Guy Sako, founder and CEO of Defense Soap, was inducted into the Ohio chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for the Lifetime Service to Wrestling Award. It is a recognition that reflects not just what he built as a businessman, but what he has given to the sport over the course of more than four decades on the mat.
The Wrestler and the Coach
Guy began wrestling at age 10 and competed through his senior year at Cleveland State University, where he was an NCAA qualifier. After his wrestling career ended he moved into coaching, first at Cleveland State for three years, then at the youth level where he has remained ever since. He has served as head coach at Westshore Wrestling Club for nearly 36 years, building a program that serves as a primary feeder to St. Edward High School. Alongside his work in wrestling, Guy served as a Cleveland Police Officer for 25 years before retiring in June 2015.
The Problem That Started Everything
Defense Soap did not begin as a business idea. It began as a problem Guy could not ignore. After his youth wrestling team suffered nearly 100 cases of ringworm in a single season, he set out to find a soap that would actually protect his athletes. What he found when he started researching commercial soap brands stopped him cold. The most widely used antibacterial active ingredient at the time was triclosan, classified as a pesticide by the FDA. He went looking for something better.
His research led him to tea tree and eucalyptus essential oils, both of which have well-documented natural antimicrobial properties. He found a local soapmaker through a Google search, worked with her through several iterations of the formula, and started distributing soap to his wrestlers while educating the program on proper showering technique and hygiene routines. The season that followed saw approximately a 90% drop in skin infection cases. Defense Soap had proven itself before it was ever a company.
From 100 Bars to 100,000
Demand grew faster than supply. Guy was selling soap out of a small cooler at wrestling tournaments because coaches and parents were approaching him at every event his team competed at. The local soapmaker could not keep up. He found a national manufacturing partner, a relationship that has now spanned nearly two decades, and the scale of production has grown accordingly. Defense Soap now produces 100,000 bars in a single batch. The triple-milling process and the ingredient standards have not changed since the first 100 bars.
As the product line expanded, Guy made a commitment to source pharmaceutical-grade essential oils across the entire line. That was not a business decision driven by marketing. It was a quality decision rooted in the same principle that started the company: use the best ingredients available, or do not use them at all. Every Defense Soap product carries a 100% money-back guarantee, not as a sales tactic but as a reflection of genuine confidence in what is in the bottle.
What the Award Reflects
The Lifetime Service to Wrestling Award recognizes people who have given sustained, meaningful contributions to the sport beyond their time competing. For Guy, that contribution runs in two directions at once. Nearly 36 years of youth coaching at Westshore, developing wrestlers who have gone on to compete at the highest levels. And two decades of work protecting those same athletes from the skin infections that have plagued wrestling rooms for generations.
Guy has never measured the success of Defense Soap in revenue. He measures it in the stories that come across his desk: the wrestler who stayed healthy through a full season, the coach who stopped seeing ringworm outbreaks in the room, the person dealing with a chronic skin condition who found something that finally worked. Those outcomes are what the company was built for, and they are what this recognition is really about.
The $5.99 price of the original Defense Bar Soap has not changed since the beginning. Growing up in Wellington, Ohio, Guy's youth wrestling club fees were $6.00 for the year, the limit his family could afford. That number has stayed with him. It always will.