The New England Patriots Cheerleaders next season will be warming up on the sidelines with gear made in Lynn.

CranBarry Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of athletic apparel and equipment, is moving from East Boston to the Clock Tower Business Center on the Lynnway.
The firm has leased 35,000 square feet of manufacturing space, and will move to Lynn by mid-April, company president John Vinton said.

"We'll be up and running a week after we move," Vinton said. "We think this will be a good move for us. We found space that will suit our needs, and it's only 7 ½ miles from where we are now in East Boston."

Vinton estimated the private company's revenues at under $10 million. CranBarry now has 70 employees, including stitchers, cutters, and warehouse workers. In the next few years, the company could add 20 new jobs, he said.

In Lynn, CranBarry will make athletic warm-ups, jackets, field hockey kits, team jerseys, and cheerleader uniforms for high schools and colleges across the country. Atlantis Weather Gear, a line of sailing apparel, will also be made in Lynn, Vinton said.

"Very few companies in the US still manufacture [athletic wear] here, but our niche is custom manufacturing. You can't get custom stuff from Taiwan," Vinton said.

CranBarry distributes, but does not manufacture, field hockey and lacrosse equipment, and cheerleading accessories like pompoms and megaphones. For the Patriots cheerleaders, CranBarry outfits the Patriot cheerleaders in warm up suits they wear on cold game days and supplies them with pompoms, Vinton said.

CranBarry's move to Lynn will mark the return of the company to the North Shore. The firm was founded in Marblehead in 1947, by Joyce "Cran" Barry, a coach at Wellesley College. CranBarry moved to East Boston about 10 years ago, when the company was sold, Vinton said.

Under the terms of its lease, CranBarry will sublet space from Dean Foods, the Texas-based parent of West Lynn Creamery, which owns the Clock Tower center, one of Lynn's best known commercial-industrial properties.

The firm will pay $5 per square foot, said Phil Burgess, the Malden-based leasing agent for the business center.