The season may be over for the Cleveland Browns, but Northeast Ohio will be well-represented in the postseason. The majority of the weekend’s upcoming NFL playoff games will feature Dragon Seats.
The hybrid fiberglass benches feature both heat and air conditioning, as well as a warm place for players to stand and hang their helmets.
“We developed these over 30 years ago. And they’ve found themselves onto NFL sidelines, college sidelines, tennis sidelines, industrial applications,” said Frank Floyd, Jr., the president and CEO of Dragon Seats.
The Beachwood-based company originally built space heaters for construction sites. On a whim, Floyd said he reached out to the Cleveland Browns to offer his heaters for cold games. A successful pitch resulted in a contract with the team before its controversial relocation to Baltimore.
When the Browns returned to Cleveland, Floyd once again extended his company’s services.
“They said, ‘Well we like the space heaters, but we’d like our guys to sit down on something,’” he recalled.
Always one to find a solution to a problem, Floyd set out to meet the Browns’ request.
“I went out to Berea and I measured the large linemen to their dimensions. And long story short, I built a fiberglass bench, took it to Berea, they liked it,” he said. “We had the Browns sideline. And they were required to supply them to the visiting sideline. And when the visiting teams came in, they liked that heated bench and they said, ‘We want those.’”
The resulting demand for the benches over the past several decades has made Dragon Seats a staple in professional football. The benches themselves have evolved with the company.
Floyd’s adult children are now part of the business, contributing fresh perspectives and technical savvy. They proposed branding the once all-white benches with team-specific colors and logos. In recent years, they’ve also added advertising.
“We’re not only providing a player safety asset to the team and the athletes, but it now is also a highly visible sponsorship asset that’s in one of the most highly visible places in sports, in a TV broadcast,” said Dragon Seats COO Franklin Floyd.
The younger Floyds also changed the company’s revenue model. Instead of selling its products to teams, it now leases the benches, and Dragon Seats’ own employees travel with them to oversee branding and real-time maintenance.
“If a bench goes down, we’re there really for safety. If it gets too cold, they could pull a hamstring, they could pull any muscle. So our benches are really here for the safety and comfort of the athletes,” said Molly Floyd, Dragon Seats vice president of operations.
In early 2023, Dragon Seats acquired another company and its technology, incorporating effective cooling systems into the benches.
“Not only did they work, they surpassed everyone’s expectations,” Frank Floyd said.
Over the years, the company has adjusted and improved its design based on research and feedback from teams and the players themselves.
“Tom Brady approached our CEO and said, ‘Can you build something that attaches to the bench that will keep the helmet warm?’ So when he puts the helmet back on it’s a warm, comfortable helmet going back on their head, as opposed to that really hard, brick-type feel,” Franklin Floyd said.
The benches can now be seen on the sidelines of at least 19 NFL stadiums and 75 NCAA Division 1 football programs.
“You can turn your television on any weekend during the football season and you’re going to see our product,” Frank Floyd said.
Dragon Seats has also expanded to baseball dugouts and ski resorts. In total, the company provides more than 400 benches in 75 different venues across the country.
“We’re just scratching the surface. And we’re really proud of what we’ve done. It’s all happened right here in Northeast Ohio with our partners in Northeast Ohio,” Franklin Floyd said.
The company is looking forward to future opportunities and hopes to begin providing its benches internationally and expand its reach in sports like soccer, baseball and golf.
You can read more about the benches and how they work here.
