by request of Mountain Equipment Co-op.” The Trail Blazer Jumbo Anvil Ratchet Lopper was awarded Best New Product of the 2008 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. “This was probably the product that really got us going strong in the States,” Shawn acknowledges. “It’s so unique and yet it’s a product style they’re used to.”
Each time Curtis and Shawn introduce a new product to market, they hear the same reaction: “I can’t believe no one has thought of this before.” Maybe they just weren’t listening.
During the first five years, Curtis and Shawn made quite a name for themselves in sporting goods circles. “We picked up L.L.Bean, REI, Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops—quite a few sporting good accounts,” says Shawn. “But we never were accepted in lawn and garden because we just didn’t have a large enough assortment to compete with the competition.” This presented a whole new challenge. There wasn’t a customer problem to solve or a need to meet. In fact, as Shawn points out, “in our industry, the lawn and garden industry, if you go out and you look at all our competition’s garden tools, really they’re all the same thing. It’s just all price driven.”
That didn’t sit well with Curtis and Shawn. After a bit of deliberation, they realized that though they might not be able to build a better garden tool, they could build the best—by combining all that was good of what was already out there.
“We couldn’t just do something the same as somebody else,” Shawn explains. “Some changes have been very minor. But I think you’ve got to be different.” They tried their competitor’s tools in the garden and took them out into the woods. They wrote down everything they liked about each tool. Then they ingeniously designed their products to include and build upon those features. “For about three years,” Shawn recalls, “I just stopped selling and I focused on building the product. We actually had one year there with only 6% growth, our lowest growth year ever. But it was because we were so focused on building products.” Trail Blazer now has over 100 products. And each one has a reason.
So, here’s where things get a little different. After all, there are lots of inventive people out there with great ideas who have a hard time making a business of it. What Curtis and Shawn have going for them is time- honoured survival wisdom: you must balance boldness and humility. Pursue your goals with passion while also being open to what the world can teach you. Don’t let your pride in your own ingenuity cloud your judgement. “When we launch 30 products, we hope eight of them stick,” Shawn illustrates. “We’re proud of all of them but if they don’t stick, if the customers don’t react to them, we just move on. We don’t keep the slow movers because they just tie up our production.