If you play lacrosse, you might’ve heard of Rachel Zietz, or at least her company- Gladiator Lacrosse. However, you probably didn’t know that it was started by a 13 year old!
In fact, she has grown her company so much that she competes with the likes of Nike and Adidas. And it’s not just that she competes with them, she holds her own, and often outcompetes them!
The Beginning
Rachel Zietz was born in 2000 in Wayne New Jersey to Sam and Shiela Zeitz.
Her father Sam, is an entrepreneur too, being the founder and CEO of American fintech company Touchsuite. Shiela Zietz is a successful attorney in the Boca Raton area (Florida).
Rachel Zietz, as with many young women, is an avid sportswoman. For Rachel, her chosen sport was lacrosse, and this love would lead to Rachel joining a lacrosse team.
According to Gladiator Lacrosse, her coaches told her to “Wall ball”.(Essentially, practice her game by throwing her ball against a wall for practice!)
After doing some research, she found several lacrosse rebounders that were supposed to withstand the weather and be of good quality.
However, one day, her practicing led her to find that isn’t true, after one practicing session left a huge whole in a rebounder she had purchased.
Gladiator Lacrosse
In 2012, when Rachel Zeitz was only 13, she decided to enroll in the Young Entrepreneurs Academy Program. The Young Entrepreneurs Academy Program is a 33 week long course designed to get young people into entrepreneurship.
This, combined with her love for lacrosse and earlier rebounder incident, led to the creation of Gladiator Lacrosse.
She spent a year making sure that Gladiator Lacrosse would be successful. She spent that year having a website and logo designed, whilst also designing Gladiator Lacrosse’s first products.
Originally, Gladiator Lacrosse only made rebounders and lacrosse nets. Both pieces of equipment are vital for practicing at home or for a team.
Gladiator Lacrosse’s products are, what “their competitor’s products are not”. That is to say, that it is the products are both high quality, but at an affordable price.
And people have seemed to agree! Time Magazine, New York Times, USA Today and South Florida Business Journal have all run stores on Rachel Zietz and Gladiator Lacrosse.
This led to Rachel Zietz going onto Shark Tank on May 13 2016. This has led to several good outcomes for Gladiator Lacrosse. Firstly, Zietz claims that her appearance on Shark Tank gave her $6 million in free advertising.
The appearance on Shark Tank led to the manager of Dick’s Sporting Goods (one of the largest sports shops in the US!) to fly her to Pittsburgh. Here, the would strike a deal that would see Gladiator Lacrosse gear in all of their stores.
Thanks to these two, Gladiator Lacrosse has been able to sign a sponsorship deal with Casey Powell- one of America’s greatest Lacrosse players.
In 2018, Gladiator Lacrosse was also able to be the sponsor for the nets during the Lacrosse World Cup.
Rachel Zietz and Gladiator Lacrosse have seen their products reach just as how they’d imagined, if not surpassing their expectations.
Gladiator Lacrosse’s products have been used with several amateur and even professional Lacrosse teams!
Including Rachel Zietz’s own lacrosse team and the Florida National Lacrosse team (which Zietz is also a member of!)
Today
According to Networth Buzz, she first became a millionaire at the age of 15. According to Networth Buzz, as of 2020, her net worth is $5 million.
Today, Rachel Zietz is enrolled at Princeton University, a university that has produced the likes of Jeff Bezos, Carl Icahn and John Stossel.
Zietz still runs her business, in between classes and plans to keep on doing so for many more years to come.
Gladiator Lacrosse is currently maintaining its sponsorship with Casey Powell, including having its own logo for him on their products. Powell continues to be a major part of their advertising campaigns to this day.
The company sells its gear on eBay, Amazon and their company website. Both Amazon and eBay rate their gear very highly. For their category, they are often rated as #1 or in the top three.
Gladiator Lacrosse is also looking at expanding their product range as well. According to Zietz, they are looking at expanding into Lacrosse sticks, as well as expanding more into Canada, Asia, Oceania and Europe!
It’s also likely that Gladiator Lacrosse will also expand into Lacrosse shoes, clothes and other types of gear in the coming years too.
What Can we Learn From This?
The story of Rachel Zietz and Gladiator Lacrosse can teach you a lot, not just about becoming financially free, but also for business too!
Be Niche-Oriented
Businesses with a specific-niche are often the most successful. We see it everyday with thousands of companies.
Some companies are a jack of all trades, but a master of none. Whilst this often yields some profitability, those that focus on one area of business are the most profitable types of business.
And Gladiator Lacrosse is a great example of that! They have spent the past seven years trying to conquer the lacrosse equipment industry. And now, Rachel Zietz has been able to become a millionaire before she can drink!
And you can do this too! If you are thinking of starting your own business, you’ll want to be niche. You can’t fix people’s fences, do translation work and charter aircraft all in one business!
Be Consistent
In life, you need to be consistent. Whether it is starting your own business, investing or anything worth while, you’ll need to be consistent.
Chances are, everyday (or at least most days) after class, Rachel is coming home to her business. She likely runs her business everyday- even on weekends or holidays.
Following habits of other rich people, Rachel probably gets up and goes to sleep far earlier and far later than her peers. After all, she doesn’t have the luxury of spending 16 hours a day focusing on her business!
And this is something that you can do too! Especially so if you also have a…
Side Hustle
Rachel shows this quite well in my opinion.
Not only does she compete with Nike and Adidas, but she also goes to school. Just as with most other teenagers, Rachel attended high school. She has also enrolled at Princeton University (graduating 2022).
She has had to run Gladiator Lacrosse whilst having to turn in essays, homework and revise for tests.
And this is something that even adults can do! If you are in a job, or even at college or university, you too can run a business whilst also going to school, college, university or work.
Then, if your business makes more money than your job does, you can leave your job and do you business full time.
Age Doesn’t Matter
Rachel, just as with Alexander Pask, Ray Kroc and Gary Dahl, prove this amazingly well. Rachel set up her company when she was only 13, Alexander when he was 14.
As said before, she has had to battle running a multimillion dollar company alongside doing her homework, essays and revision for tests. As well as going to school!
Rachel proves that if she can do it, so can anyone! She proves that if you are in school, you too can run your own business. She proves that if you are in a job, you too can run your own business too!.
This, combined with the story of Ray Kroc (the person that made McDonalds famous) proves that you are never too old or too young to start running your own business!
It also proves to you that you are never too young (or too old) to find your passion in life!
Has the story of Rachel Zietz inspired you? Tell me in the comments!
