Spokane Valley-based end-zone camera manufacturer Sport Scope Inc. has grown each year since its launch, and it’s hoping to hit $2 million in sales this year, says Derek Taylor, co-founder and general manager for the company. 

Sport Scope had about $1.4 million in sales last year, Taylor says, up from about $1.15 million the prior year.  He says Sport Scope has sold to customers in all 50 U.S. states and Canada, as well as a little in the United Kingdom and Australia. 

“Getting (the product) out of the country, excluding Canada, the shipping is expensive,” he says. “The fees and taxes are insane.”

Sport Scope moved to a 2,700-foot space at 15320 E. Marietta last December, Taylor says. The company currently has three full-time and two part-time employees, not including sales representatives, and will add another one or two part time this summer, Taylor says.

Sport Scope’s primary customers are still high school football teams, Taylor says, as well as a few college football programs. 

“We had a new product last year, with the same type of tower as our end-zone camera, that’s made specifically for soccer and lacrosse, faced-paced sports that are more continuous,” he says. 

The product, called the Quick Scope,  comes in 16-foot-tall and 11-foot-tall options that retail for $2,499 and $1,699, respectively. The original Sport Scope End Zone comes in 30-foot and 25-foot towers, and retails for $4,499, Taylor says. 

Sport Scope introduced its Press Box tripod camera system last year, Taylor says. The camera and monitor are made to be used alongside the original Sport Scope. 

“Football teams will usually film from the press box and the end zone,” Taylor says. “It’s really fast and easy to use, and can be used (to film) practices as well.”

The company also is in the process of launching another product, an instant replay system called Edge. 

Edge works by using a high-speed computer to link a team’s end zone cameras with an iPad. Coaches can download the free application to their iPads. 

“Coaches will be able to, on the sidelines with their iPads, review the play basically as it happens,” Taylor says. “They can review during the game instead of after the game.”

Taylor says the cost for the Edge system isn’t finalized yet, but should be between $2,000 and $3,000. 

He also is developing another division of Sport Scope that would just sell the camera tower, he says. 

“There are a lot of companies that need a tower to raise some kind of antenna up in the air,” he says. “That’s a market we’ve been trying to get into.”

Spokane Valley-based Berg Co., which housed Sport Scope when it initially launched, is looking at putting the towers on some of its military shelter products, Taylor says. 

Taylor says the tower division and Edge replay system are where he sees Sport Scope going in the future. 

Sport Scope, which first launched in 2012, was the brainchild of Inov8, an umbrella company here made up of a board of local business professionals. It was a precursor to Toolbox, a manufacturing business incubator launched by prominent Spokane businessmen Tom Simpson and Andy Barrett. Sport Scope was one of the first companies brought up through the Inov8/Toolbox concept.

“They had always wanted to do that, but you’re not going to go out and start an incubation think like Toolbox without testing it first, so that’s what we were—kind of the guinea pig,” Taylor says. “Now that’s their model: They fund you, kind of mentor you, and when you’re ready, you move on and get your own space.”

Sport Scope finished paying off its $50,000 of startup funds earlier this year, Taylor says.