Strong Straps & Startup Grit with Blazer Brand

The main thing with haulers has been the efficiency right aspect of it. Right. Which is does a guy need to get out of a truck right. In order to unlock or make this so that it can be emptied? Yeah. With the automated arms. Mm-hmm. And when the answer to that was yes, that was kind of where our conversation stopped with a lot of Right.

And it makes sense because if you put yourself in the position of one of the drivers. You don't want to be hopping in and out the traffic. No dangerous. Especially like if you're seated on the opposite side, like so you're a left hand driver and you have to walk all the way around. There's some trucks.

I'm like, we can make it work like when you're the stand it on the right hand side driver. But yeah, no, it was always something that we were like, we understand.

So welcome back to the Waste Nexus podcast. Uh, if you haven't signed up to get these online or on whatever your favorite audio device is, please do that. There's probably a link somewhere. I don't know if I'm supposed to point at it. Um, but we also have our event coming up this fall, which you can apply to join.

Charlie will be there probably. Probably, uh, I'll be there. So that's a fun thing. Right now, today we have a little bit of more fun thing. We have a All Pittsburgh podcast and two sets of brothers. And two sets of brothers. Yes. Uh, so today we have the Blazer brands with us, which is Justin and Quentin. Uh, guys wanna introduce yourself.

I'm Quentin. Yes. And I'm Justin. So do you want us to get full wind into Blazer brand? We'll get there. We'll get there. I was gonna say, my, my, my understanding is this was born out of, um, your father passed away and you guys were mulling over how do we honor dad? And pretty correct. Dad. Dad, I saw some pictures.

Dad had some. I see where the logo came from, right? Yes. There was some, it was based off of his flexing arm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was some pythons on the guy. Uh, that's Ken. Yes. Yeah. And he passed, what, 2013? Yeah. Yeah. And so you guys were teenagers? I was. You were 19. Yeah. You were 18. Yeah. So I was senior in high school and.

Freshman in college. Yeah. And that's hard. That's an unexpected thing. So I could see where that shapes life in a meaningful way. Um, where, what was the, walk us through a little bit of that, that germination of that idea of how that came around. So I would say that what I remember, and I'll let him kind of get going, but Quentin walked in one day and we were just kind of searching through life, well, what are we gonna do from here?

And he had brought up our dad's. Idea of this strap. Yep. Um, kind of like the concept of it. And he just, I remember him walking in and being like, this is what we should do. And at that point in time, Quentin was fully in and he just kind of dragged me into it. He's the action oriented. He's the actual action oriented one of us.

No, that's, that's why he and I get along. Yes. I was gonna say, we had a raccoon that was just getting into our trash can, I think for about a week straight, which is what drove me to. Say, Justin, we should do something about this. So problem plus, uh, inspiration, the utilization. Yeah. Right. Equals outcome.

Okay. So what was the first one you built? I saw some little images of wood. So yeah, first one we built was pieces of wood and we used brass like plumbing. Yes. Fixtures. And then we had a like. Regular bungee cord. I think we taped it together and make it look like it was duct tape involved. It, it was duck tape.

Yes. Good, good. Yes. So that was all wind projects start with some bad duct tape application, right? Yes. So we did that. Then we, um, we had gone into a prototyper, which was actually one of our original, like, this is, this didn't work out. So we spent a lot of money on a prototype that we don't, we don't have a picture to show you of.

Ah, but then after that, I think we kind of upgraded a 3D printing before we just kind of. For the injection mold. We had our design set in what it was, and we just had them cut steel. And from then we've just been rolling with that design. I don't think that design's changed much. Right. No. I mean, we have a new feature on it.

Yeah. Which is the automated release, but the core of what we created is still. The hockey puck shape thing hasn't changed much. Yeah. That is the same on the inside. You there are caps, so they got a little smaller over time. I don't really get much on the inside. Yeah, yeah. I, uh, but that would be the only thing that changed and that was just to, you know, kind of keep our price.

