Have you ever wondered how companies in the outdoor industry started? Some of today’s most well-known companies started in a garage, a basement, or on a kitchen table. Often, the people who started the companies didn’t have two nickels to rub together when they started, but they had a dream, a drive, and determination. Over the next few months, I will post journal entries that will provide readers with a history lesson on some of your favorite outdoor companies.
Easton Archery Doug Easton was a teenager when he made his first arrow at his home in California. His passion for bowhunting and building arrows stemmed from an accident he had with a shotgun. While bird hunting, a shotgun that was leaning against a car fell and went off, hitting Doug in the legs. He spent almost a year recovering from the accident. While recovering, a close friend gave him a book by Dr. Saxton Pope titled, “Hunting with a Bow and Arrow.” As soon as he recovered, Easton built a bow and arrows. He was only 17 at the time. He went on to read Pope’s other book, “The Study of Bows and Arrows.” In 1923, while shooting at an archery club in San Francisco, Easton was approached by a man who was very impressed by his homemade bow and arrows. Easton went on to tell the man that he learned how to build the equipment after reading Dr. Saxton Pope’s books. The man was Dr. Pope! After meeting Dr. Pope, Easton became more infatuated with the sport of archery and bowhunting. From that point forward, he dedicated his life to archery and building arrows.
Easton began producing and selling cedar arrows to local archery clubs and quickly became known as an expert arrow builder. In 1932, after outgrowing his garage, Easton moved his shop to Los Angeles. Easton was unhappy with the consistency of the wooden shaft and began experimenting and building shafts out of other materials. Easton developed the first aluminum arrow in 1939. During the early 1940’s, aluminum was scarce because of the war, so Easton honed his craft by experimenting with metal arrows. As soon as the war ended and aluminum was available, Easton began manufacturing and selling aluminum arrows. Easton developed a process for building an arrow. He took a 1-inch aluminum tube and drew it down to the size he wanted. The first trademarked aluminum arrow was called a 24SRT-X. Doug produced a variety of aluminum arrows over the years, including the XX75 in 1958, which was an arrow made from 7075 alloy. The XX75 shaft became a popular hunting shaft and is still used by some bowhunters today. In the early 1970’s, Doug’s son, Jim Easton became the President of the Company after Doug passed away. In the 1980’s, Easton developed the A/C shaft - a combination of an aluminum tube bonded with carbon. The result was an extremely accurate, strong shaft that offered qualities from both carbon and aluminum arrows.
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In the past several decades, Easton has strived to produce arrows that meet the demands of hunters and target archers. In 1995, Easton acquired Beman Arrow Company, a leader in carbon arrow technology. Today, they continue to offer both Easton and Beman brands.
Today, their flagship hunting arrow is the Axis Full Metal Jacket. The FMJ has a small-diameter, thick-walled carbon tube wrapped in 7075 alloy metal jacket. According to Josh Sanden, Marketing Coordinator for Easton, the FMJ offers bowhunters several advantages over other styles of arrows. “The FMJ offers more durability and penetration than conventional aluminum or carbon arrows do. The metal jacket makes pulling the arrow from a target extremely easy,” Sanden said. The FMJ has a straightness of +/- .003, and a weight tolerance of +/- 2 grains.
Easton still produces the Gamegetter 2 for bowhunters who prefer to shoot aluminum. The Economical Gamegetter shaft has been one of Easton’s most popular shafts over the years, thanks to features like a Uni-Nock System, straightness of .002, and a weight tolerance of +/- of 1%. The Gamegetter is available with a hard anodized camo finish.
 Gamegetter ArrowKwikee Kwiver Kwikee Kwiver was founded by Bob Stinson in 1957. Stinson, originally from Ohio, vacationed as a child with his parents in Northern Michigan. Stinson fell in love with the North Country and enjoyed hunting and fishing. Stinson eventually relocated to Northern Michigan following his career as a pilot in the Military. Stinson was an avid bowhunter and, like many bowhunters of the day, he made his own archery tackle. The famous bowhunter and bow maker, Fred Bear, was manufacturing bows in Grayling, only fifty miles from where Stinson lived. Eventually, Stinson and Bear became friends. Although Bear produced a quiver, Stinson thought he could make a better quiver. He designed and built his own quiver to fit his recurve bow. The quiver was made from a variety of materials, including plywood, cork, and steel plates. Stinson began building the quivers for friends and eventually went into business under the Kwikee Kwiver name. During the early years, Stinson, like many other fledgling bowhunting companies of the past, loaded up his trunk and began selling quivers to every archery dealer he encountered in Michigan and Ohio. He sold the quivers for $2.95 each. Over time, word spread about the lightweight, durable Kwikee Kwiver and, to this day, Kwikee Kwiver is often the first name that rolls off the tongues of bowhunters when quivers are mentioned.
In the 1970’s, Kwikee Kwiver introduced a quiver designed for compound bowhunters that quickly gained popularity called the Kwikee Kompound Kwiver. Over the years, Kwikee Kwiver has offered numerous models of quivers. All of them have had a few things in common: they are simple, lightweight, affordable, and can quickly be attached and detached from a bow. “We have sold millions of quivers over the years. We always priced them right so people could afford them. Today, many of our quivers look similar to what they looked like forty years ago and we still offer them at a reasonable price,” Shirley Gelinas, Kwikee Kwiver Manager, stated.
Each year, Kwikee Kwiver introduces quivers that are functional and look at home on any bow. They still have models that are perfect for the traditional shooter and they have models for today’s compound shooters. Their flagship model is the Kwikee Combo. This compact quiver was designed to fit the needs of all bowhunters regardless if they use aluminum or carbon arrows, fixed blade broadheads or expandables. This quiver has a new Ultra-Lock Locking System that firmly locks the quiver to the mounting bracket on the bow, which reportedly eliminates all noise and rattle that bowhunters are accustomed to hearing when shooting a bow with an attached quiver. |