“We will unfortunately probably never be as profitable as long as we manufacture in the USA, but we knew this, and were concerned more about producing a safe healthy product vs. profits.”

FLEXR Sports provides environmentally friendly, sports hydration products and accessories. Additionally, FLEXR Sports donates five percent of all sales to charities in the fields of health and environmentalism. Jim McFarland created FLEXR Sports Products after competing for a combined 35 years in a variety of sports including running, hiking, swimming and cycling.

BusinessInterviews.com: What problem is FLEXR solving?

Jim: Flexr is solving a few voids in the sports bottle markets. 1) we are the only “never have to wash” bottle due to our patented liner concept. 2) we are very eco friendly because you don’t have to wash the bottles, and our bottles never get stale or old and necessitate throwing them away .3) We are a USA manufacture, which is extremely rare, and guarantees a safer ,healthier product.

BusinessInterviews.com: Can you talk about the development process from first having your idea to getting to market and any challenges you faced along the way?

Jim: As with any product, there were many challenges to this product. I made many prototype bottles and experimented with shapes and sizes to determine which would meet our intended markets. We had some major challenges in getting the right suppliers at a competitive price. This is especially difficult when most of our competitors are made overseas at a fraction on the cost. We will unfortunately probably never be as profitable as long as we manufacture in the USA, but we knew this, and were concerned more about producing a safe healthy product vs. profits. This is especially important when someone is putting things in their bodies while hydrating or drinking!Once we had our bottles and accessories ready to sell, the real challenges came when trying to sell them. We found you really can’t simply walk into a store and expect them to put it on the shelf.They ( the retailer) typically already have well established brands already selling and supplied by a rep or distributor.

BusinessInterviews.com: What’s one marketing strategy that’s worked well for you so far?

Jim: Partnering up with a distributor that was well established and had a good team of reps to go out and sell. Donating 5% percent of our profits to some really great charities.

BusinessInterviews.com: Can you elaborate on the significance of entering into the Collegiate products market?

Jim: The Collegiate market has been our strongest one to date. We feel there is a lot of future potential, and it will lead to FLEXR landing in some bigger retail outlets

BusinessInterviews.com: What milestone are you most looking forward to reaching?

Jim: I would say that as a company, we will all be pretty excited when we hit the 1 millionth bottle sale ! It sounds like a big goal, but we feel that it is very obtainable, and the 2nd and 3rd millionth will probably come much quicker after that.