Gladiator Cornhole Gear
Our Journey To Cornhole Greatness
I’m Brandon, Founder of Gladiator Cornhole Gear. I would love to invite you for a behind the scene view of the roller coaster ride my family has been on for the past 3 years, on my way to cornhole greatness. Bear with me, this is gonna be a longer blog post but will give you a better understanding of this crazy adventure.
But before we get into that, let me give you a little background on me. I’m married to my awesome wife, Stefanie and we have a teenage son Dylan. I come from an engineering background but was always interested in the idea of e-commerce. While I may not be a pro, I have always enjoyed playing cornhole. In fact, the first time I ever played cornhole was at a co-worker's “Redneck” themed cookout. I’m sure there is a photo somewhere that I hope never surfaces 😂
I guess the best place to start is the beginning. I used to be very into fitness. In December 2017, while lifting weights at a local gym, I crossed paths with ACL Pro Eric Ryder. Eric explained to me he was a cornhole pro and introduced me to the community growing around the American Cornhole League. While we continued to bump into each other at the gym we discussed equipment and pain points of what was on the market.
Fast forward to November 2018, Eric and I decided to meet for breakfast to brainstorm brand new, innovative ideas that could improve performance for players. That was the day Gladiator Cornhole Gear AND the first ever Cornhole Glove was born.
I got to work getting prototypes made. Stefanie helped with filing patents, trademarks & getting the business set up as a legal entity. About 1 month later in December 2018, our vision came to life. We received our first Cornhole Glove prototype. Like most everything in life, we had to make revisions. And then made some more. But we finally got it right!
In May 2019 Eric was flying out to the ACL Nationals #3 Bag Brawl so we decided, what better way to get this in peoples hands? Eric gave out 300 gloves while he was there. We were excited to have the glove on players hands while we continued to work on the website, packaging and small details that still needed attention.
July 4, 2019 was a day to celebrate, not just for America’s independence but it was also the day we were waiting for. We launched the Gladiator Cornhole Gear website & officially began selling the Gladiator Cornhole Glove online. While we went to a friends BBQ, we nervously waited for the *DING* notification of a sale…and they started coming in! With a sigh of relief, we knew we were on our way and there was no looking back.
The same weekend, ACL Pro Ryan Smith made the first ever ESPN Broadcast using the Gladiator Glove!
The ACL World Championship of 2019 was held in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in August which happens to be not too far from where Stefanie & I grew up. Stefanie, Dylan and I made the drive from South Carolina with suitcases full of cornhole gloves. Eric was playing of course but secured a table to sell gloves and promote our contest “Battle For The Bounty” in which the first person to win a televised event wearing the Cornhole Glove would win $500. It was such a great experience. The cornhole community is unique, everyone is welcoming and really wants to have a good time. We met tons of great people, got to be a spectator at the main ESPN events, and got the glove on some more hands. ACL Pro Hunter Thorne was not yet a pro but he was competing in the Junior Championship Event on ESPN and WON the event and claimed the Battle For The Bounty. That was the icing on the cake for the weekend for us.
We packed up the car to make the journey home but before leaving Philadelphia, Dylan said we had to go see the Rocky statue and run the steps, this was non-negotiable.
Eric and I started talking about the next products to work on. The natural choice was cornhole bags. Since Eric had previously had the Cheetah line with another company he parted ways with, we decided we should merge the Cheetah/Gladiator brands into one company. We wanted a bag that could give a competitive edge to the player. After brainstorming, the patent-pending Emerald Cut Corners was created. Eric took the lead on choosing bag fabrics, fill, and design. In October 2019we launched our first year of ACL Approved Cornhole Bags. The lineup included The Dagger, Empire, Maximus, Cheetah Predator, King Cheetah.
As you can imagine, running a business while still working our other “jobs” is not easy. Since Stefanie was working part time with State Farm Insurance and then working full time on Gladiator, we took a leap of faith and Stefanie left State Farm Insurance in December 2019 to focus solely on Gladiator.
This may not seem like a pivotal moment, but losing the guaranteed income was a big step for our family.
