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In 2009, Reedville, Virginia, resident Wes Seigler launched a company from a very simple idea: he could make a better fishing reel than the ones that he kept breaking.
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Seigler has a partnership with the Rapphannock Community College Workforce and Community Development Center, run by Jason Perry, to train workers for the Seigler Reels machine shop.
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Fishermen rave about Seigler reels. Australian Tristan Jahme, who fishes from a kayak on the ocean, gave the reels five stars and wrote on the Seigler Reels Facebook page: “The craftsmanship and finish of these reels (are) simply superb.”
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Seigler Reels customers “will let us know where we need to go, from saltwater, to freshwater, or conventional to spinning reels,” Seigler said. “It all depends on our customers. They are our future.”
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In 2009, Reedville, Virginia, resident Wes Seigler launched a company from a very simple idea: he could make a better fishing reel than the ones that he kept breaking. A born tinkerer with a background in designing racing bicycles, Sigler makes top-end innovative fishing reels that can easily be taken apart and put back together, handle the stress of fishing and come with a lifetime warranty. The reels are his own designs with much of the machining done right in the Seigler Reels shop in Burgess on Virginia's Northern Neck. Outside of the ball bearings, every part is made in America.
It’s an extraordinary success story of a guy you’re likely to find at work in board shorts, flip flops and a Seigler Reels t-shirt and ball cap. Seigler grew up outside of Richmond, Virginia, before settling in Reedville, where he built a house and a boat. He’s a tall, lean, athletic 40-something entrepreneur living out a dream of building a business on the strength of a superior product backed by a guarantee that if anything ever goes wrong with one of his reels, he’ll make it right by fixing the problem or sending the customer a new reel.
Or so it seems.
The real story of Seigler Reels includes plenty of hurdles and headaches.
It’s the story of how you’ll find Seigler at the intersection of ambition and determination and passion and loyalty, overcoming lawsuits, production problems and the struggle to find good workers to build a thriving company. He’s the one with the piercing blue eyes and an easy smile who’s doodling on a notepad dreaming up the next iteration of his famed reels that fishermen the world over rave about.
It hasn’t always been easy. Or even rarely has it been easy.
For starters, within the first five years, half of all business startups in the U.S. fail. Seigler Reels has beaten that statistic, which is especially impressive considering that Seigler’s company has been sued twice over its name.
The first time was several years ago, by a Georgia business-man in the marine industry who thought the original company name, Release Reels, was too close to the high-end but unrelated product he was selling that also had “release” in the name.
Seigler spent $100,000 on lawyers fighting the lawsuit, but instead of spending a bunch more money he decided to change the name. Even after he had a Supreme Court judge in chambers tell him he would win the case. It just wasn’t worth it to Seigler to blow that kind of money.
“I didn’t want the damn name anymore,” Seigler said.
So, he regrouped and settled on “Truth Reels.” Seigler said he initially thought it was corny.
But his right-hand man in the company, Justin Mayer, sold him on Truth Reels. Mayer’s position was that it simply told their story, particularly taking into account that Seigler speaks without a filter and what he says he means and what he means he backs up. It says so right there in the words etched into every handcrafted, American-made reel they turn out from their shop in Burgess: “Our word is our guarantee.”
Truth Reels was humming again when a big corporation with deep pockets went after him last fall over the company name. Once again he was faced with a potential business killer just because he had picked a name with a word that another company used in a hunting video—which is obviously totally unrelated to fishing.
After all, when a company gets sued twice people start to wonder what’s going on and if there’s something wrong with the company or product.
Never mind that Seigler’s reels are highly sought by both dealers and fishermen alike who gush over their quality, simplicity and toughness. Seigler Reels are sold online through the company website—www.seigler.fish—but also at shops at dealers across the country, from stores as small as ACE Hardware in Kilmarnock, to well-known suppliers like Green Top Sporting Goods outside of Richmond and even regional landmarks like J&H Tackle on New York’s Long Island. Seigler said his reels have really caught on in the Northeast.
