How it began
It started on a scorching hot day in Pasadena, CA, tailgating before the US Mens Soccer team took the field against Mexico. A friend who later became a business partner mentioned the idea of putting an ice cube on your wrist to cool down your circulatory system. It went from a drunk tailgate conversation of trying to cool down to, “how do we make this a wearable for athletes.”
The product
I came up with the idea of making instant cooling packs portable, comfortable, and efficient. Combine that with a custom arm sleeve or wristband and it would be the perfect cooling tool for any cyclists, gym enthusiast, and hikers. We worked with textile manufacturers locally and in China and we developed our own little manufacturing and R&D facility in my garage for the cooling packs.
User Testing
As soon as we had a working prototype, we started calling our friends, friends of friends, anyone who was willing to try our product. We’ve tested our product at half and full marathons, trail running, cycling, obstacle course races, gyms, you name it, we probably tested it there. I was never so fit. The general consensus from our users was positive and that they were surprised how cool it got once they activated it. This was a great start.
You don’t know you want it until you try it
Mai, a veteran runner, who’s ran over 30 Half Marathons, 4 Full Marathons, and a 30mile Ultra testing Stim Gear’s cooling system at the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon.
Going To Market
Like many products in the 2000s, we tried our hand in going into crowdfunding with Indiegogo and Kickstarter. It was a great way to prove our product’s validity and get customers and cash to help develop the product further. With my film background, we shot our own product commercial and develop a marketing campaign on Facebook and Instagram to generate interest and word of mouth.
Lesson Learned
Testing the product is one thing. Getting user feedback is another. Educating the audience is a whole other animal. That was where it got difficult. We developed a product that was to help athletes combat heat exhaustion, but our audience was the same audience that believes “no pain no gain.” They felt like Stim Gear was a cheat to their workout. Even though users would still burn the same amount of calories with or without Stim Gear, it didn’t matter. Educating them that this was a product that will make your workout better was a steep ask and unfortunately caused the end of this endeavor.
I don’t regret the $80K spent between my business partner and myself in trying to self-fund this project. If it worked, great. If it didn’t, and it didn’t, we learned a lot. We learned how to take a product from an idea to an actual physical product. We worked with manufacturing companies locally and abroad. We dealt with the 2010 tariff wars with China. We ran into hundreds of hurdles, but we got over each and everyone, besides the last one – how to get sales – that kind of was the most important one. But in the end, no regrets. Lesson learned. I learned what I was good at and what I’m not. Apparently, I love taking a concept and turning it into a reality. Trying to find solutions to customer’s wants and needs. And apparently I’m really bad at mass education and sales. There’s so many lessons that you can learn when you try. Would I do it again? Definitely.