Inside ROKiT: The revolutionary wireless partner of the Chargers

The Los Angeles Chargers announced a multi-year partnership with telecommunications brand, ROKiT, at the start of the 2018 season. We got our first glimpse into what the ROKiT brand is all about.

Covering LA Sports is an awesome opportunity and one that I am gracious for every day. In covering this massive market, I get daily emails about different brand partners and different Los Angeles events from PR agencies hoping to spread the word. Of all these emails, the email I received from ROKiT, the wireless partner of the Los Angeles Chargers, stuck out the most.

Most of these emails have the same sort of feel. Company A wants to promote X, Y and Z and wants you to come out and tell people why Company A is so incredible.

There is nothing wrong with that. There is a reason that companies hire public relation firms to spread the word.

This email was different. While the goal of any PR firm is to gain exposure, this email was more focused on the event that ROKiT and the Los Angeles Chargers were holding on Tuesday, not the various different cell phones that the company offers.

This was not a pitch to come try a new phone or to promote said phone in a tweet. This was a pitch to come see the good that has come out of the ROKiT-Chargers partnership and to understand the core values of the company that sponsors the Chargers’ field at the StubHub Center.

On Nov. 13, ROKiT and the Chargers sponsored a Thanksgiving Dinner for the Veterans Advocacy Group of America. Charger players Cardale Jones, Artavis Scott and Virgil Green joined Shawne Merriman and John Spanos in serving veterans an early Thanksgiving Dinner alongside the brass at ROKiT.

While I did not get a chance to attend the event itself (the cons of still being a college student), I did get an opportunity to talk to Clinton Ehrlich, the Chief Marketing Officer of ROKiT, before Sunday’s game at the StubHub Center.

"“We really want people to know who we are and what we stand for,” Ehrlich said. “I think once you understand who ROKiT is as a company and what we believe in, you will either buy our product or you won’t but at least you will know what we stand in.”"

ROKiT did not force young interns to do all the heavy lifting of this event. The most powerful people in the company took time out of their day to serve dinner to veterans and give inspiration to those in attendance. This included ROKiT co-founder, John Paul DeJoria.

DeJoria served in the United States Navy and spoke at the event alongside Chargers President John Spanos. DeJoria has personal experience being a homeless veteran and hammered home that even when you are at your absolute worst, you are still looking up.

Wise words from a philanthropist that has been there and done that and has done his fair share of helping veteran groups.

ROKiT gave out 150 phones that night that were packed with a year of calling and text as well as a year of telemedicine. Telemedicine allows users to call a medical professional for a potential diagnosis instead of spending hours at the emergency room.

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If it is something that the medical professional can determine over the phone, users will either get a course of action to improve symptoms as well as doctor prescriptions. ROKiT also helped pay for those veterans to get up to 75 percent off of said prescriptions.

ROKiT is also the jersey sponsor for the Houston Rockets and helped rebuild flooded homes for veterans that were affected by Hurricane Harvey. These are services outside of the phone company that showcases that mission at ROKiT.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for what ROKiT has given back and plans to give back.

As for the connection with the Chargers, the team partnered with Derwin James in an effort to give back to the LA community, starting with a pretty awesome collaboration with Jonas Never (the artist behind the infamous LeBron James mural) to give James his own Mural.

It took Ehrlich over 30 minutes to start talking about the product itself. It was clear that ROKiT’s entire goal is to spread the company’s message first and sell the product later.

As for the product itself, ROKiT has five models that have been sold out in the preorder. This includes with what Ehrlich called a “candy bar phone,” a flip phone, a touch-screen smartphone and two different 3D models.

Not only is ROKiT in the process of creating its own 3D content for the 3D phones, but the phones themselves are not expensive compared to the rest of the market. The cheapest ROKiT phone is $35, the most expensive is only $279.

The top end phone, the ROKiT IO 3D Pro, has HD plus glass, an 8.2-megapixel camera, dual-sided cameras, can shoot 3D videos and, like every single ROKiT phone, comes with a year of wifi-enabled calling as well as the telemedicine service.

ROKiT also offers users other plans ranging from roadside assistance to a “contingency plan” for things such as identity theft for a small monthly fee.

Everything the team at ROKiT has designed about these phones is meant to be useful to the user. Instead of giving users a year free of cellular data on Pokemon: Go, the company is giving customers things that can better their own lives. The goal is to make money but to make money to help humanity.

"“Yes, we actually do want to make money. But we don’t want to charge $1,000 for a phone when we can charge $200. The more we make the more we can give back, not the more Ferraris we can drive. That is compassionate capitalism,” Ehrlich said."

Compassionate capitalism.

Not only does ROKiT talk the talk and walk the walk when it comes to hosting charitable events, the products that the company sells directly correlates to the company’s mission as a humanity-first telecommunication company.

I would not have written 1,000 words if I did not truly believe in ROKiT’s mission and the products that Ehrlich described to me. I know it is hard to get lost in what is genuine and what is not when it comes to products and partnerships like this.

This review is as genuine as the people over at ROKiT. The Los Angeles Chargers truly found a great partner to grow with as the franchise becomes accustomed to the Los Angeles market.

For more information on ROKiT, you can visit the website here as well as follow the company on Twitter, @rokitofficial.