FEBRUARY 2007: VIP
ViP
Patrick Kruse, founder
& Otis, top dog
Ruff Wear, Bend
Credit Otis the dog as Ruff Wear’s muse. Otis, with his
feet beat up after running on rocky river banks. Otis, who fell
out of his lifejacket while being ferried across a
rapids-filled river. And credit Otis as chief prototype tester
for nearly all of the products that followed: boots, packs,
life vests, first-aid kits.
Patrick Kruse didn’t start with dogs. At 16, he tested
out of high school and left Southern California to work for
several years on charter boats in the Caribbean and South
America — experience he used to start a boat-maintenance
business and kayaking-gear business when he got back to
California.
In the mid 1990s, about the time Kruse was eyeballing Bend for
its rivers and mountains to play in, a friend challenged him to
make a dog’s water dish for backpacking. Thirty-two
dollars’ worth of research later, Kruse was showing off
collapsible bowls at trade shows, and testing his new ideas on
an Australian cattle dog puppy. Last year, Kruse turned 45,
Otis turned 11, and Ruff Wear’s sales were $5
million.
Kruse always has tried to work in the environment he plays in,
turning existing products into something that people involved
in adventure sports could use. With Ruff Wear, he bases ideas
on customer input. Now his canine customers go beyond the
adventure market to include seeing-eye dogs, military dogs in
Iraq and bomb-squad dogs.
“It was always fun,” Kruse says, “but this
gives what we do more value. It substantiates what we’re
doing.”
— Abraham Hyatt
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