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Hyperice |
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March 17, 2014 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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Portable High Performance Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Devices |
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 AboutHyperice
Hyperice is a recovery technology company specializing in portable high performance sports medicine and orthopedic devices that provide preventative treatment, accelerate injury recovery, and enhance muscle and joint performance. The company’s signature product is a two-part ice compression system composed of an ultra thin ice cell featuring patented air release technology and a specially designed compression wrap for each of the body’s major muscles and joints. The innovative two-part system acts together to harness the power of real ice, which optimizes cold compression therapy and enhances the body’s natural recovery mechanisms. Hyperice's groundbreaking technology is setting the standard for active recovery systems and can be found on several of the world's elite athletes, in professional and collegiate training rooms and in rehabilitation facilities.
The signature ice
compression product line is a revolutionary two-part system, which harnesses
the power of real ice and the anti-inflammatory properties of compression to
provide preventative treatment, accelerate injury recovery, and enhance
muscle and joint performance. |
714.524.3742
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Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – March 17, 2014
CEOCFO: Mr. Katz, what is the concept at Hyperice? Mr. Katz: The overall concept of Hyperice is that we are a comprehensive recovery and injury prevention rejuvenation brand. Our first product line was a line of ice compression devices that were geared toward recovery. The products that we have in development are not icing related, but they deal with the recovery and prevention of injuries. Our first product line was more focused on joints and now we are more getting into muscles. The idea is that we will we have a portfolio of products that are geared toward high performance professional athletes as well as the average person who is active and is concerned with taking care of their body and trying to prolong their window of being healthy and active and improving their range of motion, flexibility and overall health.
CEOCFO: How did you decide what to work on first? Mr. Katz: When you have the concept for building a recovery brand, you have to look at what modalities are most commonly used in the recovery process. I think ice compression therapy or cryotherapy is one of the pillars of recovery. You see athletes all the time going into cold tubs and using ice compression around joints to help speed up recovery time and come back from an injury. If you are going to start somewhere with recovery, you are going to start with a modality that is most commonly used. I started with ice compression and I wanted to come up with a device for all of the needs of an athlete. It needed to be affordable and easy to use. Because of the athletes’ lifestyle, they travel a great amount and their time is very valuable. I wanted something that was going to cater to their lifestyle, but also deliver the optimal treatment – not sacrificing the treatment that we are delivering for the affordability and ease of use. When I started researching cold therapy, I saw that there was no company that really had come up with a product that met all those requirements. It was mostly just doing research and then trial and error – coming out with prototypes, slightly improving them, working with different materials and constantly trying to upgrade and update what we were doing. The big breakthrough was my idea for the air release valve, which is our patented technology. It allows the device to separate itself from anything on the market.
CEOCFO: How have you gained attention? Mr. Katz: For us, the validity of what we are doing lies in who is using our product. Our product is used by the best athletes in the world, who hold the product to the absolute highest standard. When we are dealing with some of the elite athletes in the NBA or the NFL, for example, those players have access to the best equipment in the world – the best devices and the best treatment. Whatever they are going to use on their body has to be world class. No one is going to use something on their body, because for these guys, their body is their livelihood. In order to get something to the level that they are going to use, that took a great deal of time and innovation. When we finally had the first line of products done, we were basically giving them to the athletes to test out, and the products spread very fast to all of the major sports. It was really the athletes’ acceptance of the product and the fact that they were using it not because we paid them to use it or that they had any other use to use it other than the fact that they felt it was helping their bodies. That validated what we were doing. It basically said that this device is the most advanced, portable ice compression device on the market. Other than us making claims about what the product is and what it does, when you can deliver that user experience to where the end user -- in this case, some of the most visible athletes in the world who use the product and continue to use it on their own, they then recommend it to teammates. It was spreading from one sport to the next and then you know you have something that is world class.
CEOCFO: How do people purchase your product? Where is it available today? Mr. Katz: For the first year and a half, all of our business has been direct business. That means we either sell direct to professional teams, college teams or physical therapy clinics that work with athletes. We also sell direct online right off our website. The one thing about our company is that the device that the average person orders off our website is the exact same device that is being used by all the world-class athletes. Many times, brands come out with a higher grade model for the pros and a lesser version for the masses. With our device, you buy a line of the exact same device that they are using in professional training rooms.
CEOCFO: What are working on now? What is the scientific concept? Mr. Katz: Our first line of ice compression devices is done and we are now moving from selling direct to selling through retailers. That process is starting now and we are picking up more accounts each day. Our distribution of our first product line is growing. At the same time, I have been working on our next product for the last year and a half, and this is also a recovery aging prevention product that lives in the same space as our first line of product, but is actually targeted more toward muscles and the nervous system as opposed to our ice compression devices, which our more focused on joints. This is a product that would be used by not only athletes, but there is a big component of relieving tension in the body. Many of the things that athletes need for performance enhancement are the same type of modalities we would use when people either go and get massage treatment or when they are looking to train for a sport they play. Not if they are professional athletes, but just for the average person that are just passionate about their hobby.
