Yakima Racks & Watermark Hire Steve Rodden As VP Product Development

WaterMark, parent company of Yakima Racks, recently announced it has hired Steve Rodden to be the company's vice president of product development. He will be based at the company's headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, located just outside of Portland and home to other outdoor gear manufacturers including Nike, Adidas, Salomon Sports and Columbia Clothing & Apparel. Mr. Rodden co-founded Fiori Research & Design in Portland, Oregon in 1998 with Steve Brown.

With about 800 employees nationwide, the company is currently migrating 65 employees in its sales and marketing, product development and management and other services from Arcata, California to Beaverton Oregon. Besides Yakima car racks, Mr. Rodden will oversee product development for Dagger Kayaks, Perception Kayaks and other outdoor recreational equipment. The move is scheduled to be complete by September 2005.

Mr. Rodden has been consulting with WaterMark since November 2004, assisting and leading the product development department through the transition. He is already involved with the company's 2005 product launches. With Fiori, Mr. Rodden has overseen the launch of over 50 consumer products for companies including Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Vulcan and Intel.

Yakima Powderhound SE Ski Rack Launched to Commemorate Company's 25th Anniversary

Yakima Racks is celebrating its twenty fifth anniversary with a commemorative special edition ski & snowboard rack. Called the Yakima PowderHound SE ski rack, it is available in two configurations. The first for transporting up to 6 pairs of skis or 4 snowboards (called the Yakima Big Powderhound SE) and the second being the Powderhound SE for carrying up to 4 pairs of skis or 2 snowboards.

The advanced design includes flip open arms and ample rubber padding for secure transport. The opening lever has an advanced design as well, allowing the user to either push up or push in the oversized button, an excellent feature to consider on cold occasions when removing gloves would be undesirable. Yakima Racks also explains that the oversized rubber padding is made of materials that remain soft and resist stiffening in cold temperatures. Yakima's suggested minimum retail price of the Big Powderhound SE is $100 and the smaller Powderhound SE ski & snowboard rack has a suggested minimum retail price of $90.

Other features that Yakima has included with this special edition ski carrier are riser lift kits that eliminate binding contact with a vehicle's car roof due to oversized bindings on both skis and snowboards. Also the carrier ships with adapters that will allow it to connect to the load bars of competing car rack manufacturer, Thule Racks. Yakima also states that it manufactures a universal adapter, called the Mighty Mount, that will allow the carrier to connect to virtually all factory roof racks, even difficult sizes such as those found on the Saturn Vue, Nissan XTerra, Ford Escape, Honda Element and others.

Bus Bike Racks Installed for Oregon Commuting Program

City Officials of Bend, Oregon recently announced new commuting options for downtown, including the introduction of bike racks on all shuttle buses. For a small fee any user is entitled to use the bus bike racks from the downtown shuttle stops located at the Bend City Hall and at North Mirror Pond Road.

The new program, dubbed the “Heart Beat of Downtown Bend” is scheduled to begin service Monday, February 14th, Valentine's Day. City Officials hope the new bus bicycle racks will encourage more commuters to ride bikes, reducing the congestion and lack of parking spaces currently available in the Oregon downtown area.

Car Rack Assembly Plant for Thule Racks Expands

Thule Racks North America headquarters, located at the Silvermine Industrial complex in Seymour Connecticut, is currently constructing a 30,000 square-foot addition to the Thule facility. Additional space will be allocated for manufacturing and warehousing of it's North American assembled car racks.

Thule Racks Hires Former Yakima Racks Senior Director As V. P. of Business Development

Thule Racks, the world's leading car rack manufacturer of sport transport systems for transporting outdoor gear on trunk, hitch and roof racks, announced that it has hired Chris Dannewitz as Vice President of Business Development, effective immediately. Dannewitz's responsibilities will include researching and identifying strategic acquisitions, as well as assisting in the development and implementation of product, brand, and business channel growth strategies.

"Chris brings a wealth of car rack industry knowledge and will be a great asset as we continue to grow and expand our business," stated Fred Clark, Thule Inc. CEO. Mr. Dannewitz previously worked at rival car rack manufacturer Yakima Racks for more than fifteen years, where he held various positions including Category Business Manager, Director of Product Management, and most recently Senior Director of Land Sports Business.

"I always had the utmost respect for Thule while at Yakima," Mr. Dannewitz said. "Thule Racks has been on a roll for the last few years and I am excited to be a part of their team and their prospects for the future." He will be working and remaining in Mckinleyville, California, nearby the headquarters of Yakima Racks in Arcata, CA. Yakima is currently in the process of relocating its headquarters within close proximity of Portland, Oregon.

Thule Inc. is currently a wholly owned subsidiary within the Thule Group and is the leading U.S. manufacturer of car rack products. Production facilities are located in Seymour, Connecticut and Chicago, Illinois, where it assembles car roof racks, truck racks, car roof top cargo boxes, bike hitch racks, trunk bike racks and accessories for transporting bikes, snowboards, skis, canoes, kayaks, and surfboards.

Car Factory Roof Rack Maker SportRack Reports 20% Increase in Sales for 2004

SportRack, a division of Advanced Accessory Systems (AAS) and maker of vehicle factory roof rack and lugguge rack systems for DaimlerChrysler (including Mercedes), General Motors, Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, KIA, Honda, and Toyota, has announced 2004 sales increased 20% over the previous year. Richard Borghi, president and COO of SportRack, said similar sales increases are expected for 2005.

