Zebco: Going From Bombs to Big Mouth Bass

[Spiel]

Zebco: Going From Bombs to Big Mouth Bass

 

 

By CHARLES CANTRELL

gtrnews.com

 

 

Over its 100-year history, Tulsa’s energy based economy has spawned many enterprising, start-up companies that found a niche by providing a much needed, innovative services or products. Mostly those small companies remained tied to the energy industry and successfully grew up with the expansion of the country’s energy needs. But there was one very notable exception to that model.

 

From 1932 until 1949 Zero Hour Bomb Company found and held its niche in the petroleum industry. It held the patent on and manufactured electrical time bombs used in fracturing, a procedure to bring difficult, tight formation wells into production. During the mid-1940s, the company began to look for other things to manufacture when other methods to start the flow of oil into wells began to surface causing a shrinking market for its single product. And to make matters worst their patent was about to expire.

 

In 1949 a watchmaker and itinerant inventor with the unlikely name of Jasper R. Dell Hull entered the scene. He had created a new kind of fishing reel so simple, so ingenious and yet so revolutionary it would change the world of fishing forever. It must have made quite an impression on the oil patch manufacturer, because from that day on management of the Zero Hour Bomb Company turned their backs on the petroleum world and focused on the exciting world of fishing retaining only a conjugation of their old name by calling themselves Zebco.

 

R. D. Hull (as his name was mercifully shorten to) had come up with a new way of feeding line off of a reel that eliminated a thing called backlash. Backlash was a common problem associated with the tricky “baitcast” reels of the day where one simple mistake led to a tangle of braided Dacron line requiring not only the patience of Job but the dexterity of a weaver, requiring far too much precious weekend leisure time to correct.

 

Using the Zebco “Standard” fishing reel, a dad could fish all day with his son without one encounter with the dreaded backlash and thus avoid the temptation to use words not suitable for young ears. Flawless casting out of fishing line became the purview of everyone, not just the practiced, patient and skillful angler. Zebco’s inexpensive closed face fishing reel soon replaced the old baitcast reel and it also replaced the traditional cane pole, hook, line and bobber and launched a new era in fishing. The Zebco Standard, and the subsequent similar low cost reels they made with their user friendliness, essentially broadened the fishing market to include the whole family: dad, mom, brother and sister.

 

Not only was effortless casting for fish more adventuresome and exciting than sitting passively on the bank waiting for a bite or wrestling with backlash, it encouraged more anglers onto the waterways to explore new fishing domains. Soon the opportunities and demographics for fishing included anyone with a little interest, some expendable income and weekend time on their hands. Zebco with their strange little reel had helped widen the market vistas for manufacturers of boats, lures, fishing line, rods and other fishing paraphernalia. The early reel was only the first in a proliferation of products to come. By introducing more of America to fishing, this little Tulsa company was instrumental in ushering in the vibrant industry we know today.

 

But back to that first innovative reel, originally branded the Standard. It was renamed the “Zebco 33” and over time this mainstay product took on the mantel of “America’s Reel.” As the company began to develop a product line of similar closed faced reels at various price points, the Model 33 would remain virtually the same over the years. Any attempt to calculate the number of fish caught over the years using Hull’s reel would boggle the mind. It was the company’s cash cow and cash in they did.

 

Starting with its line of closed face reels, Zebco would springboard into manufacturing and marketing fishing products addressing a variety of needs for the growing market it had helped create. Every year brought a new challenge to the company to satisfy the typical anglers’ insatiable appetite for something new and better and to ultimately help them catch more or bigger fish. Continual innovative products were essential to ongoing success. This demanding need had to be juggled with retaining the company’s core values of always providing dependable and affordable quality products.

 

Zebco also diversified its product line through company acquisitions to include other type reels such as open face spinning reels and levelwind casting reels. The company developed a line of fishing rods and acquired a fishing lure company. They even began to sponsor professional anglers in the growing sport of professional tournament fishing.

So well did Tulsa’s fishing reel company present itself in the market place that it was purchased in 1961 by Brunswick Corporation, a move that facilitated its continued market ascension into every aspect of the fishing industry and around the globe.

 

Product diversification enabled the company to break new marketing ground by offering assembled packaged products call “Combos.” Weekend anglers could walk into a sporting goods store and purchase a Zebco reel fully wound with the latest in high strength monofilament fishing line matched to the proper rod with maybe a hot lure or two thrown in for good measure, all assembled and ready to go in one package. At the same time the customer could also buy a scaled down version of a Combo for his younger fishing buddy. Then all that was needed was a body of water with fish in it.

 

Innovative product development, prudent acquisitions and exemplary marketing are all hallmarks of the Zebco story. Notable marketing achievements include being the first fishing tackle manufacturer in America to advertise on network television. Over the years the company has been a major player in the preservation of the country’s fishing heritage through conservation and education programs. In 1983 it established the Fish America Foundation, which over the years has raised and granted millions to the cause of restoring fish habitats in the United States and Canada. Older local anglers might even remember the media attention given to the casting expertise of the fishing chimpanzee put on display at the Zebco booth at the Tulsa Sports Show in the 1970s. It was one more ingenious marketing ploy making the point once and for all that anyone and everyone can catch fish with a Zebco reel.

 

Time, with its inevitable tribulations, tests a company’s resolve, its mettle and its ability to adapt. Throughout the years Zebco has been tested often by the highly competitive and unforgiving retail fishing market. It is a multi-billion dollar industry with a fickle customer base constantly demanding new products and ideas, and one that expects both product quality and affordability. To maintain its market position, the company has at times been compelled to adopt strategies that run contrary to its inherent corporate culture. Such a time came in the late 1990s when labor cost differentials forced the company to move its manufacturing overseas in order to stay competitive. But Zebco maintains a significant presence right here in Tulsa where it first began its journey. In 2001 Brunswick sold Zebco to the W.C. Bradley Co. However, the company’s World Headquarters, housing all of sales, marketing, R&D and accounting, remains at its Apache Street location where it has been since the early 1970s.

 

The Zebco journey began with an improvised prototype fishing reel made of ingenuity and part of a beer can thrown together by a man with an idea addressing a simple notion that fishing should be affordable and fun for everyone. And Tulsa’s fishing product manufacturer continues on as a renowned international company and an integral part of an industry leader in recreational products, all in a little under 60 years. It would be hard to find a more quintessential American success story than Zebco, a Tulsa mouse that roared.

[walleyejigger]

GREAT story (except for the having to go overseas to be successful) u gotta do what u gotta do

 

too bad i don't remeber ever owning a zebco

[Mike the Pike]

Well all I can say is affordable but you get what you pay for.They make CRAP

 

I have purchased a few rod and reel combos for the kids 1 out of 3 functions the other 2 are toast worn out from pan

fishing off the docs.

 

I also bought a Rino reel used it a few times and the gears were finished .I will never buy a Zebco product again.

 

great story Spiel I did appreciate the read its too bad they don't turn out a product that can last.

 

Absolutely Junk