Show Notes
In the latest episode of the Antler Up Podcast, host Jeremy Dinsmore travels to The Outdoor Group headquarters to sit down with Josh Sidebottom, the COO of the company. Josh delves into his engineering background and how it paved the way for his career in the archery industry. He provides an insider's look at the meticulous process of designing and developing bows, highlighting the importance of shootability and maintaining the brand's core values. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intricacies of archery equipment design.
Listeners will also get a sneak peek into the upcoming launch of the Elite Exalt 35 bow, alongside discussions on the recent releases of the Flex recurve bow and Altra Arrows. Josh emphasizes the beauty of simplicity in archery and encourages enthusiasts to participate in competitive archery events. Whether you're a seasoned archer or a beginner, this episode offers valuable insights and inspiration to enhance your archery journey. Tune in and get ready to elevate your understanding of the art and science behind top-tier archery gear.
So, grab your gear, sit back, and join us on this episode as we Antler Up with Josh Sidebottom on today's episode of the Antler Up Podcast.
Stay tuned, stay safe, and Antler Up!
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Show Transcript
Antler Up Podcast (00:00.056)
We're rolling everybody. We're back for another episode of the Antler of podcasts and what a joy special day I've had. I drove a couple hours north up to the TOG headquarters, the outdoor group headquarters. I'm sitting next to Josh sidebottom. I got the chief engineer. What like, what are all your titles? All the many hats that you wear here. Official titles, chief operating officer. I do oversee the engineering group. That's kind of my passion and my background. So I still have
a big part in the engineering process, but I've got a great team of engineers that do most of the heavy lifting. Yeah. So how did you get started with being in this industry of, you know, working with hunting companies, bows, all that type of stuff? So I didn't take a direct path into archery coming out of college. I went to the University of Dayton in Ohio. And at the time, my dream was really to work in NASCAR. I wanted to be an engineer or crew chief in
for a race team, so I kind of pursued that initially out of school, working for a couple automotive companies. And then I started to realize that probably wasn't the path I was gonna go down, but in the meantime, I'd gotten more and more into archery. I'd hunted since I was little and grew up hunting, but I got more serious about competitive archery and met Holly, who's my wife, who was a established competitive archer, and we started traveling around shooting.
a lot of events and saw a job posting for an engineering position at an archery company and I kind of shot a resume in blindly, not expecting to get a call back and did. At the time I was so in love with archery and the industry and everything about it that I was under this kind of false pretense that an engineering position for an archery company, they probably get thousands of resumes. Who wouldn't want this job?
So I had really low expectations when I sent my resume in, but I got a call right away and went to work in the industry back in 2009. wow. And I've kind of been in it ever since. since. That's the one aspect that I find fascinating in a position that you're in. I think people know, but it's not like one of the first things that come to mind as far as like a question. But it is for me.
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Like if you're creating the bows that are about to come out, that didn't just happen a couple months ago. The tweaks and those things happened maybe a couple months ago, but the initial thought, how long does it take you to be like, man, okay, so the 2025 launch is going to be, when did that start to actually go pen to paper, all that stuff? So it's not a real straightforward answer, unfortunately,
you break down a bow into multiple components and there may be a component of the bow that has been in development for a few years and then it gets incorporated into a bow that's going to be a part of the 2025 product launch. you know, we launch bows every year, so you're at least a year out. is what this bow needs to be and what it's going to do, but there may be parts of that bow like a cam design or something else
has been in development for a while in the background. And once that's right, okay, now we move it into this project and implement it into this new project. Yeah, because that's the one aspect, again, that I said, like, I find that fascinating because you think about like, my gosh, every year companies are coming out, pumping out with new things and tweaking things. But, you know, like I said to you down on the floor when, you know, you're gracious enough to give me a tour and we're on the floor with the era and, know,
People listening know how much I love that bow. It's been my hunting bow last year it's going to be going starting it out as well this year just because if and I talked about on another podcast where In a whatever world you whitetail hunting if you're out West to me Even if people want a more stabilized bow, you could still trick that out with a back bar those type of things But I want something that's light
that I can maneuver, it's a 31 .25, know, 31 and a quarter inch axle to axle. To me, it's like the white tail of killing machine for me personally. But like seeing how that goes about coming on the floor and being made, that was your first rendition last year. You know I mean? And again, like obviously there are a couple companies that have carbon bows. You weren't just all of a sudden one year be like, wow, let's make one here, let's release it. Like that was a couple of years in the making. Absolutely, yeah.
