We recently connected with Michael Brunett and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My new major product idea was just a few months ago when I was at the gym and noticed the floor littered with water bottles, phones and keys. It hit me that I needed to create a solution to put all of these onto one device. For people who want to shoot video, carry their phone to listen to music, or whatever, this puts it all together, plus the floors are gross so it keeps your things off of it. Having a background and degree in media production, I decided this would be awesome as monopod quick setup for video for all kinds of situations. so I started sourcing companies in Asia and decided on leading off with a 32oz. insulated steel bottle to do the job. It’s called the Chillapod since it keeps your drinks cold up to 24 hours and its like a tripod for your phone.
Usually for me I get an idea for a product, I write out what benefits I want it to have, then I begin building a prototype, either myself or I find a manufacturer in that particular field. The process usually takes about 3-4 months which is pretty fast. I’ve been in contact with college players to begin repping and using Fieldwar gear around the U.S. From the Big Ten to right here in Florida, we are working to improve performance and comfort for the players.
Fieldwar has a bunch of new products coming out this year and so its been very busy since I am the product creator, graphic designer, sales and marketer, like a usual start up.
Challenges are adapting to issues like phone weights and phone mount tensions, meaning being able to use with any phone, even the largest ones. You have to be able to switch from a graphic designer to an engineer to avoid major issues sometimes, which most of the time are simple little fixes but you need the vision to recognize the solutions and implement them.
Launching a product required making a video, packaging, online listings for multiple selling platforms, social media promotion of course, so its A TON of work! You hope that your efforts are rewarded by lots of sales and happy customers that keep returning and referring.
All in all, making a product is a daunting task but its satisfying to see your ideas come to fruition. My goal is to make Fieldwar a major player in the sports arena and to give people what could be the deciding factor in a game.

Michael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My first major business endeavor was a creating a beard shaping tool back in 2015 when it was released. This was my first major undertaking that later created an entirely new industry in facial hair maintenance. I have a media production degree so I like to create all kinds of things an solve problems. My interest in sports has been since I was a kid in Michigan, from baseball to basketball, football, and golf. I’ve made things for the construction industry, to the baby industry, it’s a fun challenge for me. I think what sets me apart from the others is my desire to create the best products and not skimp on details and quality so they get the best. I don’t have boards to determine my budgets on projects so I have more flexibility to do what I want.
What I want people to know is that Fieldwar is made to hold up and make people perform better, that’s why our slogan is Prepare for War, because when you’re out on that field, it is an all out war.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I previously had a business making tablets for toilets that were great, but the problem is I chose to manufacture them, this was a big mistake. My advice is to find a manufacturer that specializes in making what you want to make. They have the equipment, the man power, the experience and are way more efficient than what you can probably do. When you manufacture a product, you have to worry about sourcing parts, finding help and then paying them even when things aren’t coming out like you want them to or how fast you want. There is so much to worry about versus just hiring a company to do it for you. Now I have manufacturing done around the world which are easy to deal with. It was a real challenge to find companies in the US to make what I needed so I had to look else where.
I have made some great friends along the way and you find that when you need something they are more than helpful in trying to help you get what you need.
Technology is a BIG part of Fieldwar’s product creation, there’s so many cool things you can do now, its a very exciting time in manufacturing.

Have you ever had to pivot?

With my beard business, the moment the beard shaping tool became popular, everyone on the planet made a knock off which torpedoed my business. At the time I was inexperienced to handle this so I began working on other projects. Hein site, I should have gotten a lot of influencers on board and built up the brand, but you can only learn from your past mistakes. So after a few years, I’m finally doing something that I love to do, that’s working with sports and fitness.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fieldwar.com
• Instagram: @fieldwargear
• Facebook: Fieldwar
• Linkedin: Fieldwar
• Youtube: @fieldwarsports