A Prince George company is getting ready to take the golf industry by storm.
TanMan International, directed by president Richard Martindale, is making in-roads with a sunscreen product that will have golfers smiling - and blocking the sun, rather than burning.
The All Sports, Mulligan and Sun Times brands produced by TanMan provide alcohol-based protection from the sun, applied by a disposable, handi-wipe type of cloth. With Mulligan in particular, there is no more sloppy, goopy, slippery lotion-style sunscreen to adversely affect the grip of a golf club or tennis racquet, or to end up as a mess in the bottom of your golf bag.
Mulligan, being teed up first for mass distribution, is for golf, retailing for a dollar apiece in individual packets the size of a business card, and Martindale said one wipe will do legs, arms, hands and face. The bonus of the alcohol base is that not only does it not make your skin slippery, as traditional sunscreen does, it acts as a grip-enhancing substance.
At the end of the month, Martindale and his marketing team will be at the PGA merchandise show in Orlando, and the golf rule-makers have approved the product.
"It's rated a 30-plus (SPF) as a sunscreen, but it has the added benefit of improving grip because it has a bit of a tackiness to it," said Martindale, whose product is getting so much global interest that he's curtailed his former occupation as a financial advisor.
"It's not like Stick-um, but it's allowable under the rules of golf for tournament play."
The idea was hatched in a pub three years ago, and Martindale did the research and found both a manufacturer and a distributor to move his product worldwide - with interest coming from Australia, Malaysia and other areas of Asia, and the massive golf market in the United States. TanMan products are made in Israel, and a California manufacturer is also in the picture.
At the onset, Martindale went to Save-On Foods, Shoppers Drug Mart and the Dollar Store and bought every kind of sunscreen he could find, then went to work.
With research and development since then, he estimates the investment at $300,000.
"I golf in Hawaii every year and I couldn't find a way to write the trip off, so I wanted to start a business that was associated with golf," laughed Martindale.
"Sunscreen was the issue. It's a necessary evil all golfers must wear, and we all hate it. It messes up your grip, and I've gone through four expensive golf bags because baggage handlers break the sunscreen in the bag. There were obvious problems with simple fixes.
"I had an idea what I wanted, but it had to be convenient, it had to be inexpensive, and it couldn't be a detriment to the grip. I got feedback from handing it out in Hawaii, and people were asking how to buy shares - it was very well received."
The sunscreen has the approval of Health Canada and the FDA, and only the completion of importing paperwork stands in the way of nationwide availability in Canada.
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