Nice Threads

What: Handheld PC for use in sports training
Who: Laird Garner of Virtual Veterans Inc.
Where: Lenexa, Kansas
When: Started in 1999

Laird Garner is out to revolutionize the way coaches train athletes. The 32-year-old hopes his high-tech approach to training will someday score big in the sports industry.

His product, the vCoach, is a portable PC about the size of a clipboard that uses digital video technology to record a golf swing, football tackle or other sports maneuver. Once recorded, coaches can then correct the play by watching side-by-side video clips and drawing directly on the screen.

Now that some major-league teams are using vCoach demo units, perhaps this is the start of something big. Says Garner, "We know the market is ripe."

Contact Sources

• Denyse Schmidt Quilts
  (800) 621-9017, www.dsquilts.com

• Virtual Veterans Inc.
  (913) 438-1707, www.vcoach.net

This article was originally published in the October 2001 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Nice Threads.