Grip and Go by Sara Touzard, managing editor

Inventor Mark French, from Mission Athletic Care, brought his latest invention, Court Grip to the middle school on January 25, 2012.  “Court Grip” is a patent pending gel, traction enhancing formula that is used to prevent a player from slippage on the basketball courts. The main purpose of the product is to improve a player’s stability on and off the court. All the player needs to do is roll the product on the bottom of their shoes and that’s it. Court Grip is easy to apply and lasts up to fifteen minutes,” said Mission Court Grip creator, Mark French.

Court Grip is part of a line of products made by Mission Athletic Care, a company that develops products unique to athlete’s needs in a variety of sports, has partnered with Eastbay and Foot Locker to promote its line.

The presentation mainly consisted of Mark French discussing his product with the students and his explanation as to how and why he decided to make the product.

“When I played basketball, I started noticing that I kept wiping my soles on the court and other basketball players also had done the same thing due to the dust of the indoor courts. I wanted to create a product to solve the problem of court slippage and was determined to figure it out. I have talked to many basketball players, coaches, and they have noticed the same problem. I had worked with scientists to research more on the issue and created a series of tests with this product by having local basketball players try the product to go out into the market. After a process of trial and error, my team had figured out the solution and made Court Grip,” said Mission Court Grip creator Mark French.

“I think that the students enjoyed the Court Grip presentation, they expressed that to me in many of the discussions we had after the presentation, they expressed that to me in many of the discussions we had after the presentation. They were very interested in the creation of the product, the involvement of the professional athletes, and to test the product,” said eighth grade English teacher Ms. Laverda- Byrne.

“I enjoyed watching the videos because I thought that it was really cool how NBA basketball players like Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony use the product to improve their game. Just by watching them use Court Grip made me want to buy it,” said eighth grader Nathaniel James.

Student enjoyed watching the presentation and have gained interest in buying the product.
“It was a very interesting presentation. I liked how the famous basketball players had also used Court Grip. From the presentation, it made me want to go to Foot Locker and check the product myself,” said eighth grader, Lara Cwass.

“I have used Court Grip myself when I play basketball. I can state that this product definitly works,” said physical education teacher Mr. Angeles.

“I thought the presentation was really cool. The product seems presented really well and it got endorsement and it made me want to buy it. I think that WJPS should get more sports related people to visit the school because WJPS is not a sporty school, and bringing more sports people will be good for the school and show off a lot of sports,” said eighth grader, Mark Kharath.