When the second lawsuit hit, Seigler said he thought plenty about just walking away. The hassle wasn’t worth it, he said.
The legal issues were driving him crazy, but he’s also struggled to find good workers in a rural area. As he mulled his company’s future, he turned to the place where he finds peace: The water.
This past fall, if you looked out on Chesapeake Bay on many moonlit nights between the approximate hours of 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., you would have seen a tall dude on a standup paddle board trying to decide whether to fish or cut bait, so to speak.
That was Seigler. Out there softly paddling alone on the inky water beneath the stars, thinking about whether he ever wanted to touch another rod again. Or make another reel.
He kept coming back to his employees. Seigler knows he asks a lot of his half-dozen employees and pushes them hard. His dad, Gil Seigler, and wife, Liz Seigler, both work in the company—if you call Gil Seigler might pick up the phone—and he has a partnership with the Rapphannock Community College Workforce and Community Development Center, run by Jason Perry, to train workers for the Seigler Reels machine shop.
Seigler said he loves his employees. For example, he recalls how when he moved into his shop in Burgess he and Mayer worked 28 straight days of long hours to get it ready.
“We had Thanksgiving dinner in that room right there,” Seigler said, pointing across the hall from his office.
But he also knows how much his employees and their families depend on his company to feed the kids and buy a house and pay the bills in a little country community where good jobs aren’t exactly falling off the trees.
“Every employee here is close to me,” Seigler says. “They’re like family to me. And that’s why I haven’t quit.”
So, after his serious soul-searching, Seigler moved on from Truth Reels. This time, though, he picked a company name that no one can take from him: Seigler Reels.
So, effective January 18, 2017, it’s Seigler Reels. Same company, same location, same founder and president, same crew, same reels that are constantly being improved and always carry lifetime guarantees. He sent out a letter to 4,700 customers and businesses explaining what was going on and guaranteeing nothing had changed, other than the name.
“We’ve also worked the kinks out of our manufacturing and can complete 600 reels per month with the ability to expand as demand grows,” Seigler wrote. “And, our financial condition has never been stronger as our investors have added capital to invest in machines and inventories to supply our loyal customers with reels.”
As far as the next five years, Seigler said it’s up to his customers. Seigler Reels customers “will let us know where we need to go, from saltwater, to freshwater, or conventional to spinning reels,” he said. “It all depends on our customers. They are our future.”
Fishermen rave about his reels. Australian Tristan Jahme, who fishes from a kayak on the ocean, gave the reels five stars and wrote on the Seigler Reels Facebook page: “The craftsmanship and finish of these reels (are) simply superb.”
Despite the adversity, Seigler said it’s not in his nature to quit. He’s passionate about fishing and has fished the world over. He’s gone way out in the Indian Ocean to the Seychelles Islands where he fly fishes for giant trevally, a muscular brute that can easily top 100 lbs. and is known simply by its initials, “GT.” Seigler loves GT fish. His friends even tell him that if he was a fish, he’d be a GT.
“They’re the gangsters of the flats,” Seigler said. “They’re just hard-ass bullies. They’re aggressive and when they want to eat, they eat.”
Seigler’s eyes light up as he uses his hands to describe the thrashing in the water when other predators like sharks see the GT coming and bail out of there. He likes how GT fight hard when they’re hooked. In a way, he’s describing himself.
“Tapping out isn’t an option,” Seigler said.
But there’s another side of Seigler as well. The side that personally takes calls from customers and helps them with their reels. Or the Seigler who grins when he points to a letter tacked to his wall from 9-year-old Brendan Bell of South Carolina. Several years back, Bell sent Seigler a fishing picture he drew along with $22 and change and a promise to send more when he got his allowance. All Bell wanted was a Seigler Reels small game reel to jig, which sells for $275.
Seigler sent Bell a reel. And Bell’s letter, picture and the Ziploc bag with $22 and change is tacked to Seigler’s office wall.
“That kind of stuff is why you do it,” Seigler said. “This kid right here is me.”
For more information visit seigler.fish.