St. George, Utah, United States
Booty Bands and Barbells is a direct-to-consumer female fitness brand selling home gym equipment, resistance bands, protein, and a subscription fitness app under the bootybands.com domain. Co-founders Jay Crew and Danita Young launched the company in 2017 with resistance bands before expanding into barbells, dumbbells, protein powder, and digital content. The company holds the trademark for the Booty Bands name and positions itself as the first complete home gym brand built specifically for women.
The company generated $5.5 million in revenue in 2020 and was tracking toward a $6 million run rate in 2021, with barbells and dumbbells accounting for 83 percent of that top line. A sharp rise in domestic steel prices, from $0.30 per pound to $1.40 per pound, compressed margins and prompted the founders to explore overseas manufacturing. As of the September 2021 interview, Crew and Young were raising $2.2 million at a $10 million pre-money valuation to fund cost-of-goods improvements and accelerate growth toward a stated goal of one million customers by 2025.
The business is largely bootstrapped, having taken only a $100,000 angel investment in 2018 in exchange for 50 percent equity. Gross margins stood at 56 percent and net margins at 2 percent in 2021, figures the founders believe could reach 78 percent gross and 12 percent net if production moves offshore. The team comprised six full-time employees and five contractors at the time of the interview.
