Like many high school aged boys during that all-important time of physical maturation and quest for social acceptance, Patrick Whaley sought to up his athletic prowess and personal appeal.
His solution: stuff his backpack with heavy textbooks and repetitively do shoulder shrugs on his way up and down the hallways on his way to class.
“What I realized is that all I did was give me poor posture and a sore back,” said Whaley. “So over time I started thinking, ‘Well why not design something that I could use to bulk up my muscles throughout the workday?’ That’s when I developed TITIN.’”
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TITIN has proved to be the ultimate solution for Whaley and his team. Composed of 14 gel inserts, custom fiber and custom fabric, the TITIN shirt molds itself around the human anatomy, providing the wearer with a new way to weight train. Frustrated with traditional weight vests that are awkwardly shaped and are a hassle to train efficiently with, Whaley designed TITIN with purposely-placed gel inserts, improving the wearer’s posture and blood circulation as well as enhancing their ability to maintain proper form anytime they decide to wear the piece.
“It allows you to train throughout the entire workday,” said Whaley. “In essence, it’s like training on earth and competing on the moon.”
As the prototypes have been perfected over the years and Whaley has made his rounds at fitness conventions, he has come to realize that TITIN isn’t just a product for the professional athletes training at world-class facilities. That stark realization came to Whaley when he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
An innocent victim of an armed robbery, Whaley was left with a gunshot wound that devastated vital organs in his torso. But fear not for the injured college student.
“I used my own product to bring myself back to life,” said Whaley. “I noticed that I had more improvement in using my own product for just an hour a day for two weeks then I noticed in six weeks of physical therapy.”
From that moment on, Whaley has pushed forward and dedicated his energy toward marketing TITIN to the masses; which included an appearance on Shark Tank to pitch TITIN.
“I think that the incident really kind of fleshed out the idea,” he said. “It showed me that this isn’t just for football players; it’s for anybody that is fascinated with fitness.”
Putting his growth mindset to the test, Whaley and his team plan to unveil a TITIN shirt for a number of different audiences in the future, including females, children, military personnel, and even individuals with sensory disorders such as Autism or ADHD.
The young entrepreneur is confident that people will find positive results when they use his product, whether that is the ability to run with a quicker pace, jump to new heights, recover faster or even experience a healing presence.
“It allows you to feel like a superhero,” said Whaley. “If you want to feel like your favorite superhero then TITIN is for you.”