I Made This

With Keith Shetler of Earlyhuman

Imake Tuning Forks, which are a toolset for helping recurvers align their limbs along a single plane in 3D space — sounds complicated, but the toolset makes it pretty easy to get things right. It's called Earlyhuman because archery is one of the oldest human activities. As a species we probably only exist because of archery. As a sport though? We’re really just getting started. There’s so much room to advance understanding and grow the sport. Also, the name reminds me that we’re just all a bunch of kids flinging sticks.

I always hated bow alignment with all the uncertainty and tail-chasing. It seemed like a problem I could solve for myself. After tinkering with ideas, I found out other archers were having the same issues. It never hurts when people offer to pay you for your idea.

I had Tuning Forks prototypes out with several high-level coaches for feedback before I decided to pull the trigger on a Kickstarter campaign. The first campaign failed, but I had enough backers willing to give me money that I took a chance and launched a second campaign. I’ve been selling Tuning Forks on my own site and through other retailers for over a year now. It’s still a small part-time operation – it's only me and my wife. We’ve only just broken even on manufacturing and material costs, so without paychecks we’re more like volunteers than employees.

I had no experience in manufacturing or running a business for physical products. My day job prepared me somewhat for the business side. But to make a physical consumer product I had to jump into the deep end of the pool and learn product design, 3D printing, injection molding, packaging design. It took a lot of trial and error. It really makes you realise how lucky we are that any product gets made at all, let alone complex items like phones or cars.

Having the ability to dream up an item, then make it real for the benefit of others is the real draw to owning a business. Also, for better or worse, being able to control quality, direction and vision is nice too.

I don’t really advertise. I don’t have the budget for that. And honestly the best advertisement has been word-of-mouth. Having the support of others on Archerytalk was huge especially during the Kickstarter campaign. This sport can get caught up in marketing for shiny new things, but when one archer tells another that a product really worked for them… what’s better than that? Especially in such

painting time