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Cruzin
Cooler the Wheel Deal
Motorized Ice Chest on a Roll After Vegas
Show
November 21, 2006
Anyone who has ever watched tailgaters drag their coolers through bumpy parking lots knows there must be a better way. What makes Kevin Beal different is that he found that better way. His brainchild, the Cruzin Cooler, is a motorized ice chest that holds a case of beverages, a bag of ice, and reaches speeds of up to 13 miles per hour.
The appeal of the Cruzin Cooler is that it eliminates the short handles and tiny wheels that can make pulling coolers a heel-banging, back-straining experience. The product retails for between $349 and $499, with margins of around 40%. The company also has a tow-behind product called the Cooligan.
Beal’s North American Sales Director, Rob Lewis, has been marketing the product for about a year, and claims that he has yet to meet a customer who did not think Cruzin Cooler it was a great idea. And that includes his fellow exhibitors at the November Tailgate • Picnic Show, where the Cruzin Cooler booth was among the busiest.
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“We sold a lot to exhibitors in Vegas,” Lewis confirms. “Also, a lot of licensed sports manufacturers and retailers came over and said the Cruzin Cooler would be a nice centerpiece item from a merchandising standpoint.”
Overall, Lewis gave the show a thumb’s up. The company has been doing a fair amount of guerilla marketing for the Cruzin Cooler, and it was a nice change to do business in a more formal trade show environment.
“We got to talk to the big boys,” he says. “It was where we needed to be.”
Lewis says he liked cross-pollination between the Sports Licensing & Entertainment Marketplace and the Tailgate • Picnic event, adding that he would love to see more tailgating marketplaces like the one in Las Vegas.
“This is just the beginning for our industry,” he predicts.
