GRIP6

The first order GRIP6 had to fill, long before its Midvale factory, was for nearly 10,000 belts, and its founder had never manufactured anything. BJ Minson was finishing an engineering degree at the University of Utah when he designed a belt with no holes and no flap. He made it simple enough to build in his garage, figuring on a few hundred sales. A 2014 Kickstarter video brought in the big order.

Most manufacturers he called offered to guide him to factories in China. Minson bought an industrial sewing machine and a vibratory tumbler instead, with partner David Burton putting up $1,000 for the sewing machine. "It's an understatement to say that the next six months were pure hell," Minson writes. He and a friend worked night shifts after their day jobs, in a garage that turned frigid by winter. The first batch shipped six months later.

GRIP6 now runs a factory in Midvale, where machines Minson designed cut the buckles and knit the wool socks, now its top seller. The company is still independent, and it says a worn-out belt can be exchanged free, forever. The garage belt now comes out of a factory with public pickleball courts inside.