Archive for Athletics

Kevin Plank

undefinedYou might not know who Kevin Plank is, but at a place like Grove City College, his business is literally all around you. Kevin Plank is the creator of Under Armour. Picture this: you’re in the mid-’90s, and you’re a college football player frustrated with how sweaty and uncomfortable your workout gear is. While most of us weren’t even born yet, Plank was on a mission to revolutionize sportswear that we all know and love today. That probably makes you feel old.

Plank came up with Under Armour as the special teams captain of the University of Maryland football team, and for him, his drive is all about innovation. He didn’t just want to create a successful brand; he wanted to completely change the game. His determination to make high-performance, moisture-wicking athletic gear fueled Under Armour’s rise to the top. And as I’m sure you’ve guessed, it worked. Plank’s drive is a reminder that passion and a desire to make things better can be your biggest assets.

Plank’s idea is both simple and genius. Plank saw a gap in the market for gear that would help athletes perform at their best, and be (relatively) comfortable while doing it. Enter Under Armour with its moisture-wicking fabric and compression technology. It’s not just sportswear; it’s a true game-changer for athletes, and that’s what sets Plank’s idea apart. In terms of entrepreneurial traits, Plank’s got determination written all over him. Starting a business is tough, especially when you’re going up against industry giants like Nike and adidas. But Plank didn’t back down; he pushed through initial financial struggles and production setbacks. That kind of resilience is something any athlete can relate to.Who designed Under Armour's logo? - Quora

But we see now Plank isn’t focused only on sportswear; he’s all about adapting and staying ahead. His partnerships with athletes and ventures into digital fitness tech show that being an entrepreneur means keeping an eye on trends and thinking outside the box. We see this with the Under Armour MapMyFitness apps that track a wide variety of activities, from running to pickleball.

Learning from Plank isn’t just about business; it’s a life lesson. The importance of pushing boundaries, facing challenges head-on, and fostering a culture of innovation are principles that resonate with me, as myself and my peers navigate a world that sometimes feels as uncertain as our post-grad plans. As we close out the semester with last-minute assignments, late-night study sessions in preparation for finals, and dreams of the future, Kevin Plank’s story is a reminder that success isn’t just about a degree or a job. It’s about daring to dream, being relentless in your pursuits, and, most importantly, staying true to your vision. Some of us could probably take a page from Kevin Plank’s playbook as we navigate the exciting, unpredictable journey that is life. 🙂

Tim Moxey & “Nuun”

At 26 years old, Tim Moxey came up with the basic idea for his now multi-million dollar business: Nuun hydration. While taking an entrepreneurship class at the Tuck School of Business, he was tasked with developing a product idea and a fictitious business plan. As an avid cyclist and triathlete, he had recently become frustrated with the lack of electrolyte drinks that could adequately replenish the electrolytes lost during extended periods of intense exercise. At the time, most stores only carried Gatorade, which Moxey found too sweet with its huge amounts of added sugar. For the project, he decided to explore a product that could solve a problem he was facing regularly.

As a solution, Moxey developed the concept for Nuun: a self-dissolving, portable, sugar-free tablet packed with electrolytes. At the time, Moxey had no intentions of ever building Nuun into a real business. After graduation from Tuck, Moxey held several corporate positions, but Nuun always resided in the back of his mind. Eventually, in 2004, he decided to officially launch the company.

Nuun has been extremely successful among endurance athletes all over the world; it turns out, many other athletes were in search of a better electrolyte drink, just like Moxey. After many prototypes and trials, Nuun grew into the product it is today: a hydration tablet containing essential electrolytes that you simply drop into a glass of water. The tablet dissolves into the water on its own, leaving you with a delicious, refreshing electrolyte drink. Since Nuun avoids excess amounts of added sugar, it is also a healthier hydration alternative to popular hydration drinks like Gatorade.

Today, Nuun comes in over a dozen different flavors, from Strawberry Lemonade to Orange to Fruit Punch. Nuun also offers a variety of hydration types, including ‘Sport,’ ‘Daily,’ ‘Immunity,’ ‘Energy,’ ‘Vitamins,’ and ‘Rest.’ With its wide array of products, Nuun offers a hydration option for everyone.

Tim Moxey is an excellent example of a young entrepreneur who used a problem in his own life to inspire a business idea that could solve the problem. He is also an ‘accidental entrepreneur’ who never planned on owning a business. Instead, his passion for the problem led him to success. Young entrepreneurs can look to Moxey as an example of someone who harnessed his own passion to solve a problem through a new product.

