What happens when an engineer, a D-I athlete, and a born inventor are all the same person? In this episode, President of Stroops, Shon Harker, takes us from the first lifting strap he built in 1993 to a global line of Slastix resistance bands and functional training tools used by athletes, rehab pros, and everyday movers around the world.
We dive into how a simple idea—making resistance bands safer—turned into a patented “airbag and seatbelt” for elastic training, and how that single innovation sparked an entire ecosystem of space‑saving, multi‑modality fitness and rehab equipment. Shon breaks down the real journey: prototyping in the early days, scaling manufacturing, working with pro athletes and clinicians, and what it really takes to keep innovating in a crowded fitness market.
If you’ve ever looked at a piece of equipment and thought “I could build something better,” this conversation will show you how an idea becomes a product, and a product becomes a company that changes how the world trains. Tune in to hear the story behind Stroops, the mindset of an inventor‑president, and the lessons any founder, coach, or creator can steal for their own journey.