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The Arrow is definitely an exception to kind of the normal product development cycle because of it being so new to us and the technology that goes into making a carbon bow. So that was multiple years in development prior to launch. So that one you have to be out in front of quite a bit. But then there's components of it like the cams we decided to use on it. We didn't decide to use those cams at the beginning of the riser development. Things evolved from that point until
We found the best combination for that bow. Right. So when you look at where elite archery is right now, Josh, when you look at all the different bows you guys have come out with, where you're going to be going, do you sit down and be like, do you listen to what people say, like what the trend is, quote unquote? Like, the speed bow. Is it this? Is it that? I want different cams or like
Tunability, mean, you guys are in a league of your own. Obviously, I know there's another boat manufacturer that has their thing as well. how do you, or do you sit there and be like, man, this really works, even if it's not what necessarily is the trend? You know what mean? How do you guys approach that aspect of things? Yeah, so we obviously have to pay attention to the trends. We have to understand what the consumers are and our dealers are asking for, what is driving foot traffic into the dealers to.
to keep everything flowing. But we also like to stay true to what we believe is going to make someone a better archer and is going to elevate their game. Even if that's slightly outside of what maybe the hot button item or the trend is. So, you know, shootability is very important to us. It's not, it's something we're not going to depart from. We want to be consistent with that. Obviously, axle to axle, brace height, mass weight, all these variables that go into a bow design.
can be varied and there is no obviously perfect single configuration that everyone's gonna love. So, you know, you gotta provide some variety for those that want a longer bow or a shorter bow or faster bow or more brace height. So we try to plan our product line around having something for everybody, but continuing to elevate what we've done in the past. You know, find a new feature, a new adjustment.
Antler Up Podcast (07:06.542)
Way to pick up a little efficiency whatever it might be we're always striving to take what we've done and and continue to Add on to it. Yeah, I like the fact how you're saying you listen to you you're Through the bow shops and the consumers man some of these bow shops though with these bows anymore I remember I bought when I first bought my era from Nate Sellers down at Average Jack and I went in there and
he knows I know how to work on a bow. He was like, all right, see you later. He didn't even have to worry about getting me set up just because how easy they are to work on. So as far as getting people to go in, it's really, mean, take the shootability challenge is a perfect coin because once you do that, then if you know anything a little bit about setting up a bow, these are the bows to learn on too. You know I mean? That's what's awesome about that.
Funny too, when you add all this adjustability into the bow and the ease of tuning and these things, initially it makes some dealers a little nervous, like, are you trying to replace me? But no, we're just trying to make your life easier. Make it quicker to turn these guys to get a bow that fits them properly in a shooting well and help you take care of the next customer. The shameless plug on that, Nate has a video of setting my Kairos up and I'm in there with him
we're filming it, when we were filming it, I think it took two shots through paper. And he was like, okay, one minor quick adjustment on the set technology. We turned it whatever way we needed to set it two more shots through. First one was a bullet hole. Second one is to verify the bullet hole. And it was again, it was just, it took four minutes, not even five minutes. It was that simple, Yeah, there was a point in time where I think dealers tried to avoid.
paper tuning bows because they knew they could be in for a full day affair of messing with bows. So they should be much more confident in the ability to get these bows attuned for people. There's some nightmares I've heard of you had to swap the limbs, you've had to get different limbs, really, you know, some other I've had some buddies that actually happened to and are like, I had to flip my top limbs with my bottom limbs for it. And it's like, what? That's a head scratcher. Yeah, there's definitely, you
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You try to play within like the bell curve, which is the 80 % and then they're gonna have a little bit of extreme on either end that you have to deal with separately. Someone may have a really unique grip pressure or something that's outside of the realm of what's considered normal, but if we can take that 80 % plus and give them a bow that tunes in two shots, that's what we're trying to do.