CEOCFO: Does the average person know if it is a joint or a muscle? Do they typically understand the source of their pain? Mr. Katz: It is pretty clear that for many people who have pain, it is joint related. A very common thing would be knees. Your back is a series of joints. People have problems in ankles or hips. Most active people over a long enough time line will experience some sort of joint pain, whether it is from repetitive motion in one joint or impact. As a runner, you are running on cement and it is a constant pounding of the knees or an impact on the lower back. For people who intuitively know where their pain is coming from, it is really up to them to understand their body, listen to their body and understand that. If I have pain in my joint, that pain is most likely inflammation related. If I want to treat inflammation, how do I go about doing that? Our devices are pretty straightforward so that you can target an area very specifically, whether it is your knee, ankle or back and get treatment on that exact area instead of just taking anti-inflammatories, which more or less mask the pain, but do not really get to the core of the problem.
CEOCFO: Where are you with the second product? Mr. Katz: The second product will be released in June. We have the first series of prototypes that we are testing in different states. We are testing them with professional athletes at the highest level and we are testing them in the professional training rooms. We have selected a few trainers who we have given the product to test out and give us feedback, because we can still make changes before the final product comes out. We have also tested it in a lab with the top sports scientists in the country. We are testing it for two things: range of motion and pain. How does the product affect range of motion and pain? The initial results of the empirical tests have been overwhelmingly positive, and all that is going to lead us to do more, because the initial tests are still good but now we are testing it for all different benefits.
CEOCFO: How does it work and why does it work? Mr. Katz: Our next product will be called the Vyper, and the Vyper is a vibration device that incorporates vibration and pressure. When you get a massage, they are using pressure to release tension in the muscles and loosen up the muscles. This device is using pressure, but it is also incorporating vibration. What vibration does is help relax muscles, loosen muscles, increase circulation to the area, and at a high enough frequency, it activates the nervous system. This product is going to have many benefits, and it is going to be used for many different things. It will be used for recovery, but it will also be used before an athlete plays to prepare them to play. It will also be used in a therapeutical setting for pain. Many people who have pain, especially in today’s world where most people sit at a desk and we spend a longtime sitting, much of it has to do with tight, stiff muscles. When you have tight, stiff muscles, it creates tension in the body. It is accumulative of the fact of sitting and driving, and the type of lifestyle people lead where this is why many people are doing yoga now and incorporating more a more holistic approach to their fitness. With this product, we will open the door for that type of person who needs an increase in range of motion and needs to feel an improvement in their overall health. The initial results of the testing are very positive in showing that the product is combining with taking pressure and vibration, because we know they work independently. We know pressure works, and that is why people get massages and do foam rolls, and we know that vibration works. This will be the first product that combines both of those modalities into one device. Our first product combined ice and compression, and now we are combining pressure and vibration.
CEOCFO: Will you be working with therapists, chiropractors and orthopedists? How do you reach that community? Mr. Katz: We will absolutely be working with them. When I work with a professional sports team, that professional team has a trainer who is a sports medicine professional, and they are usually going to a PT clinic or an orthopedic group. Usually, the orthopedic group and the PT clinic that works with professional sports teams are top in their field. For example, our products are used at the Andrews Clinic in Florida, where Dr. James Andrews, who is one of the top surgeons in the country, sends their patients to rehab. Our products in the rehab facility are ice compression products. It all starts with the athletes and their trainers who then refer us to the orthopedic clinics or the physical therapists that work with the athletes. Those physical therapists know that these clinics are usually top in their field and they influence other physical therapists and other orthopedic clinics. It is kind of a top down strategy. Just like you getting your product in the hands of the influencers. Just like professional athletes influence college athletes and college athletes influence high school athletes and so on and so forth, the same thing happens in medicine where what we do in the athletic training room is connected to what they are doing in more mainstream physical therapy. It is always the athletic training room where we are trailblazing and integrating new products. Working to get professional athletes healthier faster is so great because many times these guys are being paid millions of dollars to play. There is a real incentive when they are injured, to get them back on the field or back on the courts faster. We have to be very innovative and very creative in the athletic training room, and many times the mainstream PT clinics that are working with ordinary people are looking at what we are doing in the sports training room and adopting those methods shortly thereafter. The way we get to mainstream is by going to the top.
Mr. Katz:
If you look
at the recovery rejuvenation space, this is really the future of sports and
performance. It is adding the most value to the athletes and to the
individual. What recovery and rejuvenation do to an athlete – what improve
treatment and recovery rejuvenation and injury prevention do, adds more
value to the athletes end experience than any other space. We all want to
live and move and feel better. An athlete has about a 10 to 15 year window
where their body can still perform at a high enough level for them to make a
living. An athlete’s career usually ends in their late 30s. That is usually
where in many other careers you are getting into the phase where you are
going to earn a great deal of money. As a professional athlete, that is when
your career is ending. The longer you can extend that window where your body
can perform at a high enough level that can mean the difference in millions
of dollars. We are basically trying to battle time. We are trying to extend
that time when the body is healthy and able to perform and we are trying to
extend that window as long as we can. By doing that, we can carry that over
into ordinary people’s lives where people can just move better, feel better
and be active longer. The thing that keeps us young is by doing things that
are active that we used to do when we were young. When your body is no
longer able to play the sports you played when you were in your 20s and when
you were a kid, you start to age. Being able to keep your body healthy and
in motion not only extends the time period where people can be active, but
it is also connected to overall wellbeing. If I can do what I did when I was
20 when I am 45 or 50, I am going to lead a longer, healthier life because
my body is able to do that. If our company can help individuals’ bodies stay
healthy longer, we think we are adding a tremendous value to their overall
wellbeing and their health. |
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