Matt recounts the journey of Grip Spritz, a brand initially focused on improving golf club grip that later expanded to include basketball shoe accessories. They reflect on the challenges they encountered, including their limited marketing knowledge and the skepticism they faced due to their young age. Despite these obstacles, their sales experienced a breakthrough moment that propelled their growth. The conversation delves into their content creation strategy, particularly on TikTok, which played a significant role in their brand's success. Matt also mentions a bold move they made by partnering with a national camp during the early stages of their business. Throughout their discussion, the determination of Grip Spritz to support fellow entrepreneurs and provide affordable solutions for athletes shines through.
Chris: Hey, Matt! How's it going? Everything alright?
Matt: Hey, all good. Thanks for asking.
Chris: By the way, I must say, you have an impressive product.
Matt: Thank you. We really appreciate that.
Chris: So, here's the deal. We are the editors of a newsletter called "Articles," dedicated to D2C and e-commerce brands. With over 10,000 subscribers, most of them being D2C entrepreneurs, we share valuable strategies, industry news, and the inspiring stories of entrepreneurs. That's why we reached out to you, and we've prepared a set of questions for you to answer. Our aim is to share your insights with our subscribers. Sounds cool, right?
Matt: Absolutely! I'm looking forward to it. I appreciate you guys reaching out. I think it's awesome that we can share stories and support fellow entrepreneurs.
Chris: That's great to hear! So, let's start with the first question. Can you share the story behind your brand, including its history, mission, and values?
Matt: Absolutely. The journey of Grip Spritz has evolved significantly over the years. It all started back in 2013 when my neighbor, a passionate golfer in his late sixties, underwent back surgery. His goal was to return to the golf course exactly six months after the surgery. However, he noticed that the grips on his clubs were somewhat slippery, and he desired an immediate solution. After waiting six months to golf, he didn't want to wait any longer to get his clubs regripped. He believed there had to be a product that could provide an instant fix, but he couldn't find one. That's when he collaborated with chemists and developed a product that fulfilled his needs. He used it for golfing for about three to four years and achieved some success.
In fact, some ladies on the LPGA Tour even used it, and it made an appearance at the Ryder Cup in 2014. However, what stood out to him was the realization that only a few people took golf seriously enough to consider buying a product or regripping their clubs frequently. Additionally, in a normal round, a golfer might only use their driver for twelve out of the 18 holes, so the consumption rate wasn't very high. With these insights in mind, he shifted his focus to baseball, specifically for bat wraps and gloves. The same consumption pattern emerged—kids would bat three or four times per game at most. This realization occurred in 2018.
In late 2018 or early 2019, shortly after my college graduation, a neighbor of mine, who often passed by my house with his dog and cat, approached me. He expressed an interest in trying our product in the basketball industry but admitted he knew very little about it. He wondered if I could collaborate with him since I had a background in marketing. Intrigued, I decided to give it a shot. Being a basketball enthusiast and still actively playing at the time, I was initially skeptical but willing to try it out. To my surprise, when my friends and I tested the product, we were blown away. Recognizing the potential, my neighbor sought someone with marketing expertise to navigate the basketball landscape, especially in the realm of social media and technology.
Although I didn't specifically major in marketing, I understood the potential of this endeavor and realized I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. So, we embarked on the journey ourselves. We attended several tournaments, reconnected with teams I had played for during my youth, and received an overwhelmingly positive response from the kids. However, after about six months or a year, we received feedback that although they loved the product, they found it cumbersome to spray their shoes. This led us to go back to the drawing board and explore alternative solutions.
Drawing from my past experience, I recalled the existence of sticky pads that players could step on to enhance traction. We decided to create our own traction mat, which we patented. This invention became a game-changer for us. Our mission gradually transformed. Currently, our main focus is on saving schools money by offering affordable traction mats as an alternative to the longstanding competition that has dominated the market for 40 years. These mats, used by the NBA and every Division I school, had significantly increased in price due to their monopoly. Our goal was to provide high school teams with mats for both boys and girls, costing less than a single sticky mat from our competitors. Affordability became our driving force.