We had some big parts that didn't need to be as big. Didn't need to be as big. Right. So that, but other than that, yeah. It's the same standard product. So walk, walk me through. I'm very familiar with like a lock bar, gravity, right. On a front load and all that. Um. And I'm also familiar with raccoons in my trash and my wife bought, uh, straps that were not your brand.

And my experience with them was they kind of worked, but at service time they just found their way, like buried in the trees or something like that. Like they're now lost. Yeah, because I think they got serviced when we had all this snow this past winter and then they just disappeared. Yeah. And so I guess walk me through mechanically, like what happens at the time of pickup.

Is the, does somebody have to like UNL it and then atch it? Or how does that, like what's the workflow there? So, I know that one thing at at pickup for us is ours is attached to the can. Yeah, that's big. So yeah, you can't, it's not gonna end up in a bush near or anywhere nearby. And that's a big thing for us.

It's just keeping it, it's one unit. Um, and then recently, as Quinn mentioned, we have the auto notch that we've added to our strap. So our strap has two settings, one's a full strength. Okay. Where you're able to stop everything and you keep it behind your house, but when you set it out at the curb, it's a smaller notch.

Got it. And that squeezes its way through with about 10 to 15 pounds of waste. Right. When it gets dumped and hits that way. Right. Two trash bags in there, it's, it's gonna empty. Yes. Yeah. That's awesome. So I, I was trying to figure this out 'cause I've read about this auto notch for, I don't know, two years now for years.

Yeah, it hit the market last year. Last year. Okay. We've been talking about the, it's time less than you fungible. This is true, but I've read about it and I always kept, I, how does this work? I never really spent the time to look at it until we scheduled this and it's. It is actually, it's such a subtle feature.

Yeah. Because it's not a big, like the normal thing, whatever this wide, in, that little n notch is just a, you know what, a half inch inch, I mean, yeah. There's like, it's about an eighth of an inch on each side. Right. So it's, yeah, it's a very small, that just like kind of just hangs on whenever the can falls over.

But yeah, it doesn't, nothing as strong as those big ones. Yeah, the big ones, so my 8-year-old can hook up the big one. It's so funny to watch her 'cause she will put the full into it and just like lean down into it and it goes boop. Right in. She's like walks away. Just accomplished. Yeah, right. Walks away.

Loves it. It's great that way. Well, so when you were doing the modeling. One of the things I read about was you ran into some challenges with suppliers and durability. So tell us a little bit about that. Because you know, everybody likes the idea of creating their own product, but not everybody talks about all the hardware is hard.

Yeah, hard. I would say one of the first accomplishment would've been working with our finding, finding somebody to make it here. So the, all the parts are made in the USA. Nice. Um, so finding somebody that was, had a, I guess. Line for entry level. Mm-hmm. As opposed to like, hey, you have to spend $500,000 Right.

On a hundred thousand units. Right? Yes. Right. So that was the big accomplishment and I think Quentin found our molder that we work with now. Um, the sheer, uh, beating the phone to death being Yeah. Pretty much. Mm-hmm. And I'd say the second big part of it was realizing how much, when you do, I guess, this physical product, how you don't just kind of take your plans and your models and hand it to the.

Team at the manufacturer and say, Hey, we're good to go. We actually had to work with them to figure out how our molds were gonna work. Yep. And really get into that. So they probably had some feedback of. What if you try this? Yeah. They did that and we couldn't. Right now we have a self install. Yeah. Uhhuh.

So it just drills right into the can and the parts, and that probably took us about a year. A year to figure, to actually engineer to make it. We had, we had a solution that could do that, but getting the cost down to something that was reasonable. Yeah. I have the older version that is the screw in from the bottom version.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Which is same thing in a way, but different application. Yeah. I think with the screw, that was our first. Engineering hurdle. Yeah. Because it really was a staple in the installation process. So didn't want you taking out hex wrenches. Yeah. They didn't want no tools. Yeah. It is like, we didn't want to hear people complain about Well it's a, it's a hurdle to uh, them actually getting it done.

