Meet Jason Rosenblatt

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jason Rosenblatt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jason, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Ive always been a creative person, but was too ADHD to work in a rigid, corporate structure. Fitness has always been my passion, and so I started as a personal trainer (independent contractor.)
While working as a personal trainer, I started designing functional fitness products based on the needs of my clients; specifically clients who had chronic pain or injuries. I started researching what steps I needed to take in order to bring my product ideas to life.
One thing led to another, and I started my online business 3 years ago with my first official product release: The Original Squat Harness. My vision was to continue releasing products that are related or compatible with one another, and thus far I have fulfilled this vision.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am what they would call a solopreneur. I built an e-commerce platform (squatharness.com) off of my personal training income. I didn’t have any investors and didn’t take out any loans. It all started with one product: The Original Squat Harness. It was designed to use with resistance bands or a cable pulley machine so that users can train their legs on-the-go without some of the potential perils of traditional barbell squats.
It was also influenced by the fact that I was training several clients at their apartment or condominium fitness center, and there were limited options available for efficient leg training at most of those facilities. One machine that these community gyms usually have is an adjustable cable machine, so I wanted to create a product that my clients could connect to the cables and get a complete functional and safe leg workout.

One of my first challenges was figuring out how to take my ideas and turn them into a physical product. I had to do lots of research on prototyping and sampling. I reached out to several vendors and compared their quality and pricing.
After lots of trial and error, I found an overseas manufacturer who created the best quality harness I could find and started with an order of 100 units. I then hired someone to build my website and posted my product there along with Amazon, Walmart.com, and other online retailers.
Sales began to pickup and I was getting lots of positive feedback. I was also getting suggestions on improvements that could be made to increase the functionality of the harness, so I took this feedback seriously and made upgrades to my product.
Each new release would incorporate features that were entirely based on user feedback.
I can honestly say that the biggest challenge I faced was trying to promote my product through different influencers on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Many people simply wouldn’t give me a chance. I invested a lot of energy into continuing to reach out to different influencers despite the rejection I often faced. I had to learn not to take it personally.
But i had this fire within me because I really believed in my product and how it could benefit people. And after many failed attempts, I finally found a couple of home gym influencers who both loved my product and had a significant online following.
This was a big breakthrough in terms of sales volume and building a name for myself. To this day, I continue to work with these individuals and have a very loyal and supportive customer base.
When I designed The Original Squat Harness, one thing I didn’t consider was that competitive para athletes could use it to train their legs! When I created the third upgrade of The Squat Harness, I included certain features that would make it more feasible for adaptive athletes to use and even compete with. I started making the harnesses stronger with a higher load capacity and also added attachments that allowed users to connect the harness to a barbell.
One of my proudest moments was when a guy who had one of his arms amputated had won a deadlift competition by using The Squat Harness V3 connected to a barbell!
I was so proud to have made a product that could open new doors for athletes who faced different challenges.
3 years later, my latest product upgrade is The Squat Harness V4. It’s only been out for a couple of weeks and are selling at a faster rate than any of my previous product releases!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Atlanta is an ever-growing phenomenon. There are so many places to visit and see, and a never-ending supply of good restaurants. Im an outdoors guy, so I love to invite my friends visiting from out of town to some of my favorite parks such as Brook Run or Vickery creek falls. A lot of it depends on if they’re in good enough shape for a 5-7 mile hike!
One of the first places that comes to mind is The Atlanta Belt line. When the weather is nice, the Belt line provides a great walk (or bike ride) that connects to other great attractions such as Piedmont Park.
I consider myself a foodie, so while we are visiting The Belt line, Ponce City Market is the place to go for an eclectic selection of restaurants.
I live on the cusp of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, and we also have a growing selection of restaurants and walkways. I love Politan Row at Perimeter Center which has some of the best restaurants I’ve ever experienced under one roof.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My number one inspiration behind my success is my wife, Shay Rosenblatt. Long before we started dating, Shay would come to my old garage gym and watch me create different prototypes. Many of my friends at the time just thought I had an unhealthy obsession, but Shay saw something in me as early as I can remember. She looked at me and said “one day, one of these products is going to really take off!” To this day, Shay has not stopped believing in me.

Website: https://squatharness.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rippedbyrosenblatt

Other: https://coachrosenblatt.com

Image Credits
Stephan Eisen

Nathaniel Clemetson

Shay Rosenblatt