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.
Archive for Sports – Page 2
Charlotte Hornets star, Lamelo Ball was making large pay checks, even when he was 16 years old in high school. After going viral for a half court shot during his career high 92 point performance when he was only a freshman in high school, the world took attention to the Ball family. Their father, Lavar Ball, a failed NFL player got their brand started at a young age. They called it Big Baller Brand, with the abbreviation BBB, for the 3 Ball brothers. The brand started by selling shirts which became very popular among teens at the time. Next, they moved into the realm of designer basketball shoes. Lamelo was the first son to get a signature shoe, and he was only in high school at the time. The shoes retailed for $395, making them a not very popular option for basketball shoes. This shoe may not have been a big money maker, but it certainly drew a lot of attention to Lamelo. After high school, he ended up playing professionally in Lithuania and he became a part owner of the team he played for.
After his European career was up, Lamelo decided to go to the NBA draft in 2020, where he was selected 3rd overall by the Hornets. Once Lamelo joined the Hornets, Puma took interest in him and ended up signing a deal with him. In the past year, he has come out with the first and second rendition of his signature shoe with Puma. These shoes have been a hit and they are actually a viable option for a basketball player. Although Lamelo may not have had the best early career as an entrepreneur, he brought a lot of attention to himself which ended up setting him up for a very successful start to his NBA career.
Dakota and Garret Porter are brothers and two avid snowboarders who came up with an interesting idea in 2012 when they were just 16 and 13 years old respectively. They wondered if sticking lights onto the bottom of their snowboards would help light up the area around them and allow them to snowboard at night more easily. Now today, they have turned the idea into ActionGlow, a business that creates LED lighting systems for many different sports products including snowboards, skateboards, and surfboards.
These brothers are innovating because they are combining fashion and practicality in the niche market of light up sports equipment, letting people enjoy their sports at night as well as look cool. In addition, Dakota and Garret are exemplary models of what it means to be a young entrepreneur. Age was no barrier for them and even at an extremely young age, they were unafraid to pursue their idea. In order to further the business, they both obtained short 1-year associate degrees that provided formal education but also allowed them to quickly continue on full time with their business, an interesting route to take. This inspires me in my own life to pursue creative ideas relentlessly and take advantage of the time you have. In addition, Garret and Dakota give back to their community by helping other young people understand how to be a successful entrepreneur.
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.
Kenan Pala is the child of two Turkish immigrants (as of 1998) and was only 11 when he got an idea for a business. On a run at the beach with his father, Kenan saw passerbys trying to help a stranded seal. When he was being driven home, Kenan saw a poverty-stricken person asking for help. No one stopped to help. Struck by the comparison, Kenan researched homelessness in his home city San Diego and found it was #4 in the nation for highest homelessness rates. Kenan wanted to do something.
His opportunity arose in 2016 when he and his friends broke the Guiness World Record for the largest cardboard mosaic to raise awareness for local homelessness. Empowered by his success, Kenan created his charity Kids4Community in 2017.
Kids4Community is a charity that seeks to aid the homeless. Volunteers do things such as make meals for shelters and create programs which educate people of all ages about homelessness and the dangers of substance abuse. Kids4Community also aided hurricane and natural disaster victims with hygiene kids, as well as sending 400 low-income elementary school kids backpacks with school supplies. The charity is also responsible for organizing the cleaning of Mission Bay and supplying a local homeless shelter with 2,000 stockings in December 2017.
Due to this, Kenan was named one of the top 10 youth volunteers in the country in 2017 by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. Additionally, in 2018, the mayor of San Diego named January 23rd “Kenan Pala day.”
On top of his charity and accolades, Kenan is a fantastic runner who is not easily fazed by success. In 2018, he ran in the San Diego Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon, winning the boys 15-17 age division with a mile average of 5:57. Kenan runs a shocking 40-70 miles a week, often waking up at 4:30 AM to get started. Since he loves running, it’s no surprise he would use it to fundraise for his charity. Kenan hosted a 5k event to raise money to a housing program. He hopes to raise money for Kids4Community by running in the future, as well as run for Stanford University. Kenan even hopes that one day he might run in the Olympics in the 5,000 meters.
For people who are familiar with the NBA, the name Draymond Green should bot be new to you. Draymond Green is a professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors. He is a perennial all star power forward and could be on his way to the basketball hall of fame. Now you may be thinking, what does Draymond Green have to do with entrepreneurship. During this year’s NBA finals Draymond Green was playing in, Green had an idea to make a podcast. He called it “The Draymond Green Show”, and he would make new episodes after every finals game. In these podcasts he would discuss what happened in the game, like what he could have done better, how the team could have done better, what the team did well, and other interesting talking points related to the NBA finals game the day prior. Seeing as Draymond Green is a very successful NBA player, he has plenty of money to where he doesn’t have to do anything else but keep playing basketball. But Green’s entrepreneurial drive made him think of other ways he could make a profit. What I could learn from this is that no matter how wealthy you are, there is always room for improvement.
