JAM Brands

History

JAM Brands, which is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, provides products and services for the cheerleading and dance industry. Competitions, camps, uniforms/apparel, conferences, and choreography is just a general list of the services and products found at this company. Two men named Aaron Flaker and Emmitt Tyler were part of a cheerleading team together at the University of Louisville when they decided that they wanted to create a competition that was better, in their eyes, than the events that they had been competing in. In 1995, they held their first event at Kentucky Kingdom, which was host to AbOUT twenty-five teams. In the following year, the event drew in 135 teams. Aaron and Emmitt held only that single event every year until 2000, when their company slowly started adding more competitions. In 2001, as the number of events were increasing, Flaker and Emmitt welcomed a third partner, Dan Kessler, who had cheered with the two of them at the University of Louisville. This company started increasingly growing and by the 2006-2007 season they held sixty five events in thirty states. The events at that time were produced under JAMfest Events, their subsidiary, and were branded with the JAMfest name. JAM Brands now produces competitions all over the country, and more than 175,000 cheerleaders and dancers competed at these events in the 2009-2010 season. This company now has about eighty team members who have over 275 years of cheerleading, dance, and moscot experience, and they hold office in Baltimore, Maryland, Dallas, Texas, Columbus, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky

Producing Events

The JAM Brands season is from September to April, in which they host a number of dance and cheerleading competitions. A lot of work goes into producing an event, starting with the JAM Brands staff finding an appropriate venue and then selling the dates and venues to various teams. GeneRally, the competitions cost somewhere between fifty to one hundred dollars per athlete, depending on the level of competition and how many teams will be in attendance. They also own a warehouse that holds event equipment such as backdrops, banners, and special flooring that is needed in order to host an event. This company also buys trophies and other prizes, including banners and ribbons, for competition winners, and they hire professional judges from across the country for each event.

Companies

JAM Brands is made up of a number of different companies that produce everything from competitions and camps to uniforms and apparel. The companies include JAMfest Cheer and Dance, COA Cheer and Dance, America’s Best Championships, Coastal Corporation Cheer and Dance Events, Game Day School and Rec Championships, Great Lakes Championship Company (GLCC) , LIVE!, JAMcamps, COA Camps, Spirit Innovations, Spirit Ready Sportswear, Studio Dance, JAMwear, JAM U, and United Cheer Expo. JAMfest, COA, America’s Best, Coastal Corporation, Game Day, GLCC, and LIVE! are all companies that host events. JAMcamps and COA Camps are both programs that strictly run camps that allow cheerleaders and dancers to get away, learn new skills, and have fun. Spirit Innovations is a company that creates cheerleading uniforms, and Studio Dance is a division of this company for dance uniforms and accessories. JAMwear is a merchandise provider that sells a wide variety of t-shirts, sports bras, pants, shorts, and novelty items for many different sports at JAMfest, LIVE!, America’s Best, and other events.

The Worlds Events

A number JAM Brand’s events give teams qualifying bids to the Cheerleading Worlds and the Dance Worlds. If a team receives a bid from one of these events, then said team will represent the JAM Brands at the Cheerleading or the Dance Worlds.Teams must earn a bid in order to compete in the Cheerleading or the Dance Worlds. Competitions in which you can earn a bid to either the Dance or the Cheerleading Worlds for the 2010-2011 season include America’s Best National Championship which is held in San Jose, California on February 12–13, 2011, Midwest National Championship held in Columbus, Ohio on February 25–27, 2011, Battle at the Capital National Championship in National Harbor, Maryland on March 11–13, 2011, and Great Lakes Showdown Grand Nationals held in Detroit, Michigan on March 19–20, 2011. Also there are two separate JAMfest Super Nationals events, one is for dance and the other for cheer. The cheerleading event takes place on January 14–16, 2011 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the dance event will occur in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 18–20, 2011. A list of the other competitions hosted by JAM Brands can be found on their official website.

Judging

In 2009, JAM Brands created the first ever unified scoring system which is used at all JAM Brand events. The scoring grids and sheets are now 100% identical across all JAM Brands. The various scoring and deduction sheets for cheerleading and dance can also be found on their official website. The creating of this scoring system is the “c” in the “C.O.D.E of Ethics” formed by the company. The C.O.D.E stands for consistency, objectivity, dedication, and education. The education portion is fulfilled by certifying every single judge through a series of video training sessions and testing prior to putting them on any judging panel. They also update their judges week to week with any breaking industry news, or specific JAM Brand updates that will affect the scoring system, and the ethics mentioned are held up by a contract that each and every judge is bound by.