 

Bruce Bolt

Bear Mayer started his company Bruce Bolt at the age of 16. His family owned and operated business provides the baseball community with better batting gloves. Bear kept recognizing the same pain that him and his teammates were dealing with in the sport that they were passionate about. The batting gloves that they were using would get tears in them and would need to be replaced every few weeks. His idea was to create a pair of batting gloves that would be more durable to withstand the entire season. Mayer believed that they could accomplish that goal by focusing on improving the design, materials, and craftmanship of their product. That is just what he did, and it is being recognized at the highest level of baseball, as there are many MLB players sporting his gloves.

Mayer had a vision for what he wanted to design and gained the confidence to take initiative on his journey. Those two traits were key to his success as a young entrepreneur. He said that he is motivated to become the best batting glove brand on the market. His love for the game of baseball is a big motivator for him, as he wants to fulfill the needs of other athletes. Mayer was able to understand that he didn’t need to invent a new product, but instead fix the current issues of it to be better. “Be Better”, the mantra of Mayer’s company, prompts his customers to see how they can always keep improving like his company has.

Mayer has inspired me to search for pains in an area of my interest, so that I can find solution to fix the problem. His actions have bettered the game of baseball. We can all learn that if you have an entrepreneurial mind and the right people beside you, you can make a big impact on the world.

https://youtu.be/1_mYJK12A9s?si=CHYRvovVb54Mp7AS

Bradley Martyn’s Raw Gear

In the fitness world, Bradley Martyn is a name that needs no introduction. Known for his impressive physique, charismatic persona, and commitment to pushing the limits of human strength, Martin has inspired countless individuals on their fitness journeys. However, one aspect of Bradley Martyn’s fitness journey that has generated substantial curiosity is his own brand he created called “Raw Gear.” Founded in 2015, the company has grossed a revenue of well over five million dollars. It is well respected in the industry and provides thousands of athletes with high-quality clothing.

 

What makes Raw Gear different is that this is a brand from an influencer (Bradley Martyn) who has been on the scene since day one. He knows the ins and outs of the industry and truly cares and understands how to run it. He is driven to create a quality brand with excellent clothing as well as build a name for the brand. He has been a pioneer in the industry, being one of the first fitness influencers on the scene to really take off and get well-known. He is always finding ways to appeal his brand to new potential customers. Raw Gear’s appeal also extends far beyond its clothing racks. The brand often collaborates with athletes, artists, and influencers who share its values. These collaborations result in limited-edition collections that capture the spirit of Raw Gear. An example of this is when Raw Gear collaborated with Alex Eubank. This introduced a flood of new customers to the site and helped drive the revenue. This is inspiring to see because I have watched his come up. It’s been so interesting to see how he is doing things, and honestly, it helps give me potential ideas if I were to create a business. I have learned a lot by observing this brand grow.https://www.rawgear.com/

Dave Portnoy- Barstool Sports

David Portnoy is an internet and sports sensation. He grew up in Massachusetts and attended the University of Michigan. He had a minor job directly out of college at a small marketing firm in Boston but eventually left his job to start Barstool Sports in 2003. Barstool Sports started off as a sports newspaper that Portnoy himself would hand out in downtown Boston and in subway stations to people passing by. The newspaper had some trouble taking off at the beginning and the only sponsorships they had were with some small sports betting sites which were illegal in America. Believe it or not but Barstool Sports started to gain some traction in and around Boston once Portnoy started adding different things that would appeal to men on the covers of his newspapers. Portnoy eventually graduated from the newspaper and opened up his blog in 2007. Portnoy himself comes off as a ruthless type of person in his blogs and on the internet for his political incorrectness and has gained the name El Presidente amongst the fans of Barstool Sports. As of 2022, Portnoy still owns Barstool Sports and is in charge of the creative thought process for the blogs. In 2020, Penn National Gaming bought a 36% stake in Barstool which gave Portnoy $135 million in cash. Portnoy has retired his persona of the big ruthless “bro” as some would say and now has a series of going around the country reviewing pizza shops trying to find the perfect slice. When it comes to Dave Portnoy himself, he may not be the best person and there are many negative things that surround him, but all entrepreneurs should take his gritty push to become rich and famous and implement that into their work ethic. Not many people would go out and stand on subway stations for hours in consecutive days to try and make a name for themselves and their product.

Jason Wersland- Theragun

Dr. Jason Wersland on Therabody's Growth and InnovationDr. Jason Wersland is a Los Angeles- based chiropractor and founder of the brand Therabody (formerly Theragun). Dr. Jason was in a bad motorcycle accident in 2007 and that was where the birth of his idea took place. He needed something to help with his pain and a percussion gun would be able to ease the pain. His idea for the theragun was based on the needs and necessity for a product to help people with their injuries. It took almost 10 years to perfect the design and function of the theragun and upon its release in 2016, the theragun was an instant success. Since then, three different generations of the percussion gun and vast amounts of partnerships have been a part of the brand. In 2020, Wersland collected data and did research and ultimately decided to rebrand to Therabody. With the rebrand, the company sold more kinds of muscle treatments for athletes and regular folk alike. Dr. Jason uses his entrepreneurship skills to figure out what people need and how to answer their needs. And with his own personal experience with injury, and being a chiropractor, helped him create a multi-million dollar company that is able to help all kinds of people with muscle injuries and recovery.

