Matt Ward
Dr. Stephen Liu Background:
Chairman/Founder of Forme®, a wellness technology and corrective wearables company for posture disorders, recovery, and musculoskeletal pain. Dr. Stephen Liu brings more than 25 years of experience as an academic physician, executive leader, and entrepreneur.
Dr. Stephen Liu Story:
My mother passed away from a difficult battle with cancer several years ago. This motivated me to design an innovative posture wearable to help cancer patients and everyday people to achieve improved quality of life through better posture, breathing, and back health, without conscious effort.
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You wake up in the morning – what’s the driving passion?
My passion is to accomplish my set tasks daily to meet goals I’ve set and my mission is to challenge norms and make a difference in people’s lives！
What was the genesis for the Forme Ace Tee?
An innovative correcting wearable that instantly changes your alignment to your best form while boosting your recovery and back health, naturally and sustainably.
What kind of impact did the global pandemic have on your sales efforts and how do you see the company faring in ’23?
Forme was launched after the COVID pandemic onset in Dec. 2020, and the company grew over 350% from 2020 to 2022.
While there was a global supply chain slowdown, we were heads down working towards our mission. Despite a potential looming recession, we forecast healthy growth in 2023.
When people see the name — Forme Ace Tee — what one word do you want them to associate with it?
Transformative. The best golf posture and recovery tee.
Who is your customer and what steps are you taking to widen visibility and brand identity?
We have a diversity of customers seeking lifestyle transformation, athletic performance/recovery and neck or back care. This includes office-gym-traveling business executives, post-partum moms, Olympians, pro-athletes, golfers with or without scoliosis, and many others with day-to-day posture disorders and related musculoskeletal pain.
Suggested retail price for the product is what?
$158.
Posture is such a critical aspect in swinging a golf club both effectively and efficiently. How does the Forme Ace Tee accomplish better posture?
The wearable technology is built into the inner layer of the tee and invisible from the outside. Simply put, it engages spinal and shoulder muscle memory to draw the shoulder blades down and back. In doing so you gain height, with aligned, square and balanced shoulders. This also reduces neck tension, expands the chest to improve breathing, and strengthens your lower back.
For golf performance, this can promote a better and more sustainable posture foundation and positioning to rotate in the swing and putting. It also reduces spinal and shoulder stress, injury risk, accelerates recovery, and improves performance on and off the course. The Ace Tee provides instant posture transformation, naturally and sustainably in a completely effortless way.
Many companies in the golf lane engage touring professionals to endorse their products. Is that something Forme Ace Tee is doing?
We are not a clothing or fitness brand. Our customers benefit from Forme wearables for their playing and recovery. We have a large roster of PGA Tour players utilizing our products regularly. In terms of actively endorsed players, PGA Tour Winner and Tokyo Olympics Bronze Medalist CT Pan is one of our international brand ambassadors.
The biggest challenges short and long facing the company are what? And what strategies are you implementing in dealing with both?
Short term: Increasing input costs on material and labor. Global supply chain slowdown and inflation. We are constantly managing our expenditures while deploying capital to R&D to continue to provide the best products for our customers. Long term, we are prioritizing growth while remaining profitable. We are setting up many partnerships starting this year for brand exposure and distribution.
Best advice you ever received – what was it and who was it from?
A guiding principle from my late mother is to be the best at what you do and sacrifice for others to better your heart!
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For more info about Dr. Stephen Liu and Forme Science go to:
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