You got your hands full here coming up. Josh and I were talking before we were getting to know each other and we're talking about coaching and you're coaching your son's football local team here. So your season's starting off quick and I remember those days of coaching fall, coaching football. My time was limited in the hunting season. Is that where you're going to be this year? Absolutely. I wouldn't say I've written off this season, hunting season, but
It's gonna be my son's last year of youth football. It's my last opportunity to coach him I plan to put everything into that I can hunt the rest of my life and I'll be able to hunt throughout It's not like I'm gonna be out of the country But I know my time is gonna be limited through the beginning part of fall until you get into November once once the season's over I'll be available to to dive into the woods, but Yeah, I'm definitely behind the game as far as prep for this season goes. I think
You're not the only one, like I said, I've been in that same boat with the baby and all that type of stuff, and it's cool, but some really cool things are happening. Sitting right here behind us, when this one finally airs, the last ASA ASA Classic will already have happened and you guys will drop this. I stepped in and I quicked at a glance because I was like, okay, it's not as tall as my verdict.
doesn't look like an ethos. was doing like a double take and then we started talking. You're like, did see this new bow? So I want to just give little run through a little bit about what this bow is and who it's kind of tailored to. Because what you told me was perfect. And I want you to kind of go over that. Yep. So this is the Exalt 35. And this is going to launch August 1st at the Thursday of the ASA Classic. So initially this
Antler Up Podcast (11:38.958)
bow was designed as a target bow. know, through product development, we've been calling it the target bow, the target bow, the target bow, but it's a 35 inch bow and it's really an incredible bow for any use. So, I mean, I'll probably be hunting with it this year. I know the other guys here will be. But the foundation of the bow is built around what we wanted a target bow to be. So when I say that, there's
There's not a stark difference in the development of a hunting bow and a target bow. It's more around what are your objectives. And with a target bow, we want the utmost instability and forgiveness and accuracy. And in any sort of development project, there's going to be trade -offs. You can make a super light bow, but it may not be the deadest in the hand or vice versa.
This the foundation the bones of this bowl is for accuracy and for target archery. But it will it'll scratch every edge that people have. So it's a 35 inch axle axle bowl. The brace height's just under seven inches. It's six and 13 sixteenths. Probably the most impressive thing that has myself and everyone else really excited about this bowl is the efficiency and the speed that we're getting out of it. So when you you
IBO guys, ASA guys with shorter draw lengths that are struggling to get up against that speed limit, they really need to take a look at this bow because with the performance mods we're getting 344 feet per second out of a 7 inch brace height, 35 inch axle to axle bow. It will come with the smooth mods installed which will shoot 337. It'll have a draw length range of 24 .5 to 30 inches.
And there's some cool new features on it too that we can talk about. But overall, the bow, you know, like I said, was initially when we set out to design a bow, it was going to be a target bow. But we found that this bow is going to work so well for so many different uses that, you know, it has the quiver mounts, it's available in all the camo colors. It has all the features of our hunting bows and our target bows. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said about like the ASA
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you know, IBO guys like looking for the speed, especially a short draw individual like myself, that's looking for that little bit of speed, but even out West, like I know a lot of people like those longer axle ax axle bows out for Western hunting. man, that, and what was the first thing I said to you was it doesn't look like a 35, like it felt like my Kairos like in all, in all honesty, it felt like that, that Kairos. And I know two inches is two inches, but some
When I pick up my Verti compared to my Kairos, it feels like a boat. You know what mean? I shoot it great, and I love shooting that thing, but when I take that into bow hunter class and people are shooting their Kairos or an actual smaller axle -to -axle bow and I'm like, I'm the weird guy that's rigging this thing out like a bow hunter. know I mean? Whereas this, that's kind of up my wheelhouse for that. Yeah, I think it's
fit in a lot of people's wheelhouse that have been asking for this from us. Obviously we had the Energy 35, which is super successful platform. And we haven't really had a bow like this that'll fit that need since. So really excited to get this to people to try out. It's impressed. We've had some in the field. We've got shooters that have them in their hands that are going to be shooting them at the Classic.
