A local company founded by SVSU alumni is doing much more than providing team attire in Saginaw.

Dangle Sauce is a company formed in 2009 by SVSU graduates Doug Greene, Tom Lagocki and Mike Lucchese.

They manufacture and sell jerseys to club teams not funded by their schools.

Photo courtesy of Doug Greene

The SVSU club hockey team’s new uniforms were provided by “Dangle Sauce,” a company created by former players.

Their most recent customers are the members of the SVSU club hockey team.

Greene, Lagocki and Lucchese all played for the hockey club on campus while they were in school.

Lagodki played on SVSU’s first national championship team in 2009.

Unlike the football, basketball or soccer teams, hockey is a club sport and is not funded by the University.

As a result, players have to raise money themselves to pay for jerseys and gear.

“Hockey is an expensive sport,” Greene said. “We basically try to give them the best price for custom jerseys.

“We do discounts and custom colors, and the home uniforms for the team this year are completely decked out by us.”

As a player on the club team while attending SVSU, Greene recalls some of the measures taken to get jerseys.

“I actually went to the Saginaw Spirit myself,” he said. “They had uniforms that just said ‘Saginaw’ down the front, which worked well for us.

“Since they were getting new ones, we managed to take the old ones for a really good price.”

Since 2009, Dangle Sauce has taken off.  What started off as just a simple T-shirt design company has grown into something more.

“At first we just sort of made T-shirt designs with hockey slogans,” Greene said. “Everyone liked it and it just kind of took off.”

In order to cut out the middle man and help keep prices low, Dangle Sauce manufactures its own jerseys.

“We bought a factory for jersey-making so we could do all of the custom work ourselves.”

Dangle Sauce has grown from a small-time operation into a developing business.

“Delta was the first team we did jerseys for,” Greene said. “They didn’t really have a logo, so we kind of created a new logo for them. Now we do jerseys for SVSU, Oakland, Westchester’s division one team. Virginia Tech and Michigan State are asking for some warm-ups.”

Teams can request many designs and colors to make them stand out from the crowd.

“We’ll do whatever design or color scheme they want,” Greene said. “We want to make the players look and feel like they’re pro players while paying a low price.”

During the summer, Dangle Sauce attended a hockey tournament in Las Vegas that featured professional players as well as some of the top collegiate hockey players.

The event helped showcase some of the equipment and designs the company creates.

“It was great,” Greene said. “We were there for a week, and having that many high profile players wearing our gear was great for exposure to the company and really helps with advertising.”

While Saginaw hasn’t been a breeding ground for businesses in recent years, Dangle Sauce plans on sticking around.

“We could have located ourselves in Detroit which is more of a hot bed for business, but we really wanted to give back to the community,” Greene said. “We want to give back to Michigan and really stay true to Saginaw.”

Dangle Sauce is also looking to provide gear for the Bay City Hockey Association, which does games for a range of children from the young kids to high school players.

“We’re doing a big order with new logos and new jerseys for the kids,” Green said. “It’s great for them because instead of wearing the typical youth, one-color bland jersey they get to look like they’re playing in the pros.”

Those who are interested may find more information on Dangle Sauce on Facebook, Twitter and its website at www.danglesauce.com