Pat Cavanaugh- READY Nutrition

Pat Cavanaugh is an entrepreneur from our town of Grove City. He graduated from Grove City high school and later went on to play basketball and football at the University of Pittsburgh. He was named captain of the basketball team two years in a row. After graduating from Pitt, Pat started his own promotional product company called The Cavanaugh Marketing Network. He also founded the sportswear brand CRONS, which supplied many Division 1 schools with athletic apparel. Pat made the brand to support health and exercise. In addition to the apparel, he made CRONS as an athletic program for all of the young student-athletes in America. CRONS is also a basketball club enforcing the ideas of hard work and competition. In 2012, Pat Cavanaugh got into the nutrition business with his company Ready Nutrition. Ready has been increasing in sales every year since its creation. The company wants to encourage kids to not give up on their sport no matter what people say about them; they should have good effort, attitude, and energy. Ready now has over 9 figures of income and a couple HUGE partnering athletes such as Aaron Donald and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Pat Cavanaugh used his own experiences to become a successful entrepreneur and businessman.

 

Thomas Fields

Thomas Fields was a successful high school basketball player when he suddenly began to suffer devastating knee injuries that ended his career. While in recovery he couldn’t play basketball the same way he used to due to his knees, but he also saw a problem with the lack of affordable sports equipment. This gave him an idea of an affordable shooting net that could extent to twelve feet and then retract back and fit in a backpack. The name of his company is called GRIND Interactive and their main product is called the grind machine, which is a portable shooting machine that catches basketballs and “passes” the ball back to the athlete. This is a great invention as the market for these types of machines has been rapidly growing the past ten to fifteen years. I also love seeing young athletes realize there is more to life than their own athletic career, and pursuing careers in business all while tying their business back to sports. Fields’ use of his own pain both literally and figuratively, helped him create a now booming business that helped land him on this years Forbes Under 30, a very prestigious honor.

Kevin Plank

Kevin Plank became a billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist after starting the company Under Armour. Under Armour is a massive athletic wear/gear company that rivals other sportswear companies like Nike and Adidas. The origin of the company idea is a textbook example of how the entrepreneurial mind should work: Plank noticed a problem in his life and developed a solution. In the 90s he was on University of Maryland’s football team and kept getting frustrated at his typical cotton T-shirts under his uniform. The cotton material would make him the sweatiest guy on the field. He realized that there wasn’t any ideal athletic sportswear that would keep players dry while playing. He wanted a mesh/stretchy material but when he couldn’t find it, he decided to make it himself. After developing shirt with the material he desired, Under Armour officially launched in 1996. Naming the company was somewhat of a struggle for Plank; he originally wanted to call it “Heart” or “Body Armor” but he couldn’t obtain the trademark rights to either title.  The name “Under Armour” was a mistake at first – Plank’s brother mistakenly called the company “Under Armour” and the name apparently stuck from that point. The early days of the company were fairly mild; they did $17,000 in their first year. It was only when they decided to dedicate $25,000 to buying an ad in an ESPN magazine that the brand really exploded. The ad was able to generate 1 million dollars in sales for the company in the next year. In 2017 Under Armour had an annual revenue of 5 billion dollars. In 2019 Plank decided to resign; handing his position to Patrik Frisk.

Marques Brownlee – Growth With Technology

Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) is a technology YouTuber that started posting videos in high school reviewing pieces of tech. However, his channel did not see significant growth until college. There, he made videos in his dorm room between school work and found money to purchase products to review. He has always heavily emphasized quality in his videos from the sets to videography to audio. His biggest breakthrough was having the opportunity to interview Kobe Bryant.

Today, Marques has multiple channels and over ten people on his team. He has divided everything involved in creating content to different people to ensure the highest quality work. Currently, he has his main channel, the Studio channel, a YT Shorts channel, a podcast channel, and an Auto Focus channel. The Studio channel focuses on behind the scenes and activity in the studio, and Auto Focus is a car review channel that he started recently.

On top of these, Marques plays ultimate frisbee professionally. Not only is he one of the best on his team, but they recently won the championship. Somehow, he finds time to be a great athlete while making lots of content weekly.

Marques has a big influence on so many people with his entrepreneurial mind. His drive and determination to do what he loves is present and impactful. Seeing the level of success he has seen on YouTube while playing ultimate professionally is not seen anywhere else. While his channels have grown, he has began to outsource the work to more employees. It is crazy to see that YouTube, along with sponsorships and others, have been able to pay him and allow him to have a big studio with over ten full time employees. His work is noticed and inspires me to do what I love.