Connor Sports and EPDs: where coverage stands

Who they are and what they sell

Connor Sports, now part of the Gerflor family, focuses on sports flooring. The brand’s core is MFMA‑graded maple hardwood systems for permanent gyms, portable arena courts, and specialty configurations. It also markets recycled‑rubber and poured urethane surfaces for fitness, tracks, and multi‑use zones. See their sustainability notes and certifications on the About page for ISO 14001 and FSC sourcing (https://connorsports.com/about).

Portfolio breadth, at a glance

Across hardwood, Connor offers dozens of system configurations that vary by subfloor design, resilience, and use case, plus several portable QuickLock options. Its synthetic side spans a small family of recycled‑rubber and poured urethane lines suited for weight rooms, fieldhouses, and multipurpose gynmasiums. That makes Connor a multi‑category player rather than a pure play.

What is clearly EPD‑covered today

Within the wider Gerflor portfolio, vinyl sports floors under the Taraflex banner have current third‑party EPDs verified by UL and visible in market materials, with certificates listed as valid through 2028 for named SKUs (NBS Source, 2025) (NBS Source, 2025). For specifiers who consider alternatives in multi‑use gyms, Tarkett’s Omnisports line has an EN 15804 EPD registered with EPD International that is valid until 2030, a useful benchmark when EPD language is hard‑coded in project requirements (EPD International, 2025) (EPD International, 2025).

Likely coverage gaps worth closing

We could not find Connor‑branded, product‑specific EPDs for its maple hardwood systems or its recycled‑rubber lines on connorsports.com as of December 8, 2025. That does not mean none exist, only that they are not easy for a design team to locate during a fast submittal review. When an architect must assign embodied carbon using conservative defaults, a product without a product‑specific EPD often faces a penalty in comparative evaluations, which quietly reduces specability and can push decisions toward alternatives with ready declarations.

A practical example

QuickLock Classic, a marquee portable hardwood system for televised events, appears throughout Connor’s marketing. If a project brief requires an EPD at the system or surface level and one is not published for QuickLock, specifiers may short‑list functionally similar floors that provide an EPD. For hardwood sports surfaces in performance venues, Junckers publishes EN 15804 EPDs registered at EPD Denmark for its solid hardwood ranges, which can satisfy documentation asks in many regions (Junckers, 2024) (Junckers, 2024). For multi‑use PVC‑sports floors, Omnisports’ current EPD cited above is a common comparator (EPD International, 2025).

Who Connor competes with on projects

Maple hardwood systems often compete with Robbins, Aacer, Action Floors, and Junckers in schools, colleges, and arenas. In K‑12 fieldhouses and community centers where multipurpose use dominates, vinyl sports floors such as Gerflor Taraflex and Tarkett Omnisports, and occasionally rubber or polyurethane solutions from other brands, are frequent substitutes. The mix shifts by application. Basketball practice facilities and televised courts trend hardwood. Community rec centers, P.E. spaces, and convertible halls skew resilient sheet systems.

Commercial angle for teams inside manufacturers

If even one popular hardwood system lacks a public EPD, sales teams may avoid EPD‑mandated projects by habit. A product‑specific EPD clears that hurdle, avoids pessimistic default factors in carbon accounting, and keeps the conversation focused on playability, safety, and lifecycle value rather than price alone. Under LEED v5 drafts, credible product transparency remains a lever for points and procurement preferences, so having the declaration visible and current matters.

Fastest path to full coverage

Priority one is mapping the portfolio. Pick one reference year of plant data for maple systems and rubber lines, select the prevailing PCR used by top competitors, and publish the first wave for best sellers. A white‑glove partner can shoulder data wrangling across sourcing, kiln drying, panel assembly, coating, packaging, and transport so engineering and ops stay focused on product. Publish with a recognized operator, then bring the rest of the line to parity in small, fast batches. Your spec position will improve quickly.

Where this leaves Connor today

Strengths are clear. A deep hardwood catalog, iconic event courts, and access to Gerflor’s resilient portfolio that already carries EPDs. The near‑term opportunity is simple. Make Connor‑branded EPDs for flagship maple and rubber systems easy to find and reference. Do that, and the brand’s spec gravity gets stronger everywhere.