Additionally, we continue to cater to individual players and teams without access to traction mats. We understand that basketball shoes have become increasingly expensive, and we aim to support players in maximizing their performance while ensuring cost-effectiveness.
It wasn't always a guarantee that you would get new shoes every year. Shoes were expensive, and money wasn't always readily available. Our mission was to extend the lifespan of older shoes, making them feel like new for a longer period. By doing so, we aimed to save families a significant amount of money, considering the rising costs associated with youth sports. Our goal was to make sports more accessible to everyone.
Chris: I understand. That makes sense. So, what's your favorite team?
Matt: Are you originally from New York? Are you Knicks fans?
Chris: I used to live in Chicago, so I'm a die-hard Chicago Bulls fan.
Matt: Okay. For me, growing up around the time of Michael Jordan, even if I wasn't from Cleveland, there wasn't really another choice. I was seven when LeBron came in 2003, so there was no real choice.
Chris: By the way, I went to UNC.
Matt: Oh, great. You got it. My favorite player of all time is Vince Carter. He's a UNC guy.
Chris: Yeah. So, the second question would be: What kind of challenges did you face when launching your brand or product, and how did you overcome them?
Matt: Well, in a broader sense, one of the major challenges was that I had limited knowledge about marketing. My academic background was in finance and economics. I was more inclined toward numbers, but I did recognize small trends. For instance, back in college, I started a chocolate-covered strawberry business because my friends were buying them at high-end stores for $60. I realized I could make them for around $25 and sold them to everyone on campus. So, I had an entrepreneurial mindset, but I was more focused on finance. Overcoming the challenge of marketing was crucial. I found myself assuming roles in marketing and sales, despite having minimal experience in that areas. I had taken a single introductory marketing class in college out of necessity, just to graduate. But now, I had to handle tasks like building a website and managing social media.
Matt: For me, being from the social media generation, I had to figure out what would resonate with kids and run with it. Additionally, our events shifted primarily away from the youth space due to the impact of COVID-19. We realized that as vendors, we would be among the last to return, so we had to adapt out of necessity. We started targeting high schools and colleges, seeking opportunities to connect with decision-makers. It was challenging to engage with coaches in their forties and fifties, as well as athletic directors in their sixties when I was just 23. Many people questioned what insights a young person like me could offer, being more than half their age.
I don't know. And at the same time, as I mentioned earlier, my co-founder was in his late 60s. So when we attended youth tournaments, I found that the kids were more receptive to me because I appeared closer to their age. Conversely, in other situations, it was the opposite. We had to overcome these little challenges and learn how to sell while navigating people's perceptions based on age.
Chris: That's great. Who were the most helpful individuals in getting you to where you are today on this journey?
Matt: Fortunately, I grew up watching a lot of entrepreneurial shows like Shark Tank, and I learned as I went along. I also listened to podcasts. Being of my generation, I was more immersed in the social media realm. You may have come across individuals like Alex Hormozi, who simplified marketing and made it more accessible. One valuable piece of advice I received was to step back and put myself in the shoes of the consumer. It was initially odd for me to think about purchasing something through a Facebook ad, but now we run Facebook ads, and it has become an integral part of our business. So, it's about understanding who will respond to what, whether it's through social media platforms like TikTok or finding ways to entertain and inform people about our products. Once someone framed it like that for me, it made a lot more sense.
Chris: Just out of curiosity, did you experience any "AHA" moments where there was a significant jump in revenue or sales?
Matt: With every business, I always joke that in the morning, you feel like you're on top of the world, but by lunchtime, you feel like you're on the verge of going out of business. This rollercoaster feeling was even more intense in the early stages. I remember joking with someone that while my friends were working legitimate jobs after college, I was also doing Doordash deliveries on the side to support myself because all my money was going right back into the business. We faced struggles, but our determination was to stay the course and keep doing what we were doing. Last year, we decided to go all in and see how far we could take this.
