Another weekend, another state!

After a quick few days following our trip to the New York State Athletic Directors Conference, we headed back east to Hersey, Pennsylvania to do it all again!

The spring isn't our first preference to run into athletic directors to promote a basketball traction mat, but it actually has a huge benefit! Following the winter basketball season, almost every school is reviewing their spending and budget over the previous few months. 

Athletic directors are in charge of the school's budget and are constantly looking to save their schools money. With it fresh on their minds how much they just spent on sticky pads, they are incredibly pleased to see us!

Every athletic directors is very familiar with the sticky pads that have come before us! Coaches know how quickly the traction from these sticky pads fades on the basketball shoes but not every coach is aware what the sticky sheets cost for just one season.

Through enough complaints, these athletic directors know they don't work and know they're paying an arm and a leg for them! The Grip Spritz booth is always a crowd favorite, especially when you we're just reminded what you currently pay.

No matter if it's a basketball coaches clinic or a larger scale athletic director conference, we usually get asked similar things:

1. How does Grip Spritz work?
2. How's it different than the basketball shoe sticky pads?
3. Do I have to wash it?
4. How much does it cost?
5. Why couldn't I have met you before this season?

The last one always gets a laugh but they're 100% serious!

It's a blessing in disguise to have competition in the basketball traction pad market. Sure, we have to get schools and coaches to try something new and change the status quo but it has advantages too! SlippNott sticky pads have been around for so long and have been a staple of the sport in so many gym's across the country. It gives us the ability to know what basketball coaches don't like about them and show how Grip Spritz is different!

1. How does Grip Spritz work: Grip Spritz is easier to use than any other courtside basketball traction mat. Set it next to the bench or at the scorer's table. Before the game, get your shoes ready to go, reapply as needed. The biggest difference is you're not dealing with sticky sheets while trying to coach.
2. How's it different than other basketball shoe sticky mats: When you're setting it up, there's no stick sheets to peel, attach to the board and clear air bubbles out of. Set your Grip Spritz Traction Mat down, pour a half ounce of our Grip Spritz solution onto the scrub side, and that's it! Once the game gets going, don't worry about our traction pad. When you use those old sticky pads, adhesives remove whatever debris is on the bottom of your basketball shoes. Over time, a residue builds up. (They recommend periodically scrubbing things down with alcohol. Alcohol is extremely harmful to shoes). That residue becomes a magnet for whatever is still on every uncleaned basketball court. Every few possessions, players want a fresh sheet. Coaches are trying to focus on coaching, not peeling sheets and looking for somewhere to throw them away. It's not uncommon for a coach or player to tear off multiple sheets at a time on accident. Grip Spritz uses no adhesives. We help make the shoes grippy, not sticky! By rehydrating the rubber soles of the basketball shoes they don't pick up whatever dust or dirt is on the court! It's just good grip, all game long.
3. Do I have to wash it: No! When we go to these events, we bring one of our traction mats so every can try it. The oldest one, specifically. Coaches try it out, step on the court, and fall in love. They have no idea they're using a year old traction mat that thousands of players and coaches have used. It feels no different and looks no different, but there is definitely a reason we don't make them white!
4. How much does it cost: This is usually what leads to question number 5, sometimes even a hug! Schools have normalized spending $300 - $400 on a new basketball traction board and replacement sticky sheets for the season. Our goal was to allow schools to get both their boy's and girl's teams each a Grip Spritz Traction Mat for less than just one, single sticky pad. Schools can do that for just $250! Each program gets a traction pad and three bottles of Grip Spritz (about 96 games worth) for their freshmen, JV, and Varsity teams.
5. Why couldn't I have met you before this last season: We wish we could have been at all these events last year to show off our basketball traction pad but we're both thankful we're in front of them now!

When we first started in the AAU world with our 'traction in a bottle' for players, we had so many coaches and AD's ask about how we could make this work for a team. That's when we got to thinking!

They created their own answer. We just listened to what they complained about regarding other basketball sticky pads and made sure we could fix all of those in whatever we came up with!

The answer became our courtside basketball traction mat that they all love now! They're able to thank themselves as much as they thank us!

This is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of our travel this year! The next few weekends take us all over the US and internationally. April is jam packed with AD events, basketball coaches clinics, and volleyball events! We hope we can get in front of more and more coaches, AD's and players every weekend.