This is our video from our kickstarter campaign for the Array. Enjoy.
Array Kickstarter Video
HOW IT ALL STARTED...
How does a young avid fly fisherman go from chasing trout around the stream to owning his own fly reel company? The truth is IT WAS A COMPLETE ACCIDENT! One night sitting on my couch after a short fly tying session I started looking online at purchasing a new reel. I have always been a gear junkie and I was looking for something to add to my growing collection of rods and reels. One problem with being a gear junkie is that fly fishing stuff is EXPENSIVE! Who else, besides fly fisherman, would spend $15 for a few yards of fly fishing line we call "tippet". As I was looking at these beautiful reels online with a price tag of several hundred dollars I had a thought, ".Why don't I just design my own fly reel?" Having a background in graphic design, I sat down at my computer and began to work. After a few weeks of trial and error I finally had a reel drawn that I was in love with! It was my very own "Matthew Taylor Reel"! This is when reality struck. Without tens of thousands of dollars in machining equipment my drawing was nothing more that a cute idea. After hours of research, emails, and phone calls I finally found a company willing to give my reels a try. I had an engineer evaluate my drawing and turn it into something structurally sound and that started getting my first few reels made. When I got my first "Taylor Reel" into my hands I was amazed! It was a better reel than I had even imagined. It looked good, felt good, and sounded good. The last step was getting reels on some large fish. I took my reels out to one of my favorite streams, the legendary San Juan, and started to catch some really large trout. I was thrilled that my reels were fishing just as good, if not better than the expensive reels that I already owned! My friends encouraged me to try selling them, but where would I possibly begin? My cousin told me about a crowd funding website called Kickstarter. After some more research I decided that I was going to launch a new reel company called Taylor Reels! I launched my Kickstarter, which raised $11,000 in 30 days, and the rest is history! Welcome to Taylor Reels!
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE...
Life has been crazy here at Taylor Reels. We have been traveling, designing, and meeting with partners. Creating a start-up is extremely wild, fun, crazy, and BUSY. We wanted to stop in and take some time to update you with everything that has happened, is happening, and is coming in the world of Taylor Reels.
PAST: We have been working tirelessly to get our first huge batch of reels completed and shipped. Who would have thought making several hundred fly fishing reels would be so difficult (sarcasm intended)? Our poor Kickstarter backers have been waiting months to get their hands on a new piece of fly fishing gear. For all of you that have ordered a reel, take heart the end is in sight! We’re finishing up the small details and hope to start shipping sometime next week. We will be thrilled when these reels get into the hands of all our supporters! We are extremely thankful for the patience our supporters have shown.
PRESENT: We have been busy designing a new reel! That's right, a new line of Taylor Reels! Designing a reel is no easy task. The desire to create something beautiful, original, reliable, and innovative has us constantly starting over from scratch. We don't want to give too many details about this reel, but can guarantee that it will be top of the line!
FUTURE: Here is where things get really exciting! Over the past several of weeks we have been in discussion with one of the world’s top fly fishing reel, rod designers and manufacturers! That's right, we said ROD! Due to the fact that we know very little about graphite and all the engineering that goes into rod construction, we never considered making rods, hence Taylor Reels. These designers have agreed to help us design and manufacture new reels and RODS! Many of you fish with the gear that is made by our new partner. They are one of most innovative fly fishing companies on the planet and our new fly reels will be made using this new partnership. We are unfortunately unable to release too many details about who we are working with, but you would probably be as shocked as we have been if we did. With these amazing opportunities we will soon be changing our name to Taylor Fly Fishing! Our vision is to compete in quality and price with the world’s top fly fishing brands. Together we can take Taylor Fly Fishing to the top!