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Bowjax

Always Listening to Customers

By Bill & Sherry Krenz

Most people never really figure out what it is they want. Fewer still figure out how to get it.

“I always felt that I was born to be an engineer,” says Stuart Wright of Bowjax. “I always wanted to design and make things. Even in my childhood, I was continually taking things apart to see how they worked. I’d lug something home, disassemble it, figure out how all of the parts interplayed and then, tossing those parts in the junk heap, I’d be off to something else. It used to drive my parents crazy. But I saw it as an integral part of the process of learning how to make things.”

For Wright, that process didn’t necessarily unfold quickly, but it did stick to a well-defined path.

Raised in scenic northern Idaho, Stuart Wright joined the Army right after high school to, in his own words, “take advantage of the eventual educational opportunities that Army service would afford me. Both my heart and my head were set on becoming an engineer, and honorable military service would help me afford college.”

After four years in the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper and tank-turret repairman, Stuart returned to his home state and enrolled in the University of Idaho, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Shortly after graduation Stuart quickly began to apply both his instincts and his education.

“I met this old German guy who had a pretty sophisticated tool-and-die shop. He wasn’t really hiring but I sort of talked my way into the place. I wouldn’t take no for an answer. And in no time I was learning all sorts of things about how parts and products were made in the real manufacturing world. I gained experience in CNC programming and setup, vertical milling, lathe work, surface grinding, electrical discharge machining, heat treating, engraving, TIF welding, metal polishing, electroplating and mold making.

“As it turned out, the mold making proved to be the most valuable work experience I acquired while working there. It’s sad but mold making is a dying skill in this country. Most of the domestic mold making and the resulting injection molding of plastic parts has now gone overseas. I imagine that if every piece of injection-molded plastic we use today was made in America with American molds, there would be very little unemployment in this country. But that’s not the case. Most of that work is now done in Asia. During my last years with the tool-and-die shop, I could see that happening.

“In fact, during those years I saw several regional shops go out of business, and a plan began to formulate in my head. As those shops closed, I began buying up the best of their old machinery, accumulating machine tools, welding and fabrication equipment.”

It was at that time that the need to make something really began to eat away at Stuart Wright.

“While I had been working for others for almost a decade, I had always seen myself as owning my own business. My parents had owned their own business, and many of my relatives had also owned businesses. I knew that if I was ever going to be happy, I’d need to break away and begin something on my own, preferably manufacturing some sort of product.

“When I was in college I used to daydream in class about running my own manufacturing company, and most of the time I thought about making some sort of outdoor product. I’d grown up hunting and fishing in northern Idaho, and to make something for that industry was my fondest dream.”

Sometimes, you practically trip over your destiny.

“I’d been bowhunting a lot, working on the plentiful whitetail deer and elk populations in our area, and it seemed I was always coming up with ideas for various archery products. One of the things I worked on was bowstring silencers. I wanted something more effective and also more durable than I’d been able to find.

“I actually tried a variety of different things, including some tile spacers I’d helped develop for a local tile-supply company. The spacers were soft rubber and shaped like a cross, and helped position the tiles as they were being affixed to the floor. I cut the x-portion of the spacers to shape and inserted them into my bowstring, but they didn’t hold up very well.

“That was at a time when my kids were routinely leaving their toys all over the house. One day, while walking across the living room, I stepped on one of their hard plastic jacks. I hopped around until I could find a place to sit down, looked at the offending piece and suddenly realized that the jack’s shape would make an ideal bowstring silencer.

“That night, even as I went to bed I was calculating how I might make such a ‘bowjax’ silencer. I had already decided that I wanted it to go around the bowstring, not through it, so that anyone could install them without a bow press.”

Not one to dally, Stuart began working on the mold for his new silencer the very next morning.

“At the time I had a garage full of mold-making machinery. I handmade that first mold with a milling machine and a surface grinder, and just a few days later took the finished mold to a local injection-molding house and had some parts run.

