Inspiration is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

So, I was trolling online as I usually do and I stumbled on a website by January Holmes, and these three mock advertisements of the Roddler she took the liberty to piece together. We didn’t solicit or authorize the work, and it is clearly a school project or something to that effect…but still, your first first reaction definitely has to be WTF?! When I got to thinking about it, having inspired January to take the time to create the pieces was pretty awesome. I mean, its not like she is trying to profit from our idea by knocking us off (which is hardly the flattering side of imitation) she was inspired by us! And this stuff takes a lot of time, just cropping around the wheel spokes is a chore that Joe will still cry about. Anyways, so, while the ads are not really how we want our product portrayed, its pretty good stuff. We bet she will have a promising future.

 

Kid Kustoms on E! – Blinging Up Baby, The Roddler Way

Despite the fact we have been running a muck, we have always had a little je ne sais quoi when it comes to the media and Hollywood scene. We are admittedly a bit of a head turner and we have a laundry list of celebrity followers, so it garners some unsolicited attention. We are finally coming to our own and got a nice call from a girl from the E! channel and she wanted to feature us on the show Blinging Up Baby. We graciously accepted her offer and here you have it, the fruits of our labor on prime time TV. Seeing you invention aired never gets old, but the next chapters will be the ones that will truly define us. 

Kid Kustoms and The Elephant in the Room

I know and fully understand, we’d better have a really good excuse where the heck we’ve been for so long. We are certainly not short of news, mostly just short on time, juggling all sorts of balls that were not our own. There is no denying there is an elephant in the room and its is bigger and bolder than Banky’s at the Barely Legal show. There is a new Roddler on the way…Model V. Made the way it should have been and priced to be accessible. We couldn’t be any happier with the progress and platform and will be excited to share more news along the way. If everything folds and unfolds as it should, we will be ready for re-launch by the end of fall. Stay tuned,  we are back bolder and better than before!

Baby Daddy Makes the Roddler the Big Daddy for a Day

A few months ago we were given the official notice that we were going to be featured on ABC Family’s new hit series, Baby Daddy. It was hard to contain ourselves for so long, especially when we were dying to share more information on the kind of type casting that was going on.

When it comes to press features and product placement, let me start of by quantifying the levels of coolness so we can have a better grasp at rating how impactful this type of marketing should be. We can use the standard 1-10 scale with 10 being and off the charts kind of opportunity. A really good feature in a magazine with real circulation, maybe a 3 or 4. An a-list celebrity being caught with your product, give that a 5 or 6. A TV feature; well prime-time is hard to come by so lets go up a notch to an 8 or 9. Think about it, a TV endorsement was the kind of stuff that made Bugaboo a household name. What the heck is a 10 then? A custom model for the Queen?? Well, how about a 30 minute episode of a hit series on prime time TV being written entirely about how your product imparts “stroller confidence”.

You can’t make this up, and you can’t buy it unless your someone we’re not. From the very first scene of the show where it panned slowly over “the Roddler” chrome badge on the fender to every other cameo appearance, the plot had become how our stroller was the ultimate tool for picking up hot women. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out how the Roddler was gliding around,  in and out of tight spaces with the utmost of ease. Anyways, to put the cherry on top, the cast and crew were about the coolest bunch of people you will meet. They were grateful to have our help to get them a Roddler (thanks again Mad Mike!) and we’re not entirely sure how to contain the excitement or return the thanks.

Check out the ABC Family Baby Daddy site for more show highlights >> HERE

or, click HEREto watch us in a trailer from the show

The Roddler, Re-Invented; Act 2_scene 2

Livermore, California // April 23rd, 2007

My high school motto was ‘dont just do it, do it justice’. It used to be printed it on the back of our gym shirts, and since I was a little heavy in grade 7, I saw the back of a lot of gym shirts. I guess it stuck with me because the older I got, the more I started to realize that it is really hard to do everything the justice it deserves. There is just too much to do, so you have to pick your  battles. There are also those people who are fine with the idea of coasting through life just doing enough to get by. That is not our modus operandi, we are more to the other extreme – if you’re going to do it, go balls to the wall. The Roddler being the perfect example.

We already admitted that our concept to redesign a stroller was a lofty one. So, when we set sail on this adventure, we didnt exactly pack a life jacket, or a lunch for that matter. We just decided that its time so there was no margin for error. That is why when our first Roddler came out exactly as it was designed, we scrapped it and started again 3 more times. The second design was arguable the most influential and certainly the one that set us on course. It is still being circulated online as some new product design and in every instance we wish we could tell the rest of the story.

