The Gobi Grip Story

A Slippery Problem... And a Novel Solution!

Our founder, Mark Miller, Ph.D., is an immunologist who uses imaging and computational biology to understand how leukocytes combat infection and regulate inflammation. His two favorite aspects of research are the constant creative problem solving and uncovering something new that disrupts the scientific status quo! 

He is also an avid tennis player who struggled for years with sweaty hands. Sometimes his grip slip was merely annoying and made him miss shots he should have made. Sometimes it was so bad that the tennis racket would fly out of his hands, which was embarrassing and a danger to himself and others. This led him to use a “death grip” on the racket, causing blisters on his hands and repetitive stress injuries to his wrist and elbow. He tried various racket over-grips, grip enhancer products, and even rotated between three rackets during matches, but eventually (and especially in the hot humid STL summers) his grip became slippery, and playing tennis became frustrating and painful.

Then after a yardwork mishap, an on-court observation, and a stroke of inspiration, he came up with a novel solution that quickly dried his hands and enhanced his grip. After self-testing for nearly two years, he knew this solution was a game changer and had to be shared. So, he worked with dermatologists and formulation chemists to develop a commercial product and Gobi Grip™ was born!