GRIP BOOST

Grip Boost Inc. has developed a quick-drying polymer-based gel technology that extends the life and performance of football gloves. Football players at all levels of competition, from the NFL down to youth leagues, wear tacky gloves to enhance their ability to grip the football during the game. These gloves offer football players the extra tackified grip they need to make game-changing plays. Unfortunately, these gloves lose their tackiness/grip quickly due to intense frictional contact (e.g. gl... ove-jerseys, glove-ground) experienced throughout practices and games during the football season; usually the grip on a pair of brand-new gloves wears down after just a few days of practice. In response to this market need, the Grip Boost Football Gel was invented by a professional football player and team of chemical engineers at the University of Maryland. This new product is a quick-drying polymer-based gel. To use the product, a player simply applies a small amount of the gel onto his gloves, rubs his hands together, and a thin polymer film forms on the gloves in less than 15 seconds—rapid enough to apply between plays during a game or practice. The Grip Boost polymer-gel solution is completely non-toxic, employs green chemistry, and is produced from natural polymers that are found in crab shell waste. Additionally, the Grip Boost polymer film adheres to the gloves and leaves no residue on the football, which is crucial for legal usage. The original inventors formed Grip Boost in Spring 2014 to propel commercialization of the gel technology; in Fall 2014, pilot scale batches of the product were sold online through GripBoost.com and the Amazon Marketplace. After strong reviews and positive feedback in football market, Grip Boost Inc. launched grip products in baseball and golf in Fall 2015 and Summer 2016. The company currently operates out of the UMBC Research and Technology Park as part of the bwtech@UMBC incubator program where it produces and sells the Grip Boost products on www.GripBoost.com, local retail stores and the Amazon Marketplace.More