Meet the founders of CASED a US company for body armor. I Rhett raised $3m at 17yo and founded Texas’ only shuttle-serviced bike park. Throughout operation, I always noticed how practically every rider hated their pads and clothes. Even the pro DH racers! Too bulky. Hot. Itchy. Sweaty. Ripping up. Not even that protective! 10 months after founding the bike park, I saw the opportunity, and put every last penny of mine into founding Cased.To get here, it took us: 9 months (September ’24 - May ’25) of straight 70 hour work weeks, 5 maxed out credit cards, and 120 different iterations of product testing. I originally planned to launch in November, and without any card debt. But, I knew I could only launch if I had an actually perfected product. The process was insane.Throughout the months, I kept on making more and more test products. My mission was to make protective apparel that was: actually comfortable, actually protective, super minimalistic, and fully custom fit. I went through dozens of manufacturers. Hundreds of cycles of testing. Nonstop research on padding and fabric and sizing. I partnered with Dylan, and I kept on racking up more and more credit card debt to sustain the research. We wanted to launch, but we needed to make a perfect product first. We soft-launched in January, but still had a ways to go.Finally, after all of the work, our first fully functional prototype was here. Everyone thought it was way better than their current gear. Sleek. Super durable. Super breathable. Made of the industry’s statistically most impact-absorbing pads and statistically most breathable fabric. I knew I had it. We grinded out the last 2 months and tested the product on dozens of different body sizes, riding temperatures, and more. And, finally, after closing out the R&D and fully establishing our brand, we hard-launched Cased in May 2025. I guarantee you that this is the best protective apparel you can wear. Built purely by mountain bikers, with a sole goal in mind of making gear actually comfortable and actually protective.Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/46741914...Transcript
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