Raleigh startup UTTy began with a stench – one so bad that Mark Uttridge, founder and CEO, said it was like “living in a dumpster.”
“It’s absolutely disgusting,” he said.
The stench was emanating from hockey equipment. Uttridge’s sons both played competitive hockey, a sport that requires equipment Uttridge compares to a “mobile petri dish.”
If the equipment doesn’t dry properly between uses, the smell gets worse. At home, the Uttridges spread out the equipment on a pair of drying racks in the garage. Sure, they couldn’t fit a second car into the garage, but the small was contained.
“It worked okay,” Uttridge said.
Then came travel hockey.
“You have a hotel room and you have all this nasty hockey gear … there was actually no solution at all,” he said.
So, inspired by an ultimatum from his wife, Uttridge took several trips to Home Depot (NYSE: HD), determined to make a solution.
Uttridge, whose day job is as national program manager of NetApp Capital Solutions at Bank of the West, had zero experience, he said. He could sew “and that was about it.” It became a bonding experience, as he and his sons combed the aisles for something, anything that could lead to a solution.
They started with straps intended for the tops of cars. They looked at hooks and rivets. And they learned the meaning of trial and error, Uttridge said.
Uttridge wanted something flexible, adjustable and small enough to fit in a hockey bag. And when he thought his rudimentary prototype worked, he took it to a 3D printer to refine the design. The eventual result was what’s now called the UTTy, billed as a “universal gear storage solution” with patented hooks.
“It doesn’t take any set up,” he said. “It fits in the palm of your hand, you hang it in the closet. All the equipment hangs on it.”
And it’s not just used for hockey. Uttridge said customers are finding they can solve the stench and space problem for skiers, football players, campers and fishing enthusiasts.
“It works for everything,” Uttridge said, noting it could have applications in disaster relief, too, where terrain is uncertain and infrastructure is limited.
The product, which gets its name from his kids’ “hockey nicknames,” really took off when Uttridge developed custom solutions for local hockey organizations, including the Junior Hurricanes. The success gave it early traction. Initially, Uttridge funneled his own savings into the firm. He took out a credit line with First Citizens (Nasdaq: FCNCA) last year to grow the business.
And grow the business he has. He said the firm will end the year at $250,000 in sales, with 55 percent profit margins. And, if the growth continues – it’s seen 300 percent year-on-year growth – it could be at $1 million in 2022, he said.
It’s also being piloted by the Arizona State University Business School (where his oldest son is a freshman), and could end up in residence dorms.
The firm went international earlier this year through distribution agreements in Canada, the U.K. and Japan.