A group of triathletes and a merchant bank staffed by athletes went on a run for their money recently, when, with the help of some Seyfarth Shaw lawyers, they purchased a company which makes devices designed to speed the recovery of sports injuries.
Seyfarth partner Louann Bronstein, along with partner Jay Myers, both in Atlanta, and Boston partner Brian Michaelis represented Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.-based acquirer Recover Gear Acquisition in its purchase of Recover-Gear LLC, a private company based in the Jacksonville, Fla., area.
The acquirer, Bronstein said, is a company formed by merchant bank Harbor View Advisors, also of Ponte Vedra Beach, and a group of athlete-investors called Ironmen LLC solely for this purchase. Collectively, according to information from Bronstein, Ironmen and Harbor View’s principals have competed in more than 25 ironman competitions.
“These investors … use the products in their training,” Bronstein explained. The primary product Recover-Gear makes, she continued, is “a compression garment with a pocket for holding an ice pack or a heat pack, and they can be worn … after a race or if you’re a baseball player, for example, after a game. They’re also designed to be worn during a … training run.”
The products include an array of stretchy sleeve-type devices that can slide over an elbow or knee, or garments that look like tight-fitting bike shorts or shirts, each with pockets for ice or heat packs. The products are used by athletes and physical therapists, Bronstein said, adding that Recover-Gear has applied for a patent.
The company was founded by Steve Petitt, a former right-hand pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and a seven-time Hawaii Ironman triathlete. Petitt came up with the idea, according to the company’s Web site, while sitting in an ice bath after a hard run thinking that there had to be a better way to engineer his recovery.
Seyfarth, Bronstein said, got the work as the result of its relationship with Jim Philip, an athlete who is a Harbor View partner. The firm represented Philip’s former company, human resources software marketer and developer Vurv Technology, where he was president, in its merger with public HR company Taleo Corp. in 2008.
Recover-Gear was represented by Mark Young, a patent attorney in Jacksonville.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.