Season Three pitchers EcoTraction will supply the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games with their environmentally friendly alternative to road salt. As outlined in a recent article in the Ottawa Citizen, company founder Mark Watson is hoping that their presence at the Winter Games will help raise the profile of their product.

"We've been working for the last three years to try and position ourselves to be part of that," Watson told the Citizen.

When one of their commercial distributors, Acklands Grainger became an official sponsor of the Olympics, EcoTraction qualified to be used because of the green mandate of the games. "There have been actual protests in B.C. over the predicted increases in the use of salt," Watson explained to the Citizen. "So Acklands did their research and determined that of all their products, ours was the greenest and the safest and the best value for the Vancouver Olympic Committee."

In the Den, EcoTraction struck a deal with Brett Wilson and according to Watson it has been a great partnership, Wilson invested more money in the company after the show aired.

The Ottawa Citizen article outlines that when EcoTraction came out in 2005, it was only available in 12 stores around Watson's Ottawa neighbourhood. Over the last few years EcoTraction's market penetration has grown dramatically and it's now available nationwide in over 4000 stores.

Posted on Jan 15, 2010 2:06:00 PM