Former professional golfer Brad Smith, now head men's golf coach at Webster University in St. Louis, had an aha moment in 2017 while watching current pro Jason Day's approach to his short game.
Smith liked Day's straight-arm technique for chipping and pitching and wanted to replicate it with a training aid. That idea led to a startup, Flyt Golf, and a patent-pending sleeve that's now used by more than 50 PGA Tour players and instructors, including champions such as Justin Rose.
“The Flyt Sleeve has turned our team into some of the best wedge players in the country," Jerry Haas, Wake Forest University's men's golf coach, said in a statement. "I have always known the importance from inside 100 yards. The Flyt Sleeve teaches correct body motion, helping with consistent distance control and softer chips."
Smith mulled the idea over coffee with Jeff Coppaken, a partner and transactional business attorney at Coppaken Law Firm LLC in Overland Park, Kansas, where Flyt Golf is based. Their wives are first cousins.
"He was just so sure on it, and I could tell it was going to be something," said Coppaken, who regularly hears startup pitches.
Through the years, Smith devised training aid ideas, but after further research, he would discover a product already existed that achieved the same goal. This time was different. Few short-game training aids exist in the market, and none restricted movement in both the elbow and wrist, two main factors that affect a golfer's form and technique.
"I just couldn't get it out of my head. This was something that I couldn't let go, and that had never happened," Smith said. "I didn't really know how to go about it, until Jeff's like, 'Why don't we do it?'"
Coppaken used his connections to patent attorneys and prototyping companies to make the idea a reality. They honed the product over two years and launched it in November 2019. The initial run sold out in about five weeks. Flyt's lineup is available on its website and through U.S. and overseas distributors. It's in talks with an online U.S. retailer for an exclusive deal and aims to land in big-box stores in the future.
Meanwhile, Smith was hired as Webster U's head men's golf coach last fall, prior to the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
How Flyt Sleeve works
Flyt's compression sleeve includes a sewn-in polypropylene insert and provides enough resistance to reduce overactivity in the hands and arms. It results in a wider swing path to create more stability and consistency in chipping and pitching when golfers get close to the green. Many PGA instructors at golf clubs don't teach the short game because they struggle with it themselves, Smith said. Golfers like to show off their long game, which also is valued at tournaments. There's a world long-drive championship but not one for chipping.
"It's not the sexiest aspect of the game, but it's one when players master it, they see the most improvement in their game," Coppaken said.
The Flyt Sleeve helps instructors demonstrate proper technique and removes guesswork, especially for beginners. For more advanced golfers, the sleeve helps them improve their form and break bad habits.
Building wins
"We see these wins, and they come from unexpected places," Coppaken said. "Seeing a PGA player and former major winner order our product when we haven't solicited them, we haven't reached out to them, and their name appears on the sales order, that's really cool and really rewarding."
For Smith, a big moment happened when Day — formerly the world's top-ranked golfer — saw a fellow golfer wearing the Flyt Sleeve at a tournament in Ohio. Day asked PGA Tour player Cameron Percy if he could try it on.
"(Day) said: 'This is fantastic. This is exactly what I do,'" Smith said, recalling what Percy and a PGA tour rep relayed to him. "My sole purpose was to re-create what he does. His approval to that other PGA player was all I needed to hear."
To expand Flyt's training aid lineup beyond the short game, the startup acquired Georgia-based Swing Extender in November, which developed a full swing golf training aid and a plane strap to help golfers struggling with a "flying elbow" or "chicken wing" in the trail arm at the top of the backswing. Flyt has additional products in the research-and-development phase.
The startup now is looking for investors and equity partners to expedite its R&D and roll out more products.
"The rocket is on the launchpad. We're ready for the fuel," Coppaken said. "We're ready to scale. We're ready to make Flyt a household name."
The St. Louis Business Journal contributed information to this report.
