the little leagues...

Well before I had customers like Google, Red Bull, Boeing ....

I had customers like Larry the BMXican, Sonkway and all the other BMX punk kids in my hometown of New Ulm,MN....

I am guessing I was about 11 or 12 years old and I was getting in to metal working thanks to my Dad, Brother and my school/city by making it easy to go for it...

My town is a very special place..or maybe it is just to me but when I look back at it now I see a lot of my roots strong in what I do now based on that foundation that was built by what was around me.

The town I am from in Minnesota is a little one of about 15,000 called New Ulm, its very very strong in its German heritage and it shows it in work ethic as well. The name New Ulm comes from the Germans that landed in the Minnesota river valley in the late 1800s and when deciding on the name they said... This is just like ULM, Germany both in weather and land... Just to give you an idea in Germany what Ulm is known for - its a little city not far from the big city of Stuttgart which is known for Porsche and Mercedes Benz just to name a few... the metal working runs strong in the heritage.

My school as well had great teachers that were super focused to show us about the worlds of crafts and trades, one I will always remember was the tool and die workers that fill New Ulm because of a mega 3M plant there best know for these little bad boys...

The famous 3M wire connectors ...

 

All of us as a full school classes would snake thru the 3M factories every so often stopping to say hi to parents of fellow classmates working in the factory, but we got to see some really cool stuff that got me hooked on making stuff... It was truly an incubator for my making addiction.

Lines of Injection Molding machines...

At age 12 this was the coolest thing seeing a 300 ton Arburg press clamp down and fill...

Waiting seconds later to an opening mold and 150 wire connectors falling out on to a belt system to be hauled to the next step.

This isn't the 3M shop in the photo above but it gives you an idea about what we seen as kids and how cool the feed tubes with all the colors were!

 

My Dad who is a jack of all trades was also one of the people that really helped me get rolling.

With all this curiosity in making stuff it was a blessing to have some tools in the shop.  

 

Far from what I use today my dad taught me on the old Miller Thunderbolt, I would watch him then he would yell at me to quick go crank up the top for more amp, if you have used one of these you know what I am talking about, its kinda cool to crank it up. Then I would watch him burn a giant quarter sized hole in part and then he would yell at me to quick go turn it down so I would run and uncrank it to about half what I turned it before.

It was a slow process.... but I learned a ton...

My dad Casper in his Man Cave

 

As I got handy in the shop fixing and doing stuff I got more ideas based on being in love with riding bicycles, both bmx and mountain bike. I raced non stop and I wanted a make bike parts... so I asked my dad to help out.

 

 this was the Azonic Headlock designed to pull the front end together on an 1 1/8 threadless set up...

By this time I was about 14 and these had just hit the market but I was going to copy it and sell it to all my friends.

 

So I did....

Using threaded rod and a cartage bolt, my dad and I came up with a copy of it.

Pretty ghetto but it worked and worked well and I made like 30 them with my dad and they sold plus you could use your existing headset cap.

I would have them all cut and ready and when my dad would come home for lunch during the summer he would help me weld them all up with the thunderbolt and then I would paint them with crappy callers like off green and browns... Colors you didn't want on your bike...

 

 

It was clear I was going to be rich off my business so I would need to start a company...

The company of the future... It said it in our tag line...

"Parts to beat"

 

Later down the road we would see a full integration in to the MLS family for Weasel Fab, but that would take years of struggling for Weasel fab before the buyout, mostly because I was still in high school and I had to worry about hanging out with girls, plus I was the only person of both companies so who would I rather hire then myself... Now I am confusing everyone...

 

That's enough ranting about myself and making up stories of MLS corporate buyouts