Spring 2010
Ingenuity
Stroke of Genius
Innovative rowing titan Concept2 thrives in out-of-the-way Morrisville
By Sky Barsch Gleiner
Photographed by Alden Pellett
In 1975, Dick and Peter Dreissigacker — two engineers who were also part of the rowing program at Stanford — set out to see if they could free themselves from the heavy, wooden oars that had long been used in the sport. They came up with a mix of carbon fiber and fiberglass rowing oars — the first composite, nonwooden oars on the market — that also were lightweight and nearly indestructible.
Looking to make a business out of their invention, the brothers, originally from Orange, Conn., searched for a place to set up shop. They wanted to be near mountains and live and work without a long commute. Having experienced Vermont on ski trips, they put the state high on their list.
"We looked all over the country," recalls Dick. "We looked out West, we looked in the Northeast, and we picked Morrisville."
In the out-of-the-way community of about 2,000 in northern Vermont, the brothers found an old farmhouse and barn, and slowly renovated it. "It fulfilled all our needs: a place to live, place to work and not too expensive."
The composite oars being made in Morrisville quickly caught on in the rowing world. In fact, they were revolutionary.
"Oars had kind of fallen behind in technology," says Dick, who also rowed for the U.S. Olympic team in 1972. "The market was really ready for it. We had to hire people."
The business kept growing, but oars were just a seasonal product. So in 1981, the pair expanded their horizons by re-imagining the indoor rowing machine. Theirs would be the first affordable machine small enough for home use. Others on the market were large and expensive — about $4,000. Concept2's first rower sold for $450.
They placed an ad in the main rowing trade publication at the time. "With the rowing community, it took off right away," Peter says.
In the summer of 1984, with the help of a loan from the Vermont Economic Development Authority, Concept2 moved from the barn to its current headquarters, now a 53,000-square-foot facility on Industrial Park Drive in Morrisville. "We've basically found it pretty easy to move in and start a company and expand," Peter says of running a business in Vermont.
Today, Concept2 is still run by the brothers and their wives, Bari Dreissigacker (Peter's wife) and Judy Geer (Dick's wife). Concept2 ships products as far as Australia and Russia, and its indoor rower has even been used at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Its machines are routinely part of the training regimen for elite athletes, and have been seen on the network TV weight-loss series "The Biggest Loser." Its racing oars dominate the field of competitive rowing. Like snowboard giant Burton, Concept2 has grown from humble origins in Vermont into a worldwide sports brand, but it has kept its roots deep in the state.
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The bedrock of Concept2's prosperity is the rowing community, but it is becoming a household name through the personal fitness market. Many commercial gyms now offer a Concept2 rower, and many customers expect to see a rower as part of the mix along with treadmills, stationary bikes and the like.
The Dreissigackers feel the company can make even more gains with both commercial and home gyms, although they face a challenge in educating consumers. Unlike a bike or treadmill, where you hop on and make one familiar motion, the indoor rower requires a set of movements and timing that might not be intuitive, so the company keeps fine-tuning ways (such as an instructional DVD) to simplify the learning curve.
Concept2 is also being proactive with information technology. Its "logcard" tracks users' progress, and that data can be uploaded into Concept2's online logbook, which compares results to nearly 250,000 rowers. Comparisons can be narrowed down by age, gender, region and so on. Additionally, rowers can race each other using wired or wireless links to other machines.
With a company heritage rooted in innovation, Concept2 is also on to its next creation, the SkiErg — a device that simulates the double-poling crunch Nordic skiers use to increase their speed. The motion requires the use of the whole body, especially triceps, core and legs. European and North American athletes used the SkiErg to train for the 2010 Olympics, and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire acted as a test-bed. Nordic skiing already has several off-season training methods, like roller skiing and even running, so the future of this invention is not certain.
"In one year, it will be interesting to see how well it's doing," Dick says.
First question Concept2 often gets asked:
What was Concept1?
"The short answer is there was no such product," says company spokesperson Meredith Haff. "The long answer describes a design philosophy that we try to incorporate in the engineering of our products from the start.
"It goes like this: The first solution to a problem is seldom the best one. It takes looking at a problem from many directions, coming up with many solutions and throwing out the ones that are mediocre. Not holding on to the first concept will result in a more innovative solution. We hope to follow this path as both our products and our organization evolve."
Giving back
In the fall of 2008, husband and wife Dick Dreissigacker and Judy Geer of Concept2 bought the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, a four-season sport center that serves everyone from novices to Olympians. Cherished by Vermonters but struggling financially, the center was reorganized by the couple and is now a stable nonprofit.
One of the first things the pair did was cut the cost to ski on the immaculate cross-country trails, dropping the price of an adult annual pass from $175 to $50. "We wanted to encourage more access," Dreissigacker says.
Home to sculling camps (see Outdoor Recreation, page 16), running camps and the famous Craftsbury Marathon cross-country skiing event, the center has a three-part mission:
- To encourage and promote lifelong sports, primarily rowing and Nordic skiing.
- To use and teach sustainable practices, including adding more local foods to the menu.
- To preserve and manage the surrounding land, lakes and trails.
In addition, the outdoor center is sponsoring both a rowing and a skiing team, helping top athletes to compete on the world stage in exchange for meaningful work at the center.
Revenue streams
- Dreissigacker Racing Oars are manufactured in the company's Morrisville headquarters. Some 55 employees work there, including manufacturing, sales and administration.
- About 13 years ago, a Concept2 employee, Garret Hirchak, started a subassembly company, Manufacturing Solutions Inc., in Morrisville. The company assembles the rowing machines.
- NSA Industries, a metalwork company in Lyndonville, makes pieces of the rowing machines.
- Other parts of the rowing machine come from as close as Williamstown or as far away as China.
- Concept2 donates money to support environ-mental conservation, education, arts, sports, health and other community-enhancing activities, including the Craftsbury Ski Marathon, Stowe Derby, Race to the Top of Vermont, the Stowe 8-Miler and the Remembrance Run.