We're excited to see what it'll do. what they can do. Now, what about some draw links? Because I know a lot of people are, that's the key thing. Whether it's ELE, whether it's other companies, always saying, or what about us long guys? I'm on the other end. I'm easy. I could make a bow fit me. But some of these other guys, they can't. What we looking at for draw lengths and all that? So this is 24 and 1 half to 30 inches. So the guys, the long draw lengths are still going to be.
Anxiously awaiting something to satisfy their needs, but you won't have to wait long We got something in the works for you guys, too But yeah, twenty four and a half to thirty inches so really a wide variety of archers You know women target archers youth target archers. This would be a great fit for them and Anyone who likes a little bit shorter bow I mean there there's obviously been trends in the industry as far as going longer longer and longer and then it kind of back down and
Antler Up Podcast (16:14.35)
We're seeing more people that are just comfortable with the string angle of a little bit shorter bow. And the performance that they're getting out of it is worth it for sure. The one aspect, I feel like I've seen a lot more people do what I kind of did this past summer, where I put myself out there, finally competing in an ASA. Like I said, I know thousands of individuals already
been doing that right I'm not I'm not saying I'm anything special but it's really cool for me to see other people saying I did this for the first time I did this for the first time right I felt like there's this new like there's already you already have a foundation of the target individuals that hunt and all that stuff but now you have individuals like myself or it's like hmm I have my hunting rig right I want that hybrid
And then maybe one that's like an indoor whatever I could trick that out with long bars, all that stuff. But that hybrid one to me is the tricky one. Cause I want to take it hunting, but I also want to take it and perform. Like you said, you want to have that stability, the forgiveness, accuracy. And that looks to be the part. Yeah. So, you know, back in the day when you looked at what a target bow was, the speeds are so much slower that most people wouldn't consider them
to take into the woods with them. Really, I think the ideal scenario now for someone, even if you want two bows, is to have two of the same bow, one that's rigged out for hunting, one that's rigged out for target. That way, the feel of the bow is the same all the time, and everything's consistent. And this would be a great candidate for that. I know it's probably not realistic for a lot of people to just have one bow, especially.
with all the accessories and everything that goes into it, a lot of people end up with multiple bows as they get more serious into the target archery side. for someone who wanted to dip their toe in and have a bow that is more than capable of shooting target, 3D, hunting, whatever you want to try, this would definitely fit that. What other, because there's some new features that I noticed right away. Yeah. Do you want to run through those? Yeah. So.
Antler Up Podcast (18:35.618)
Probably the biggest one that you'll see on this bow is what we're calling our rack system, which is rail accessory connection. So there's multiple mounting areas on the bow for what we're calling rail or picatinny style mounts. So we've added the picatinny style to the front. We're obviously not the first person to do that, but we've added that. With our brand CBE, we've had a picatinny mount accessory. So any of our CBE sites will mount to the front of
We've added the Q80 Integrate for the back of the riser, so more to come on that on offerings on Integrate style rests, but Q80 obviously has their MX2 and their rest that'll mount directly to that dovetail. And then we've also got some Picatinny mounts on the limb pockets on the top and the bottom, which is kind of unique.
There will be more to come on that that will be unveiling, but we have a plan for an accessory line that will attach to that and provide some really cool features for people. What I like about that top one too, Josh, is it's very discreet. You know I mean? It's not sticking out. It's not like this crazy like, it's very discreet. It's like you said, I mean, it's obviously built in, but it's nicely done. Yeah. And it's a standard Picatinny design.
aftermarket Picatinny accessories that you could dream up will amount to it. So if you want to run a GoPro off the top to get that kind of over the shoulder view of your shot when you're hunting, it's perfectly set up for that. So it's also been a crazy month for you guys. The last couple of weeks, the fact that I'm actually sitting here and you had time for this blows my mind just because we tried to maybe possibly do this last fall and it was.
You're like, if you come out, like, the next day we're releasing the ethos in Kyros. And I was like, you know, was kind of crazy. But it didn't work out on my schedule. But so you guys released your traditional bow. So you had the Flex came out a couple weeks ago. And then the Arrows from Ultra just recently came out. So it's been a busy past couple weeks. And now it's just going to get even more busier because it's the season. Yeah.
