Trophy Taker staying strong in the new year
Danielle Switalski
The inside of Dan Evans’ Trophy Taker retail shop and distribution business located on Highway 200 a little ways outside of Plains, is lined with a large number of elk mounts any seasoned hunter would be impressed looking at. Evans’ success in bow hunting is equivalent to the success he has found in designing archery products, building his own business from the ground up.
This January marks Trophy Taker’s ten-year anniversary in the Plains area and Evans has no intention of stopping his successful archery business anytime soon.
Evans designed his first product in the winter of 1997-1998 when he and his wife lived in DeBorgia. Two years later in the winter of 1999-2000, they moved to Plains where they really started expanding their business in their own home on River Road West. Evans said it was a small shop, run only by him, his wife and a secretary.
The first archery product Evans designed was a different type of arrow rest on a bow. The arrow rest is the part of the bow that the arrow rides upon.
The difference between Evans’ design and the designs that were on the market at that time, is when a shooter draws the bow back, the launcher comes up and when the arrow is shot, the launcher falls back down, which allows the arrow to go through without the feathers hitting the arrow rest. This difference, said Evans, is how they were able to get their start in the archery market.
“It (fall-away arrow rest) was a concept that had been done before, but no one had ever built a really good one on the market. Now they are very popular and a lot of companies make different variations of that,” said Evans.
Although Evans could not paten the fall-away arrow rest, he was able to take his place on the archery stage by marketing a successful design.
When Evans moved to Plains, this was the only product the business had on the market, however, things slowly started to grow from there.
Trophy Taker moved to their new location on Highway 200 in 2004 where the business continually built new arrow rests and eventually got into sights, which is the part of the bow that is looked through when the bow is shot. One year ago Trophy Taker also began designing and marketing hunting tips that screw onto the arrow.
Although they have a retail shop, it is not their main moneymaker. Their office is mostly used for marketing and distributing.
“We try to carry a full line of everything you need to bow hunt from bows to camp clothes, arrows and all of the accessories and we have an indoor shooting range,” said Evans.
Evans solely designs new products every single year to sell to dealers and distributors all over the world. Trophy Taker is currently preparing for shows where they will release their new products for the 2010 year. The new products this year are two new arrow rest models called the Smack Down. Evans said if anyone locally is interested in learning about their new products to come into the shop and they will show interested parties how the new design works.
Trophy Taker has not been hit as hard as many businesses by the struggling economy, but it is harder to hit the sales numbers the business would have the potential to hit in an economy that is doing well.
“I think most everybody has taken a hit, I feel like we’re doing well considering the economy,” said Evans. “The main way the economy effects us is it’s hard on everyone that buys things, but knowing that, as long as we expect to feel that some, you have to plan for that.”
Evans said they have always offered different levels of products. For example, they may sell their main arrow rest product for a set retail value and then have another version that will sell for half. The reason for this is that for someone who can not afford to buy the top quality product, they can get into archery by giving up some quality, while having a product that is still well functioning.
“We’ve done that for several years and it doesn’t really have anything to do with the economy, it’s just so everyone can get into it (archery),” said Evans.