It was grind time!
In February 2020 while scrolling Facebook, I saw a photo of ACL Pro Ryan Smith wearing the glove so naturally I stopped…and then I saw it. He was featured in an article in The Wall Street Journal about his professional cornhole career and photographed wearing our glove. It was such a surreal moment for me to see our product in a national publication.
Just a few months later in August 2020 Ryan was featured in another article with The Washington Post and you guessed it, he was wearing the glove in the photograph!
Side note, Ryan - you’re the man!
In April 2020 Eric received an offer he could not refuse for a full time career with the ACL.
He took the opportunity and at this point, parted ways with Gladiator. It was a bittersweet moment as we were happy he had this amazing opportunity, but of course we still had the business to run.
We all know 2020 was an insane year with the pandemic hitting. We worked our butts off non stop all while I was still working full time for another company. Dylan was a HUGE help during this time shipping packages and assisting Stef when she needed it. I continued trying to develop products with the input of ACL players and ACL Pros, and that is when the patent-pending Battle Bag Cornhole Backpack was created. After getting prototypes and a few revisions, we launched the Battle Bag on our website in September 2020.
Since the end of the 2020 ACL season had come upon us, we wanted customer feedback on our cornhole bags. We collected opinions, went through the feedback and determined we needed to make some changes. In October 2020 we did a complete rebrand & redesign of our ACL Pro and ACL Comp bags for our second season as an ACL Approved bag manufacturer. Our 2020-2021 bag line up included The Dagger, King Cheetah, Empire, Maximus, Cheetah Predator and 2 new series: Trident & Battle Cheetah (Comp). We adjusted the fill in our bags to the Power Grip Pellets and with these changes, we began getting great feedback from our Gladiator community.
This was our first year officially sponsoring players. We signed ACL Pro Adrian Johnson (Bag/Glove), ACL PJ Sarro (Glove), ACL Pro Ryan Smith (Glove), and ACL Pro Justin Stranger (Glove) along with several other competitive players.
With the popularity of cornhole rising, in November 2020 I decided it was time to take the next step and resigned from my full time position with my employer and was a 100% Gladiator.
Some of our family and friends thought that this was a crazy move but you gotta believe in yourself and your team, cause if not, what's the point?
The ACL National College Championship was in December of 2020 in Myrtle Beach, SC. The American Cornhole League gave us the opportunity to sponsor teams for this event.
We were fortunate enough to sponsor 3 teams! One of the teams that included Noah Hughes & Devin Page made it to the televised ESPN event using Tridents and the Glove!
We worked tirelessly throughout the 2020-2021 season behind the scenes creating, brainstorming, developing and trying to maintain work/life balance. We were approved for our 3rd year to be an ACL Approved Bag Manufacturer and in August 2021 we released our 2021-2022 lineup of cornhole bags which includes our grandfathered series along with last season's mid season release, Equalizer Pro, & 2 new series: Mayhem and Battle Cheetah Pro. The Mayhem, Battle Cheetah Pro and the revised Empire Comp included our all new Battle Blend Fill.
The same week as the new season bag release, the ACL World Championship was in Rock Hill, SC. We live about 30 mins from there so Gladiator set up our first ever official booth! It was such a fantastic event meeting players in person that we have gotten to know online, meeting new players and getting to watch some of the best players in the world battle it out on the boards.
For the 2021-2022 season, we had the opportunity to sponsor ACL Pros Adrian Johnson (Bag/Glove), Leston Allen (Bag), Mark Richards (Bag), Philip Lopez Jr (Bag), Ryan Smith (Glove), PJ Sarro (Glove) along with several competitive players. We are currently working on 2 new bags for our mid-season release, new merch, and several other ideas we think you are going to love!
Stefanie, Dylan & I want to thank you for all your support that you have given us. We are dedicated to this business and the Gladiator community. We will continue to bring new and innovative ideas, and creative designs and of course will always take customer feedback into consideration when making business decisions. We are looking forward to the future of cornhole and with any luck, we will achieve our goal of Cornhole Greatness.
If you have lasted this long - you are a true Gladiator!
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