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:: The Story of the SnoRhino & UpHill Enterprises, Inc
In
the Beginning....
The SnoRhino story began in April 2001 in Glassboro
NJ. Jeff Gladnick, a college sophomore in Rowan Engineering's
Electrical & Computer Engineering program, had recently returned
from a ski trip with his friends to Mont Treblant, Canada.
His friends, who were
all snowboarders, complained bitterly about how uncomfortable
the ski lifts were for them. They were all quite irritated that
the lifts still had not been changed to make snowboarders comfortable,
and they were forced into awkward positions on the way back up the
mountain.
It got Jeff thinking about how skiers and snowboarders might fit
onto the lift since they used equipment in such drastically different
configurations. A few weeks went by until one evening, while Jeff
was trying to sleep, the first conception of a snowboard friendly
chair lift popped into his head. He quickly got up and sketched
out the basic idea and made some notes, and then tried to go back
to sleep. The next day Jeff approached Dr. Anthony Marchese, a
Mechanical Engineering Professor at Rowan who was in charge of
the entrepreneurship program. Dr. Marchese encouraged Jeff to
write up formal request to enroll in the NCIIA (National Collegiate
Inventors and Innovators Association)/Rowan sponsored entrepreneurial
sponsorship program.
Jeff spent the next week writing a grant proposal, which was accepted that September.
The project was the only entrepreneurial proposal accepted at Rowan that semester
for the NCIIA program, and was given an initial R&D budget of $2500 to
develop a working prototype and to prove the idea was feasible.
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In the mean time, Jeff needed some help. Pete Boyle and Matt Eberhardt,
both Mechanical
Engineers joined Jeff and a team was formed. The team worked for
the next several months refining Jeff's original idea into something
more easily mass produced, and less complicated. By early December
the first working prototype was completed, and was tested with snowboarders
literally picked out of the halls at the Engineering building at Rowan (as in, hey you,
yeah you, do you snowboard?....come here for a second). The
team was upbeat, convinced they had completely solved the problem
in just a few months. They incorporated under "UpHill Enterprises,
Inc.", joined the NSAA (National Ski Areas Association) and
trademarked the name "SnoRhino"
for their product. By a stroke of luck, Mark Maruska, the owner
of Gravity Design Works, caught wind of the project, and offered
his services to the company. Gravity's services were
upper tier, and not really a viable option for UpHill at this point.
So the company's first partnership was created. In exchange for
a small amount of stock, Gravity would provide services at less then cost.
UpHill now had backing from a state of the art Graphic Design shop, as well
as a source of marketing and promotional expertise. |
Our first all-plastic prototype unit. This concept was
never built, although it was extensively computer simulated. |
First
NSAA Show
The NSAA Eastern tradeshow in January 2002 was attended by UpHill,
where the first reactions from ski resorts were taken in.
Many resorts witnessed the first unveiling of a snowboard friendly
lift at the Killington 2002 trade show. Snowboarders approached our
booth and praised our efforts, and progressive-thinking mountain
managers dropped business cards and inquired about production dates
and estimated costs.
Many resorts
loved the concept, but expressed concern about the weight (at the
time 20 pounds per footrest), and the cost per unit (at the time
priced over $50). Many resorts had experienced a "bad season"
(Which is ski industry lingo for a "normal season"), and
were unwilling to make the investment. Sid Rosland, the technical
director for the NSAA, reviewed the product, and offered several
helpful suggestions which would be subsequently integrated into future
designs. |
Back
to the Drawing Board
UpHill returned to New Jersey with some fresh ideas, and a list
of resorts interested in the further development of the product.
After several more months of experimenting with various prototypes
and new ideas, the 1st Generation production model was born. The
weight issue was fixed, the new unit weighed in at only 1.5 pounds.
ANSI codes were now adhered to, and the material was switched from
steel to Nylon-6/6.
Testing of the new prototype exceeded everyone's expectations. It
held over 200 pounds and did not break, even at -40 degrees F. If
anything, the new units were solidly built.
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Pre-production prototype for the Generation 1 SnoRhino. |
The
Next Season Arrives
UpHill once again renewed their NSAA membership, and signed up for
the Eastern and Western trade shows this time.
After almost a month of revising and adding to the initial grant proposal,
the NCIIA had accepted Jeff's 2nd proposal for increased funding. He was
awarded an Advanced E-Team grant, and given additional capital that would be
used to create the first SnoRhino product. This was the 2nd time in Rowan's
history that an engineering team received such a grant. In addition to this, substantial private
investment had been raised to quicken the pace of development, and to help
expand our sales & marketing efforts. The team now visited the Eastern Show
at Mount Snow, VT, and the Western Show at Whistler, BC. Resorts
were now presented an attractive, competitively priced product.
