PPB January 2020

NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Mook Print & Design PPAI 733445 Moonlitetees.Com By Gray Creations, LLC PPAI 763906 My Professional Uniforms PPAI 758278 Northwest Apparel Industries PPAI 771935 One Moore Embroidery Place PPAI 379863 Pepstep Promotions, LLC PPAI 771335 Personalized Touch PPAI 770920 Pica Marketing Group PPAI 394875 Pickens Technical College PPAI 771762 Pink Cow Media Group PPAI 772508 PLTees PPAI 770780 Potent Promo’s PPAI 730456 Print This PPAI 770956 Printstrata PPAI 769477 Proforma LaDuke PPAI 629924 Promo Plus PPAI 770830 Properly Marked PPAI 769902 Quality Stitch PPAI 254294 R & S Graphics, Inc. PPAI 772336 Regency Business Solutions PPAI 436730 Rizen Industries PPAI 770315 Screen Magic PPAI 769853 Seven Brighter Marketing PPAI 620138 Shop 2 Shore PPAI 769796 Shwag, Inc. PPAI 228780 Signs By Tomorrow PPAI 770949 SignSmiths of Texas, LLC PPAI 770677 Simplifi Studios PPAI 769695 Social Brands Agency PPAI 766987 SOUTHERN EMBLEM, INC. PPAI 313315 Sports Impressions PPAI 276127 How did the company get its start? Leading his group of Outward Bound students through the Colorado backcountry, Rob Hart wondered why he didn’t have something better to sit on than a fallen log or tree stump. One night, the proverbial “light” flickered on and he remembered an old wood and canvas canoe chair that his grandfather had used on camping trips. Hart and his girlfriend Louise ‘Weezie’ Chandler, a fellow Outward Bound instructor, took that basic chair concept, updated it with modern materials and tested it through countless prototypes over many months. Finally, the Original Chair was born. Together, Rob and Weezie toiled away in the attic of their house in Red Lodge, Montana, cutting fabric, sewing chairs and selling them one by one out of the back of their car. The chair was selling so well that in 1987 Hart and Chandler officially started Crazy Creek Products. With two used industrial sewing machines, they opened their first office/production facility—a cramped basement with overly tight, steep stairs in a small redbrick building in Red Lodge. Soon thereafter, Hart hired his friend John Elsberry to serve as the company’s business manager. In 2009, tragedy struck when Hart was killed in a ski accident. Elsberry, who after leaving Crazy Creek in 2000 had started his own company, Business Support Services, also in Red Lodge, stepped forward to help operate Crazy Creek for Hart’s family. Over the course of the following year, Elsberry and his wife Kim became convinced that Crazy Creek was a worthy enterprise that needed to remain in Red Lodge and they decided to acquire the company. Crazy Creek’s tag line says, “Creating Comfortable Products for the Outdoors,” and it produces products that enhance outdoor experiences for hikers, backpackers, fishermen, soccer moms/dads, stadiums, RVs, festivals, picnics, etc. What led the company to enter the promotional products market? We have had a lot of requests for companies to put their logo on our chairs as the chairs last so long they felt it was a great product to advertise on. We have done chairs for Pabst Blue Ribbon and New Belgium Brewery. It is a great outdoor product that is long-lasting and promotes people getting outside or to sporting events. What’s your favorite thing about being in the promotional products industry? It’s such a different market than the outdoor industry. In the outdoor industry we are like the Kleenex to outdoor camping/stadium chairs. Everyone knows Crazy Creek in the outdoor industry but when I talk to people in the promotional industry, they haven’t heard of us unless they attended summer camp. It is fun to teach them about our product that has been on the market for over 30 years. Why did you join PPAI? We explored a few organizations and the responses I received from people in the industry said that PPAI is the place to be. We decided to give it a try and see if it is a good fit for us. We hope that attending the show in Las Vegas will introduce us to new clients. Chelsea Emery Sales Manager Crazy Creek Products Red Lodge, Montana PPAI 561085, S1 | JANUARY 2020 | 127 CONNECT