Jack White, Ian Kinsler and Ben Jenkins (Warstic.com)

Ben Jenkins grew up in our neighborhood and played centerfield for Lake Highlands High School coach Jay Higgins until his 1991 graduation. He went on to play in college and on a minor league team. He lived and breathed baseball during those years and beyond, but he turned out to be a talented artist too.

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Graphic design seems the surer way to earn a living, probably why he started a successful firm called OneFastBuffalo. But in time, Jenkins figured out a way to live the dream — have his cake and eat it too, as the saying goes — by merging the two passions. (Even when he was focused on the design business, he talked a whole lot about baseball — see our 2007 interview for evidence).

In 2013, Jenkins launched Warstic, which built baseball bats manifesting a classic aesthetic, reminiscent of a bygone era, exquisite-yet-hefty, the epitome of form and function, color-dipped and picked up by the high-end Coach company that sold them for about $250 apiece.

And then in 2016, former Ranger Ian Kinsler and musician Jack White of White Stripes (and other) fame, bought into the company. (Here’s a Rolling Stone article about the partnership. Standout side note, Jack White reportedly does not own a cell phone.)

Last Saturday when the Rangers played the Detroit Tigers, for whom Kinsler is now second baseman, Rangers manager Jeff Banister was wearing a Warstic shirt, and Kinsler was using his Warstic bat, the Dallas Morning News Sports Day reports.

“I’m a fan,” Banister is quoted in the DMN. “They sent over a fungo (bat) the first year and I loved it. Then I learned that A., they were local, and B., the whole Warstic mindset, and I loved that. It’s right up my alley, so I was all in.” 

LH logo by Ben Jenkins and company.

… Kinsler donated one of his Warstic bats to the “Do It For Durrett” auction June 16. You can get more information by clicking/tapping here.

You might recall that Ben Jenkins along with a Lake Highlands branding committee a few years ago designed the Lake Highlands logo, which turned out nicely (not without some bumps and bruises along the way).