Simon Mellor founded Grittyco, LLC in 2006 with the vision of bridging the gap between the marketing objectives of non-endemic companies and the rapidly evolving youth market. Simon’s experience spans 15 years in grassroots promotions and partnerships targeting the youth, sports and lifestyle culture. He has a background in skate, surf, music and snowboarding along with a B.S. in business administration and a B.A. in psychology from S.U.N.Y. Oswego.

Simon developed the SoBe Beverages athlete program in 2000 and has managed the Team for ten years. Simon/SoBe are responsible for signing and sponsoring the youngest X Games gold medalists in three different disciplines: Ryan Sheckler (skate), Travis Pastrana (FMX) and Philip Soven (wakeboarding). Simon Mellor also has a solid history with world class veterans Laird Hamilton, John Daly, Bode Miller and Gabby Reese.

Apart from solely “managing” a successful team, Simon leveraged the athletes and executed sales-driving programs to build awareness for the SoBe brand. He understands the importance of working with national and regional sales teams to create athlete meet & greet sessions, incentive programs and POS opportunities to fully integrate and activate the SoBe Team.

Prior to working with SoBe, he was considered the “Youth Marketing Specialist” at EMP, Santa Monica (since acquired). While working with EMP, Inc. Mellor concentrated on youth marketing for the Gatorade, Sony Playstation, Pepsi, Kellogg’s and Kraft accounts. He led the design and promotional execution of new product launches as well as managing multiple events and promotions, including mobile tours, retail programs and event sponsorship.

In 1997/98 Simon directed management of the American Snowboard Tour, a five-stop tour televised on Fox Sports where he tackled all athlete relations, client/sponsor contact, course operations, contest judging, logistics and competition management.

Filling in his early career at Silverback Creative, Simon was at the forefront of the “guerilla marketing” movement as he spearheaded the set up and product launches for both Snapple and Nescafe in San Francisco and New York City. Here, he was in charge of the entire program activation, market research, and street teams management.