Our goal was to achieve sales ranging from $30,000 to $50,000. We saw it as a healthy growth target. As the months went by, we focused on consistency. We continued attending AAU events, posting two to three videos on social media every day, and resolving any issues with Amazon. We also aimed to connect with more high school and college coaches, which required a lot of travel. I remember doing around twelve to fifteen events in ten weeks, sometimes visiting multiple states on a single weekend. It was hectic, but by the end of the year, we knew if our efforts were paying off. In October, we achieved $15,000 in sales, marking our first five-figure month. In November, it doubled to $30,000. We witnessed the snowball effect of daily video posts and attending various events. Finally, in December, we reached $40,000, concluding the year with over $100,000 in sales.
Chris: Oh, my goodness.
Matt: And that's when we realized, alright, we're in a good place. Through the first quarter of this year, we surpassed last year's sales. It was like an "AHA" moment, but it lasted for about three weeks, right between Halloween and Black Friday. It was both amazing and crazy because at that time, we were still doing everything from our house. We filled our two-ounce bottles, sewed mats, and mitts, and worked 18-hour days. Our focus was solely on filling products and orders to ensure they went out the next day. Those three weeks were a culmination of our extensive travel, Black Friday sales, the start of the basketball season, running ads, and constantly posting videos.
It was an "AHA" moment mixed with a period of high stress.
Chris: I see. Was it easy for you guys to create content for social media? How did you manage it?
Matt: It was peculiar. Towards the end of 2020, I noticed individuals gaining significant traction on TikTok. It made me wonder how we could make content about having a better grip on basketball shoes entertaining. It wasn't the most thrilling topic, after all. So, what we did was film videos on how to use our product for individual players and teams. I posted the videos and then never checked TikTok again. However, we experienced a sudden increase in sales of around $700 in one day. Intrigued, I checked TikTok and saw that the video had accumulated approximately 100,000 views. I was pleasantly surprised. The comments on the video consisted mainly of kids asking if it worked for certain situations, how it worked, and requesting before-and-after demonstrations. This feedback gave us insight into the content these kids wanted to see. So, we went back and created videos based on their comments. Initially, those videos didn't go viral like some others had, until maybe springtime. Someone asked if our product was actually legal, and we took a playful jab at our competition, stating that it works exactly like a sticky pad, except it actually works. The kids loved that kind of banter, and that video generated over a million views, along with numerous questions. By summer, I realized we had to post every single day. TikTok made it easy to edit and export videos to other platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube. We began posting two videos a day, realizing that even though we had followers, the algorithm ensured our content reached new viewers who may have never heard of our product before. It became effortless to address the most common questions from kids. For example, one recurring topic was kids using hand sanitizer on their shoes, which is harmful to rubber soles. We could continue addressing that issue because it always reached someone new. Those videos consistently performed well. Occasionally, I would post about not using hand sanitizer multiple times a week, but no one would comment, "You already told us this." This allowed us to tackle broader shoe-related problems that kids faced and create a series of videos. We could post them 6, 7, 8, or 9 times in a month without it becoming repetitive because each time it reached a different audience. So, we focused on addressing the major concerns kids had and mixed in fresh videos when they asked new questions.
Chris: Spread out the videos, right?
Matt: Yeah, it got pretty crazy. Especially on TikTok, you don't even need to post anything directly related to your brand.
Chris: Sometimes you get views even when you try to post something related to your product.
Matt: Exactly. Especially with the TikTok shop becoming a thing. Kids would jokingly say, "You haven't sold any on here yet." In response, we would photoshop one of our bottles, making it appear as if it was crying, and it would get around 3 million views. I guess brand awareness is all we can hope for in those cases. So, yeah, we just throw it at the wall. Even if a video doesn't do well and only gets a couple of hundred views, it's here today, gone tomorrow, and no one even noticed it.
Chris: That's great. That's awesome. Cool. Moving on, what's the biggest risk you've taken on this journey?