I guess when you dont have kids, it is really easy to design something for kids that is pretty cool. It is hard not to have any design sense polluted by the amount of useless and ill-conceived products that make it to the shelf. Everything looks like it is made for your kids to play with or at the very least with no consideration to what Dad is going to do. It is no wonder why fathers  tend to feel alienated when baby comes along, we get a couple weeks to figure out what’s going on and back to work. The evolution from Baby Bomber to Roddler was the result of us making the journey into the kiddie world without losing focus on our original vision, which was to make a really cool product that dad can connect with too. It was still clear that a slammed stroller with the wheelbase and width of a Harley wasn’t going to help sell mom. So we made some compromises that we thought we were the answer. We pearlized the paint, added the turning wheel and boom, ready to roll. Holy crap, now that mom got a kick out of it, we forgot that you actually need to push a kid…

The Ultimate Indulgence

We’ve already been undergoing a refreshing change from business as usual. Summer is only a few weeks away and there is already a palpable hue of anticipation. We can’t seem to put our finger on what is bringing on the renaissance, but it’s more then just Hollywood getting in the mix .

Indulge Magazine from Fort Worth casually reached out to offer us an incredible shout out in an article they were running on luxury strollers.  We were really not expecting a solo, but we’re also not stopping to ask where the other strollers disappeared to from the feature. It sure cleared out a lot of space for a stark white background, contrasted by some glimmering complements and images of the Roddler, Trike and Buddy Wagon in all their glory. I been to Ft. Worth a few times and have still never figured out how Texas is not one of our bigger markets. Maybe a full page feature in one of their top design magazines might help. Pleasant surprises don’t need to come with an explanation, but holy moly I didn’t see that coming.

ABC’s Baby Daddy Scripts the Roddler a Love Scene

Excited can’t begin to explain the myriad of emotions you feel when you get a call that you’ve been casted in a TV show, and it was unsolicited. We’ve been blessed by Hollywood before but this kind of typecasting opportunity is a little more then a pleasant surprise. There isn’t that much we can divulge about this beyond what we have in the title, but what we can say with certainty is we could not have scripted ourselves a better role for our cameo appearance.  It is definitely going to be worth watching and puts the cherry on top of the message we’ve always been hoping to covey about our pride and joy.

Calling “Baby Daddy” their highest testing comedy pilot ever, ABC Family’s new sitcom premieres on Wednesday, June 20^th at 8:30PM ET. From executive producer Dan Berendsen (“The Nine Lives of Chloe King,” “Sabrina, The Teenage Witch” and “Hannah Montana: The Movie”), the series is about a young man (Jean-Luc Bilodeau) who becomes a surprise dad to a baby girl when she’s left on his doorstep by an ex-girlfriend. He decides to raise the baby with the help of his mother (Melissa Peterman), his brother (Derek Theler), his best buddy Tucker (Tahj Mowry) and his close female friend, Riley (Chelsea Kane), who is harboring a secret crush on him.

Click the image below for more details on the cast and schedule from the show’s official site.

Rocking Lebron’s Roddler at the Grand Nationals; Act 3_scene 4

Pomona,CA  //January 23rd, 2008

After months of grinding the pavement and some very large chucks of ABS plastic, the third iteration of the Roddler was born. Joe and I have thrown everything but the kitchen sinks into our business and we were set to make our mark. We had lined up an investor meeting, an interview with TV Guide, and a booth at the Grand National Roadster Show. All this and we were to be toting around Lebron James personal Roddler and set to hand off before we head home. It was going to be a marketing weekend of epic proportions.

I was on a plane back out west, with butterflies in my stomach and our new potential suitor sitting next to me. I knew that what would happen in over the next 4 days would seal our fate. Most of the hype we had generated to this point was emanating from our launch at the first Kids Expo, so this type of press was even new to us.

DAY1:

Given the fact we were working from lap top bags and Blackberrys, Joe rented and converted the conference room of a hotel into our showroom. An hour past the start of the meeting, I’ve detailed the nuts and bolts of the business and there was no more drinks or lip service that I could offer that would cut the tension in the room. There was no Roddler on site, just a bunch of parts, printed pictures and flyers. I had never even seen a picture of what Joe was working on so I was working on blind faith. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Steph roll in, pushing Lebron’s Roddler with 13 fresh coats of clear and a newly programmed GPS unit. Meeting adjourned. Money on route, on to the next stop.

