Aberdeen man Adam Joji has seen his sportswear brand grow across the UK and beyond.
The 24-year-old’s launched GRPZ Sports, which specialises in grip socks, in a bid to offer a better product for athletes.
That idea has since grown into a fast-rising company with partnerships including St Mirren, Livingston, Raith Rovers, Salford City, Wycombe Wanderers, and Cardiff City.
The former Westhill Academy pupil is now targeting sports retailer Decathlon for his products with talks currently under way.
He’s also in negotiations with an English Premier League club to secure a partnership by the end of the year.
GRPZ Sport sales from US
Adam’s love of football began young — progressing through the Cove Rangers youth system and later playing junior football with Bridge of Don Thistle.
Last year GRPZ Sports had a 964% increase in sales with 36% coming from the US.
Adam, a personal trainer at David Lloyd Aberdeen, said: “In the first year, all the orders were from Aberdeen.
“But now we’re seeing them coming from everywhere including the US which made up 36% of our traffic and sales last year.
“The feedback from people has been great. What we need to do is get the product to more people.
“When people wear it, it’s evident they love it and will keep it.”
Targeting football clubs
Grip socks are used to enhance foot grip inside boots to reduce slippage.
Adam, who invested a five-figure sum GRPZ Sports to get it started, spent around two years designing and perfecting the grip socks which are manufactured in Asia.
Just last month he secured a partnership with Salford City, co-owned by former Manchester United players David Beckham, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and Phil Neville, along with Singaporean businessman Peter Lim.
Adam said: “The response the products have had from clubs and players has been exceptional.
“They said they’d been contacted by numerous brands and nothing comes close in terms of quality, durability and effectiveness.
“They’ve all been more than happy to partner with us.
“We’ll be expanding more to any more clubs. Obviously, we’re targeting as high a level as we can.”
New product launch
GRPZ Sports secured a five-figure sum of funding from Apollo Informal Investments in February and Adam is now focused on raising brand awareness and bringing out a new product.
The grip reformer sock will be targeted at those who enjoy pilates and going to the gym.
Adam is also aiming at securing a high-profile partnership with a EPL club.
He said: “We should be in Decathlon’s marketplace in the next year and partnered with a English Premier League club.
“Both of those are in the works.
“Like any business, we just want to see the revenue increase and the business become almost self-running and self-sustainable.”
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