After achieving success in the waterfowl guide industry with his James Creek Outfitters service, entrepreneur and innovator Chuck Elder remained unsatisfied with what he was putting in the field. In early 2011 a new windsock decoy design began to take shape in his mind; an idea that started with a single scrap of material pulled from a trash bin.
Through nearly two years of development and industry research, the company formally established, manufacturing tools and molds were acquired. It was evident early on in the business development that there was too much red, white and blue in the partners’ blood to even consider producing the product line off-shore. Chuck and Jim were told manufacturing in the USA would be too expensive and the consumer would not be concerned about where the product was produced. They didn’t listen. After discussing the concepts with others and developing some prototypes that proved themselves, two decisions were made; (1) pursue patent rights and (2) provide an all American-made product available to the public that could easily compete in this limited market. Through the development process, Chuck visited over 30 screen printers, a few plastic injection molding companies and experiment with nearly a hundred different products needed to manufacture his decoys. Nearly all of the components for the decoys are manufactured right here in Pennsylvania.
The signature decoy available in the product line is the Patent Pending “SideKick” – the only windsock available on the market that rides perpendicular to the wind. Realism counts in the field and the addition of the SideKick Decoy™ into the decoy spread gives that that added dimension to ramp up the realistic look of birds feeding contently in all directions – some facing right and some facing left. The company (now a little over a year old) is now building a solid reputation with more than 20,000 of their decoys flying in the fields from the state of California to the state of New Jersey and everywhere in between. Additionally, their product is currently overseas in Scotland and is pending additional orders.
Even though Jim and Chuck have retired from military service, their mission continues. The company will also be donating a portion of every sale to K9s for Warriors which in turn will save dogs lives and give our returning service members the service dogs they so desperately need. This company has been featured with Penn Lines Magazine, Lancaster Newspaper, WTAJ’s “Central PA Live” and “What We Make”.
