SAFEJAWZ, the innovative mouthguard brand based in Aldridge, near Walsall in the West Midlands, has brought a splash of colour and dynamism to the marketplace.
With deals including Disney’s Marvel brand, creating the world’s most expensive mouthguard for YouTuber, influencer and boxer, KSI, and showing off your personality with ranges such as Fangz, Goldie and Mo, the brand has come along way from Manchester University campus pop-up shops.
The company was co-founded by Ewan Jones and George Dyer, who met while students in Manchester, in February 2014. A few years before that they had been selling general sports equipment before specialising in the mouthguard business.
Ewan said: “George and I met at university and we both had a passion for entrepreneurship and business. The original idea was campus sports shops, bricks and mortar, but we realised we didn’t have the funds for that.
“We are always going to specialise down, we were never interested in things like darts and crown green bowls. I always played rugby and George was into boxing and MMA. So, we thought let’s specialise in mouthguards. They always sold well in our pop-up shops, they are a consumable item and they’re not going out of fashion anytime soon.
“The other thing that was key for us was we felt the market was stagnant. It hadn’t really been innovative for a long time. It just felt like it was a bit boring and uninspired.
“We thought we could jazz it up a little bit and produce a product that’s actually comfortable. Secondly, something that people can have fun with and show their personality a little, that way we can increase our market share but also grow the business opportunity in the market.”
So, Ewan and George set to work developing their product, changing things that had stayed the same for decades. Making tweaks to their mouthguards that would lead to an improved product.
“People had been quite lazy since mouthguards were developed 34 years ago, in their form as they are, they had been just set shapes and formats that were agreed upon and hadn’t really been changed too much.
“Little things like the fact that before we came about, mouthguards were the same thickness on the outside wall as they were on the inside wall. It just didn’t make sense to us.
“The impacts were on the outside of the teeth, not the inside of the mouth. So, if we can thin that inside wall, we can stop people gagging as much and there’s less material in the mouth.
“That’s just one example of 70-80 different examples on the product mould itself and how we can make that more comfortable and more optimal.
“And then then it came down to material. We worked on lots of different iterations of proprietary copolymers. A lot of mouthguards degrade quite easily. The impact absorption wasn’t great. They’d either melt when they were fitted or they wouldn’t really change shape at all so you couldn’t really get a good fitting. It would fall out.
“We ended up on a material that gets really pliable when heated so it can fit great, but then it goes back solid when you fitted it, to stay in shape, but also one that was remouldable.
“So we’re one of the few mouthguards in the market where if you get it wrong or your teeth change a little bit over a couple of months, you can repeat the process and it won’t deteriorate.
“And then the third element, which has always been a kind of key identifier for us is that the designability element. So, adding things like the fangs, the moustache, the gold teeth and then this year adding the Marvel range. It’s what really became our USP.”
SAFEJAWZ are known for their exciting ranges, but maybe their biggest coup has been the link up with Marvel and a host of superhero designs from the Hulk to spider-Man. It wasn’t a straightforward process. Ewan and George approached Disney’s Marvel but the presentation was turned down because they were deemed too small an operation. However, a couple of months later Disney came back to them.
Ewan said: “The process started three years ago, after the initial rejection someone from Disney made a presentation to us.
“They threw it back to us and saying they were trying to grow the sports side of their licensing business and wanted to see if we could make something happen.
“Finally, early this year, we were at a point where we were ready to ready to launch. So, it’s been a long journey, but really exciting and it’s really levelled us up the business, not only in the obvious consumer facing brand and marketing side but working with a company like Disney makes you up upgrade everything in the business.
“Processes at our factory to make sure our standards are really high, our financial processes to make sure we’re given the right royalty reporting and things. It’s been a really beneficial thing for the company.”
SAFEJAWZ have also made the most expensive mouthguard in the world for influencer KSI – at a cost of around $50,000 – £40,000.
Ewan said: “It was a fun project. We’ve worked with KSI for a number of years doing his custom fit mouth guards for the duration of his boxing career.
“We had this idea that it’d be cool to do some really over the top extravagant mouth guard, a nice bit of PR, but also a kind of statement of what we can do.
“We set a price that made sure it hit that mark as the world’s most expensive and also it had that kind of impressive factor.
“The hard bit was figuring out how we were going to make that work. It was really challenging, it took a few iterations. It had 108 diamonds, gold leaf and was inside a gilded oak display box with a rotating presentation sleeve inside.
“He wore it out to his fight with Tommy Fury in a Lamborghini that matched it.”
But, you don’t need deep pockets like KSI to get a functional mouthguard with something a bit different. The SAFEJAWZ range has a lot of exciting designs that have proved highly popular with customers.
Ewan said: “Traditionally our Extro series was our flagship range, with the Black Fangz outperforming everything.
“In the last couple of years some of our entry range, the Intro series, have a couple of colours that have overtaken the Black Fangz.”
SAFEJAWZ, though, are always looking ahead and in the next few years they have their eyes on the North American market to expand their business.
Ewan said: “A big bit of our focus for 2025 is our growth into the US and international markets.
“To support that, we are currently in the middle of launching a range of more US specific products for example, lip protectors and other products which support the mouth guard market, but also are also slightly different products.
“So, we have got a bit of product innovation in the works, but it’s mainly US focused.
“Also, there’s room with Disney to do other things with their brands, such as Star Wars.
“But our focus has to be our core brand, Marvel and the likes are just kind of supporting stars really.”
