 Welcome back to Behind the Glass. In this final episode for Season 2, we sat down with the team here at Sportsman to talk about the Sportsman design language. Sportsman was established in 2011. Let's start off with Tommy and the original vision for Sportsman Boats. We started the company with just one goal to be a world-class boat manufacturer. We've gone from a single 23-foot center console to building 21 different models today and each carries a little of the traditional and new Sportsman design language. Sportsman started with a 23-foot center console and that's a boat we still build today. It's absolutely incredible seller for us. And you know, that boat's had some refreshing over the past few years, but it's really at the core of the original concept that Tommy had. And we took that design, the original design and modified the overall look to come up with more advanced look with really a somewhat of an iconic look on the water. And that's how the whole Open 352 started. It's really been a journey and a lot of that has stemmed from truly listening to the customer and expanding upon what the customer's needs and wants are all while you know striving at the same goal of making a world-class center console fishing boat and bay boat and that's what it's you know led us to today to where we're at today. It was at this point that there was a change that dictated the future for Sportsman Boats. The pivot point was 100% driven by the customer. We saw where the market was headed and we wanted to lead through innovation. Most boat manufacturers routinely update to the newest electronics, upholstery materials, you name it. But very few can actually execute when it comes to new styling and incorporating new designs across their entire line of product, especially in a several-year timeline. Thanks to our team and our vertically integrated tooling department, we knew we had the opportunity to do just that and lead through innovation. We really felt the market was in need of a modern design in the 35-foot class at the price point that we came up with on our 35. That's when we decided we'd build the Open 352 and it had to be the framework for Sportsman going forward. Once this boat came to life, that was a silhouette you'd recognize as a sportsman whether it was a 35-foot or 23-foot boat. To do this we had to have the right lines on the boat you know vertically and horizontally. We started with the hull and you know we had a wide beam, wanted a comfortable ride, but we had to maintain that performance. And like most all of our boats, we started with the strakes you know and our strakes we just by our preference we have a zero or flat strake and chine. And what that gives you is a great ride but still gives you great performance. If you tilt the chine up it can be a little bit wetter boat but give you a little bit better ride. If you tilt it down it can definitely be a harder ride but you get a better performance. So this is the best of all of that put together. Next came the console on top. It needed to be seamless, stylish, and have a modern flair. We developed our very own style of detubing and even incorporated neural grab handles to increase customer satisfaction. We wanted a new consistent look, something that when you saw it you'd know this was a sportsman. A sleek, clean, modern look was key for us on our 35. For example we took the detubing and had it integrated into the console, into the floor for that really clean, modern look. One of the tremendous benefits of the detube design is it gives you more room inside the console and around the outside of the console to get around the boat. It also gives you tremendous strength. The hard top is huge. It is huge. And the cool thing about that is that you know you get to maximize your shade and it also allows us to add some cool features to the top as well. You know whether you're offshore fishing or you know you're at the sand bar, if you don't have any shade in the summertime it's hot, it's bad hot. We decided to go with detubing and detubing allowed us to do a lot of cool things. Allowed us to get the shape that we wanted to while bringing the legs of a typical hard top off of the floor and integrate those right into the console because that just provides a nice sleek design. And it's very smooth. If you look at the detubing it's got a lot of rake to it so it just, sitting still it looks like you're in motion and it just adds a whole lot of style to the boat. The hard top with this detubing design was a huge part of the design language for our new 352 and other models going forward with Sportsman. The incredible vertical lines of the detubing leading your eye, that was the design language we were looking for. The iconic look that we've all grown to love is what we refer to as the Sportsman design language. The Sportsman brand is immediately identified through elegant styling, open layouts, and luxurious amenities. Our design speaks directly to customers that are looking to enjoy quality time at the sandbar or catch the fish of a lifetime. Our boats come loaded with seating and tables to create the perfect social zones for a cruise. The whole side doors, entry ladders and jail audio system make the day at the sandbar or Gulfstream a breeze. So looking around the boat, you're just stunned by the elegance and features that a new design can just bring to life. And all the little pieces just come together and flow to really just create a masterpiece and it just puts a smile on your face. Being out on the water and seeing the boat and knowing automatically what it is from the smooth slate lines and then walking up to it and seeing the fishing amenities and the family features, that is a Sportsman. You can just tell that it was all designed in and thought of well ahead of time. But that overall look became the design language that we transferred all the way down the line our center consoles all the way down to 26 feet. And you can just see that Sportsman shear line and look from a distance when you're out on the water and that's what we wanted. You know, when I first walked down the dock and see the classic and timeless lines that we have on the 352, it gives you a feeling of happiness and just wow. You know, every time I get on the 352, I'm just blown away at how the design came together. The elegance, the