JUGS Sports, Inc.

What is JUGS Sports?
JUGS Sports, Inc. is a privately held, family-owned American sporting goods company based in Tualatin, Oregon. Founded in 1971 by John Paulson, the company designs, assembles, and sells baseball and softball training equipment, including pitching machines, training balls, batting cages, and protective screens. Its flagship product is the JUGS BP3, a three-wheel pitching machine with changeup capability. The company has been in business for over 50 years.

Who owns JUGS Sports?
JUGS Sports is owned by the Paulson family through JUGS Sports, Inc. The company was founded by John Paulson in 1971. After his death in 1984, his son Butch Paulson took over and continues to run the company. There is no parent company, no private equity backer, and no outside investors. The Paulson family owns 100 percent of the business.

Is JUGS Sports publicly traded?
No. JUGS Sports, Inc. is a privately held corporation. It is not listed on any stock exchange and does not file public financial reports. Revenue and employee figures are not publicly disclosed. The company has been family-owned since 1971 and has never taken outside investment.

When was JUGS Sports founded?
JUGS Sports was founded in 1971 by John Paulson in Tualatin, Oregon. The first JUGS Curveball Pitching Machine was sold in February 1971. Paulson built the machine to help his sons become better hitters after finding existing machines unreliable and unable to throw realistic curveballs. The company has been in continuous operation for over 50 years.

Who founded JUGS Sports?
John Paulson founded JUGS Sports in 1971. He played semi-professional baseball and built the first pitching machine on a cocktail napkin sketch before refining the design. He purchased a patent covering pneumatic tire technology for throwing baseballs and incorporated his own engineering ideas. Paulson died in March 1984, and his son Butch Paulson took over the company.

Where is JUGS Sports based?
JUGS Sports is headquartered at 11885 SW Herman Road in Tualatin, Oregon, USA, on the western outskirts of the Portland metropolitan area. The company has operated from Tualatin since its founding in 1971, growing from a 3,000 square foot building to a 44,000 square foot facility. Butch Paulson runs the company from Hawaii but maintains daily contact with the Tualatin office.

What is the JUGS BP3?
The JUGS BP3 is the company's most advanced pitching machine. It is a three-wheel machine that throws nine pitch types, including fastballs, changeups, right- and left-handed curveballs and sliders, cutters, and split-finger fastballs. Speeds range from 40 to 90 mph for baseball and 45 to 75 mph for softball. A handheld remote allows the operator to switch between fastballs and changeups without the hitter knowing. The BP3 features a 3-inch LCD display and patented micro-adjustments for pitch location.

In 1970, John Paulson began looking for a pitching machine to help his two sons become better hitters. The machines available at the time had problems. They were heavy, prone to breaking under normal use, and could not throw realistic curveballs. Most would not throw strikes consistently. Paulson, who had played semi-professional baseball, decided to build his own.

Paulson sketched the prototype on a cocktail napkin. He purchased a patent covering the use of pneumatic tires to throw baseballs and incorporated his own design ideas. The result was the JUGS Curveball Pitching Machine, named after the old-time baseball expression "jug-handle curve." The machine threw fastballs, sliders, and curveballs at adjustable speeds. It was durable, portable enough to fit in a car trunk, and could throw strikes consistently. Paulson recorded the first JUGS sale in February 1971.

The first JUGS advertisement appeared in the Collegiate Baseball Newsletter on January 7, 1972, with the headline "Baseball Practice Has a New Twist." Paulson introduced the product to college and high school coaches, and word spread quickly. The machine's portability and ability to throw accurate curveballs were the key factors in its early adoption.

The company started in a 3,000 square foot building in Tualatin. At the time, the area was largely undeveloped. Butch Paulson, who grew up in nearby Lake Oswego, has described the original location as having "nothing except a gas station and a dog food factory." Over the following decades, the company grew the facility to 44,000 square feet at the same Tualatin location.

John Paulson died in March 1984 at age 58. He had been working on what he called "the ultimate pitching machine" at the time of his death. His sons, John Jr. and Butch, continued that project and produced a redesigned JUGS Curveball Pitching Machine. Butch Paulson, who was in his mid-20s, took over the company. He has run JUGS for more than four decades, operating from the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, while maintaining daily contact with the Tualatin headquarters.

The product line expanded significantly over the decades. The original Curveball Pitching Machine remained a staple, but JUGS added machines at multiple price points and configurations. The JUGS BP3 Baseball Pitching Machine with Changeup became the company's most advanced model. It is a three-wheel machine that throws nine pitch types, including fastballs, changeups, right- and left-handed curveballs and sliders, right- and left-handed cutters, and split-finger fastballs. Speeds range from 40 to 90 mph for baseball and 45 to 75 mph for softball.

The BP3 features a 3-inch LCD display, patented micro-adjustments for pitch location, and Grip-Tite 12-inch pneumatic tires that the company says last four times longer than solid tires. A handheld remote allows the operator to switch between fastballs and changeups without the hitter knowing, replicating the deception of a live pitcher. The machine delivers pitches at a realistic 64-inch height.

Beyond pitching machines, JUGS developed a range of training balls. The product catalog includes Sting-Free dimpled baseballs and softballs, Pearl baseballs, Lite-Flite balls, Softie balls, Bulldog balls, and one-ounce polyballs. The company also manufactures batting cages, protective screens, hitting tees, ball feeders, and football passing machines.

The Oregonian reported in 2016 that JUGS occupied a 44,000 square foot facility in Tualatin, where machines were assembled and shipped across the country. The report described the assembly team as veteran, with many employees having been with the company for years. The sales team was noted for fluency across multiple sports.

As of 2026, JUGS Sports has been in business for over 50 years. The company markets itself as the leading producer of baseball and softball pitching machines worldwide. It remains family-owned under Butch Paulson's leadership, with no acquisition or outside investment in its history.

JUGS Sports does not publish a sustainability report and is not a Certified B Corporation. As a small, family-owned manufacturer of sports training equipment, the company's environmental footprint is smaller than that of large-scale apparel or footwear brands. The company does not publicly disclose carbon emissions, supply chain audits, or materials sourcing policies.

The company assembles its products in the United States at its Tualatin, Oregon facility. Domestic assembly reduces the shipping distance for US customers compared to imported alternatives. JUGS does not publicly state what percentage of components are US-sourced versus imported.

No independent certifications such as Leaping Bunny, PETA, or Fair Trade apply to JUGS products, as these programs typically cover personal care, apparel, and food categories rather than sports training equipment. The company has not faced public scrutiny over environmental or labor practices.

• Industry penetration: JUGS claims that 94 percent of all baseball players entering professional baseball in the last 42 years have developed their skills using JUGS equipment, making it one of the most widely adopted training equipment brands in baseball history.
• 50-plus years of operation: JUGS has been in continuous operation since 1971, making it one of the longest-running independently owned brands in the baseball training equipment category.
• Professional and collegiate adoption: JUGS machines are used across professional, collegiate, high school, and youth baseball and softball programs in the United States.