Yeah. Getting it outta the box and getting it on the can and Yeah. Right. Exactly. And that was for a manufacturer. There are a hundred year old plastic injection motor. So this like theory, like how do you guys not know how to do this? Yeah. And they were like, because isn't done, every product has its own little thing that it needs.

So point is, is that I had to take a self-tapping screw and force some nut onto it. Yep. It did a wrong on it. And then I transferred it to Justin and he conveyed it to the engineering team and they saw it from a manufacturer's perspective as to how to make that boat. You need to make the bulk too. Yeah.

So we tried to do that for all low cost, I think. And that's what people don't get. They don't realize that like the idea can exist, but the bulk isn't in, there's no bolt, no. You know, someone has to make this bolt. Yeah. And the initial bolt cost, I think, um, $10. Yeah. Or or a thousand. We needed two for our, so we were like, we're not, business is not gonna work.

Yeah. So we figured that out. Like sheer force sometimes. Yeah. Is like you just keep racking your brain around the problem you're addressing until you almost see the light. So from where you guys sit in making the product in the USA, the whole tariff uh, inflation environment, the change in oil price, all this stuff that's insulated you to some degree from the global economic thing that's going on around you.

Right. Yes, I would say absolutely. I mean, you still could find like deepen the supply chain some, like whether it be rubber, something you're not like isolated. But yeah, no, um, we've only ever paid tariffs on, we get our molds made somewhere, other, other, other places. So that's, that's where we, but those, that's one time those have been in place for, yeah, almost a decade, I wanna say.

There's, there's a friend of mine here in Pittsburgh who runs a, uh, injection molding company. Um, and he's told me about some of the stuff they go through and it's, it's a fascinating process. Yeah, right. Really is a cool injection one is a really cool process. Um, well, so in your sale process, how did you get from where you started to then, you know, who came first as the big retailer?

You guys were just at a big trade show, right? Yeah, we just, uh, attended Ace's trade show, so, yeah. Um. So the first sales were what you guys? Amazon? Amazon. Amazon was how we got started. It's what allowed us to prove that there was a market Yep. For this type of thing. Um, we got in with Lowe's was our first big brand that we got in with, but we're not in stores with them.

So it was like just on the webpage. Yeah. So that was like a. Introduction into the large distribution network, and ideally you'd be on the post next to the Toters at Lowe's. Yeah. Lowe's, if you're paying attention. Yes. Well, and I think that's the nice thing with Ace, you'll be able to walk into a good, right now, I wanna say it's about 220 stores where you will find next to the toter.

That strap will be on the shelf. Nice. Uh, there's a, there's a friend of mine here in Western PA who has, I believe, owns ACEs. We'll talk about that after owners, they in his stores. 'cause he's a good guy. I'm gonna check mine in Oakmont on the way. Yeah. Is it in Oakmont? Um, the main one is a little there, there's a secondary company that owns that one.

So we've been trying to find out who they're i'll. I'll go put it in the suggestion box. I really wish you had this. We are on the planogram, which is like a standard. 1500 to 2000 stores. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. Ace is a good company. I mean, they do things a little differently. Yeah. They don't, it varies.

Yeah. It's that at the trade show, it was interesting. They're not big box style. They're different that way. Yeah. Because it's like a co-op setup. Yeah. So when we were at the trade show, it was interesting as you get to meet people that are all independent store owners. Okay. Like for the most part. So a guy will be like, I have three stores.

Somebody might just have one. Yeah. And then you're selling to them and Ace is kind of. Making sure everything runs smoothly. When I lived in Big Sky, there was an Ace Hardware store, and it was the hardware store in the entire town. And it was, the nearest one was an hour away. Right. And it was a, it, it did volume.

And the carpet, he, I asked sometimes like, why don't you replace the carpet? He's like, you kidding me? It's like point, it's, no, it is like, it just gets dirty. It just gets ruined. He goes, this carpet's lasting. I'm sticking with it. Right. So that was pretty, pretty wild to see. Um, so then one of the things was you mentioned that you, uh.