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We try to keep it fresh. it feels like we've always got something new coming and you know, we've kind of taken a step back from all right, all new products are going to drop on this date. And you know, we've got so many brands and products that it's, it's not really feasible to give each one the attention that it deserves if you drop them all at the same time. So we've planned out launches throughout the year. Yeah. The two fours and the 25s or a great addition to the ultra line. Those
sold out like immediately the 204s. We actually, as we were talking before today, we received in another shipment of 204s that we'll be inspecting and going through and getting out the door. We're in pretty good inventory position on our other 166, 246, 23s, 27s, and 25s as well, which the 25s, I know Levi's put some content out there on those that he's been shooting.
Have been doing incredible Darren's been shooting them and shooting really well the the GPI of those is it really in a sweet spot for the 3d guy because you're getting the cutting diameter the 25 64 diameter But the weight of them allows you to reach whatever speed you really need to write and you can still run point weight in them you can still run them a little longer if you want and And still get the speed that you need. Yeah, those are the ones that really excited me
lot be just because again I had the 23s they performed awesome I had no issues with them my 246 is performed great in with my Kairos I had those built up for that so that way like for Toraja challenges and other local 3d stuff that I'm not maybe you know competing in but just once I want to stretch it out and get some extra range on those did good but you said the 204s excite me for hunting I'm I've yet to hunt with a like four millimeter you know the 166 is
I've yet to ever hunt with those 204s have always been my bread and butter and I knew last year when these when ultra kind of came out you're like we're coming just you know wait till next year and here we are so hopefully I'll be able to get my hands because I definitely want to hunt with with those and test those out but the 25s like you said they are in that sweet spot because when I was getting into this world and I'm hearing guys saying like yeah my total arrow weight is is a you
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three something, and I'm like, what? It's so low compared to what I'm normally used to running. But yeah, so that was, I'm anxious to give those a run and build some up hopefully on that sucker. Yeah, the 204s are my preferred hunting diameter as well. And we heard it constantly since we launched. mean, we launched the 246 and the 166, so we kind of tried to reach the extremes. With the plan of launching the 204 all along, we knew it was coming.
But that was the number one thing we got was when are gonna have a 204 when you gonna have a 204? But we've got it so and we added actually within that we had a component so we had a no home line of arrows which are available in the in the 204 and the 246 which is a 6 ,000 straightness level which is a little bit more affordable for people and the 204 version comes with a half out where
The limit is the premieres, which are the 3000, 1000 straightness. Those come with our Arco mounting system on the front. Okay. What's your arrow bill looking like as far as that goes? And like, what do you prefer, you know, your engineer mind of your arrow bill? Or are you to keep it simple? you really? Yeah. Yeah. I've, know, throughout the years I've tried a lot of different things, but I'm pretty straightforward. You know, obviously spine is the first thing that I'm going to try to dial into.
And I vary my setups from year to year. One year I may hunt with 65, the next year I may hunt with 73. It just varies a lot. And really honestly, a lot of times the bow I take into the woods in the fall is a prototype of something that we've been working on. it may be whatever weight it was whenever we got it. So yeah, I'm a 350 or potentially a 300 and a 166 spine arrow.
prefer to have my broadhead just in front of the riser shelf. So I'll kind of cut my arrows to that length and then tune them from there. But I've run three -fletch, I've run four -fletch, depending on the type of broadhead that I'm running. If I'm running a mechanical, it's less critical for what kind of veins I have on the back. if I want to run a larger fixed blade, then I'll stack a little bit more vein on the back. Yeah, so the last couple weeks, some of the guests I've had on have done
Antler Up Podcast (25:33.89)
either a whole episode on how can we simplify things? Like keep things simple, right? We've always tend to over complicate it, right? And so I was intrigued to hear your perspective on that just because of your background and you you say about a three -fletch or a four -fletch. I mean, the last, this past year that I had, I've said it many times, I was fortunate enough to,
to kill five deer in two and a half weeks in state of PA, right? In public land, private land, buck, doves, all that stuff. And it allowed me to hunt Ohio for a longer period of time. But this past year was like, was like, keep things simple. Like don't overanalyze it. I'm going to run my mechanical broadhead. I'm going to run a three -fletch. I'm going to throw a lighted knock on there just because I'm self -filming, all that type of stuff. But just keep it simple.