fishability, the flow, just the way you can walk around the boat and not hit anything and it just came together just great. Our line of boats have all the amenities needed for whichever occasion. You're going to the sandbar, you're going fishing offshore. Our boat is the ultimate family fishing boat. To stay competitive, we knew we had to take it to the next level and beyond. And to achieve that, we needed some special engineering. Designing and engineering boats to this magnitude is a very challenging task. We couldn't do it without 3D modeling design tools and simulations to test structure and evaluate the whole design. Every piece of this boat was made with 3D modeling or CAD design. Everything was adjusted like the pump location moved a half inch here and there all the way to the console, the hard top, even down to the millimeter accuracy of screw placements and things like that across the entire boat. One particular area which had attention to detail was the shear line of the hull and especially the stem area. We argued back and forth for a week in this very room over three quarters of an inch. Should it go up? Should it go down? Should it come back? But with that type of scrutiny, we ended up with the gorgeous boat that we have today. Transitioning from CAD to the production floor is a very difficult step in introducing any new model. When a design hits the floor, it's when we see how modern tools create more efficient and precise processes like we have today. Ensuring a smooth transition from design to production is always key. Being able to properly model all the components in a virtual model and know how and where they will fit during the design is incredibly important. It allows the transition from design to production to go smoothly. The Open 352 Center Console simply revolutionized our growth. It's really during the design phase of the 352 that we had zero hesitation. We knew it was the design that would change sportsmen forever and that was the pivot point that has inspired ten all-new models for sportsmen with plenty more coming each year. One of our core values in our company is innovation. We are always striving to provide our customers with the best possible product at that given time. When we launched the 352, that design language ultimately changed the trajectory of our company in terms of consumer demand and the ability to partner with world-class dealers. The key is understanding that innovation and continuous improvement never stops and that mindset is woven into the fabric of our company. The 352 changed our whole design philosophy and how sportsmen will grow. It set the standard in the benchmark for all the following models that are coming after that. We're redesigning all of our models and bringing this design language down through all of our model line. So as stated, innovation is a core value here at sportsmen and the market never dictates what we do from a product development standpoint. Whether the market is phenomenal, whether the market is struggling, innovation is a core value and you can expect to see us year in and year out come out with the most cutting-edge product with the highest level of technology to provide you with the best, most ultimate family fishing boat that you can find on the market. Keeping up with new technology is what allows us to design for the future here at sportsmen. There's new technology hitting our market every single year. The digital side which we changed over to several years ago has increased in speed and processors and the ability geofencing, just reporting back to your phone, all kinds of things like that. But we have to stay on top of that so that we can design for the future, plan for the future because our goal is always to design it in and be ready for it. This year we were super excited to be one of a few companies that had the opportunity to partner with SeaKeeper on a game-changing product. The SeaKeeper ride system is a perfect example of why we are always redesigning to make our product better. The ride system is without a doubt the future of voting. Our strategic work with SeaKeeper on the project allows us, once again, to lead through innovation. Our ability to react and make changes to our design allows us to quickly incorporate the system into our product and give the customer the experience they demand. And SeaKeeper ride is just one of those many revolutions in the industry that we have jumped on board with early on and are allowing our customers to receive the latest and greatest in technology and overall performance. And what it boils down to is just ease of use. It's new technological advances like that that a lot of times the vendors actually come to us because they know our reputation is all about innovation and they're looking for us to help them launch their product into the market. And then we look at everything very closely and those things that we feel strongly about such as SeaKeeper ride we jump on that really quickly and so we're the exclusive partner for SeaKeeper ride for their introductory of this new product. We have a robust new product schedule that includes annual releases. The goal of Sportsman was to design and manufacture a world-class family fishing center console a boat that families could buy and enjoy on the water together and create lifelong lasting memories that they would never forget. That constant product development cycle that's just never satisfied it's always hungry we're always having to feed that machine that's the exciting part for us that's the part of the business that we all love we're all very passionate about that we're all very very excited about what we've got coming out in the next two to three years and and all of our customers will be as well. You know working for a company that allows me especially from a product development standpoint to just take a new idea and run with it and and gather market data and look at the trends and come up with something just really cool is absolutely incredible. We built a world-class product built by a world-class team and it just continues to get better and better. So that's going to wrap it up for season two of Behind the Glass. We want to take the time to thank everyone involved in making this show possible. From Somerville, South Carolina, my name is Victor and thank you for watching.