Establishing game-changing businesses in dorm rooms have been a recurring theme in our articles lately. For the brand we’re going to feature today, they create products to help athletes constantly perform at a high level. We were able to chat with Brandan Adams, the founder of Elite Athletic Gear. Here’s their story.
An Entrepreneur By Heart
Before starting Elite Atheltic Gear, Brandan shared that he was already an entrepreneur when he was a kid. He used to resell candy while on the school bus. He also started a snow plowing company where he would get 50+ customers during the snowstorm season.
Brandan knew what he wanted to do. He combined the business-oriented mindset and his experience as an athlete, staying involved in those two fields. Brandan came up with his billion-dollar idea upon realizing a gap in every amateur sports team’s gear. He realized that the compression gear of athletes was in the standard black or white. Brandan was quick to act and started coming up with names for his brand. Upon consultation with his roommates and teammates, Elite Athletic Gear was born.
In June 2014, Elite Athletic Gear was born with 3 arm sleeves and 4 motivational wristbands in stock. As of the moment, they have over 1000 SKUs available on their site.
On Success and Motivation
Brandan loved every bit of the grind and hustle to build his brand. He told us:
“I always had the mindset that I would rather work 100 hours a week for myself building my dreams instead of working 40 hours a week for a company while building someone else’s dreams.”
Elite Athletic Gear has achieved year-over-year growth of 150%. They have also expanded a lot of their product lines and allotted more budget for marketing. We also asked Brandan about his typical day, and it could be seen that he’s all about that grind:
He begins his day by replying to customer inquires. Next, he spends the following three hours for order fulfillment. After his lunch, he dedicates two hours for product ordering and product development. Then he fulfills orders again from 3-5.
Do you think he takes some time away from his business after the 7-5? Wrong. He spends his evenings replying to even more customer inquiries. The rationale behind this is that he wants an excellent customer experience for his patrons.
Inspiration for Other Entrepreneurs
In dealing with problems, other entrepreneurs could pick up a few lessons from EAG. The pandemic has forced longer wait times for supply chains. As for EAG, turnaround times for orders tripled from 4-6 weeks to 14-18 weeks. As a result, Brandan and his team spent their advertising efforts from bestsellers to other collections in their website. This allowed other products to shine through despite waiting for the bestsellers to restock.
Before we parted ways, we asked him about his favorite part as an entrepreneur. He told us:
“My favorite aspect is being able to take my business and sports backgrounds and do what I love every day. It is so awesome being able to interact with the up and coming athletes and see them repping our products on social media. It is also exciting having professional athletes order products and see them training and competing with our headbands, arm sleeves, wristbands and more. “
Truly, Elite Athletic Gear’s story is one of the best sources for ideas and learnings on how to establish and sustain a business. If you wish to know more about their future drops, follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
You also might want to read here about the teenager who rakes in millions from selling customized jerseys.
Opinions expressed by AsianBlurb contributors are their own.
Shanae Brooks is a reporter covering leadership in the business world. She began her journalism career as a ghostwriter behind various successful books in the business realm.
