Corp. Interview: Sims Vibration Laboratory

Corp. Interview
Sims Vibration Laboratory, Steven Sims: President, Founder

By David King

You started bowhunting at an early age, how did you get started?

I got my first bow when I was twelve years old. It was a fiftypound recurve and I got a bear with it. It was awesome. I shot the bear by myself when I was out in the wilderness in Oregon, but I broke the limbs on the bow. When I was in ninth grade, I made a copy of that first bow in my woodshop class and I upped the poundage to sixty pounds. I shot that bow for a few more years. I didn’t switch to compound bows until about 1998. I still shoot recurve a little bit today.

Give us a little history of how you got things started with Limbsaver.

In 1999, I was making the Sims Sting STOP System for all of the aluminum bats for Louisville Slugger, which effectively reduced vibration through an insert that fit into the handle. I was also doing a project called the In-Tune Handle System for Wilson tennis rackets as well as a Sims Shock Relief Plus for Power Built golf clubs. I was doing all of these sport projects, but the one passion that both my brother and I shared was bowhunting. We wanted to come up with a product that tied into something that we loved. We started working on something that we called Decay Time Modification Technology. We had developed this technology for baseball bats, but we then modified it for archery - this resulted in Limbsaver. Since then, we have been expanding on those technologies for various archery products. Our goal is to improve archery hunting.

Before your company began producing archery equipment, you developed products for baseball and tennis. Can you expound on that aspect of your business a little bit more?

Absolutely. Our company developed non-hunting products for ten years before we got into archery. I consider myself a physicist, but in the sense that I have dealt with vibration engineering for over 25 years. The company started out with us writing different formulas and coming up with Decay Time Modification. Decay Time Modification is being able to shorten the resident decay time on something without adding undue mass weight. That, in itself, was a novel concept and became patentable. We patented the technology and took it into baseball, tennis, and golf as well as high-end audio, drumsticks and more. That same technology is what we brought into archery.

Tell me about your first archery product.

Our first archery product was the actual Limbsaver device. The Limbsaver is a great product that we stuck on the limbs of bows to reduce vibration. That first year, in 1999, we sold $3 million worth and couldn’t make them fast enough. We ended up with four or five different injection tools trying to make them. It was an awesome time. Our second biggest product is the S-Coil, which we put on the market just two years ago. It has been dynamite for us. It has also produced some incredible numbers. All of the products that we make at Sims are products that work. That slogan came from our customers, not us. People know that we make products that work. If, for any reason, you have a problem with our product, we will fix it and take care of you - no questions asked.

I know there is a story about the name “Limbsaver,” can you tell me a little about that?

The original project was to protect the limbs of the bow and help them last longer by shortening the resident cycle. To have the limb going into less residence over time can be a benefit. We were sitting there eating Lifesavers, when someone said, “Hey, you know, this is a limb saver.” It saves the limbs of the bows. Now that name, marketing wise, has moved from archery products into firearm products like our Limbsaver

You started bowhunting at an early age, how did you get started?

I got my first bow when I was twelve years old. It was a fiftypound recurve and I got a bear with it. It was awesome. I shot the bear by myself when I was out in the wilderness in Oregon, but I broke the limbs on the bow. When I was in ninth grade, I made a copy of that first bow in my woodshop class and I upped the poundage to sixty pounds. I shot that bow for a few more years. I didn’t switch to compound bows until about 1998. I still shoot recurve a little bit today.

Give us a little history of how you got things started with Limbsaver.

In 1999, I was making the Sims Sting STOP System for all of the aluminum bats for Louisville Slugger, which effectively reduced vibration through an insert that fit into the handle. I was also doing a project called the In-Tune Handle System for Wilson tennis rackets as well as a Sims Shock Relief Plus for Power Built golf clubs. I was doing all of these sport projects, but the one passion that both my brother and I shared was bowhunting. We wanted to come up with a product that tied into something that we loved. We started working on something that we called Decay Time Modification recoil pad. It’s basically become a brand name.

Can you tell me a little bit about your testing laboratory?

We have a customized vibration test laboratory that not only does shock and vibration testing, but acoustic testing as well. We can measure how loud a bow is, as well as the arrow in flight. We also measure, of course, the recoil pads, shock and vibration, and how much energy is transferred in the shot. We have our own shaker tables and our own programs that we work on constantly. Another physicist, two engineers and I work in the lab to better understand vibration.

I know you have had a lot of success directly, but your OEM products that you sell through other manufacturers have been quite an achievement as well. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

We have done really well with our OEM manufacturing with Hoyt, Bear, and Darton, just to name a few. We have produced a lot of products for a lot of different companies. It’s better to come up with a working relationship with people versus having somebody come out and copy you anyway and just ending up in litigation. After you weigh out the difference, it is easy to see that while you will make less money on OEM products, you will not be losing money on litigation. We have a lot of people copying Limbsavers with other products that they are putting on the limbs of their bows. We’ve gone three years without going into litigation, but we have to step up and protect our market. Unfortunately, there are a lot of guys out there that don’t care about patents in this industry.

It sounds like you are really expanding and branching out. Some people may think that Limbsaver just produces a product that they can pop on their bow and nothing else. However, it is apparent that your company markets much more than that.

The Limbsaver fall-away rest is phenomenal. We can’t make them fast enough. As fast as we sell them, we get more orders. We are doing the best we can to fill back orders. The same thing is true for our new Limbsaver prism sight. The Limbsaver prism sight is a fantastic light collection system. It is a wellbuilt sight so that you can go through the brush and not have to worry about pins falling out and breaking. We pretty much target our products to hunting and the wear and tear that hunting takes on your equipment. You don’t want your pins breaking when you have the opportunity to shoot that big buck. That is what our company is about. We want to be a full-fledge archery company and that is why we are coming out with our new Limbsaver bow.

The new Limbsaver Bow sounds exciting. When can we see it?

There have been many years of work, dedication, time and scientific energy that have gone into this bow. It is coming out in October and we are going to be pushing it hard for next year. We started seeing erosion on all of our different product lines from people in archery not upholding our patents. If you are going to be in this industry, you have to continue to grow. A lot of the manufacturers with their own types of copy-cat products have forced us into becoming a bow manufacturer. We’ve wanted to do a bow for five years. We have the technology that can truly bring archery to the next level. We will produce several different lines of bows. We are starting out with an upper-end type of bow and then moving out into a totally new technology. We are not only going with a compound bow, but also with the crossbow market as well. In October we will be shipping out our first bows, but the main push will be next year at the ATA Show.

What is your dream hunt?

I love all hunting. I just had one of my dream hunts up in Alaska with my twelve-year old son who shot his first black bear with a bow. It was fabulous and a dream hunt come true. My son shot the bear at 17 yards and the bear only went 50 yards before piling up. Perfect shot! It was just an awesome experience.

Tags: David King, HI31

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