Matt: The biggest risk was probably last spring when we were approached by a national camp in San Diego. They mentioned that nearly every NBA player, around 174 of them, had attended their camps in high school. It's a massive event with talent from all over the world. They saw our product somewhere and reached out, believing it would be more suitable for individual players compared to large sticky mats. They thought we could make an impact. At that time, it was around March of the previous year, and we had only made about $5,000 in sales. We were growing slowly, but not at a rapid pace. The camp's other sponsors were Disney, Nike, and Gatorade, so we knew the price tag would be significant. The camp organizer mentioned a price in the five-figure range. I called my partners, but we had no money. One co-founder was in his late sixties, and the other partner handled finance and legal matters. When it comes to putting things on kids' shoes, legality and protection are crucial.
Matt: I had to convince a 50-year-old and a 60-year-old. I told them, "Guys, we have to do this." They replied, "We don't have any money. We can't afford it." They asked me to call the guy back. As we researched him, we found ESPN articles written about him. I called him and explained that considering the price, it wasn't worth it for us. I was negotiating with him, something I had never done before at 25. I was on the phone with him while texting my partners, trying not to burn bridges. Even if he said no, maybe we could try again next year. Eventually, he cut the price in half.
He cut the price in half, but even that was more than what we made in the first quarter of last year. I called my partners, and we still couldn't afford it. I said, "Okay, let's try one more time." We managed to bring the cost down to a quarter of the original price. He told us, "I need to know by tomorrow. I can't keep playing this game." I didn't call my partners. Instead, I showed them the four or five players from the Cavaliers who had participated in this camp. I said, "Look, you know these names." Finally, the lawyer said, "Alright, you know what? I'll write the check. We'll take a little out, and I'll write the check."
He said, "If we don't make our money back because you're going to local tournaments every weekend and hanging out with friends, I know you'll be out late at night. But no, you're waking up at six in the morning and attending these events." So we made a deal, and we went there without knowing what to expect. I knew it would be high-level competition, and I anticipated that the players would be skilled. We arrived with 250 bottles, assuming that if every other kid bought one, it would be a great weekend. I flew to San Diego and arrived at the camp. On the first day, during orientation in the hotel lobby, before any basketball was played, I sold out all my products. I called them and said, "Hey, I'm still here for three more days, but I'm out of stock." They asked, "You sold all 500 bottles?" I replied, "Yeah." In the end, we made three times the amount of money we initially invested. It was a moment where I thought, "Oh man, I didn't really want to spend my weekends in Cleveland, going to remote places for these basketball tournaments." And now, lo and behold, we're working with them again this year. It's their 25th anniversary, and the event is in LA. It has three times the number of kids and lasts two whole weeks, so we'll definitely be bringing more than 500 bottles.
But that experience made me think, "Wow, I just negotiated with this guy, and deep down he must have known that we had no sales. It was a risk to convince my partners to invest more money and sell everyone on it. I thought this has to work." It was one of those instances where I felt like I was putting myself on the line.
Chris: "Oh my goodness, that's an incredible story!"
Matt: "I absolutely love it. Although, I must admit I was a little nervous at the moment."
Chris: "We have two more questions for you. Firstly, could you share any exciting upcoming projects your company has in the pipeline? Secondly, what are your goals for this year and the next five years?"
Matt: "Certainly! We have some thrilling projects on the horizon. We've been extensively traveling, covering around twelve to fifteen states last year, but I honestly lost count of all the cancellations and hectic schedules. This year, we've already completed twelve projects with athletic directors. In the fall, we plan to double that number, focusing on high school basketball coaches across different states, and approximately eighteen projects. We're also expanding internationally, starting with Canada, as we aim to grow our presence there. That's the focus for the next few months. Additionally, we're working on a new product called our traction mat. We've received feedback from college events, such as the Final Four, where they expressed a desire for more aesthetically pleasing options. They want logos and full team and school branding on our products, which our current offerings don't fully accommodate. So, we're reworking some designs and even pursuing patents to introduce this new product, which will be higher priced. The advantage is that colleges don't typically have budget constraints like high school programs do. We believe this product will be the key to reaching the NBA and high Division One school. We anticipate its release next year with a substantial price point."