“While those first silencers worked well to dampen shot noise and vibration, the arms I designed for the silencers proved a bit too long and the balls a bit too bit. The result was that they didn’t last as long as I had hoped. So I welded up the mold and recut it and made another pass at my jacks-shaped silencers. The second effort proved a good bit better, but still not right. At least, I wasn’t satisfied. I decided to scrap that original mold and start over from scratch.

“Two molds later I felt I finally had it right. With the mold perfected, I then set out to source the ideal polymer material. That took some time, but eventually I got that right as well.”

Designing and even manufacturing a product is one thing, marketing and selling it another.

“My wife Becky and I were mostly in the dark about how to market our new silencers. We had almost no money for advertising and struggled with how to get the Bowjax word out to archery dealers and consumers. Becky came up with a plan. She went on the websites of the big bow manufacturers and simply downloaded their dealer lists. Then we sent out free samples of those first Ultrajax I Silencers to dealers in selected states.

“The initial dealer reaction was very positive. The dealers loved the convenient over-the-bowstring installation, and many expressed surprise and delight at how well they lasted. The company we quickly began calling Bowjax was off and running.”

Good ideas often have legs, allowing them to expand almost exponentially.

“Even as I was developing those very first bowstring silencers, I knew that the distinctive Bowjax shape would have numerous additional archery applications. One of the first that occurred to me had to do with a bow’s cable guard.

“I had long noticed that when I shot, my bow’s cable slide moved well past its resting position and that it continued to vibrate long after the arrow was gone. I rightly figured that if I could stop that excessive forward movement and slide vibration, my bow would be quieter. I went to work on the problem and created the Bigjax Cable Guard Dampener. The Bigjax worked like a charm, was well received and prompted me to continue expanding on the Bowjax concept.

“Archery dealers and consumers were already asking us to apply the distinctive Bowjax configuration to a bow-limb dampener of some sort. That was the next logical step. Our first limb dampeners, which we called the Limbjax, grew directly out of our Bigjax Cable Guard Dampener. All I really had to do was add a stem to that dampener and then find a tape that would reliably stick to both the stem and the bow’s limb. Surprisingly, sourcing that tape proved to be a monumental task and took a surprising amount of time to get right.”

Stabilizers proved to be the next fertile area of opportunity for Bowjax.

“It was logical that we would then apply the Bowjax concept to a dampening stabilizer. Our first efforts went toward what we came to call Maxjax Dampeners. When slipped over an existing stabilizer, Maxjax Dampeners dramatically enhance any stabilizer’s vibrating-dampening capability. The success of the Maxjax Dampeners also led us to design our own complete Bowjax stabilizers, of which we now offer several.”

An eye for opportunity opened another door.

“A great deal of thought and effort goes into designing a compound bow, and yet problems still arise. One of the problems I noticed with my own bows was the tendency to occasionally smack your knuckles on the end of the bow’s cable guard when the bow was let down quickly. To solve that I designed a Knuckle-Saver, a sort of rubber bumper that you slid over the end of the cable guard bar. It worked great and received very positive customer feedback.

“It also prompted a call from Joe Goede of STS String Suppression Systems. Joe requested samples of our Knuckle-Saver for possible use on his STS string-stop system. The Knuckle-Savers worked, but Joe wanted even more cushioning. I dove into the project, designed a better and more cushioned bumper and then created an entirely new mold for the part. I also experimented long and hard to find an acceptable material for the bumper, one that cushioned extremely well but was also durable. That improved bumper helped STS become a huge success and a pioneering influence within the archery industry.

