David Marcus and Julius Stockfish
My name is David Marcus. My partner Julius Stockfish and I have been tennis buddies for more than 25 years. When I developed a severe case of tennis elbow in 2005 Julius recommended that I use a standard rubber band to help absorb the string and racquet vibration caused by the ball’s impact. Until then, I had been using the plug type of vibration dampener which was not an effective shock absorber. Worse yet, it had a tendency to fly off my racquet. We improved upon the rubber band solution that several top pros were using, including Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and the top ranked Maria Sharapova. We invented the OTZ band dampener to handle 100 mile mph ball shock and reduce wear and tear on your elbow. We designed a high performance, colorful, best-in-class product!
Today, after 15 years on the market the OTZ Band Dampeners are endorsed and used by some of the world’s best pros and are sold around the globe.
Nice, you say. One very good product. So what comes next OTZ? EcoGRIP is what came next. I had the idea for a biodegradable overgrip while traveling around eco-friendly Ireland in 2008. In 2010 I finally found a highly skilled industrial chemist in Australia and told him about my green idea. He joined our company. After several years of trial and error together our small team developed a great patent pending polymer for the overgrips. During the very hot summer of 2013 we play-tested EcoGRIP Smooth and Hi-Tac in 10 different countries with 30 excellent tennis coaches and players including a young teen player from California named Cici Bellis. No players were told the grips were eco-friendly. Every one of the players told us the grip played excellent, felt great and lasted longer than their current overgrips.* When we told them the grips would safely biodegrade in one year after changeout … they were blown away.
We launched EcoGRIP in October 2013. In January 2014 Clay Thompson, the top ranked college player from UCLA started playing with EcoGRIP Pro. In June 2015 Mats Wilander, former 7 time Grand Slam Singles champion, endorsed EcoGRIP saying “I have been playing with EcoGRIP on my racquets for the past year. Now that I’ve found a very high performing overgrip that is also eco-friendly, I’m going to continue to use it. EcoGrip is a win-win both for me and for the environment.” In 2017 Cici Bellis, 18, started playing with Hi-Tac on the WTA Tour and saw her ranking rise from No. 59 in the world to a career high No. 35.
In 2018 we started Team OTZ /EcoGRIP a group of promising young players and coaches that commit to play only with EcoGRIP. By 2021 we had close to 30 players and coaches from 17 different countries on the Team.
In 2021 we are launching our new Hi-Tac HTP EcoGRIP for Pickleball and Padel. Players in Las Vegas, Chicago, Barcelona and Germany have tried it out and they love it!
Tennis, pickleball, padel, badminton, squash and racketball players. Now is the time to Go Green & Be Seen. Be a first mover and an eco-warrior.
WIN on & off the Court with EcoGRIP.
Own the Zone! Play with the Better Grips for a Better Planet.
*Please note that most overgrips do not perform well after more than 10-15 hours play. This is because the overgrips get dirty or slippery making it difficult to hold onto the racket. The solution is to replace the old grip with a new fresh grip and toss away the used grip. If the used grip is EcoGRIP it will decompose safely within a year after changeout. If the used grip is another brand it will take many years to break apart.
