Stomp Athletics’ appearance on ABC’s “Shark Tank” was nothing short of wonderful.
In an episode aired this week, the Denver-based maker of shoe traction pads, which help give grip on a basketball court, secured a $50,000 investment from celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary in exchange for 15% of the business.
Founder David Gonzales and sales and operations head Michael Manoogian went into the tank asking for that same amount of cash for a 5% stake.
“I would consider him the most significant shark on the show now,” Gonzales said of the man dubbed Mr. Wonderful.
“The doors he can open are a lot of doors that would take awhile for us to open,” Manoogian added.
The pair went into the tank hoping to snare O’Leary, mainly because of his online presence. Though the deal isn’t finalized, both said the terms will be the same they agreed to when they recorded the episode in June 2025.
“I think it’s so niche-y, so vertical, so unusual, so ‘Shark Tank’-ish,” O’Leary said on the episode after the other four sharks pulled out. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. This is a total flier, guys.”
Before Stomp launched in 2022, the predominant option for hoopers to get the most squeak out of their sneakers was “sticky sheets,” a plastic, one-use sheet that continuously peels. Other players use wet towels or even lick their hands and wipe the bottom of their shoes to get more grip.
Though the sticky sheet is still dominant in the shoe traction market, Gonzales compared it to cleaning eyeglasses with tape rather than a microfiber cloth.
“The placebo effect of the sticky sheet is yes, you’re tacky and you take two steps and it feels great,” he said. “But what you’re not realizing is that you’re now grabbing any dust on the court and affixing it to your shoe.”
With Stomp, players can wipe the dust off their Jordans without carrying the plastic residue long term. Premier college programs like Kansas and Michigan State are customers, while several high school and travel teams across the country have bought in as well. Stomp was also featured as the traction mat of the 2024 NBA All-Star Game.
“Companies like Nike and Reebok and Under Armour, they spend a lot of money designing these composite rubbers that have grip,” Manoogian said. “Our job is to keep them clean.”
The business sells three color-customizable products: a $99 large mat, a $55 mini mat and a $29 “shoe armor” that players can connect to their laces to wipe their shoes while they’re on the court.
Gonzales said Stomp has roughly doubled its revenue every year, reaching $200,000 in sales for 2025. This year, he projects $400,000 in sales. On Wednesday night, when the episode aired, Manoogian said Stomp did $10,000 in sales, its biggest day by far.
The vast majority, 70%, of Stomp’s business comes from the mini mat, which most players bring to the gym in their backpack. About 20% is from the large mat, which is predominantly bought as one-offs by teams. The remaining 10% comes from the shoe armor, which Gonzales and Manoogian said has been slow to be adopted.
Stomp is available through e-commerce channels like Amazon and BSN Sports, which says it’s the largest team sports apparel and equipment distributor in the country. Stomp also sells direct to consumer and in a few smaller brick–and-mortar shops, but Amazon and BSN are Nos. 1 and 2.
The business has already raised $500,000 from Gonzales and two other investors: former Western Union CEO Hikmet Ersik and former Nuggets player and coach turned Altitude Sports analyst Bill Hanzlik, who Gonzales joked is “the mayor of Denver.”
Between Ersik, who is Turkish and has myriad international connections, Hanzlik and O’Leary, Gonzales and Manoogian are bullish on the opportunity to grow into professional leagues both at home and abroad. That, they said, can serve as a billboard to younger ballers.
They also mentioned volleyball as a sport where the shoe armor could be particularly impactful. Most players they know, they added, wipe off shoes between rallies on their high socks.
“We think of the NBA and college as branding markets and the youth market being where all of our customers are,” Gonzales said. “If I was to pick an order of marketing, I would say mini mat, shoe armor and then large mat.”
Gonzales is a former oil and gas engineer who founded and successfully exited several companies before starting Stomp. A wrestler growing up, he started playing basketball and in rec leagues post-college in the mid-2000s and found his niche as an “ultracompetitive” defender – a role where traction is a necessity.
“I absolutely hated it if somebody put a move on me,” he said. “And I was sliding, I was wiping my feet constantly, and I could see the grit on my hands.”
At that time, Gonzales sketched out a concept for what eventually became shoe armor, but let it sit until he exited one of his companies more than a decade later. He had ample time and money and decided to pour it into what eventually became Stomp.
“I think it was great for branding,” he said of going on “Shark Tank.” “The most powerful thing for us is to have the demo that you get to do on national TV.”
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