Ran into making stuff in China. Right. That was a, a challenge. Right. So we are our straps, the rubber part, the budgie part of the strap was originally made in China. Um, so we had worked with a US company and they were headquartered in Minnesota, but all them factories were in China and around COVID. I think we went to reorder straps.

They gave us, I wanna say it was like a six to eight month lead time. Yeah. And we were, we were still kind of, and you were used to a six week lead time. Yeah. We were just like younger and we were like, how? And especially when they wanted like deposits for manufacturing and they wanted to ship all of the straps at once.

In a container like that, there was no like, oh, we can ship, you can fit a lot of straps on the container, fit a lot of straps in the container. That'd be a big, then you're wondering where your loading dock is and Yeah. And you gotta track what forklift you have. Yeah. And so we ended up saying, I don't think we just looked at it.

We were like, this isn't gonna work for what we need. And so we looked around the US and found a molder in California. Okay. And then they ended up. They're still our molders today. Nice. Um, nice. And yeah, we've grown with them. So that was, that was interesting. What's the Vermont piece you mentioned? A Vermont piece and another side of it that goes from that side of the country, just to keep the shipping even.

Uh, the Vermont is the plastic parts that go on the top, and so Oh, nice. So like they're different materials. So we have a plastic and then a rubber Yeah. And their manufacturing process. Two different worlds. Yeah. Yeah. And then we kind of bring everything together, package it, um, here in Pittsburgh. Yeah.

Yes. Okay. So we, we. You see it on the shelves in Ace and then we have a bunch of different ways that this just gets packaged to get out to people. Okay. So we've had, we have bulk packages for if a hauler would want it. Yeah. Um, that we've sent to ones in the past where it's just the parts in a big box.

Nice. Yeah. Or we have, here's a Tupperware of the parts. Yes. And we have two packs, one like singles. And now that as we have these two versions, we're starting to kind of grow. A little more reality. So do people buy the version? Did, did you decide to go with just everyone has the AutoRap or there's still, there's two versions in a sense.

So there are two versions because the AutoRap is a little bit more complicated to make. Okay. Um, they look, like you said, said you look so similar. Yeah. They look extremely similar, but that little notch, like it's very small. It's pretty precise. Like it has to be this wide. Okay. For it to. If it's too narrow, it just kind of doesn't work.

And if it's too wide, then we're not gonna have that auto release. Yep. So our mold is a little bit, a little bit nicer and so the cost of just a little bit more. So yeah, we keep both of those. So you have a problem ICE to fail solution? Yes. Okay. A will be taking on just the auto. Okay. So there's not really the option between, 'cause auto kind of encompasses the whole market where the Just OG one was.

More manual focus. Pure, strong strap. Yeah. Pure. Yeah. Have you tested how strong, strong strap is in the locked mode? So we've done like, which does the strap outlast? The, the bin. Oh, well, does the strap. We've had a, a lot of customers who have told us that they've walked out to, maybe, especially if they've it with bears.

Mm-hmm. They've walked up to a locked, still functioning strap, but the bin is broken. Yeah. So yeah, there's a, they are built. We made it. So it's polycarbonate and EPDM, which are both like very strong outdoor ready materials. Yeah, I, I've thought about using one, like, you know when your kid wants to like, get outta the room?

You wanna stay in the room? Yeah. Yeah. But maybe, maybe that won't make the podcast. We'll see the uh, but Chuck, go ahead. So how has trying to, it's geared towards consumers right now. Dads, you know, whatever, who are upset. As we were talking before this, I saw a raccoon run past my trash can. It drives me nuts that they're in my trash can every once in a while.

I think I had one, actually. I did. I had one die in my trash can that disgusting? That's what our text thread was. Um. That was gross. Uh, but switching from the consumer side, how has it been trying to get adoption? Maybe with like a municipality or a, you know, a couple routes with a hauler or something like that?

I would say difficult. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Especially, I mean, we are still, like we had mentioned, the auto release mm-hmm. Is new this year. Yeah. But historically, it's definitely been something that we haven't had a lot of success. Convincing haulers. Yeah. To say, Hey, let's put these on our cans and we've. I think because of that, we definitely leaned into the consumer side of waste there.