Rich "Crusher" Wilkinson of Sugarloaf
USA, Maine placed the first order, to be delivered the following
season. |
2003-2004 Season & X-Games:
As the next season arrived, things were looking optimistic. The
SnoRhino had been booked at the X-Games, and more resorts were becoming
interested in the product. Unfortunately Aspen (The site of the
X-Games), was equipped with lifts that were not compatible with
the current model of the SnoRhino. A new solution had to be created,
and fast. In less then a month, a new design was created, tested,
fine-tuned, and fabricated. During the production week, the team
worked all day into the wee hours of the morning, along side Chuck
Linderman, our expert Machinist.
Almost 100 units in all were created for the X-Games, and
several other interested resorts. The new design, based
on an earlier prototype created by Pete Boyle, went over incredibly
well. The SnoRhino was now 100% compatible with all lifts. The new
design was a mere 4 ounces, and weight was no longer an issue. The
Colorado tramway board enthusiastically approved the product, referring
to the SnoRhino's use during the X-Games as "a great success". Snowboarders
at the X-Games gave the product a huge thumbs-up, and The SnoRhino
recieved endorsements from ESPN X-Games Host Sal Masekala and Burton Snowboard's
Liam Griffen, as well as various other pro riders who tested the product. |
With a new material, and a new design, the Generation 2 prototype
SnoRhino debuted at Aspen-Buttermilk just in time for the X-games. |
| Early 2004:
The eastern show went extemely well, as many resorts were now becoming
aware of the advantage that snowboard friendly lifts provide. The
Western trade show at Vail debuted the 2nd Generation SnoRhino,
produced for the X-Games. The new design was really starting to
turn heads. Better functionality, zero
interference, and universal compatibility gave the SnoRhino the
buzz it finally needed. The NSAA Quarterly trade
journal ran an article about us, and lots of mountains were extremely
interested in the 2nd Generation SnoRhino. SAM (Ski Area Management)
featured us in their new product guide, Maine Channel 7 ran a TV show
about us, and word spread across the internet and inside ski industry
circles.
R&D and Field Testing Continue...
Immediately after returning from the western trade show, exhaustive field testing of the product was performed in cooperation with resorts all over North America. Sid Roslund, of the NSAA was consulted for ANSI B77 compliance to insure safe operation of the carriers. Snowboards produced by every main manufacturer were carefully measured with calipers and the SnoRhino was optimized for the most common thickness. Notes were carefully made and incorporated into the design and engineering of the product, and resorts' input could be clearly seen in each progressive prototype was fabricated.
Meanwhile, Pete Boyle, the main engineer behind the SnoRhino's development was hard at work perfecting the overall engineering of the SnoRhino. Rigorous testing of all sorts of variations based on the X-Games prototype steadily improved the product towards perfection. By the middle of summer, 2004, the design was nearly perfected. Materials testing was still underway, and hundreds of different materials were thrown out of the race as they proved too brittle, too weak, too abrasive, or just not plain good enough. Eventually, no commercially available materials were capable of meeting our high standards, and a proprietary compound was created specifically for this application. The new compound was strong enough to securely hold snowboards in place, but soft enough to avoid scratching the base of a snowboard. It was big enough to provide comfort for snowboarders, yet small enough to work seemlessly with carrier clearances. Special additives to the product material allowed it to stand up to UV radiation, and give it strength characteristics that remained constant to 40 below.
A new strapping system & installation tool designed by the Panduit corporation reduced installation time to about 1 minutes, 45 seconds for 2 snorhinos. All the kinks had been worked out, and ski resorts started to take notice. First to place orders were Massanutten Ski Resort & Catamount Ski Area, as well as Sugarloaf/USA and Wachusett. International Patent Applications were also filed in autumn, 2004 in 7 counties, which contained over 94% of all ski resorts worldwide.
2004-2005 Season
In order to meet the growing demand customers were placing on us for demonstrations and information about the product, an additional office was opened in the Pacific Northwest towards the end of 2004. JJ Weaks, a long time snowboarder with vast experience in Sales & Marketing was selected to head the office in the Portland, OR area.
As always, we visited the NSAA trade shows to display our new product to resorts, and we continued to visit resorts in person so Mountain Managers could see for themselves what the product was all about.
Check back in a few months and perhaps
we will have added a new chapter to our history.
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