With the shoelace virtually vanquished, Denver-based Boa Technology is targeting Velcro and all other latching, tightening and cinching systems.
“In a lot of cases, we think we can do more than Velcro,” said Chuck Mason, Boa vice president of sales and marketing.
Doing more and doing it better was what prodded Boa founder Gary Hammerslag, a Steamboat Springs entrepreneur, to incorporate the vein-threading, plaque-blasting medical wires he invented in the early 1990s into snowboard boots.
Fourteen years later, Boa’s game-changing dialed closure system — which employs a reel and steel cable to evenly tighten golf, running, cycling and snow-sport footwear — is in more than one-third of the world’s snowboard boots and growing by 30 percent a year as it succeeds the pull-and-knot shoelace in more than a dozen sports shoes. More than 70 riders in this year’s Tour de France are pedaling in Specialized shoes laced with Boa’s hair-thin cables.
Thanks to a majority investment last month by a San Francisco firm, Boa is expanding and launching deeper into the medical-bracing and safety-utility industries, offering its dial-to-tighten lacing system in helmets, safety pads, work boots and orthopedic braces.
Boa’s path over the past decade includes large steps. When it moved from snowboarding into cycling in the early 2000s, it nearly doubled its reach. Then, golf shoes doubled the cycling market. Then, outdoor shoes. And now, medical and utility.
“They’re what, 50 times, 100 times bigger than all those markets?” said Boa chief financial officer Merle McCreery. “We proved we could gain market share in snow, and in these new market categories we are going into, we don’t need to gain nearly as much market share to really grow the revenue.”
The new majority stake by Glenbrook Consumer Partners — an investment firm focused on innovative consumer brands with $10 million to $40 million equity investments in such brands as Jamba Juice and Under Armour — will further elevate Boa’s closure system, now found in 100 brands divided into 15 primary categories.
Glenbrook managing partner Peter Breck in a statement said Boa “exemplifies all the elements we seek in a partner,” with “a highly differentiated product offering, attractive and scalable business model, a large market opportunity and, most importantly, an extremely talented, passionate and high-integrity team.”
Boa will soon move from its cramped but cool warehouse offices along Denver’s South Platte River to 23,000 square feet in the Taxi development downriver. The company’s medical sales team has grown from one to three employees. There are plans to add more workers to its 60-employee roster. In the past year, the company has added 10 “interesting and unique” partners, Mason said, that push the company into industries beyond sports.
The new investment — in addition to paying off initial investors who backed Hammerslag’s early vision — will keep Boa surging into markets where competition is minimal.
“Glenbrook has been through the growth process with a number of companies,” McCreery said. “It’s not like we needed cash to launch new things. This really brings more smart people to the table.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jasontblevins
