“I think a lot of people are more receptive to a product that’s instantly demonstrable,” he matter-of-factly observed. “The Dragons were particularly receptive to the technology; they got it. You have to appreciate how the product can help you, how it could benefit everyone in their day-to- day. The Dragons saw it from that level. They were very receptive and it all started when Anil did the pen test on Joe Fresh – where you bite-down evenly on a pen and test your physical performance with a few simple challenges that you had just completed without anything between your teeth, and his balance and strength was instantly improved. His reaction was exactly the same as mine when I first tried the product,” Rob said. Rob first tried the nascent product at a fitness trade show in the US in 2014. “My background is in designing products for the fitness industry. When I was attending an event south of the border I came across Anil and his team selling the product and I watched them do the pen test. I found myself coming back to their booth because every person I saw who did the pen test was truly amazed. That’s when I got involved with my design company. We were able to work with Anil and take something that was essentially an orthodontic product going for $1500 and create a sleek one-size- fits- all, boil-and- bite product that retails for $29.” “I think a lot of people are more receptive to a product that’s instantly demonstrable,” For Rob, taking on the executive role wasn’t a typical business decision. It wasn’t even a “How do we make money?” decision, he explained. “When I first sat down with Anil, I said to him, ‘How do we help people feel the way I did when I tried that?’ I told him that as long as we accomplished that that everything else will fall into place. Once people wrap their heads around how powerful this is, they can’t help but use this product.”
When Charlton approached Marvel with the concept of an endorsement agreement, “They immediately got excited about the whole thing. And they said they’ve never ever been in this kind of an arena before, but they say our product goes perfectly with their whole theme,” said Makkar. “So, this is actually the first mouthpiece that Marvel has endorsed in the history of their company,” added Makkar. The company is now is predicting a “200 percent increase” in mouthpiece sales because of the Marvel endorsements. Makkar added that, “Orders started coming in immediately after the Marvel Heroes Collection launched on the New Age website.” Something tells us they there is a lot more to come from New Age Performance as additional opportunities open for brand partnership like the one with Marvel Comics. “So, this is actually the first mouthpiece that Marvel has endorsed in the history of their company,”
But their story does not stop there. Actually, it is only beginning for New Age mouthpieces. Yes, they have been endorsed by numerous professional athletes fromawide array of sports, as well as receiving high praise from the CBC’s Dragons’ Den panel of venture capitalists, but recently they inked a deal with Marvel Comics. As Makkar says, “That puts you on a different level because there’s a lot of people that just love Marvel heroes and they will buy that just because they want to be associated with their favourite hero.” The partnership with Marvel has been in the works for a two-year endeavour by New Age CEO Rob Charlton based on a vision and concept of relating comic book action figures with the New Age Performance products.
•
90
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • OCTOBER 2019
91 OCTOBER 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online