A few days ago, our CEO Marko Stefanek talked with Tomo Bujas from Croatian water polo outlet Danče on some actual topics and Total Waterpolo’s beginnings and plans. We are publishing a part of the interview and you can read the full version on dance.hr
Can you tell us a short history of Total Waterpolo?
It started off as many great ideas do. After a couple of beers back in the summer of 2017 🙂
I believe that the main trigger for me was when my stepfather Vlado Kobešćak passed away a few months before we started. I was thinking a lot about the glory days of water polo in Zagreb when he was in charge of Mladost, with thousands of fans in the stands. As a kid, I have witnessed a lot of good and bad things that were happening in the water polo outside the pool. Our mission in Total Waterpolo is to build upon the good things I have experienced and we want to implement them in modern sports practices and give our contribution in positioning water polo in the world of sports.
Is Total Waterpolo as a company profitable? What is Total Waterpolo’s end game?
December was the first month in which we made a profit. The plan was to become profitable by the end of summer 2021. When you look at it from that perspective we can be happy. But I believe we could have reached that milestone a few months earlier if it weren’t for the COVID pandemic. Of course, we have plans to reinvest the profits, but our pessimistic prediction is that we will return the initial investment by the end of 2022.
The end game? there is no end 🙂 I believe that the digital era is a perfect opportunity for a smaller sport like water polo to position itself even higher than it once was (in comparison to other sports). And I’m not talking about social media. We would like to make water polo the first sport which would combine e-sport and real-life sport. But first, we need to sort out some basics. Connect the water polo community, develop communication channels between all participants and define the development KPIs which will be measured.
I have also seen that you have your own sports brand Wear Waterpolo. What is the logical continuation for Total Waterpolo?
Wear Waterpolo is our webshop which we use to sell only water polo related equipment and merchandise. Besides our own Total Waterpolo brand, we will also sell curated products from other brands.
The idea to start our own brand came when we realized that none of the other brands are willing to pay for the advertising. So we decided to make the best water polo equipment available on the market. We invested a lot of time to find the best material, stitching technique, laces… Also, the customer support and the design process is a novelty on the market custom water polo team gear.
How important is media for a sport like water polo? Does our sport need media, like Total Waterpolo, in order to cross over to the mainstream, or do we need better players to attract more new eyes?
Find out more in the full article on dance.hr. #nopoolshit
