Georgia Center of Innovation Guides Rugged Road Outdoors to Better Path to Success
“For small businesses, often something that wasn’t a concern previously can become your biggest problem overnight,” says Leah Vinci, operations manager at Rugged Road Outdoors. That was the case last year for the Atlanta-based company, which realized it needed a crash course in supply chain management after launching its new product.
Rugged Road produces the world’s lightest high-performance cooler. Founder and CEO Spencer Sutlive created the startup in 2016 while he was a student at the University of Georgia, but the idea was sparked during his high school chemistry class. A visiting chemical engineer demonstrated a proprietary spray coating originally developed for military applications, and Sutlive knew the strong, light material could make waves if utilized in the consumer product space. Rugged Road Outdoors was born shortly thereafter. A proof-of-concept model was launched on Kickstarter in 2019, and, due to a high demand for the product, a new and approved version of the ultralight cooler, the Rugged Road 65, was introduced in 2021.
The ready-for-market product launched in June of last year, but a significant logistics issue initially prevented the Rugged Road team from getting it in the hands of their excited customers. That’s when the Georgia Center of Innovation stepped in to help.
The Georgia Center of Innovation is the state's leading resource for facilitating business innovation and a strategic arm for economic development for businesses of all types and sizes. As the only center of its kind in the country, its complimentary services help companies like Rugged Road clear the path to innovation through expert advice and navigation to the right resources, utilizing the Center’s connections within Georgia’s extensive network of strategic industry organizations. The Center’s own expertise as well as its relationships give businesses the tools to inspire solutions for challenges and opportunities of all kinds.
Prior to connecting with the Center of Innovation, Rugged Road was shipping half its coolers from China to the Port of Long Beach in California, where they were then shipped to a distribution center in Las Vegas. The other half of the coolers were being shipped to the Port of Savannah in Georgia and then to distribution centers within the state. “We were really having trouble getting our product through Long Beach and the West Coast,” says Vinci. “It was taking forever, and there wasn’t great communication. We just had no idea what the procedure was and how all this worked.”
Fortunately, Vinci thought to reach out to Sandy Lake, the Director of Logistics at the Center of Innovation. “I hopped on the phone with her and asked, ‘Hey, are we doing something wrong? Can you explain this crisis we’re dealing with?’” That’s when Vinci learned that just starting a conversation with the Center of Innovation was all the Rugged Road team needed to point them in the right direction.
The logistics experts at the Center provided a deeper knowledge of how the port system works and directed Rugged Road to an option that made much more sense given their location: shipping everything to the Port of Savannah.
“They explained why Savannah would be more efficient long-term,” says Vinci. “Having their sincere dedication and insight made it really easy for Spencer to decide to move all of our shipments to come through the Port of Savannah.”
“We have the fastest-growing and third largest seaport in the nation, and, while it may be further from Asia, it’s important to consider the total landed cost of the product rather than just one leg of the journey,” says Lake. “Someone from the outside looking in might think, ‘Of course Savannah is the most logical choice if you’re a company in Georgia,’ but small businesses like Rugged Road don’t often have the logistical knowledge to navigate those decisions. That’s why it’s essential they have access to resources like the Center of Innovation.”
Since Rugged Road fully switched ports, the business has been running more smoothly, and the change has allowed the team to focus on other ways to grow and improve. In the future, their goal is to bring their manufacturing back to the United States, specifically to Georgia.
“It’s an overwhelming idea, but I feel so confident about it when I think of the people who are at the Center of Innovation,” says Vinci. “I know they would do anything to help us walk through everything we need to make it happen. Knowing there are people in our corner who want to bring our product here and make it a truly local brand is just really exciting. I think a lot of small businesses need that kind of support, and they don’t know that it’s already available to them.”
To connect with the Georgia Center of Innovation to identify ways to help your Georgia business, visit georgia.org/innovation.
-Posted October 21, 2022