MSU students invent athletic shoelaces that won't come untied
MSU student startup creates athletic shoelaces that won't come untied
A company comprised entirely of college students is riding a wave of success thanks to some ingenuity and inspiration.
FOX 2 - A company comprised entirely of college students is riding a wave of success thanks to some ingenuity and inspiration.
In just a matter of months, they have gone from relative unknowns to pitching their business to international investors.
It is remarkable how fast a group of Michigan State University students have gone from an idea to developing a business - then taking a product to market.
The backstory:
"This grip will not come untied whatsoever and this single knot can pull a 6,000-pound truck," said Madhav Aggarwal. "We make hybrid composites and materials that are stronger than steel, lightweight and fire-resistant. We have invented the world's first shoelaces that never come untied due to activity, weather, or fray."
Aggarwal and Tanvi Gadamsetti are a pair of MSU juniors and business partners, the driving force behind the company BRCĒ.
"Athletic shoelaces that never come untied - we make them for different sports with different benefits," he said.
They met as freshmen.
"It was my first year in a foreign country and first year at Michigan State, so the goal was to stand out," Aggarwal said.
They bonded over a common problem. Both are former athletes who suffered injuries caused by knots that refused to stay tied.
"We realized that if they come untied for me then they must also come untied for a pro athlete," Aggarwal said.
"(We thought) 'Hey, this is what's wrong, someone needs to fix it and let's be the people to fix it," said Gadamsetti. "And luckily we have the education background."
And with that, BRCĒ was born, and it grew up fast. Within 45 days of addressing a problem they designed a solution - micro velcro shoe laces.
"We actually launched at Sneakercon Detroit during the NFL Draft. on April 27th. that was the first time that we put our product into the world and we sold out within just 4 hours," said Gadamsetti.
They patented their product soon after. All of this business know-how came from what they saw on the TV show "Shark Tank."
"My first job after coming back from school would be to turn on the TV and watch those free episodes," Aggarwal said.
From there they jumped at every chance they could to pitch their business.
"We knew we had to go to market, and make money so we can again put that back into the business and that’s all we knew at that point," said Gadamsetti.
"And we had a story to tell which is extremely important with physical products," said Aggarwal.
Not to mention, possibly make a little prize money along the way.
"To date we’ve done a couple dozen pitch competitions now?" Aggarwal said.
FOX 2: "How do you hear of these?"
"A lot of sleuthing on the internet to be completely transparent," Gadamsetti said. "I have this Excel sheet of every pitch competition we can find."
Their pace of success and growth has been astounding. They’ve been pitching the business for just four months.
FOX 2 first met them back in January, when they won a competition in Troy.
"We are on a 97 percent win rate," Aggarwal said. "So we won in Michigan, in the Midwest, in the country and now internationally."
Fresh off a win in Mexico, they are still learning that winning can be a subjective term.
"Its not really a win until you've found customers." Aggarwal said.
Which is why they are setting their sights even higher.
"What used to be just shoelaces we can now make an entire shoe out of," he said.
You can track their progress and their products at BRCĒ online HERE.
All seven members of the company are MSU students and former athletes.
The Source: The information for this story is from an interview with two of the BRCĒ company founders.