Bike riding and thirst are inseparable partners, a fact that has put聽Judy Amabile聽(Comm鈥�80, MBA鈥�85) where she is today 鈥� sitting atop a successful company and enjoying the spoils of the free enterprise system.
Yes, riding bikes makes people thirsty 鈥� the simple truth behind Polar Bottle brand water bottles, the cool-looking insulated drink containers pinched on bike frames around the globe. Amabile and her partner, Robert Heiberger, founded and run Product Architects, the Boulder-based company that has produced millions of 鈥渁hs鈥� from cyclists whose thirsts have been quenched by cold 鈥� not lukewarm 鈥� water after a few sweaty miles.
鈥淩obert got the idea . . . he was sick of drinking hot water when he was riding,鈥� Amabile says. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a mechanical engineer and he was working on a thermal device for the medical industry. It all came together.鈥�
Working out of their garage in 1994, Heiberger focused on fine-tuning the bottles while Amabile traveled the state selling to bike shops.聽The BPA-free bottles are recyclable and made completely in America. They are assembled in and shipped from the company鈥檚 warehouse in Boulder with parts sourced from other areas of the United States.
Amabile is tight-lipped about sales figures for the 50-person privately held company but said in the first year, they made 鈥渁 handful of bottles鈥� and that today they sell 鈥渉undreds of thousands of bottles around the world.鈥� Accounts include such big hitters as Dick鈥檚 Sporting Goods, Sports Authority, L.L. Bean, REI and The Container Store. In 2012, a sluggish year for many businesses, Product Architects grew by 25 percent.
In addition, the company gives back to local and national groups. In 2011 they donated $150,000 worth of bottles to a wide variety of causes, including the 蜜糖直播 recycling program, National Bike Summit and 蜜糖直播 Mountain Club.
鈥淲e have a good ethical business today that makes enough money to pay a living wage to our employees and provides a great lifestyle here in Boulder,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here are a lot of ways to measure success, and for us, it isn鈥檛 all about zeros on an income statement.鈥�
Amabile credits luck for much of the company鈥檚 success.
鈥淓verybody groans when I say that, but I think it鈥檚 true,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e got into the bottle business just when hydration was starting to be a thing for people. That was lucky. We had some money to get the company started. That was lucky. We met the buyer for Dick鈥檚 at the first trade show we attended, and they ordered. Lucky!鈥�
Doug McPherson owns a freelance writing services company called McPherson鈥檚 Word Pub. From this pub in Centennial, Colo., he has been serving 鈥減remium drafts鈥� to many loyal patrons since 1999.
Photo courtesy Product Architects
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