Engineering PhDs from the University of Maryland’s Chemical Engineering Department teamed up with former Terps' and Ravens' Tight End Matt Furstenburg, and Entrepreneur Businessman Harry Geller in Summer 2012 to tackle one of the biggest problems with football gloves—the rapid decline in tackiness/grip of the gloves (especially after a trip through the washing machine!).
“Most football gloves lose their tackiness/grip quickly due to intense frictional contact...”
...(e.g. glove-jerseys, glove-ground) experienced throughout practices and games during the football season; usually the grip on a pair of brand-new gloves wears down after just a few days of practice.
Two years of iterative product development between football players and chemical engineers led to the creation of Grip Boost Football Gel—the first product ever to restore grip to football gloves without leaving any residue on the ball. Grip Boost is a patent-pending invention and currently licensed by Grip Boost Inc. from the University of Maryland’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC).
The development of the Grip Boost Football Gel has been supported by seed grants from the Maryland Innovation Initiative, The University of Maryland OTC, The VOLT Fund, TEDCO's Technology Commercialization Fund and private investment. Additionally, in Spring 2014 the Grip Boost technology was chosen from over 150 inventions as a Finalist for UMD's Invention of the Year. The successful partnership between science and athletics has led to the development of new products in other sports such as baseball and golf.