The Heat Is On

While the East Coast battles yet another snowstorm, Eddie Chen, 36, is sitting in his sunny Huntington Beach, California, office thrilled about this winter’s seemingly endless series of punches.

As CEO and founder of VentureHeat, this is his busiest season.

That’s because his company sells heated clothing and heat-therapy products to the tune of $3 million in annual revenues.

Leveraging a family connection in technology, Chen—an avid athlete who does everything from snowboarding to kayaking to skiing to soccer—wanted to find a way to stay warm while actively enjoying winter sports. “Even though I live in a warm climate, I’m sensitive to cold. When the temperature drops below 50 degrees, all of us on the West Coast put our coats on,” he says. “I recognized the value in having a light, stylish line of clothing that lets the wearer stay active no matter what how cold it gets.”

The concept seems simple, but it has years of Air Force research and private-sector engineering behind it. The clothing carries a lithium battery, which can plug into a charger similar to those used for cell phones. The coil-free innovation ensures that the apparel is lightweight but can stay warm through every activity the average outdoor enthusiast may be into.

It was not easy for Chen to get started in an industry dominated by such brands as North Face, Columbia, and a host of smaller outfits all vying for a share of the cold-weather-apparel market. North Face actually tested out a prototype collection last year, but it was quickly pulled, and Columbia uses a version of heated-apparel technology mostly in its outerwear.

But it’s perhaps a smaller, yet growing, label that Chen should watch closely: Uniqlo, which is offering outerwear that separates the "moisture" that wearers emit and traps it in airpocket that reacts with the sweat to create heat.

The Japanese brand is fast becoming a hit with Americans, as it offers trendy, fashionable clothes that retail at price points above those at H&M but below those of department stores. The biggest threat Uniqlo poses, though, may be its marketing. It has enlisted famous names, like Charlize Theron and new dad Orlando Bloom, to star in ad campaigns that are now gracing New York City subways and billboards at key cities—advertising Uniqlo's heat-producing apparel just as East Coast residents are suffering through a record winter.

Chen’s solution to the increased competition is twofold: One, a focus on quality and, two, working on his other growth business, which is heat-therapy products. Talking about his company’s venture into this new arena, designed for those who want to apply heat to sore muscles, Chen is fired up.

“Ultimately for me, being an entrepreneur is all about improving someone’s quality of life. And we realized that since weather is seasonal, we would have to develop another channel of revenue—one that would be a viable business proposition year-round,” he says. “And while the cold is subjective, pain is universal.”

His mission is to provide relief so that heat-therapy product users will not have to undergo invasive medical procedures. Not that Chen’s looking to replace doctors, or suggest that sports-medicine professionals and chiropractors aren’t eventually a key part in every active person’s life. “If you can feel better by having a heat wrap around your knees rather than go to the doctor, why wouldn’t you use it?” he asks.

And while Chen grows the therapy element of his business, he’s not ready to say farewell to the apparel and accessories line that has led him from the meager, 2-room condo where VentureHeat was born into nice offices and a position at the top of a multimillion-dollar business. “My only regret in becoming an entrepreneur right out of college, where I studied marketing, is that I didn’t get to experience some of the obstacles in running a business while being someone else’s employee,” Chen says. “But I don’t see myself working for someone else now. I like being in charge of my future.”

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Romy Ribitzky is an associate editor at Portfolio.com.