Today we’d like to introduce you to David Leib.
David, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Sandviper® was founded in 2015 as an athletic footwear and apparel company with a soft launch in early 2017. Our company’s inaugural and current core product is unique high-performance athletic footwear utilizing a patent-pending design, which can be described as having a full cross-training functionality while providing an additional unique utility, sand/beach training. The sand/beach training element was the inspiration behind the founding of the company and our namesake, Sandviper®. Our initial strategy is to build our brand around the sand/beach training niche and gradually grow into a multi-disciplined athletic footwear & apparel company while capturing a global market share.
Back in 2017, we created our Instagram account to help us build our presence in our target market (13-24-year-old) who live mostly on social media, specifically Instagram. We partnered with professional athletes and well-known sneaker influencers on Instagram to have them wear and promote our products. IT WORKED! We were able to establish such a strong presence in two short years that we were able to get selected to participate in Macy’s ‘The Market’ program with our products in Macy’s stores in key markets across the USA.
Since establishing our presence on social media coupled with the launch of our website, the company has created a significant brand presence that resonates beyond the digital space. The creation of a growing retail distribution channel, professional athlete endorsements, and other key influencer relationships have quickly established Sandviper® as a known quantity.
In early 2019, we selected our first local high school to partner with & become their brand for all team sports starting with the football team. The school we chose was by design as the head coach of the football team is also the marketing director of a local media company (Becon TV) that covers all high school sports in South Florida. We will have access to the full resources of the company to create content for our social media channels and are also discussing the creation of original content produced by Becon directly for Sandviper!
In mid-2019, we officially brought in 2 of our best and most well-connected Instagram influencers to help us establish a team of Instagram influencers to help us take the brand to the next level. Through their expertise and influence, we now have 20+ highly recognized Instagram influencers on our team that promote our products on their pages. THE DIFFERENCE between now and when we first started is that these influencers approached us and were CHOSEN to join our team! We no longer need to seek them out and pay for their services as we did when we first started. They see the vision and want to be part of it. In just a few short months, our sister page @teamsandviper follower count has grown 300% and our name is buzzing on Instagram!
The Company has become widely accepted and endorsed by a host of professional athletes from the NFL, IFBB and UFC to name a few. Given the overwhelmingly positive responses we continue to receive from market leaders and influencers regarding our brand’s current and future product offerings, we strongly believe that the athletic footwear and apparel market is primed for a new major entrant and have begun the process of securing the necessary capital to execute on the complete Sandviper® vision.
The Company will initially have two major revenue streams, athletic footwear and athletic apparel. As these are our initial core competencies, we will establish our brand behind this initial product mix and will expand to areas such as lifestyle wear and athletic equipment as we continue to grow and add infrastructure.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not smooth! As the sole founder, I have funded 100% of the overhead since day 1. We are actively looking for an investor(s) but have not secured any to date. There were many challenges early because I had no experience in the footwear/apparel industry. The entire process was new so there was a LOT of ‘learning on the go’ as we got things established. EVERY production element was a challenge…. sourcing a manufacturer, creating prototypes, etc. Once that was set up, the next significant challenge was bringing our brand/product to market. In the age of social media, it was easy to get to an audience but the real challenge was to get them to take notice! That required significant creativity and imagination. We’ve since established our brand presence and the major challenge now is having the resources (i.e capital) to continue our momentum in the market with new product deliveries.
Sandviper – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Sandviper® was founded in 2015 as an athletic footwear and apparel company. Since that time, we have successfully established a market presence via an active social media campaign coupled with strategic partnerships with key industry leaders to include national retailer MACYS. Our initial product is a sand-specific sneaker with a strategy to leverage the sand-training niche while growing into a full footwear and apparel company offering a full mix of products.
As the sole founder, I run EVERYTHING at the moment; however, as noted earlier, I’ve retained 2 Instagram sneaker influencers so the team is now three!
I’m MOST proud of how we have built our way up the hardest way you can…. with only our own 2 hands and our resourcefulness… no outside help, favors, monies…. also the fact that our image has been consistent and our reputation in the Instagram community is excellent as a solid stand-up company.
What distinguishes us the most is the fact that we have a sand-training niche… NO OTHER brand has this. We will always have that as our core identity as we grow into becoming as we call ourselves ‘THE NEXT MAJOR’ as in the next major brand in the market!
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Without question… seeing our logo on the football uniform of our inaugural local high school partner, HOLLYWOOD HILLS HIGH SCHOOL.
Pricing:
- SANDVIPER PERFORMANCE V-NECK $29.95
- SANDVIPER URSINII RUNNING SHOE $95.00
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sandviper.com
- Phone: 9546650433
- Email: david.leib@sandviper.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandviper/
- Other: http://bit.ly/SV_SHOP
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