Mr. Borghi stated that "because automakers are coming out with more vehicles equipped with luggage racks, sales are increasing rapidly at SportRack. The number of different models expands the market for us. The arrival of the crossover vehicles on the market in a major way - those vehicles lend themselves to luggage racks."" He also added that, "If you can seat eight people in a vehicle, there's no room for all that luggage inside the vehicle."

A SportRack spokesman also indicated that because car makers' are offering different looks of factory car roof racks and luggage racks on vehicles, based on different trim package choices offered to buyers, SportRack's potential sales will increase even further. New contracts are reported for Nissan roof racks and several versions of Hummer roof rack systems.

SportRack reported that in 2004 it sold between 4 million and 4.5 million auto roof racks, which is about 50% of the market. SportRacks also opened a new factory in Greenwood, Mississippi in May 2004. Overall revenue in 2003 was reported to be $358 million. Industry analysts have previously published that SportRacks had annual sales of $329.8 million in 2002 and $314 million in 2001.

In addition to SportRack, AAS is comprised of SportRacks Accessory Group, a smaller division that manufactures bike racks, ski racks, snowboard racks, kayak racks and canoe racks for retail sale by auto dealerships, Valley Industries and Valley Automotive, which provide trailer hitches and related items to the automotive aftermarket in the U.S. and Canada and Brink, which sells trailer hitches and related items in Europe.

Lack of New York Bike Racks Makes Case for Legal Gathering of Critical Mass Participants

The NYPD has lost another round in attempting to outlaw the ever popular Critical Mass organized bike rides, designed to raise awareness regarding transportation alternatives. U.S. District judge William H. Pauley denied NYC's request for an injunction preventing Critical Mass cyclists from gathering and riding without city permits.

Justification for the outlawing of the gathering rested heavily on the police department's claims that the group of riders broke city laws by illegally locking their bicycles to signs, lampposts and street fixtures. Transportation Alternatives' amicus curiae brief, however, effectively negated the police department's justification for seizing hundreds of bicycles that were locked this way. In its argument, Transportation Alternatives illustrated that there are 6375 miles of street in New York City and just 3400 bike racks, essentially making for one legal bike rack every two miles, or one legal bike rack for every 33 cyclists. In New York, TA argued, if a cyclist can't lock his bike to a lamppost, then he can't lock his bike at all. The argument led to the compelling argument that the NYPD is essentially arguing for the criminalization of cycling, and the case was summarily dismissed.

Yakima Universal MightyMounts Now Available for Most 2005 Carriers

Yakima Racks has released its anticipated Universal MightyMounts, clamps that adapt factory roof racks, making them compatible with Yakima Racks gear carriers. Previously, Yakima Mighty Mounts were available in several different models and styles, each designed specifically for the many different types of car manufacturer factory roof racks. Additionally, in the past, Yakima divided them into Vertical Mighty Mount clamps for Yakima ski and snowboard racks and Horizontal Mighty Mounts for Yakima kayak racks, bike carriers and cargo baskets.

A Yakima company spokesman stated that the Universal MightyMounts work on most factory roof rack cross bars and are compatible with the following current gear carrier models for 2005: BasketCase, roof mount bike racks including the Cobra & King Cobra, Raptor, kayak racks including the HullRaiser, Mako Saddles, Land Shark, ski-snowboard racks including the LiftTicket 4, Lift Ticket 6, Powderhound and Big Powderhound. Older model Lockjaw, GT and Anklebiter bike carriers will also work. However, as with previous MightyMounts, the new Universal Clamp-Ons do not work with Yakima fork mount bike racks.

Yakima has established the manufactured suggested retail price (MSRP) at U.S.$40.00 and are available at all authorized Yakima Racks dealers nationwide.

Luggage & Bike Rack Equipped Buses Added to Ocean City, MD Fleet

The Ocean City, Maryland Public Works Department announced it has new shuttle buses with bicycle racks attached to the front of each bus. A total of eight shuttles was added to the Ocean City fleet and will be used primarily on the route carrying passengers between the West Ocean City Park & Ride and the South Division Street transit center in downtown Ocean City.

Service is scheduled to begin at the West Ocean City Park and Ride in early May of this year. Passengers will now have the conveniences of a bus luggage rack inside each shuttle that offers a place to store beach chairs, coolers, boogie boards and other beach gear. The new bus bike racks on the front of each bus can also hold two bikes.

“We are pleased to offer these new features and we think passengers will find the service very user friendly,” stated Hal Adkins, director of the Ocean City, MD Public Works Department. The 35-feet long 2005 El Dorado National buses came with the luggage and bike rack accessories and were purchased through Chesapeake Bus & Equipment Co. in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Maker of Hummer Roof Racks to Add 60 Jobs

Vehicle accessory maker, Amstar LLC, which is located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, announced it will be adding 60 positions as it works to fulfill its GM contract. General Motors Corp. awarded Amstar with a deal to fabricate special accessory packages for the Hummer H2.

The accessory packages will include Hummer roof racks and enhanced audio and video systems and will be available through authorized General Motors Hummer dealers. Amstar, which began operations in December 2004, currently has 15 employees. Full production is expected to be reached in July of this year.