How it started

At first, Andrew Lockdown started a small outdoor-related company that purchased and sold overstock merchandise. “I sold directly to retailers and attended consumer shows regularly. It was a good experience and I worked hard, but I soon learned that there was not enough money involved for me to make a solid living. I needed something else to present to the outdoor marketplace. I needed to create my own brand. But what could it be?” One morning, while bowhunting for whitetail deer with his father, Andrew needed to trim some shooting lanes. “I could cut those branches that I could reach by leaning out from the stand, but there were others that were just too far out of my grasp to safely trim. We were aware that several pole saws were available on the market, but some of these units were too heavy and cumbersome to bring with us to our hunting area. Others were too expensive and still others were too flimsy to effectively trim larger branches. What we needed was an affordable, foldable, extendible, portable and lightweight saw that could easily and safely trim branches several feet from our treestands. “The more we thought about it, the more we were convinced we were on to something. We had two problems that we had to overcome, however. First of all, many pole saws were too flexible, leaving them difficult to use and basically ineffective when the pole was fully extended. You simply could not put enough pressure on the pole to cut those large and far-away branches without the unit bending in the middle. We solved this by constructing the pole with an I-beam configuration. That gave the pole rigidity when it was fully extended, allowing us to exert sufficient downward pressure to easily cut through large branches. “Secondly, we needed to improve on the latching device. All too often the extended pole would slip, causing it to collapse upon itself. This is where dad’s photography experience with tripods helped us out. He developed a positive metal-to-metal locking system that prevented the pole from slipping and collapsing. “We were even more excited now that these two unique features were in place. After applying for a patent, we attended our first consumer show, the Archery Trade Association Show, in 2008. We only had a prototype saw to show prospective customers, but we were well received and took lots of orders.”