When Matt Garfield wanted to spread the word about his new line of Captivate Athletics clothing he turned to members of football’s tight-knit community.

The young entrepreneur has since gained some major yardage thanks to the exposure his “brand ambassadors” have helped him spread in cities across the Canadian Football League.

Garfield already had his clothing aspirations in mind before he graduated in 2015 from Grant Park High School, where he also played football.

“This was something I was really into, but there really wasn’t much of a market when I first thought of the idea in 2014,” said Garfield, who turns 19 next month. “Then I saw a couple of bigger brands emerging and realized I could get the distributors at the level I was at.”

Garfield gained some valuable insight from an uncle who had connections in the clothing industry and got the ball rolling on Captivate Athletics by November 2015. He negotiated a deal with an overseas manufacturer that he said can’t be identified due to a privacy policy.

“The margins and everything looked good, so I thought I would take the risk,” he said. “I was working on a website, product and logo design, then finalized everything in early 2016.”

A second-year kinesiology student at University of Manitoba, Garfield conceded he was a bit naive when it came to introducing his clothing line to prospective clients.

“The biggest challenge has been in spreading the word,” he said. “We went out to an event when we first launched and didn’t do as well as we wanted to, but then once we brought it online (captivateathletics.com) it really started emerging with our brand ambassadors.”

Those ambassadors came in the form of CFL players with ties to Winnipeg. The first was Blue Bomber defensive back, Teague Sherman, a former Manitoba Bison. Garfield met Sherman when he had a brief stint with the Bisons.

Sherman connected Garfield with fellow former Bisons, including Nic Demski (Saskatchewan Roughriders), Mike Benson (BC Lions) and Kienan Lafrance (Ottawa Redblacks). It won’t hurt Captivate Athletics’ image that Lafrance was the talk of the league following the running back’s performance in last weekend’s East final.

“I’ve always been into fitness apparel and performance gear from my background in football,” Garfield said. “I work at SportChek as well, so I’m around that kind of product all the time.”

Garfield officially launched Captivate Athletics on May 21 by releasing three signature performance shirts with great success.

“They were a big hit and we’ve since sold out about 95% of that product,” he said, adding he later released two tank tops and three pairs of joggers that have also been well received.

“We are restocking our sold-out joggers in early December and will be releasing a fleece hoodie and casual wear shirts in early 2017,” Garfield said.

“People are drawn to the quality and amazed by the blends that we’ve done with the fabrics and the quality of printing that we can do.”

Garfield has a few people helping him with website design, social media and marketing. He particularly needed their assistance by July when he started receiving bulk orders for his affordably priced items.

Garfield’s demographic is mainly 16- to 28-year-old males, but he’s hoping to expand the line with products for women next year.

Garfield has shipped items to clients in seven provinces across Canada, as well as Minnesota, and is interested in “venturing into a physical space” down the road, but he’s content to operate online until the time is right.