A Minnesota start-up with bark in its bite

Adrian Peterson is putting his money where his mouth is.

The Vikings star running back is among the top current and former athletes, including Brett Hull and Marian Gaborik, who are backing what could become the hottest Minnesota innovation for pro sports since the Breathe Right strip.

Developed by Minneapolis-based Bite Tech Inc. and being sold under the ubiquitous Under Armour brand, the "performance mouthwear" is catching on quickly with NFL and NHL teams. Bite Tech calls its product a revolutionary advance over the mundane mouth guard, capable of boosting an athlete's strength and endurance in sports ranging from football to golf.

"I have a lot of people come at me with investment ideas, but this was something that really interested me [because] of my profession, in what I do," said Peterson in a phone interview. "I could see it for myself. It's kind of funny. People would look at it and ask, 'How can a mouthpiece really make more of a difference?' It's something that you have to see hands-on. It worked for me. I was calm and more focused."

While Nike, Reebok and Gatorade typically pay athletes millions of dollars a year for endorsements, in Bite Tech's case it's the pros who are paying up to be involved in Bite Tech. Peterson, Hull and others have paid anywhere from $25,000 to $1 million for a piece of the company. Other investors include Vikings wide receiver Bernard Berrian, Vancouver Canucks center Pavol Demitra and Minnesota Wild toughman Derek Boogaard.

"The minute I used it, I was all in," said Hull, an NHL Hall of Fame player and executive vice president of the Dallas Stars. "I said: How much do you need? I completely believed in the product. I could feel the results. I felt focused, sharper. I wished I had it in my first 800, 1,000 games." Hull, who attended the University of Minnesota Duluth, has already invested twice in Bite Tech and sits on its board of directors.

How a little-known Minneapolis start-up could boast such an all-star team of investor/athletes is remarkable, especially since the science behind its claims is somewhat fuzzy. The company says the custom-made mouthpieces -- which cost $300 to $700 -- prevent a player's jaw and teeth from clamping down on the temporomandibular jaw (TMJ) joint. Pressure on the TMJ signals the body's hypothalamus gland to produce excess amounts of stress hormones like cortisol, causing fatigue and distraction.

Experts say that Bite Tech's theory on TMJ and stress hormones is far from proven.

"There's no evidence that's what's causing" improved performance, said Dr. Noshir Mehta, an associate professor and dean of general dentistry at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston. "There is a relationship between bite and strength but we don't know why. I'd be concerned about any claims on why it works. Any claims people make about cortisol levels is not backed by science at this time. More research is needed."

Because Bite Tech's mouth guards are not liable to FDA approval, the company's claims do not have to be certified through government tests. So far, they have been backed only in tests funded by the company.

The Compendium of Continuing Education in Dentistry recently published Bite Tech-funded studies that suggested mouthpieces could improve an athlete's visual and auditory reaction times.

Pro at working a room

Bite Tech is the brainchild of Jon Kittelsen, the founder of Shock Doctor, the world's largest retail distributor of mouth guards. Founded in 1995, Bite Tech now employs about 40 people.

Until last August, it had not generated any revenue. Now, CEO Bob Molhoek says Bite Tech is on pace to exceed $10 million in annual sales.

Kittelsen, whose youthful, surfer-dude persona belies a quick mind and even quicker mouth, spent 15 years developing the mouthpiece, determined to convince skeptical dentists the science was legitimate before he tried to sell it.

"I said, 'Let's prove [the mouthpiece] with sound science.' We went from a distribution company to a tech company. It feels cool to be at a tech company," Kittelsen said.

But Bite Tech's biggest boost has come from its litany of athlete investors and users, a testament to Kittelsen's prodigious ability to work the room. For instance, Kittelsen first met Hull at Michael Jordan's golf tournament and later cornered him at a restaurant. Hull says it was his idea to invest in Bite Tech, which is precisely what Kittelsen wanted the hockey star to think.

"It has to be their idea," Kittelsen said. "If it's their idea, then they really believe" in the company.

That same philosophy applies to product endorsements.

"We don't pay any athlete to wear it," Molhoek said. "If you pay someone to wear it, [that] erodes the reason behind wearing it. It erodes the credibility."

Getting athletes to invest in Bite Tech is not easy, since players usually are protected by a firewall of lawyers, agents and financial advisers, Molhoek said. But the company, which relies on word of mouth and partnerships with top management firms like Creative Artists Agency and IMG, tries to appeal to an athlete's entrepreneurial streak.

"They want to be involved with the company after their career" is over, Molhoek said. "They say 'I got to put my money somewhere.' Adrian Peterson, he wants to be a better businessman. He knows he's one injury away from the end of his career."

Peterson agreed.

"When I made it to the NFL, it was a dream come true. But [my career] can come on, come off. It could be over. So what's next? It's something that I'm involved with now. It's something that I plan to be more involved with in the offseason," he said.

There can be big payoffs for sports-related products. CNS Inc., the Minnesota company that popularized the Breathe Right strip in the '90s, was sold to British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline in 2006 for $566 million.

If the mouth guards continue to take off, Kittelsen's outfit won't be the only Minnesota firm to profit from it.

Patterson Dental in St. Paul, a top supplier of equipment to dentists, is distributing the product. Molhoek envisions a day where dentists fit athletes with mouthpieces at retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods or Sports Authority.

So far, sales have been "robust," said Dave Misiak, Patterson Dental's vice president of marketing and merchandise, who declined to give specific figures.

The mouthpiece has brought much-needed excitement to the dental market, Misiak said, but he stressed that Patterson believes in the technology.

"We're a 130-year-old, conservative company," he said. "We wouldn't be selling it if we didn't think it works."

Thomas Lee • 612-673-7744