“Later, working closely with STS, we developed an even more advanced string bumper. One of the suppliers I had been working with had just developed a new type of moldable synthetic-polymer gel. There was nothing like it in the molding industry. I thought it might make a superb string bumper. Tests showed that it was indeed perfect for landing the string on, but the material was so soft that it wouldn’t stay on the rod. So I designed a two-piece part with a process called over-molding. One mold created a stiff base insert. That insert was then placed into a second mold, where the synthetic-polymer gel was molded over the top of the insert. The resulting two-part bumper was both revolutionary and instantly successful. Today it’s available exclusively on the STS String Suppression System.”

In recent years, the Bowjax product line has continued to expand. New bowstring silencers have been added, like the slip-over-the-string Ultrajax IIs and the even newer Slipjax and Super Slipjax models. The Slipjax version was designed specifically for today’s fastest bows. Slipjax are both effective and durable while coming in at only half the weight of the original Ultrajax Silencers, so there is less speed loss due to silencer weight.

The Bowjax Limb Dampener line has also grown with the times, staying up to speed with the very latest developments in bows and bow limbs. Currently there are standard four-arm Bowjax Limb Dampeners for solid- and split-limb bows, an ultra-effective Monsterjax version with six vibration-dampening arms for solid and split limbs and even Slimjax for today’s latest narrow compound bow limbs and traditional bow limbs.

The Bowjax stabilizer line has expanded to five different stabilizer models with three styles of add-on Stabilizer Dampeners. In addition, the company has improved its original Bigjax Cable Guard Dampener and its Knuckle-Saver and has added a unique Riserjax Dampener for bow risers with cutouts.

“Initially, I simply took two Monsterjax Limb Dampeners and stuck them together through the riser of a bow for our booth display at the ATA Archery Trade Show. So many dealers saw and liked the idea that we later developed a special Riserjax package created expressly for that purpose.”

Also in the works are Bowjax-style dampeners for today’s high-performance crossbows.

“Today’s fast crossbows present considerable dampening challenges,” says Stuart. “Silencers and dampeners that work just fine on conventional bows simply don’t cut it on high-performance crossbows. As a result, we’ve developed a new and very special Crossbow Limb Dampener and String Silencer Package that does work well. We’ve also developed a very unique Crossbow Retention-Spring Dampener. The arrow-retention spring on many crossbows is often the source of much noise, and our new Retention-Spring Dampener squelches that noise source like never before.”

On top of its many archery products, Bowjax has also begun branching out into non-archery-related dampening items. One such item is the revolutionary MVD Trolling Motor Vibration Dampener.

“Fishing trolling motors typically create distinctive vibrations in the water as they move a boat forward,” Stuart explains. “Those vibrations can spook the fish. I co-developed the motor dampener with Eddie Goode, the president of Fishing for Kids. It is currently being tested by competition bass fishermen and competition bowfishermen, and is proving to enable those fishermen to catch and shoot more and bigger fish.”

With an ever-expanding product line and increased demand, Bowjax recently outgrew its facilities and began construction on a new 5,000 square-foot building to house its offices, assembly, packaging and shipping capabilities. Stuart Wright remains the president, lead engineer and mold designer and maker at Bowjax. Stuart’s wife Becky is the company’s capable vice president in charge of marketing, sales, customer service and accounting. Stacy Trammell oversees invoicing, packaging and shipping. Dave Rivera is an expert with the molding machines and is also deeply involved with new-product testing. Griffin Davis focuses on invoicing and shipping. Stephanie Trammell is key in the office and on the phones.

In a fairly short period of time, Bowjax, Inc. has emerged as a growing player within the archery and outdoor industries.

“Our success is based largely upon always listening closely to our customers,” says Stuart, “and then constantly improving our products to meet their demands and needs. That’s not always easy. Sometimes we have to shelve our pride in a particular product and just move on with a new and better design or even a new approach.

“The development of Bowjax has also enabled me to use my talents and my education to create a viable small business in scenic northern Idaho that supports my family, my employees and the local community. We’re right where we want to be and doing what we enjoy.”

To figure out both what you want and how to achieve it is success. For more information, log onto Bowjax.com or call Bowjax at (208) 762-3692.

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