Why Do We Invest in Innovation?
6-minute read
Our mission here at Aqua Bound is to inspire meaningful outdoor experiences by offering premium products worth bragging about. To do that well we maintain a constant underlying mindset of innovation.
“Innovation” isn’t just a word on our Mission Statement page. It’s a word that describes the fabric of who we are as a company.
Two of the best people at Aqua Bound to help us understand the role of innovation in our business are Jason Eccles, our President, and Mac Sandberg, our Director of Revenue Growth & Innovation (yep, it’s in his job title!).
Let’s dig in…
What’s the #1 Requirement of Innovation?
“The number one thing that’s required when it comes to being an innovative company is the desire to be an innovative company,” said Jason. “Then wanting it is one thing. Executing it is the hard part.”
It’s natural for us to want to spend our time on things we enjoy that get us excited. Jason points out, “If we weren’t authentically excited about innovation, we would not be spending time on it. Our enthusiasm and excitement to be an innovative company pushes us forward with new ideas.”
Mac agrees. “At a company level,” he adds, “saying innovation is the one thing that is very important to us gives us permission to say, ‘Let’s go to work on that.’ There needs to be periods of time in which you purely allow yourself to think creatively, whether it’s from a product level or an operational level.”
How Does Continual Innovation Set Aqua Bound Apart?
Small companies often fail to innovate because that kind of pioneering mindset requires resources: time, patience, the right team members with the right skill sets.
Jason said, “Small companies are often so embedded in the ‘heat of battle’ day to day that they’re not necessarily thinking about the future and new product.”
This kind of creative thinking isn’t always about solving problems. Many times it’s simply stepping back to think about new ideas and how they can be applied in the day-to-day. Those ideas aren’t always revolutionary, but little things here and there in product development, improving existing product, how we serve our customers, and how we deliver our product to our customers—both dealers and consumers.
We spent months perfecting our new adjustable Versa-Lok™ ferrule
“Having a mindset that thinks about innovation first allows us to be more creative,” said Mac. “Whether it’s new product, existing product or an operations issue, it’s all about using that mindset of continuing innovation to help drive excitement around our brand and better serve the customers in our marketplace.”
This mindset has often meant taking ideas from industries outside the paddling world. Mac continued, “Maybe it’s from aerospace or automotive or packaging. How do we take what those people do that isn’t necessarily innovative for them, but apply it to us in a way our customers and dealers have never seen before? Just having that time of pure creativity to allow your mind to run wild is essential.”
For us, it isn’t necessarily starting out by choosing a specific product to improve. Sometimes it’s collecting a half dozen good ideas across a spectrum and brainstorming how we can move them to the next step. Allowing creative periods opens our minds to more possibilities.
Example: The Aerial family of Whitewater Paddles
A recent example of borrowing ideas from another industry is our new Lam-Lok™ technology we employed in our 2023 Aerial family of whitewater kayak paddles. When we surveyed more than 100 whitewater paddlers to identify what they wanted in a paddle, we discovered their top concern is durability. Particularly along the edge of the blades since these tend to wear down rather quickly in whitewater paddling.
There hadn’t been a good solution in the market to resist that edge wear on the paddle blades. So Mac and the team got to work to find a way to address that particular issue.
“We didn’t really know the potential of this technology until we started testing it,” Jason said. “Once we discovered what it actually could do, it far exceeded our initial anticipation. We’ve now applied for a patent for it. Had we not had the innovative mindset already in place, we would not have gone out and surveyed customers prior to launching this new product into a new market for us.”
Mac explained, “Initially the LamLokTM idea wasn’t even on the list. Then sometime during the development curve a few of us ran across this potential technology from a completely different industry. We didn’t really know how to apply it, but we said let’s just try.”
Innovation Is a Team Effort
These kinds of innovation processes are a team effort. We ask for everyone’s ideas, take them all (there are no bad ideas), sift through them and figure out where our greatest value will be.
As mentioned earlier, innovation is in Mac’s job title, so ideas often start with him. But then our engineering team will look at them and discuss the angles. Are there applications for these ideas within our production processes? Customer service or shipping processes? New product development? When do inside sales and marketing get involved?
Mac and Cory, Director of Operations, working on bent shaft molds
Up to four different departments within Aqua Bound could be part of the development of a new product or process.
The Key Role of Our Ambassadors and Dealers
While most of our home team has varying levels of paddling experience, we rely heavily on the relationships we’ve developed with our ambassadors and dealers. Their input is invaluable, especially with product development and improvement.
Back to the example of the Aerial line, we didn’t just decide to launch a new whitewater paddle. We surveyed experienced whitewater kayakers at the front end, then brought together a smaller group to field test each iteration and give us feedback. What’s working? What isn’t? How can we improve?
“The value with these folks is through the roof in terms of getting that information,” Mac said.
Jason added, “And you talk about an ambassador becoming an evangelist. The field testers and ambassadors see their ideas implemented into future revisions. At the end of the project, the folks who had significant influence are truly evangelists for this new product rolling out because they had a say.”
How Will Innovation Play a Role in the Future of the Paddlesports Industry?
We’re part of a much larger ongoing effort to introduce more people to the wonderful world of paddle sports. This is more and more of a challenge as our society increasingly moves indoors—even after so many experienced outdoor recreation in such a positive way during the pandemic.
We’re playing a role along with a new organization called the Paddlesports Trade Coalition. Jason said, “It’ll be a lot of heavy lifting. But if you think about something you’re passionate about, you were most likely introduced to that by somebody else, whatever it is. So we need to be innovative to figure out how to introduce more people to paddling. We plan to be part of that solution.”
REPRISE: Our mission is to inspire meaningful outdoor experiences by offering premium products worth bragging about. Continual innovation will always play a key role in helping us fulfill that mission.
What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us here: 715-755-3405 or [email protected]
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