Former Tauranga pair taking the world by storm

If there's someone you need to seize the moment, then count on former Otumoetai College and Tauranga Boys' College student Peter Howell.
With his brother Brendan, he's led the charge for expansion of their EKEN power bands into the United States and New Zealand markets through chance meetings - even though they may have been discreetly staged.
Peter happened to be at the same Hollywood driving range as Thomas Nicholas, an American actor/musician, when Thomas was testing his golfing skills.
A mutual friend introduced them and they got talking. Peter gave Thomas the EKEN balance test wearing the power band and the actor, who plays Kevin Myers in the American Pie films, was impressed.
Now, EKEN Pty - established by the Howell brothers - is supplying custom-made power bands to Thomas with his band's TNB logo on them, and the band is selling them to their fans. It's handy promotion as TNB (Thomas Nicholas Band) does tours around the US and in Europe.
Then at a motorcycle trade show in Melbourne, Peter met a contact for Rockwell Time watches. Afterwards Peter flew to Salt Lake City to meet the Rockwell boss and tie up a deal to sell the power bands.
The bands are made of long-lasting, high-grade silicone and embedded with four nFIT holograms which are claimed to produce a double dose of frequencies that help keep the body in balance.
The brothers developed their own nano Frequency Infusion Technology (nFIT) for programming the EKEN holograms in their home base, Melbourne. The holograms are sent from the US, and the power bands are finally made in China.
"There's no supernatural stuff," said Peter. "The body can operate at lower or higher vibrations as a result of modern-day stresses [including using cellphones and computers], and the power bands bring you back to normal."
The world champion New Zealand Sevens and Hurricanes Super 15 rugby players have been running around wearing them. So has Australian rugby league star Billy Slater. They reckon the power bands help improve balance, strength, flexibility and endurance.
Rockwell Time sponsors 200 extreme sports events a year in motocross, supercross, skiing, uphill racing and mixed martial arts in the US, and it is advertising EKEN power bands on the side of one of its promotional trailers.
Out of the blue, the American Drag Racing League (ADRL) emailed EKEN and Peter flew to North Carolina to meet the organiser. Now EKEN is the official power band for the ADRL at each of its 13 events during the year that draw crowds of 70,000.
"The ADRL has 22 million hardcore fans and 70 million standard fans. In New Zealand and Australia, you have to target every sport but in the US you can capture a niche sports market that is bigger than the whole of the South Pacific."
Based on the US demand, EKEN has established a distribution warehouse in Los Angeles. "There's so much happening in the US," said Peter in Tauranga, before flying to Los Angeles the next morning to talk to a distributor about supplying the power bands to sports and health stores.
Top of the agenda was supplying a sports company that has a chain of 450 stores through the US.
Peter has also been invited on to the set of American Pie: The Reunion, which is being filmed in Atlanta and will screen in New Zealand next May.
EKEN will be sponsoring Thomas Nicholas and his band to Australia at the time and he will be talking Thomas into making an appearance in Tauranga for one night.
Funnily enough, it was in Florida where Peter organised the company's expansion in New Zealand. He was at the golf trade show in February and came across the buyer of accessories for Rebel Sports, which has half of the sports store market in New Zealand.
They made arrangements there and then, and the power bands are sold in Rebel's 31 stores throughout New Zealand. The Howell brothers' mother, Diane - who looks after the New Zealand operation - trains the Rebel staff on promoting and selling the power band.
Altogether, the power bands are stocked in 80 retail outlets in New Zealand, through sports shops, pharmacies and golf clubs.
The Howell brothers grew up in Tauranga and Brendan, now 34, became an aeronautical and electronics engineer, while Peter, 31, gained a Bachelor of Communication Studies majoring in marketing at Waikato University.
They both moved to Melbourne more than five years ago, first running health-food stores and then setting up EKEN two and half years ago. They supply 400 retail outlets in Australia, and as well as wholesaling the brothers have decided to move into direct retailing.
They are turning their health-food shop into the first EKEN concept store, fitting it with couches and Plasma TVs and selling sports nutrition products, the power bands and by the end of the year their own branded sports and streetwear, including caps, hoodies and T-shirts.
Billy Slater will be opening the concept store at the end of this month. One of the health supplements is Metabolica which comes in capsules and contains active ingredients such as selenium and green tea extract.
The supplement, which has been registered after a year's development, claims to assist in burning off body fat, through a process called thermogenesis. It may aid weight loss when combined with a calorie-controlled diet and healthy exercise programme.
EKEN is careful not to boost the health benefits of its power bands in advertising - unlike its competitor Power Balance Australia.
That company is now offering full refunds to customers after it was found to have "engaged in misleading conduct" by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Power Balance Australia, now in receivership, said in its advertising that its wristbands improved strength, balance and flexibility, and the company admitted there was no credible scientific evidence to support those claims.
"We can't make therapeutic claims," Peter said.