Josh Wintermantel is the Founder and CEO of Wintermantel Companies, a conglomerate of companies in the sports, marketing, and manufacturing industries. The first business under Wintermantel Companies is Hype Socks, which was born early on in Josh’s career. His passion for entrepreneurship began when he was in elementary school when he began selling on eBay. Eventually, while he played basketball in college, Josh realized the potential of selling custom socks to youth sports organizations and schools. This is when Hype Socks was brought to life. Other successful businesses that run under Wintermantel Companies include Socks Quick, a manufacturer that can add a custom sock arsenal to any business, and Youth Coach Data, LLC which leverages the largest database of youth coach contact information in the industry.
In addition to leveraging this database with their own businesses, Wintermantel Companies also leases this data to other businesses that are much larger. Another of its entities that is currently being launched is TeamTime, LLC, which will be revolutionary in the team dealer space, selling sports uniforms and other sporting goods equipment.
When it comes to Josh’s motivation to getting started with his business, Josh shares: “Life events have truly motivated me to start my own business. I experienced the death of my father when I was 17 years old. I needed to distract myself, and through that I found my passion. […] In the house I was raised in, if you wanted a bike, you went and made money to purchase that bike. Little did I know, that work ethic would soon have such a huge impact on my life.”
As any entrepreneur, Josh admits he faced his own challenges when starting his business. For him, his biggest challenge has been finding a marketing scheme that works. “Many wholesale businesses don’t realize they are nothing more than their marketing schemes. If you can repeat actions that create a revenue stream – over and over – that’s where the money is,” says Josh. For his business, email-marketing has worked the best, as it has allowed them to market aggressively. At the same time, Josh has been able to find a set of incredible employees. Without some of these employees, running the business would be unimaginable, which is why it is so important for Josh to have a positive impact on his employees’ lives. With a great team and the right mindset, a business can overcome any obstacle.
“There will be times where it will be easier to quit than continue. You must have an “I’m going to do this no matter what,” attitude. It must be relentless. You can always change your mindset on a job and get a new one, but running a business isn’t always like that because people are depending on you. For this reason, it helps to start a business in a field you are passionate about and for me, that’s sports,” shares Josh.
For those who are trying to start a business, Josh points out the importance of being resourceful. As an upcoming business owner, it’s normal to have questions and not always know what the next step is. That’s why it’s so important to look for people who can help.
“Be resourceful. No doubt, you can literally learn anything with Google. Using the world wide web, I also find professionals in each area. If I can’t figure out something myself, I can find someone who knows. Business is all about finding people with areas of expertise,” says Josh.
In today’s competitive market, Wintermantel Companies differentiate themselves from their competitors by having their own sock factory within the United States, which allows them to deliver custom sock orders before any competitors. Both Hype Socks and Socks Quick demolish competitors’ turnaround times. At the same time, Youth Coach Data, LLC has the largest database of coaching information, and continues to grow stronger every day.
Their projects for this year include launching TeamTime, as well as a marketing company that will be focused on data building for other businesses and deployment of their marketing campaigns. At the same time, Wintermantel Companies will be launching an outsourced employee staffing company and taking part in a charitable cause. Given that socks are the number one requested item in homeless shelters, they are launching philanthropic efforts to help with this crisis. Wintermantel Companies has partnered with a local food drive that will be issuing thousands of pairs of socks to shelters.
Learn more about Josh Wintermantel and his companies by following him on Instagram here.
