10 BUSINESS WOMEN SCOTLAND profiles
FitSip
From nourishing people with their own brand of organic soups and sauces, to
hydrating the world’s runners, it’s been quite a journey for Belinda Goldsmith and
Christine Manson. However, following a rigorous development process for their
product FitSip, they are now setting the pace in the sector with a completely new
product, a hydration armband for runners who don’t like to carry water when they run.
L
ong-time business partners, Belinda
and Christine, were formerly owners
of a successful organic sauce and soup
range. But while she was running in
the hills one day, Christine spotted a
potential niche in the fitness gadget
market for a wearable water bottle.
“I had my water with me as well as a small
wristband and I thought: ‘wouldn’t that be great if I
could have some water in the band?’ I took the idea
to Belinda who quickly saw the potential for a new
product so we started developing FitSip together.
Every product we’ve come up with has grown from
addressing a problem we’ve faced in our own lives
or hobbies or in our sport, and that’s often where
the best ideas come from.”
Belinda adds that the experience of running a
successful company with Christine over the last
10 years, even though it was in the food industry,
stood them in good stead. “With our Simply Organic
brand, we were the first company to make and
market organic soup. It sounds very obvious now,
but in the late 1990s, if you wanted organic soup,
you had to make it yourself. We ended up supplying
all the major supermarkets.”
Despite their previous experience and impressive
business acumen, the two entrepreneurs found
that nothing could prepare them for the process of
prototyping, which they quickly realised was more
of a marathon than a sprint, explained Belinda.
“Prototyping was a lot harder than making
recipes for soup because we were creating FitSip
from scratch. Nothing like FitSip existed and we
didn’t even know what materials the different
components should be made from, so it was difficult
to know where even to start. While we made the
fabric armband ourselves – with a lot of trial and
error - coming up with a functioning prototype
bladder, refill cap and bite valve was more of a
challenge. It was all a bit ‘Heath Robinson’, with
the components of early prototypes stuck on with
super-glue or sealed with a hot iron!”
For the innovative bite valve, they found
assistance from Clark and Gregory Campbell from
CA Models in Stirling, who make prototypes for
formula one racing cars and the aerospace industry.
They also received invaluable support from Scottish
Enterprise, Glasgow University and also from
engineers in industry who they had worked with in
their previous business.
“Sometimes it is difficult to know exactly who
to approach for help. Being able to work with
engineers was extremely useful for us as they were
able to rule out a few of our ideas which is just as
important as verifying them.”
Once Christine and Belinda created their
prototype Scottish Enterprise were also able to advise
them on intellectual property (IP) through
an Intellectual Assets audit, to ensure FitSip
wasn’t infringing on anyone else’s patents or
Name: Belinda Goldsmith and Christine Manson
Company: FitSip
Location: Glasgow
www.fitsip.com