ProCase Sports is a family-owned sports photography and frame shop located in Waukegan, IL.
ProCase Sports is a family-owned sports photography and frame shop located in Waukegan, IL.
ProCase Sports Inc. is owned and operated by Scott Wallem, whose experience in carpentry and passion for sports inspired him to create ProCase. Since 1990, ProCase Sports has been turning sports memorabilia into beautiful pieces of art that last a lifetime. ProCase will custom frame just about anything from jerseys, pictures, mini-helmets, a combination of the three, or even out of the ordinary items like an artificial heart!
In addition to framing, ProCase will also photograph you or your child’s sporting events! Best known as a sideline photographer for the Chicago Bears, Scott has photographed over 15 different sports, on every level from little league to professional!
After a partnership with Zero Friction, ProCase Sports can also provide you some of the top of the line golf products from them as well!
ProCase Sports has done a lot of work for some of your favorite professional athletes, but you can be just like them, contact ProCase to capture and preserve your memories forever!
After Scott graduated high school, he started an apprenticeship for his father’s construction company, Wallem Construction. He attended Washburn trade school to learn the trade of carpentry while also gaining on the job experience with his father. For 15 years Scott worked for Wallem Construction, and perfected his mastery of the trade. Scott achieved the title of journeymen carpenter, which is the highest title a carpenter can attain. Despite having a comfortable job that he was successful at, Scott often grew bored as a carpenter. He would spend sometimes half a year at one job site alone, and wanted more variety.
Aside from his career, one of Scott’s biggest hobbies was sports. He loved watching sports and more than anything, watching football and his beloved Chicago Bears. Scott was a season ticket holder for the Bears for several seasons during the 1980’s, including the storied Super Bowl season. However, Scott wanted to find a way to be on the sidelines for the Bears… somehow. He knew that in order to do this, he needed to create some connections within the organization. The opportunity Scott sought, presented itself. The Chicago Bears hold an annual coat drive to donate coats to families in need, and at the time Scott directed a boy’s youth group at his church among other things. Scott wrote a letter to the equipment manager of the Bears, asking for an opportunity to get involved in the coat drive. He had suggested that he hold a contest with his youth group where the boy who donated the most coats would be able to get the opportunity to walk on the Bears’ sidelines during a game. He received an answer to his letter, the equipment manager thought this was a great idea! Not only was this a cool opportunity for his youth group, but it was the start of a friendship between the Bears organization and himself. After more contact with members of the organization, Scott was provided another opportunity. The Bears needed someone to come to the games and photograph advertisements and team sponsorships because the team photographer didn’t have enough time to do so himself. Scott accepted the task, and added this to his list of hobbies for several years.
Now Scott had always thought very creatively, and was looking for a way to utilize his creative thinking, his knowledge of carpentry, and passion for sports as a way to make a new living. One thing he always noticed was the way many sports jerseys and pictures were framed so plain, dull, crooked, or full of wrinkles; he always thought, “I’ll bet I can frame a jersey better than that”. Scott started to consider the idea of opening up a frame shop; he had a graphic designer create a company name and logo for him.
In 1990, Scott officially started ProCase Sports as a part-time hobby that he operated out of his garage. He began to frame jerseys for anyone and everyone who would hire him. ProCase was just one of Scott’s hobbies up until 1994, when his father Roy passed away from his 17 year battle with cancer. Scott’s best friend was his father, and he didn’t want to build homes without him. Scott wasn’t sure what to do next, he wanted to make a living from ProCase, but it was just a hobby at that point. Scott and his wife prayed that if he was supposed to depend on ProCase as his full-time career, he would be able to get one professional athlete to stand next to one of his framed jerseys that he built for them. Scott decided to send out letters again to the Bears organization. In his letter he said that he would frame a jersey for any player for free if they would simply take a picture with the case he built for them.
One day, Scott received a call from what sounded like an elderly woman. The woman said she would “take up” Scott on his offer. In the background of the call he could hear somebody say “Walter stop it”. The old woman on the phone was none other than Walter Payton, Chicago Bears legend and apparent jokester. The first professional athlete that ProCase ever built a case for was hall of fame running back Walter Payton. With the picture of Walter Payton next to the case Scott built, this gave ProCase credibility. Word of mouth about Scott’s work carried throughout the Bears’ locker room, ProCase landed more professional athletes including Merril Hoge and Mark Carrier.
Having landed a handful of Chicago Bears players, Scott realized he couldn’t be bringing these paying customers into his garage. Luckily, his friend was opening a t-shirt factory in Waukegan, IL and offered to rent out the upstairs mezzanine to Scott. Thus ProCase Sports frame shop was born in the upstairs of American Outfitters Ltd. where it is still located today.
In 1998, Scott capitalized on another opportunity for the Chicago Bears. He was finally given a chance to photograph the actual games for the Bears. Scott has photographed just about every Chicago Bears home game ever since. It turns out Scott had a natural talent for photography, and he not only took photos for the Bears, he was able to incorporate photography into ProCase as well! Scott used pictures he took and included them in the frames that he built for the players, he also offered his photography services to little leagues, high schools, and colleges to take photos of any sport they’d ask him to shoot.
Since then, Scott has photographed for Pro Football Weekly magazine for a period of 7 years, has completed work for well over 100 different professional athletes, and has performed his services for the general public.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years since I started framing jerseys as a hobby in my garage. Time goes by too fast! I haven’t advertised much during those 30 years but I’ve been so blessed by the kindness of so many of you. The majority of my work has come from referrals. I’ve been amazed when someone will stop in with a jersey and tell me who told them about ProCase.
For years I’ve been wanting to have an engraved plate made to hang in my shop that reads “All friends of ProCase become Scott’s friends forever”. I need to find time to do that. I’ve been so blessed by the friends I’ve made in the sports arena over the last 30 years. Thank you Brian Urlacher for being my best salesperson inside the locker-room. So many people told me that Brian told them about ProCase.
If you’ve been at an event where I had a camera in my hand there’s a good chance there’s a picture of you somewhere on this website. There’s almost 2000 pictures on this site. I’ve tried to hide pictures of all of my friends somewhere in this website. Have fun hunting.
I also want to thank my son Jordan for creating this whole website. You did an awesome job son.
Thank you everyone for taking a look at this website and for trusting me with your prize memorabilia over the years. If you have a frame that you’d like to share on the testimonial page take a picture of yourself standing next to it and send it to our email address. Any comment you’d like to add will be posted next to the picture.
God Bless all of you.
Scott
© 2020 ProCase Sports Inc.
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