Kobe Endorsement Creates Hyperice

A story about how a high school basketball coach created Hyperice, a recovery equipment company, after getting feedback and support from Kobe Bryant.

"There was a guy who was a teacher and high school basketball coach who started thinking about recovery because when you get into your thirties, after you work out or play basketball, you can barely walk the next day. He wondered what pro athletes do - they ice their knees and ankles with giant bags of ice and ace bandages wrapped around them.

He thought this looked terrible - like you're wounded rather than just recovering. He wanted to make recovery look cool and be more efficient, so he started designing an ice wrap that was less inconvenient and looked better.

His friend, who was a coach at a college where Kobe trained in Irvine during summers, showed it to Kobe. Kobe gave two pieces of feedback: First, the pressure was escaping from the top so it wasn't compressing tight enough. Second, he said the name sucked (though the creator had named it Hyperice after Kobe's favorite shoe, the Hyper Dunks).

Kobe made him a deal - if he could make it better than what Kobe was currently using, Kobe would wear it on the bench. Kobe started using it, people saw it, more Lakers players started asking for it, then other teams' players started asking for it.

He built a brand around this concept, essentially creating 'Nike for recovery.' While Nike focused on performance gear during the game, he noticed athletes were still using ace bandages and plastic bags of ice after the game. This insight led to building Hyperice into a major recovery equipment company."