​Local athlete Shane McCarthy now making name for himself outside the boxing ring

Shane McCarthy, Canada’s recently-crowned national boxing champion, is making a name for himself outside the ring.

Born and raised in Ripley and Kincardine, the 24-year-old lives in London and has just graduated from Western University with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Back in November, he won the Canadian Boxing Championship in the Elite Cruiser Weight Division for ages 19 and older.

Now, he has emerged as a promising entrepreneur through several initiatives at the Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship Powered by Ivey, culminating in the Entrepreneurial Summer Internship (ESI).

“My goal was to have my company, Drago Boxing, fully launched and generating revenue from its first product by the last day of this internship (July 30),” said McCarthy, “and I’m right on track to do that.”

The route from intriguing idea to viable business model can be packed with pitfalls, ranging from limited resources to steep learning curves. McCarthy also encountered quality control issues in his first business venture in 2024 with his best friend, Luke Richardson. After initially selling boxing gear sourced offshore, they decided that creating a product at home would ensure its reliability and consistency.

“I knew boxing was my passion, but I also knew there’s not much money in it unless you’re a top professional, so I decided to build a business around it,” said McCarthy.

For student-led start-ups like McCarthy’s, Morrissette smooths their entrepreneurial journey with funding, mentorship, training and in-house production. In 2024, McCarthy applied for one of its funding opportunities, and was accepted in the Start-up Challenge, an incubator that takes aspiring entrepreneurs from idea to pitch through a five-week program. 

McCarthy’s first step was identifying a real problem. He found it in a daily issue dealing with his hand wraps, the essential protective gear used by boxers and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters to protect their hands from injuries to the small bones, tendons and ligaments.

“The wraps end up in a tangled, sweaty heap after they’re removed and are difficult to handle,” said McCarthy. “Rolling them is a time-consuming hassle and hanging them to air dry can be difficult because their length prevents them from lying flat.”

The advisors at Morrissette Entrepreneurship encouraged him to validate that problem, so he visited several area gyms, including Boomerz Boxing Club in London, where he trains, to ask fighters for their experience. He wasn’t alone in either the inconvenience of wrap management, or difficulty in finding an effective solution.

“The other products I tested only rolled one wrap at a time, so I built my own dual roller prototype using metal brackets, tape and a coat hanger as a crank,” said McCarthy. “It looked rough but it worked.” 

The device really took shape when his advisors helped him create a CAD (compared-aided design) model and then a 3-D printed version. McCarthy produced a sturdy Dual Wrap Roller that quickly rolls two wraps at once and can be mounted over a door to hang wraps to dry.
 

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The Drago Boxing Dual Wrap Roller was 3-D printed at Morrissette Entrepreneurship; photo by Colleen MacDonald/Western News

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McCarthy won the Start-up Challenge with his prototype, along with $1,500, setting off a whirlwind succession of triumphs. Just a week later, he won the national championship.

Amid the intensity of exams in December, and buoyed by his Start-up Challenge experience, he poured more energy into refining his CAD model and 3-D-printed updates, earning an invitation to the Ivey Business Plan Competition in January – on short notice.
 
“I’m extremely grateful,” he said. “It gave me the time and funding to keep working on the business after graduation.”

The ESI program is primarily open to current Western students and includes funding, mentorship, training and access to prototyping tools to help students advance their business ideas. Western alumni – regardless of when they graduated – can also access a similar program through the Western Accelerator offered each fall and winter semester.

The three-month ESI program has allowed McCarthy to take his product from prototype to market. He credits the support from Morrissette advisors and mentors for building his confidence and business acumen.

“Matt Travis, who ran the Start-up Challenge, pushed me to keep meeting with people and gather real feedback,” he said. “That led to small, but important, changes. Almost everything I’ve updated in the design came from user feedback.”



Shane McCarthy sits in the maker space at Western University’s Ronald D. Schmeichel Building at Morrissette Entrepreneurship, where he 3-D printed his Dual Wrap Wrap Roller; photo by Colleen MacDonald/Western News

The production of McCarthy’s Dual Wrap Roller was refined further with valuable manufacturing mentorship from Domenic Cecol, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, as well as Jaymie Crook, another Entrepreneur-in-Residence who owns two London businesses.

Crook offered McCarthy direction that helped him think through his challenges and opportunities and develop plans for scaling up his business in the future.

With 30 years of business experience and an established network of contacts, Crook was able to connect McCarthy with a website developer well-versed in organic search, along with engineers who could provide design and production advice for his product. He’s proud to play a role in supporting early-stage entrepreneurs.

McCarthy’s Dual Wrap Roller has a finalized design, patent filings, shipping systems and marketing all in place. He plans to run Drago Boxing full-time with his friend, Richardson, selling his rollers through social media and direct-to-consumer channels, while training daily in pursuit of a spot at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“Morrissette Entrepreneurship helped me turn my passion for boxing into a real, viable business,” he said.

To read the entire story by Colleen MacDonald of Western News, click here: news.westernu.ca/2025/07/boxer-entrepreneur-shane-mccarthy/.

-- Published with permission