Unfortunately, I think there's more and more people in our industry that are generating content. And in order for content to be engaging at times, it needs to be controversial or very opinionated. And so I understand that side of it. People need to create this content. But the reality of it is there's a lot of ways to get it done. I'm definitely not one. I would probably surprise a lot of people
the bows that I take to events or out into the woods. I'm obviously super detail oriented when we're designing a product and creating a product. But when it comes to setting up my own bow, I keep it very simple. know, throw some stuff on there. The arrows flying straight, get some marks and go. I mean, it's not, you don't have to over complicate things. I mean, you can, there's nothing wrong with that, but depending on what you're trying to achieve with your archery experience, you don't have to. And I think it can
a little intimidating for people who are not super savvy and technical and understand the products, to see some of that stuff and feel like they really don't know what they're doing. where, know, you can break it down a little bit simpler and, and make it easier for people to understand and to get out there and be accurate and have fun. And you can incrementally advance your technical knowledge as you go. You don't have to take it all in one bite. You said it right though, because.
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That's how things are. The most engagement's going to be that person that says this, but that's why I respect Joe Miles a lot. He's with Osseo Gear because he always says, this is the way I'd do it. It might work for a lot of people, but it's not maybe what's going to work for a bunch of other people. There's a hundred different ways of skinning this cat. And that's the beauty of it. And that was the one aspect of learning this, the target side of things where I
Learning that and it was just like a fire hose. I was just like mouth open It was just a fire hose going in just because I was like, my gosh, there's so much to learn I enjoyed it, but there was only little bits and pieces that I was able to actually Implement and so like now I'm like, okay now I could implement a little bit more next year and a little bit or Coming up to the fall like there's a couple other Local shoots that were you know, we're gonna have a flighted one of just a bow hunter only class that's near me which is gonna be really fun to do because
Six millimeters, your biggest diameter shaft, 12 inch stabilizers like normal bow hunting classes are. So it's like you have to use your hunting setup for that, which is going to be a lot of fun. again, take that, go into hunting season, and then when it turns into that indoor, I've never shot paper before. Like for a league or anything like that, I've always been too big of a pansy to do it, right? So now that I'm doing it, it's like, OK, what can I learn?
You know, go from there. And that's kind of a great thing to touch on for people out there. And I fall into this category when I came up in archery as a bow hunter. I always thought I was a pretty good shot. And I was like looking for a competitive outlet. You know, once sports end, you know, through college and you're looking for something to kind of scratch that itch. And but I didn't know where to go or where to start. It was really intimidating for me to try to understand.
I had a shop that I would get my bow work done at at the time. But I wanted to learn it. So I would go online. I would read whatever I could read. I would take in whatever information I could take in. But you just got to do it. The archery community is very welcoming. mean, go to a shop, ask about leagues, and just sign up. Don't feel like you're not cut out for it or you're not good enough. Just go do it.
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once you get it into it, you'll find there's endless opportunities to compete in archery and to take on different aspects of the sport. But until you take that step to do it, it's like a whole other world that is going on that you may not be aware of. It's funny too, because some days you could have it and then it's just like any other sport or activity that you may do. You could be lights out, pitching, playing basketball, whatever it be. And then the next day you can't
you know, hit the barnside of a bone. And it's the same thing for archery. know what mean? There was a time this past summer where was like, I was locked in. I felt really good. And then RBD came and it was a really bad day. Yeah, it happens. And I think a lot of people end
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Not necessarily blaming the equipment, but looking at the equipment and trying to find something to change to refresh their mind and refresh their approach to it. It's not necessarily that the equipment is malfunctioning, but there's something that a lot of people refer to as the honeymoon phase in archery. You get a new bow, you get a new release, you get a new arrows, and you're shooting great. And then it kind of tapers off a little bit. And obviously it's the same equipment that you were shooting great with before, but.
