Jack Tracks Put Windle Back To Work
January 11, 2020 at 5:09 a.m.
Jack Tracks Put Windle Back To Work
By David [email protected]
Windle, of Syracuse, created Jack Tracks, jack stabilizer pads for RVs made of recycled material that look like animal tracks. The original version of the pads are shaped like a bear paw.
“We built a paper plate factory in Goshen, Indiana, and then we sold it. And then we built another paper plate factory in Marion, Indiana, and then we sold it,” Windle said of his background.
After that, he retired.
“Until I came up with this idea and now I’m back to work,” he said.
Windle bought an RV in spring 2019. When he got it home and parked it in his driveway, he also bought all the accessories he needed for the RV, including the jack stabilizer pads.
“But they were just a yellow square,” he said of the pads. “I felt like it really took away from the whole experience and the whole picture of things in the campsite to see the yellow standing out when you’re in a natural setting.”
As he looked at the RV, he could imagine the bear track replacing the yellow block. He went to work on it, calling a close friend who he had previously been in business with, and together they developed the bear track.
“It’s a big bear paw, and see the RV stabilizer pad goes on this,” he explained. “So they’re stackable, too. They stack together. So if you need more than one, because of size or let’s say you have a depression, then you can build it up.”
He said that’s not unusual, but the aesthetics of his product is the “total difference.”
The pads’ slogan, “Nothing But Tracks,” is on the top of each one. The mold for the bear tracks was made in China, but they’re being made in Mishawaka so they’re “made in America.”
The yellow pads people generally buy are made of virgin material, while the Jack Tracks are made from recycled material.
Windle took them to the RV Hall of Fame Show where they had “such a good response,” he said. After he heard people call them “cool” and “neat,” he decided to move forward with the dog paw pads. He expects the dog paw will have a higher sale volume. The dog paw mold was being shipped from China and probably will be in place by the end of the month, Windle estimated, to be ran in the United States.
Jack Tracks are made for most standard towables and fit several different jack styles and sizes up to 6.5 inches outside diameter.
Six pads come in a box, with a velcro strap.
Windle and his family recently spent over a week at the Indianapolis RV show. He had to leave one day to grab more of the tracks from Mishawaka because of the demand, with his wife, Ann, and kids manning the booth.
“It’s never been done before, anything like this. So it’s all new. And what has been so neat, even though if we don’t sell it to someone, they’re all grabbing them and going, ‘oh, that’s neat, that’s cool. What a great idea. That’s ingenious.’ That’s all I’ve heard for like two days, so that made me feel really good,” Windle said during the interview Monday.
Besides the bear and dog tracks, he said he has a “host” of other ideas.
“We’re real excited and we feel we’ve got a really unique product,” Windle said.
He has filed for utility and design patents on the Jack Tracks.
Currently, the tracks are available online at www.jacktracksrv.com and Amazon. Eventually, they will be offered at block stores that offer camping supplies.
Ann worked for Cardinal Services as a social worker for young children. Windle said he’d like to see Cardinal’s manufacturing arm in Warsaw help with packaging and shipping of the Jack Tracks because many of Cardinal’s employees have disabilities and earn a living there.
“We’re going to try to send some business (that way) as kind of a giveback, the more success we have,” Windle said.
If the Jack Tracks really build momentum, he’d also like to do a giveback program for veterans to maybe train or buy their service dogs. “So much out of each dog paw that sells goes to training for service dogs for veterans. Those are things I’m looking for the future that I feel really good about. We’re not doing that yet because we’re just starting,” he said.
For more information on Jack Tracks, visit www.jacktracksrv.com; email [email protected]; or Instagram at @jacktracksrv.
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Windle, of Syracuse, created Jack Tracks, jack stabilizer pads for RVs made of recycled material that look like animal tracks. The original version of the pads are shaped like a bear paw.
“We built a paper plate factory in Goshen, Indiana, and then we sold it. And then we built another paper plate factory in Marion, Indiana, and then we sold it,” Windle said of his background.
After that, he retired.
“Until I came up with this idea and now I’m back to work,” he said.
Windle bought an RV in spring 2019. When he got it home and parked it in his driveway, he also bought all the accessories he needed for the RV, including the jack stabilizer pads.
“But they were just a yellow square,” he said of the pads. “I felt like it really took away from the whole experience and the whole picture of things in the campsite to see the yellow standing out when you’re in a natural setting.”
As he looked at the RV, he could imagine the bear track replacing the yellow block. He went to work on it, calling a close friend who he had previously been in business with, and together they developed the bear track.
“It’s a big bear paw, and see the RV stabilizer pad goes on this,” he explained. “So they’re stackable, too. They stack together. So if you need more than one, because of size or let’s say you have a depression, then you can build it up.”
He said that’s not unusual, but the aesthetics of his product is the “total difference.”
The pads’ slogan, “Nothing But Tracks,” is on the top of each one. The mold for the bear tracks was made in China, but they’re being made in Mishawaka so they’re “made in America.”
The yellow pads people generally buy are made of virgin material, while the Jack Tracks are made from recycled material.
Windle took them to the RV Hall of Fame Show where they had “such a good response,” he said. After he heard people call them “cool” and “neat,” he decided to move forward with the dog paw pads. He expects the dog paw will have a higher sale volume. The dog paw mold was being shipped from China and probably will be in place by the end of the month, Windle estimated, to be ran in the United States.
Jack Tracks are made for most standard towables and fit several different jack styles and sizes up to 6.5 inches outside diameter.
Six pads come in a box, with a velcro strap.
Windle and his family recently spent over a week at the Indianapolis RV show. He had to leave one day to grab more of the tracks from Mishawaka because of the demand, with his wife, Ann, and kids manning the booth.
“It’s never been done before, anything like this. So it’s all new. And what has been so neat, even though if we don’t sell it to someone, they’re all grabbing them and going, ‘oh, that’s neat, that’s cool. What a great idea. That’s ingenious.’ That’s all I’ve heard for like two days, so that made me feel really good,” Windle said during the interview Monday.
Besides the bear and dog tracks, he said he has a “host” of other ideas.
“We’re real excited and we feel we’ve got a really unique product,” Windle said.
He has filed for utility and design patents on the Jack Tracks.
Currently, the tracks are available online at www.jacktracksrv.com and Amazon. Eventually, they will be offered at block stores that offer camping supplies.
Ann worked for Cardinal Services as a social worker for young children. Windle said he’d like to see Cardinal’s manufacturing arm in Warsaw help with packaging and shipping of the Jack Tracks because many of Cardinal’s employees have disabilities and earn a living there.
“We’re going to try to send some business (that way) as kind of a giveback, the more success we have,” Windle said.
If the Jack Tracks really build momentum, he’d also like to do a giveback program for veterans to maybe train or buy their service dogs. “So much out of each dog paw that sells goes to training for service dogs for veterans. Those are things I’m looking for the future that I feel really good about. We’re not doing that yet because we’re just starting,” he said.
For more information on Jack Tracks, visit www.jacktracksrv.com; email [email protected]; or Instagram at @jacktracksrv.
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