Matt: As for our goals, this year we're aiming to achieve a growth rate of around 500%, which would bring us close to surpassing half a million in sales. We understand that maintaining the same rate as last year, where we experienced a 900% growth, may not always be feasible. Looking ahead, our long-term objective is to sustain our growth trajectory. We plan to continue expanding our travel and product offerings, becoming a household name and deeply ingrained in the basketball community. This will naturally take time, but we aspire to establish ourselves as a staple of the game within the next two years, by the end of our fifth year. We often joke that our ultimate goal is for the sound of squeaking shoes to resonate in every gym across the country. It's interesting that even when we travel, there are still people who haven't heard of us, but we're determined to change that.
For us, that means we haven't achieved enough visibility yet. There's still more we can do to establish ourselves as a household name. As we generate more revenue, we also have philanthropic initiatives in mind that align with our mission of making sports accessible to everyone, regardless of financial constraints. We understand that affordability should never be a barrier to participating in the sports we promote. Once we solidify our position in the basketball space, we aim to continue expanding. We ventured into volleyball last year and plan to explore other sports like golf, baseball, and wrestling shoes, as we see a multitude of opportunities in those areas. Simultaneously, we intend to develop our sales channels and explore growth in those avenues as well.
Chris: Got it. So you didn't receive any external funding, correct?
Matt: That's correct. We are completely self-funded. This decision, apart from hiring a lawyer, has been the best thing for us.
Absolutely. We strive to keep everything in-house, which requires substantial effort and reinvestment, including forgoing paychecks for a while. However, we are truly committed to retaining full ownership and control.
Chris: Building an empire, right?
Matt: Exactly.
Chris: Lastly, what advice would you give to someone starting their own business?
Matt: Ah, this is actually my favorite quote, or more of a story, that I always share. Imagine this: Let's say you guys are from New York, right? The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or any major publication invites you to come down to Yankee Stadium tomorrow. They announce that if you manage to hit a home run off our star or rookie pitcher, you win a prize. The prize could be anything you desire, like owning your own business. Some people will show up, but many won't. They'll think it's a waste of time, believing they can't hit a home run off a rookie pitcher. They won't show up because they lack self-belief. However, those who do show up will have one rule: once you pick up the bat, you can swing as many times as you want. But once you put it down, you're done. The first person may face a 100 mph fastball coming up and inside, deciding it's too challenging and putting the bat down. The next person might swing at a breaking curveball in the dirt, resulting in laughter from the stadium crowd, and causing them to quit. Yet, some individuals will persist, swinging the bat again and again. Even when the audience boos and tells them to give up or that they'll never succeed, they'll tune out the noise and keep swinging. When they finally hit that home run, the next day the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or any major publication will announce the winner, and no one will mention those who booed or advised them to quit. Instead, they'll claim they were the ones who supported the whole time, saying, "I believed in them from the beginning." The moral of the story is that regardless of applause or booing, don't pay attention to any of it. Accept constructive criticism and appreciate those who recognize your accomplishments, but never let it deter you from progressing and continuing to grow. When people think you're foolish or dismiss your idea, if you wholeheartedly believe in yourself and your product, you must keep pushing forward and disregard their opinions. As I mentioned, we assessed the numbers last year and recognized when a product wasn't gaining traction.
However, deep down, we knew that by persistently hustling and working hard, in five years' time, we would achieve seemingly overnight success, right?
Chris: That definitely makes sense.
Matt: Absolutely. The key is to never stop moving forward.
Chris: Alright then, I don't have any more questions.
Matt: Alright. Thank you so much for reaching out. I genuinely appreciate it. I'm excited about everything you have planned as well.
Chris: Talk soon.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Matt shares the inspiring story of Grip Spritz, a brand that started with a simple product to improve grip on golf clubs and expanded to include basketball shoe accessories. Despite facing challenges like limited marketing knowledge and age-related skepticism, they achieved remarkable growth and success. Their strategic content creation on TikTok and bold partnerships contributed to their brand's ascent. Grip Spritz exemplifies determination, entrepreneurial spirit, and a commitment to providing affordable solutions for athletes while supporting fellow entrepreneurs.