Well, I feel like the auto part is a huge win. 'cause that feels like it changes the work profile from their side. Yes. They don't have to worry about this motion anymore. It does the complete opposite now that it was intended to do. Which, the original intention was to keep a lid closed. Yep. And now we have that option.

Now we So that you can collect it. Well, it's still shut, but it still keeps the lid down. For that couple hour period. Yeah. Yeah. And then you get to, the rest of the time you get to use the original Right. And that just meets your needs. So it's kind of a balance of like, we, we started to drift in that direction of, okay, we'll, we'll see what we can do to make that work.

Is it still pretty trivial to unlock it if it's in the, uh, what is the name of it? Auto. The auto notch. Auto mode. In that mode, it's very easy to do with your hand, right? Yeah. It's just as easy. So what I was thinking about in advance of this, in some towns where I've talked to people, they've got, you know, whatever, uh, hauler they have set up to do the residential pickup, and they don't always tip the containers.

They often just handpick the containers, even though it's a name brand, 96 gallon container that could be tipped with a, you know, an arm or something. And the follow on from that is that you just get like buildup in the bottom of the container over time, which is super annoying. Um, I don't know. It just seems like a, uh, a pretty good alignment there between, I don't want the raccoon in the bin.

I don't want the strap being flung 15 feet away or like, god forbid it hits the driver or something like that. I mean, the thing has 20, 30 pounds a tension in it, and I want 'em to tip the bin. So if like, okay, now it's auto, this is, this is gonna work. Great. The only other thing I was thinking about was if, um, have you looked at trying to do any sort of like.

Tracking or partnering with somebody who does some tracking to see if like your container was actually serviced. 'cause in talking to a bunch of haulers, I know they're usually relying on either GPS and the video. Video when somebody complains to say they didn't service your house. And you know, there's always he said, she said battle, uh, there.

And you know, that might be an a value add for the hauler side if you guys explored that of, you know, hey, we tipped your bin because we have a. A third S skew that has like a an an NFC or an RFID tag in it. It's something that we haven't thought about. Yeah. But always open to anything if, if it gets a hauler, falls, someone one wants to pay.

Yeah. If gets a, the main thing with haulers has been the efficiency right. Aspect of it, which is does a guy need to get out of a truck Right. In order to unlock or make this so that it can be emptied? Yeah. With the automated arms. Mm-hmm. And when the answer to that was yes. That was kind of where our conversation stopped, stopped with a lot of, right.

Like Yeah. As it as it naturally would. And it's, it's the, probably the most as a hauler, the most valid reason. Yeah. He doesn't wanna get outta this thing a thousand times. Right. And it makes sense because if you put yourself in the position of one of the drivers, you don't wanna be hopping in and out of the truck.

No dangerous. Especially like if you're seated on the opposite side, like so you're a left hand driver and you have to walk all the way around. There's some trucks. I'm like, we can make it work. When you're the stand it on the right hand side driver. But yeah, no, it was always something that we were like, we understand.

So it was the racking our brain around how can we stick to our original design and still change enough to address that issue. Yeah. So that took us nine years to figure out, well, if our, if our friend Spencer is out there, he'll he should look at this. Yeah. Well, and I, he should. And it's a trash truck I drove in Texas a couple years ago.

It's interesting you mentioned. Considering where the driver is relative to the truck. 'cause at least in my town, the streets are tight enough where he has to stop, park, get out and do like three houses in a row and then he gets back in. Yeah. Um, and so there's just so many different use cases of how they have to maneuver the material.

Yeah. Is that, and even like, so there's a lot of automated trucks, they still are producing the manual, like rear load trucks as well. My town just switched its service provider in the last year and they switched to somebody who is. Wheeling the carts from curbside. So like we take 'em to the street and then they're wheeling them up to a, uh, you know, a tipper in the middle of the truck.

It's not a rear lift side. Yeah. That's why there's no automated arm with our last office, that municipality was provided with the automated garbage cans, but they're not serviced by automated trucks. Wow. They're what you're explaining, which is you roll now. To the truck and they get tipped. Yeah, so it's still the 96 gallon can.