You got to find something to adjust or change and then you end up just tweaking and tweaking and tweaking until you try to find that magic again. But yeah, it's just like anything else. And it's so mental. You know, it's one of the great things about archery is that it is a physical activity, but the mental side is much more of what determines if you're going to succeed or not in the sport. Yeah. Big time. So the one aspect I was worried about, to be completely honest, was I should,
Even prior to this, Josh, I tried to shoot every day, whether it's two arrows at 10 30 at night before I go to bed and I'm ripping it from wall to wall in my basement. That's in here, right? In your office space. If that's all I got, that's all I got. want to shoot a bow every day. My fear was that, okay, I'm going to be practicing a lot. Am I going to develop like a bad habit again? Am I going to, you know what I mean? Cause like I said, going into last year was the best I felt in a long
And it kind of continued and that's what gave me the courage and the, you know, spunk to go for this. And it didn't come at that. My, bad stuff didn't, it, came a little bit, but once I left that environment of that RB, like that RBD event that I really struggled at, I shot another course, another, like later that month somewhere did really well shot another event somewhere else did really well. Like it was just that
That day like I said going back to what we just said it was that one day where I just didn't have it and then the other days I did pretty well and I know there's better days ahead like I even Like even though I I had a rough day at that last ASA event Where I shot I scored two points less than my second place finish the first time that I did My goal was to finish higher, right? So I missed it by four points
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and I know the mistakes I made, so I was frustrated at myself with that. And then I talked to other people and they're like, dude, you started the gate negative 10 already. You know what mean? And you only finished 16. You know what I mean? So there are positive things, but again, I just know I for sure have better days ahead with that. And it excites me because guess what that means? I get to shoot my bow more. Yeah. Yeah, it's really all about the journey of, and if I could go back and reclaim something, it would
When I transitioned from what I would say is just a bow hunter into a more well -rounded archer and a target archer, and the rate at which you can improve is awesome. mean, you're just, you you start out maybe shooting a five -spot league, and I remember starting out maybe shooting in the 270s or 260s or something, know, something like that. And then, you
climbing your way up and all these thresholds, you know, I got a 280, now I got a 290, and then you're going for that 300, and then the nerves are racking, can you shoot a 300? And then it's, all right, now I wanna shoot 50Xs, now I wanna shoot 60Xs, and there's always a threshold to reach to climb, but that exciting time is really when you're taking these huge leaps, know, the improvement becomes much smaller as you march up, but.
That is a, that's an exciting time for sure. Yeah. You've done some pretty cool events that you've been either attended, participated in, in some form or fashion. What's one that like you're like, man, what a cool event. And if someone has a chance to experience that, like I would recommend that. So I would say Redding is one of the more, especially being someone from the Northeast, to go out to California and shoot that trail style, safari style shoot is, is pretty awesome.
I think the first time I went out was 2010. And had my best showing that I've had out there. And it was just a really cool experience. You're shooting a variety of ranges of targets and variety of target faces and distances and scenes. And the whole experience I think was pretty cool. I came from a background of shooting more so indoor and field archery. Not a lot of 3D.
Antler Up Podcast (35:50.446)
So to go out there was kind of a mix of skill sets and really enjoyed going out there. Yeah. Yeah. But, know, if you're, if you're indoor, you got to go to the Lancaster Archery Classic and check that out. It, it, what they've done with that event is just remarkable. You see you go now and they were filling multiple halls at this giant facility of target archers. It's, and that is, that can be a grind that, that round, the 660 round.
You got to stay on top of your game there or, or you'll fall behind pretty quick. But yeah, indoor wise, would say Lancaster archery out outside Redding's pretty special. but yeah, I mean, there's obviously all different kinds of archery you can get into as well. You can, you know, if you're a 3d guy, then the ASA's are, are great events to go to. It just depends on what you want to, what you want to experience. Yeah. So kind of, you know, before we wrap everything up, what some, obviously
falls ahead so we know there's some really cool things coming down the line. But anything that you can talk about that you're excited about, whether it already has come out or anything like that? Yeah, I think to generalize it a little bit, we've got a busy fall coming. We've got a lot of products in the works. And I think for those that are keeping an eye on what we're doing, obviously we launched the Flex, which is our recurve bow here a few weeks ago.