DAY 2:

After processing the insane reality that we were about to make a business of the monster we’d created, we were set to embark on a blissful weekend to tell the world about it. Our caravan’s en route down the 5, a quick stop at Jack in the Crack for their famed breakfast Burritos and we’re on our way. We’ve spoke a few times about the Grapevine. It’s the most heavily traveled freeway connecting Northern andSouthern California, and it’s just treacherous. So when you get stopped at the base and the Highway patrol is telling you that you can’t pass due to snow and ice, it is a very difficult thing to process. Two hours of waiting later and this is starting to settle in as reality. I left a Canadian winter for a weekend to have some ass tell me that I can’t drive because there is a little snow?! FML. 40 calls later to the TV Guide booking agent and we were notified that we could take all the time we needed to get down there because the interview was not gonna happen. Strike one.

DAY 3:

Even after the setback the day prior, every days is a perfect day for the Grand National Roadster show in Pomona. We filed out of our hotel and over to the show grounds to set up our stand. We had our life-size Lebron James wall sticker stuck to the floor under the Roddler, just in case you missed his signature on the Fenders and a big Kid Kustoms ol’ banner from the trade show. As people starting pouring into the show and gawking at our baby, we knew we were finally at home with a crowd that can appreciate the craftsmanship and hours of work that were poured into this. This isn’t your every day Roddler and never was. It was one of 3 we ever made with that chassis (pre-pre-trike conversion), all parts are real chrome, the seat is real leather and suede, the GPS unit is harmon/kardon, one-of-a kind red wall tires, there are disk brakes, billet wheels and about $2,500 worth of the best paint money can buy. All said and done, it cost a real $15,000, without accounting for the tooling. Needless to say it was a showstopper. So when it came to award time, it was no surprise that we were called to the podium. The only surprise was that the trophy we took home was for second place. The first place stroller was some stupid shopping cart with a stick that was modeled into an old mustang or some crap. Strike 2.

DAY:4

Well, at least to close off what was a relatively unsuccessful weekend, we were headed back to LA with one final highlight to write. The Cavs were set to play the Lakers, and before he hit the court, we were scheduled to meet the legend himself and hand off our pride and joy. Another 40 calls to his assistant, 3 hours of waiting and finally we’re exasperated. I need to make my flight and Joe’s still gotta head back North. Very unfortunately will a full load that we inevitably need to still ship toAkron,OH. If you can believe it, Joe still built a wooden crate for it and we shipped it for $2,000 to whatever farm address his assistant gave me. Strike 3. We never got even so much as a personal thank you let alone the picture we were promised, only some satisfaction in the fact that we were on to a new chapter.

After that whole whirlwind of a weekend I felt like I needed a rubber donut to sit on for the flight back. Holding my head in disbelief, all I end up coming home with is a phone bill to rival that a teenage girl and 7 more months to figure out how we are going to turn this fate and epic roller-coaster ride into a business.

Strollin’ Down The Grapevine – Act 5_scene 3

The Grapevine, CA // October 17th, 2008

Fast forward to sometime after the 2008 show, when we were really center stage. After our inaugural launch at the ABC kids expo the year prior, things got a little crazier then we’d expected. We finally had our marketing plan in order, sales reps lined up and a polished product to sell. We built up all sorts of hype from the trade shows and lined up stores that were dying to pick up our brand.  The problem was, economists were skeptical of the market, predicting that a recession was looming and that luxury expenditures are the first cutback families should be looking to make. Must have been a slow news month or something because I remember that being all I heard on every station. You could feel it in the air as if a dark cloud was settling in. Mall parking lots became barren, new car lots filled up and people were battening the hatches for a financial onslaught.

After laying it all on the line and walking away with a home run, almost every order that was a sure bet turned into a game of phone tag or a consignment proposal. That meant when we had a store that was going to stick by their word, we made sure to hightail over with the whole dog and pony show. We’ve clocked more miles of California freeway and calories from Jack In the Box trios then I care to count. No less when we hit the road, we turned into a mobile business.  Steph always had a hold of the fort but we actually had payroll and receivables to manage so any travel, even the short runs were disruptive. That being the case,  every run turned into a sprint and when you’re rolling down the 5S and headed over the grapevine, get ready for pretty much anything.