Mm-hmm. Which I feel bad for anybody that hauls waste and doesn't have any form of tipper. Yeah. That this collector working. 'cause I was like, those bins get heavy. The 96 gets heavy. Yeah. And even, even the smaller ones, I was like having a tip. Any tip mechanism is like, alright, we're on, you're on the right track.

The, the thing I've learned over the, almost, you know what, 15 years we've been at this, that the built world is remarkably resilient to change. Yeah. Right. It's like, uh, yeah. That's nice to know that you have a thing. Yeah. We own 20 trucks that are doing it a different way. Too bad. Yeah. Right. Well, and you, you guys have a, a new product you're coming out with that's the blue bag.

Yes. Yes. Spelled wrong, right? Yes. Blue bag spelled wrong. Get rid of the E and then make it one word. But that's who's the target market in that world, so that, that is a reusable recycling bag. Yeah. So that is actually where we talk about the strap being like a very hard consumer and then trying to convince haulers.

We know that plastic. Recycling bags, yeah. Are just not good for recycling. Oh, it messes everything up downstream. Yeah. Whether you're in Pittsburgh, you know, there's plenty of articles like about that. So that's our main reason for creating a blue bag is to say, Hey, just put your recyclables in here. So that's mom and dad at home.

Put it in, have that be the bag inside a little bin. Go out and dump that bag in the recycled container. Just replacing that plastic boot bag. Yeah, the giant angle bag. Yeah. At home, if you're. A blue, like a plastic film bag's pretty lightweight. Yeah. But when you add 50 of them, you get a box. You guys start adding pounds of plastic over time.

So if you use it at home, you get to say, I'm using less plastic. Yep. And then also you get to save, because you don't have to go and buy recycling bags if that's what you choose to do. Right, right. We focus a lot on the consumer centric side of this, which every problem that the strap and the blue bag solve.

Is geared towards the lifestyle of like a homeowner. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So when we talk about how it crosses between over into industry, I was talking to a hauler today this morning and it was meeting at the curb is where two parties meet. Yep. And the garbage can shows at, on one side it's an operation and trucks and landfills.

And on the other side it's kids. A family and a career, and they're not there at 5:00 AM when he goes by either. No. So, but sometimes your dad's running down the street with the Canada. Exactly. I've done that. Exactly. You have. So it's meeting two worlds at that point where two interests collide. Yeah. It's interesting that Pittsburgh's this element of trash innovation.

Yeah. We've got a lot of, there's, it's a strange little flower town in trash. Trash. We were steel town, now we're doing trash. I mean, your, your business is kind of AI proof in a way, isn't it? I think yeah, because it's, uh, based on physical goods. I would, I would hope. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing, no, no computer's coming out to pull on that.

Yeah. Um, well, so I have a game I wanna play if you guys are in for it. I do this at trade shows and stuff, and I like to do this thing where I go, okay, does your profile picture on LinkedIn match your thing in real life? Right. So we'll start with Justin. Justin is in LinkedIn land. Pretty similar. He is the green Goblin and Hulk.

You know, give him Hulk. You think Hulk a hero? Boost him up a little bit. You know, I think that is not close. No. I'll give you, I'll give you that. Your, uh, brand on here is there. He he's a branded. This is all, all branded, right? Got the brother, you know, it's all there. Right? Unfortunately. I can get myself an order here.

Quentin's better than you on on appearances, right? I mean, if you look at him, he's got, he's polished up there, right? That's him. That's who he is. But he fails one of the basic tests in that his brand is the unknown Blazer brand. Oh no. LLC. So he doesn't actually work for the company for under LinkedIn, which is a fake one, which is, you can address that later, I'm sure, right?

Yeah. You're the older brother. I'm the older brother, but I don't know if I'm in charge. Well. I see head of product and operations and you got all your stuff right. So I figured that's something to go after. Right? There we go. Justin is more tech side of this, so, so he definitely, he definitely gets more aligned now, right?

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