Grip Spritz: How a Cleveland Startup Is Changing the Game
From Driveways to National Arenas
What started as a casual conversation between neighbors in a suburban driveway has transformed into a successful business built on innovation, sustainability, and an unshakable entrepreneurial spirit.
Matt Olen, a former basketball player from Northeast Ohio, first learned his neighbor Tom Rose had invented a spray to improve the grip on a golf club while shooting hoops in his driveway during high school – a conversation that became more important to the trajectory of Matt’s life as time went on. He learned the golf spray could be used on basketball shoes to improve the grip on the gym floor, an upgrade from the remedies he and his teammates were using.
Keeping the grip on shoes – and the gym floor clean – can vastly improve both the play and safety of the game. Matt recalled using hand sanitizer between plays to improve the grip of his shoes, but most home remedies eroded the rubber on the shoes, which are already a hefty expense. Tom’s product was safe for both rubber and for people.
Matt has been filled with entrepreneurial spirit his whole life, from running lemonade stands to shoveling snow in Cleveland winters, and running an underground chocolate covered strawberry business in college. He graduated from John Carroll University with the intention of heading to Wall Street to grind out his fortune. A family event kept him in Northeast Ohio, where he was reacquainted with his neighbor Tom and the idea of bringing Tom’s sticky spray to a larger sports market.
Matt leaned into his Cleveland connections from youth basketball, receiving valuable feedback from coaches and one very life-altering invitation to The Run 4 Roses Classic in Kentucky. The tournament is known as the world's largest girls grassroots basketball tournament, with 2,700 teams from all 50 states and nine countries hitting the courts.
The feedback about the spray (now branded as Grip Spritz) was instant and powerful. Encouraged by the response, they spent the next year traveling across the U.S, attending tournaments and setting up booths. Moms loved the simplicity of the product, players loved the grip, and coaches began to take notice.
Innovation That Sticks — Literally
Not content with stopping at just shoes, the team tackled new challenges to safety and performance, including the court itself. Specialized mops for sport surfaces existed, but were heavy, messy, chemical consuming, and took an excruciating amount of time to clean the court of such a fast-paced game as basketball. They designed a mop system specifically to bring down the weight by more than 20 lbs. The new mop also reduced the mess and time required by the prior bucket system by strategically placing cords and edges for longer use. This negated the need for the bucket altogether, resulting in less chemical output. The design was hailed as more sustainable and reduced shipping costs, making it a quick success.
Their line of traction mats also reflects their commitment to sustainability as the design eliminates the large amounts of plastic waste produced by their competitor’s products. Their new designs have reduced an estimated 60,000 pounds of plastic waste annually, while their products extend the life of pricey basketball shoes. Creating more earth-conscious products has contributed to the company’s overall success. The reduced weight and size of their mop made the product more competitive by cutting shipping costs significantly, and coaches report loving the lack of plastic they have to clean up with their traction mat.
Grip Spritz’s reach has expanded to all 50 states and 67 countries, and the company has customized traction mats for major programs like South Florida and UCLA during the NCAA basketball tournament. Matt and Tom remain deeply tied to the Cleveland area. They credit the region’s ease of sourcing, local manufacturing, and the close community of high school coaches as key growth factors. They have worked with area nonprofit MAGNET, which promotes the region’s innovative manufacturing potential, and Grip Spritz’s products are almost exclusively sourced and built in Northeast Ohio.
Grip Spritz’s story is still unfolding and Renner Otto is honored to be a small part of its team. As competitors spring up, they are expanding their reach and learning how their innovation can aid the safety and performance of other sports like volleyball. Matt is still in his 20s, but he and Tom have built something that blends innovation with passion and purpose. With roots in Northeast Ohio and a growing national footprint, this former player-turned-entrepreneur is out to prove that smart design and sustainability can coexist and thrive in the world of sports.
Matt demonstrates Grip Spritz’s specialized gym floor mop.