THE ACCIDENTAL ENTREPRENEUR

In honor of HPU’s 60th anniversary in September 2025, the University is highlighting alumni who exemplify its spirit around the world. Few capture that spirit better than Anthony Katz ‘03, whose leadership, creativity, and entrepreneurial drive showcase HPU’s legacy in action.

 

When HPU alumnus Anthony Katz ’03 turned 30 he had a vision for the nascent industry of sports recovery. One morning, he got in his car and drove to a wetsuit factory in Southern California with a pair of scissors, cutting neoprene into shapes that could fit around his knee. Katz was not starting a business, yet. He was just trying to keep up his basketball pickup games without feeling wrecked the next day.

“I made my prototype with the neoprene and wore it after basketball games at UC Irvine. One day, a friend asked me, ‘Where’d you get that? I just made it, I said.’” And that’s the moment when it clicked, Katz remembered, still a little surprised at his discovery more than a decade later.

That homemade ice wrap, part wetsuit sleeve, part medical bag, became the spark of Hyperice, Katz’s company now valued in the hundreds of millions and used by everyone from Kobe Bryant to Olympic skiers. In fact, Bryant became the first recipient of the Hyperice knee ice and compression wrap!

But Katz will be the first to tell you the truth: he wasn’t sure what he was making at the time, only that it would be the start of an incredible story. Katz grew up with his mother and father in the small town of Laguna Niguel, California, in the 80s and 90s, what he affectionally calls “pre-digital childhood.”

“We were the first generation with a computer in the house, but I didn’t get on the internet until my second year of college,” he said. “The social dynamic was different back then. We didn’t have digital identities. That came later, when we were all adults.”

Katz was raised in a middle-class home where college was non-negotiable. Sports, movies, and hip hop soundtracked his youth, but academics? Not early on. Not yet.

“I wasn’t a great student, but I loved history because it was storytelling,” Katz recalled. “History gave me a way to understand the world. People think being a history major is a handicap, but it actually armed me with the knowledge of how we all got here, and where we're going.”

Even then, Katz was unknowingly preparing to be a different kind of entrepreneur and founding president, one guided less by financial models and more by stories, patterns, and culture.

So, when it came time for college Katz and his best friend were both drawn to the magic and beauty of Hawai‘i. “I’m more into day life than nightlife. Playing sports, being outdoors, that’s what I’m into,” Katz said. “I visited Hawai‘i before and loved it. HPU felt like the perfect place to study and experience a whole new culture and lifestyle.”

He naturally chose history and earned his bachelor’s degree in 2003, crediting his educational growth to longtime HPU History Professor Jon Davidann, Ph.D. “Jon really mentored me,” says Katz , “and he pushed me to think critically, to see history not just as the past but as a guide for understanding the present.”

Decades later, Katz returned to Davidann’s classroom as part of the HPU Shark Ambassadors program via Alumni Career Connections, giving current students a chance to hear how a history degree helped him create and build a global brand. Students were enthralled by the experience, asking engaging questions and thinking critically about their own ideas and interests for the future.

After earning his degree from HPU, Katz became a high school history teacher and basketball coach. But turning 30 forced him to rethink his own health and recovery, and what the future holds for him in the new decade.

“I came up in what I call the ‘dark ages of fitness,’” he said with a laugh. “You’d go out, play hard, beat your body up, but there wasn’t much to help you recover. When you’re young, you feel invincible. At 30, I started wondering, how do the pros do it?”

He went home and did some research, soon realizing that the pros had massage therapists, cold tubs, and training rooms. Katz on the other hand… had scissors and a wetsuit sleeve, but he held the keys to a sports recovery revolution.

That improvisation and creative spark, much like Coltrane’s iconic fractal jazz solo on “Giant Steps,” immediately caught the attention of star athletes like Bryant. “I was friends with Kobe Bryant’s trainer, and that connection helped me get my first prototype into his hands,” Katz says.

By 2010, Hyperice was officially born.

What began as a single neoprene sleeve evolved into a suite of devices designed to help athletes move better, recover faster, and feel healthier. Early believers included Olympian Lindsey Vonn, NBA forward Blake Griffin, and NFL legend Troy Polamalu.

By 2020, Hyperice had acquired recovery tech company NormaTec, raised $48 million from investors (including the NBA and NFL), and was valued at $700 million.

Yet for Katz, the company’s story always circles back to the same point: curiosity. “I didn’t have business training, no product development background,” he says. “I was just trying to solve my own problem. The rest came because I kept following that curiosity.”

Katz admits that he is a different kind of president, one whose foundation is not an MBA, but a degree in liberal arts. That perspective for art and culture and history shapes everything, from how he tells Hyperice’s story to how he runs the company day-to-day.

“History teaches you patterns, cause and effect, how civilizations rise and fall,” he said. “That kind of thinking has guided me into the type of entrepreneur I want to be. Our mission is simple, to help everyone on Earth move better, live better, and be better. Over the last 10 years at Hyperice, we’ve worked tirelessly to push the boundaries of innovation, allowing people to keep moving the way they want to, when they want to.”

Once a brand for elite athletes, Hyperice now speaks to anyone who wants to feel their best, whether that’s a sprinter chasing a medal or someone easing the effects of long hours at a desk. In 2021, Fast Company named Hyperice one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, cementing its role as a pioneer in recovery technology.

“HPU gave me the chance to do something different, to learn and find myself in a culture that challenged me,” Katz said. “I tell students the same thing now. Embrace curiosity. Don’t worry about having the perfect plan. Just stay open, and you never know where it might take you. That out of the box mentality worked for me, and it will work for you too.”

As HPU celebrates 60 years, Katz’s vision captures what the University encourages in its students: curiosity that leads to discovery, and discovery that sparks change. From a neoprene sleeve to a global movement in recovery technology, Katz’s unique and inspiring journey is a reminder of how HPU alumni continue to shape the world one idea at a time.