This trip was no different. Joe and I loaded some rental car with a couple of Roddlers that needed to get dropped off in LA. It was the middle of summer so you have to think that we can free up some space and leave the snow chains at home. We’re about 2 hours, 3 coffees and some Jack in the Box breakfast burritos into the drive and all of the sudden traffic gets more backed up then my system. I mean, really, we’re 2 hours into whats going to be a 17 hour day of driving and this is how we kick it off? Traffic in California is notoriously bad, but stopped traffic with people out of their cars is as rare there as anywhere. As it so happens, it was just a few power lines that went down that were quickly cleaned up, but until they were, we turned it in to the perfect stage. Seizing every second of the opportunity, we popped out of the car, broke out a Roddler and struck a few poses in the middle of the freeway. Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t capture the epic stench of cow manure, but I’m not sure when else we would have a chance to capture this scene. I guess just another thing you won’t do in a Bugaboo.

In case you want to see where the Roddler first ended up, it was deep in the Valley outside of Los Angeles at a great store called Baby Ant. After living as window candy for a few months, we’re happy to say it found a new home and definitely landed in some happy hands.

Down and Dirty at Ditka’s – Act 1_Scene 1

Joe and I have had some awesome adventures and made some pretty incredible memories on our long journey to creating the Roddler. We get nostalgic and reminisce all the time, but we thought it would be fun to paint you a picture of some of the places we’ve been and dreams we’ve realized on the way. We are still writing pages every day but wanted to share the story of what got us here and where we hope to be going. Stay tuned!

Chicago //  December 31st, 2006

Safe to say that most people are prepping for New Years eve but we’ve got an entirely different agenda. We’re plotting and scheming something ridiculous that little did we know would be the start of a 5 year roller-coaster ride. To give you some better framework,  Joe called me a few weeks prior with some batshit crazy concept to do some stroller to go with my kids clothing line. Given he’d just finished designing a murdered out pickup for Carrol Shelby and now he was all hyped up over this brainchild, I knew something special had to be in store. So, whatever, no harm in putting one foot in. A few hours later, he drops me a quick rendering that I would have never seen coming. I put it at the end of my line sheet and took with me to the Children’s Club apparel trade show in New York. All I could think of was, how the hell I am going to marry my preppy collection to this insane design that I can’t stop gawking at. After 3 days of explaining to buyers that its not a Batmobile and that I was serious it will one day roll, I went back home, hung up my tape measure and we started crunching some numbers.

That brings me to the real start of the story. Sharing a 6 year friendship and a love for the car culture, Joe and I had some really colorful conversations about what it would really take to make a business of this. I mean, neither of us had even so much as pushed a stroller before so it’s safe to say that blissful ignorance and blind ambition were 2 key motivators that set us on course. Anyways, its not hard to stroke some nice numbers out of the potential we had in the stroller business. It’s 2006, people are still leveraging themselves to buy everything with a price tag, it’s cool again to have kids and the housing market hadn’t burst yet, what could go wrong?? So, two months of lip flapping later it’s New Year’s day.  We spoke and emailed with some regularity, especially since we planted the seed in each others head for the baby bomber. In actuality, we hadn’t spent a minute together in the same room since he came to visit me in LA, maybe 2 years prior.  Joe’s out in Chicago visiting in-laws and it’s time to decide if we’re really going to do this.  I brave the holiday travel mayhem, booked a day ticket from Montreal and land at O’hare on what had to be the coldest day of the year. Bears are playing the Packers, it’s a real -30′C with 30 mile per hour winds and I have no idea where I’m going. Any time a Canadian leaves Canada, we dress for summer so all I know is that I need to be back at the airport in about 7 hours, hopefully without frostbite. Joe grabs his in-law’s car, comes and scoops me from the airport and we’re off. We had no where to go, but all we needed was somewhere quiet to put our heads together.  Like the two sport loving meat heads we are, where did we end up? Ditka’s on Michigan Ave. , naturally. We spent 6 hours sampling half of the menu while breaking down everything that would become the vision for the Roddler.  The Packers handed the Bears only their 3rd loss of the year in a wild game, and we were the only people that came out of there glowing. One mangled drink coaster and $50 in souvenirs later,  we were back out braving the cold and on the way to the airport. Chock full of inspiration and ready to change the face of juvenile products.  Little did we know, what we’d really be doing is setting ourselves up for the ride of a lifetime.