He kept athletes, regular folks in the game
Finding solution to his back pain leads Bill Schultz to new venture.
LOS ANGELES — The gig: Plagued by severe back pain, Bill Schultz didn’t like his options — surgery, potentially addictive painkillers or suffering in silence. Schultz not only found an alternative, but he also wound up turning his idea into a thriving business. Schultz, 58, is the founder and president of Alignmed, a Los Angeles-area company that makes shirts, vests, bras and other products for people with chronic back pain.
Walking tall: Using what Schultz c alls tension technology, the company’s products incorporate so-called neurobands to pull shoulders into a natural upright position. The fabric panels stimulate neural receptors and activate and support back muscles, Schultz said.
Powe r u s e r s : At h l e t e s s ay Alignmed’s products reduce mus- cle fatigue and help them recover more quickly from back and shoulder injuries. Fans include former Los Angeles Laker Dwight Howard, who wore an Alignmed “posture shirt” on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Winding path: Schultz didn’t exactly take a direct route to his current business. Born in the middle of a seven-child family in Minnesota, Schultz said he recognized that “without some kind of scholarship, I wasn’t going to make it to college. So I really pumped it out at soccer,” winning financial aid to attend Augsburg College.
School’s hard knocks: Schultz studied journalism, but soccer’s physical demands took their toll during those years. “It probably had something to do with the downfall and injury to my back,” Schultz said.
Risk taker: “In my senior year, I went to California to seek my fame and fortune and get in the movies, in music and script writing,” Schultz said “LA was the place for that, so I loaded up my ’67 Mustang convertible and the $500 that I had accumulated.” Fame and fortune were elusive. It was much easier catching a regular job.
Regular work: “Lo and behold, I went to work for 3M Orthopedics,” Schultz said. “They put me in customer service. I did a good job. ... Then 3M put me into orthopedic product sales. Out of 80 people, in my first year, I was No. 1 in sales.”
Hi t t i n g h i s s t r i d e : S c hu l t z seemed to have found a professional niche. After seven years at 3M, Schultz worked at two small orthopedic equipment startups before launching his own medical equipment supply company, Team Surgical. His wife’s job as a University of California at Irvine administrator provided enough financial flexibility to allow him to sink his profits back into the company.
A painful turn: Eventually, with three ruptured discs in his spine, Schultz began to search for relief that didn’t involve the surgery that his doctors kept advising. He found a chiropractor who did an elaborate athletic tape job on his back. Schultz was stunned; it worked. “I could feel this tape tugging on me, and I’m going, ‘Wait a second,’” Schultz said, “Something’s going on here. So I focused. I turned my company, Team Surgical, over to my employees, sold off the pieces of it, and I said, ‘You know, I don’t need to leave medicine.’”
Epiphany: In 2006, Schultz formed Alignmed, which has since grown to 14 employees.