We had the 204s with Ultra Arrows that just launched. We've got the Exalt 35 that's going to be launching August 1st. And then come September, October, we've got a full line of stuff coming that will include accessories and elite, as well as multiple new bows that we're excited to bring to the market this year. Nice. Now you're going to just have Ultra come out with a trad arrow now, right? Yeah.
You know, arrows have been great and Ultra has performed beyond our wildest expectations. It's performed awesome. mean, obviously having Levi on the team there is a huge part of that and his success with the arrows speaks for itself. He feels like he's on the top of the podium every week here recently. He's got to keep that rolling through the classic, hopefully. But yeah, the arrows have been
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Incredible force and when you look at arrows you could you could what we sometimes they skew yourself to death you could have a million skews and arrows and It would be very difficult to supply our dealers and supply our consumers because we would have so many different skews to manage and forecast and we'd be out of stock so we're trying To keep it somewhat simple. Obviously we want to scratch the itch of whatever type of arrow that you want but
We're going to continue to round out the line in arrows and add things where they make sense. Add spines, add different things. We've got some additional spines that will be coming for some of our arrows also, which we just added another spine in the 27s and the 23s as well. So we added a 400 spine 23 and a 300 spine in the 27s. And the 25s come in two spines at 250 and 350. So multiple options there,
Yeah, Ultra will continue to grow. The dealers have definitely jumped on board with it and it's been a big part of the success so far. Like Darren's last post from Total Archery Challenge with the bucket of the Valley of Death of Arrows, know, this is capturing why did you get into arrow building business? Well, this is why, right? People go through air. I don't know how many times I've heard this past summer. Luckily, luckily I have yet
Did I? Maybe one at Montage Mountain when we did that one, I might have, no, I didn't sail one. But I'm trying to think, but I've heard multiple times, it's only an arrow, they make hundreds every day. And I'm just like thinking to myself, my gosh, that's like a $30 arrow, like to me if I would lose it. So it's not fun. Yeah, they're not cheap. But you go to one of those tack events and you can stand there in the practice range and just hear them tinging off of steel targets.
Have guys come back with multiple destroyed arrows in their quiver, looking for a few more. Yeah, it's an interesting event, but I'm guilty of it too. I'll go into the fall and I'll check my arrows out. And if I'm down a couple, I'll be like, well, I need to get some more just because I want to have that full set ready to go for the fall. So yeah, from a consumable standpoint, it's a good business to be in.
Antler Up Podcast (40:36.2)
To kind of wrap things up though, Josh, I want to just say this. What a one thank you for opening doors for me to come up here and see what you guys do. But after seeing and being in the moment of watching everything and I know I said to you down here, it's just amazing to see the workers with their hands on the product that is actually going to the consumer. Right. If I were to order that, that's got Omega release actually seeing the person work on it.
seeing you guys actually machine the material, like it was just so fascinating and just seeing like the community aspect and you calling every employee by their name and smiling and help, you know, just saying hi to me and all that type of stuff. It was just awesome to see. And I, this will be a day I'll, you know, not to sound, you know, whatever, this will be a day I'll always remember just because, you know, I never thought I would have this opportunity. So I would just want to thank you so much for, for this. This is, this was a phenomenal
Absolutely, yeah, we're very proud of the culture that we've been able to build here and the staff that we have and the passion and precision that they put into every product that we build and you know, able to show you kind of from start to finish from raw material all the way to products that are going out the door and that's something we're very proud of as well. You know, when we talk about an elite bow, we're handling
step of the process all the way from raw material to machining all the parts, decorating them, assembling them in this building. So that's something that we hold very dear to our product line and our decoration process and everything that goes into building an Elite Bow. It was pretty impressive. Like just seeing that big chunk, 15 pounds. man, that was so cool to see then being cut out and being finished and then it goes in the tumble. It was really impressive, man. I appreciate it a lot.
Well, everybody, thanks again for tuning in. Josh, again, thank you so much, man. And hope you enjoy this one, and we'll see you next week, everybody. Antler up.
