stuff to be thrown away. There’s better ways we can go about donating that product, and they have that established.”

Schools and youth organizations are invited to fill out an eight-question online application, and Wright or program director Donovan Dennis follow up with a site visit or phone call to determine their need. Brennan said they usually can decipher that need based on the applicant’s zip code.

Those who are approved can schedule an appointment to visit the warehouse’s 4,000 square-foot space and look through eight tall and wide shelves brimming with equipment such as sports bags, pop-up nets, swimming goggles and playground gear such as balls, jump ropes and flying discs.

Dennis said Leveling the Playing Field’s mission is supported by other schools, groups and individuals who have gear collecting dust in storage closets, basements or garages.

“You don’t want to see a baseball bat that was used maybe for a season just thrown in the garbage because the child who was using it doesn’t use it anymore,” he said. “That’s where we step in. We take it to be given to the next individual to break down those barriers of entry to those sports.”

Mary Teeters, director of operations for Harlem Lacrosse at James McHenry Elementary School in Baltimore, said she has collected lacrosse sticks, goggles, balls and bags from Leveling the Playing Field. She estimated she would have had to spend more than $10,000 for all of the equipment she has taken home.

“We have decent-sized budgets for our programs, but we have 25 to 30 kids per roster, and that goes quick when you’re talking about transporting them, feeding them on trips, and being able to do stuff,” she said. “It frees up so much of our budget to do other things and take advantage of other opportunities when we can get that equipment for free.”

Eryn Lessard, director of development and external affairs at KIPP Baltimore, said one of the benefits of partnering with Leveling the Playing Field is introducing the 800 students who attend the charter’s elementary school to hands-on learning instead of watching demonstration videos.

“For many people, touching things and actually being able to use it to see how it feels is a better way to connect with the idea of the sport,” she said. “It’s just something that feels good.”

The company’s scope isn’t limited to sports. Brooks, the director of Level Up, walked away with a bag of coats that he said are invaluable.

“We know it’s getting cold outside and some of these kids can’t afford coats,” he said. “It’s not necessarily a sports item, but it’s something the community needs that they offer.”

Brennan, Leveling the Playing Field’s director of operations, said the company relies on grants from foundations and individual donors to help fund the Baltimore branch’s annual operating budget of about $250,000 to $300,000. She said one of her visions is a day when organizations such as Leveling the Playing Field are no longer needed.

“I wish we didn’t have to exist, but what we do is fill a gap that not only seeks to address the problem but also involves the people who are on the other side of the spectrum,” she said. “It’s very difficult for me to imagine that youth sports will ever be fully funded. I wish it were.”