“Life is hectic. Finding time to work out shouldn’t be. Imagine burning fat, increasing calorie burn, building muscle, all by living your daily life. Now you can, and it’s as simple as putting on a pair of pants. The AGOGIE wearable resistance pants enable you to work out with every movement throughout the day.” – AGOGIE
Aaron Mottern is founder of AGOGIE, a Direct to Consumer e-commerce brand he started in early 2017. SPN met Aaron at TREX in St. Louis where his company is based.
The company’s wearable resistance pants are designed to improve performance through calorie burn to marked athletic gains. The AGOGIE pants came out of Aaron’s previous startup, Hey Let’s Train, a mobile app he built to enable users to connect with athletes for “virtual coaching” by using the same workout as the athlete.
Though the mobile app first startup attempt failed, Mottern shared that the experience provided him with the foundation he needed to start AGOGIE.
He learned that athletes, whether amateur or pro, struggled to create resistance on their bodies outside of the gym. He set about developing a solution to build muscle and increase calorie burn whether during a workout or during lighter activity such as walking.
AGOGIE has conducted case studies at the University of Missouri Human Performance Center, in which they measured up to 78% in fat calorie burn and 15% increased mobility in Parkinson patients using activity tracking devices.
The company has also measured improved performance for athletes, establishing that they were able to improve sprint times, and most notably, set personal records. Mottern noted that an athlete who trained in AGOGIE pants for just 45 minutes was able to shave a seventh of a second from a time of 3.26 seconds in a 30-meter stand-up sprint.
AGOGIE followed 27 athletes using the pants and found an average gain of four inches on a broad jump, a three-inch gain on a vertical jump, and a tenth-of-a-second drop in a 40-yard dash. The athletes had used the pants 45 minutes over 12 – 16 weeks. A high school track athlete eliminated a second off her sprint and hurdle times, enabling her to make the cut for the team at her dream school.
AGOGIE boasts customers in every major professional league, and in a wide range of sports including track and field, football, baseball, and volleyball. Over 250 professional athletes and over 40 college programs are using AGOGIE wearables, according to Mottern.
Not only are athletes using the pants for enhanced performance – the company also sells direct to first responders and to the military. “We are proud to provide a product to help them improve their endurance while they put their lives on the line,” said Mottern.
Mottern shared that AGOGIE is scaling in four ways:
● The first is by investing significantly in online advertising in the direct to consumer marketplace.
● The second is through Public Relations––the product was recently featured by Dr. Ian Smith as one of the hottest fitness trends for 2109 on the Rachael Ray Show.
● The third way is through an alliance partner program through a combination of e-commerce and brick and mortar sales. AGOGIE has 47 such partners around the world in addition to the US and Canada, including Ireland, the UK and Australia, and has customers in over 35 countries.
● The fourth way is through their direct sales to business to business markets, professional sports, colleges and armed forces.
Alliance partners range from yoga and pilates instructors, as well as gyms and health clubs. Mottern estimates that 70% of business is direct to consumer online while the rest is direct to colleges, pro teams and other facilities. AGOGIE is also working with organizations to create high-intensity classes and fitness programing starting this year.
AGOGIE’s team of six share a competitive spirit.
“We push everyone to new heights,” said Mottern. “We also place a high value on diversity of thought. People involved in our company range from their late 20s to early 70s, and we are consistently asking how we can serve our customers better.”
Mottern added, “We’ve built our consumer product using the methodology of building software – tweaking and refining the product much like a software company – until the consumer loves what we offer. When we began, our sales team talked to every single person who bought our pants for feedback on the product until we could offer what they want.”
At 39, Mottern has spent 18-years as an entrepreneur, and he shared some sage advice for aspiring founders.
“Learn lessons from each success or failure you have in the startup realm. Self-fund as much as you can. The reason is that it makes you nimble and opens up different avenues in your mind that you wouldn’t normally go to with a roadblock. It’s essential to be thoughtful about how you spend money,” said Mottern.
He added, “The top three facets of a startup on which founders must focus are the customer, sales acquisition, and team building. Startups need to go through the process of understanding the consumer and their motivations. Just because you get funded doesn’t mean your company will be successful, and conversely, just because you don’t get funded doesn’t mean you won’t be a great startup.”
Visit https://agogie.com/ to learn more about this company.
