Trent and Megan Brown were purchasing so many ammunition pellets that they ended up on a TSA watch list.
But the couple — an Army veteran and a former Division 1 All-American Athlete, respectively — were doing nothing more than creating weighted workout clothing, and the pellets were an early experiment in finding a product that would add weight to what would become known as KILOGEAR.
“You catch the attention of all kinds of people,” said Trent, who served as a military police officer, “but then ironically when they found out what we were doing, they loved it.”
The Browns founded KILOGEAR in 2016, creating a doctor-designed athletic apparel line that features strategically placed micro-weights as a form of resistance training.
Megan, a former field hockey athlete, said that Trent and she both are familiar with what it takes to be a successful athlete, including incorporating resistance weight training.
“Most people consider going to the gym as resistance weight training,” Megan said. “Go hit the gym, go hit the weights. You’re going to be stronger, all of those things. And after having played sports, I went into high tech. And one of the things I really struggled with as a woman was doing it all. I don’t think anybody can do it.”
Going to the gym became a lower priority, so Megan turned her body into the gym — using everything from ankle and wrist weights to weighted vests and weighted shoes.
But Trent, who “trained in load” through his military career, had safety concerns.
“We knew that, even in the military, back then we knew there was more damage done to the body through a lot of the training techniques with load, whether rucksacks, weighted vests, or all of the other stuff that comes with it versus the good side of this,” Trent said.
Backed by science
Trent and Megan said they worked with top doctors in sports medicine and movement; engineers; trainers; professional athletes; and elite military individuals over the course of eight years to develop KILOGEAR. The goal was to carry load efficiently and safely.
They found that microloading the body on “the perfect locations” allowed the body to move safely without compromising biomechanics.
“I expected that the heavier the better,” Trent said, “but the reality of it was, the lighter and the perfect location the better. And so now we have a solution that’s been refined over these eight years that fits your lifestyle, whether you’re an elite military person, or the family members within that family structure.”
From the military perspective, Megan said the men and women in uniform need to be “in the best shape that they possibly can be,” and KILOGEAR can be layered into existing training regimens.
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“When Trent talks about functionally strong, KILOGEAR allows you to wear the weight so that whatever movement you want to focus on, whether it’s shooting a basketball, hitting a tennis ball or working on long range shooting you are going to get stronger in all of those movements that are required to complete that task perfectly,” Megan said.
And for military spouses and mothers, who might not have access to a gym, Megan said the best approach is to walk in the gear.
“Get a walking club started,” Megan said. “How many women own a million black leggings out there and yet they don’t do anything for the body, just clothe it?”
Betting on themselves
The Browns each had their own successful, individual careers, and chose to pause helping other companies to build their own.
“We took the risk and put our money where our mouth is,” she said, “and put every dime we have into this company. We have lots of skin in the game on this because we truly believe in it.”
Trent agreed.
“To believe in a company, you have to support it,” he said. “Before we went and talked about bringing any kind of additional capital into the company, we put our own capital into the company.”
As the company has grown, Trent said his military background helps him think about the team rather than himself.
“We think about our customer. We think about our team in order to develop amazing solutions for our customer base,” he said. “And we celebrate those customers. We’ve never forgotten — We’ve never forgotten the military families that are out there.”
Visit the KILOGEAR website to shop the latest products.