Blake Wynn is a sneaker reseller that has since founded a sports marketing agency called,
Enclave & Key. Blake started off buying and selling sneakers and making content through YouTube and Instagram. He was very successful doing that but he always talked about his love for sports, football especially and he thought he could make something out of that passion. He made great connections by selling sneakers to big name athletes and his family ties to the Las Vegas strip, as his uncle was the CEO of Mirage Resorts and Wynn Resorts. He dropped out of college at the age of 19 to pursue his dream of being a sports agent. Blake moved to Los Angeles to be able to become a partner with the LA Chargers, helping with their players marketing. Being with the Chargers was the first step towards opening his own marketing agency. Right at the start of Enclave and Key, he had over 30 athletes ready to partner. He became a global brand ambassador for the LA Chargers as a result of this early success. Enclave and Key has grown to represent over 150 of the biggest names in sports. Since Blake was very young, he had an entrepreneurial mind and he was always looking for the next venture.
Cameron Jurgens is an NFL center. He plays for the currently undefeated Eagles. He plays back up for one of the best centers in the league, who he hopes to replace once Jason Kelce retires. Cameron Jurgens got the opportunity play in the NFL because of his elite play for the Nebraska Cornhusker. He was a third team all big ten selection. His tough play earned him the nickname “beef” Jurgens. He is huge guy at three hundred and two pounds which probably contributes to the earning his nickname. This name gave Cameron an idea.
The nickname is a constant advertisement. He realized this and decided to start his own Beef Jerky business. With the new NIL deal allowing NCAA athletes to make money off their image and likeness, he was able to start making money in college. He started wearing his merchandise to post game conferences and speaking on the business when he could slide it in. He realized the better he played the more attention he got and the more advertising his business got.
Once he left college for the pros, his opportunities only rose. He went to NFL combine and got national attention. He was one of the fastest offensive linemen at the draft and that got everyone to turn their heads. His nickname started to spread to the national media. Cameron took full advantage. He started to offer his jerky for free to the analysts and sports casters. They are the ones looking for a story to talk about. All over national media people were raving about how good his jerky is. Some analysts who did not get any started to ask him on live TV for some jerky.
Cameron Jurgens impressed me. He was able to use his gifts and abilities in one completely different are to make him money in another. He clearly had good situational awareness and maximized what opportunities he has received.
Lasso Gear is an athletic apparel company based in Los Angeles, California that specializes in performance socks. Lasso Gear implements scientific research with personal experience to present socks that mimic the technology of ankle taping and ankle braces to provide faster, more easily accessible heightened performance and increased recover. Lasso Gear was started by a young entrepreneur named Partha Unnava, a friend of mine, who had a serious ankle injury playing basketball in his youth. Partha was frustrated with the limited options of recover for his injury so he used his background in biomedical engineering to a create a visually elegant sock that provided very similar benefits to ankle taping or braces. I have spoken to Partha several times during at my previous job, and he has described his upbringing and key points to being successful as a young entrepreneur. The two points that stood out to me the most was the importance of being unique in a very competitive space and implementing one’s own story or background into their product. Partha described the intensive research and trial and error he partook in to finalize his product especially in an extremely competitive space such as sportswear. Partha stresses the need to stick out in one way or another in order to gain any sort of competitive advantage especially as a small business. Furthermore, implementing one’s own life story, upbringing, background, etc. can be used to bring a unique aspect to a product or service. People tend to gravitate towards a product if the meaning behind it is well produced and presents heightened value.
Prime Hydration is a sports drink that was created by extremely famous youtubers Logan Paul and JJ Olatunji at the beginning of 2022. Both Paul and Olatunji are already very wealthy from their Youtube channels, but this did not stop their entrepreneurial drive as they sought to use their popularity to create a new product for consumers. Both Paul and Olatunji were dissatisfied with the current sports drinks on the market, like Gatorade and Powerade, because they thought the drinks had too much sugar in them, so they took matters into their own hands to create a low calorie sports drink that still tasted great. Here they were able to make their product Prime, with only 20 calories per bottle. Even though Paul and Olatunji could have easily made a profit off of their popularity alone, they were focused on making a quality product, which ended up being true as the drink itself became a huge success. What I have learned from this case is that no matter how successful you already are, there is always room for improvement. Paul and Olatunji were already hugely successful way before they even thought of the concept of Prime Hydration, but they weren’t satisfied, and were able to use their entrepreneurial drive to step out of their comfort zone and into commercial business to create a successful product.