Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Denson
Hi Jeremy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
In 2011, I was working at the Southwest Airlines headquarters in Dallas. My wife was a middle school math teacher and we found out she was pregnant. We really wanted her to be able to stay home with our daughter, so I started looking at side businesses to offset the lost income. The entrepreneurial bug runs deep in my family and my dad and I decided to be partners. We founded the company in 2011 and customers started buying up all our inventory. We were importing products and decided to switch production to the US in early 2012. Several years later, we introduced our American-made soft cooler line, which made us the only cooler company in America producing both their hard and soft coolers here in the US. We expanded our categories to include premium, stainless steel drinkware in 2016 and haven’t looked back since. We continue to add new products, expand our offerings and serve our network of customers including consumers, corporations, dealers and the promotional product space. The latter of which has been one of our fasted growing channels, because we are able to add customer’s logos to all of our products.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Entrepreneurship always has its ups and downs. When I talk with aspiring entrepreneurs, I always describe owning a small business as having really big highs and really low lows. It’s always a challenge and your fate can be dependent on a lot of uncontrollable factors like the economy, consumer confidence and supply chain challenges. We’ve been in business for over 13 years, which is a testament to our commitment to quality, American manufacturing and providing the most premium products on the markets. It’s incredibly rewarding knowing we have loyal customers who’ve supported us since day one and appreciate the fact we’re a small, family-run business taking on competitors who are either publicly traded or have significant private equity backing. We take a lot of pride in being one of the last family-owned cooler companies in America. We love being the underdogs, and proving that we can compete with companies much larger than us.
As you know, we’re big fans of Bison Coolers. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Bison Coolers is a family-owned and operated premium brand specializing in American-made hard and soft coolers as well as a line of premium, stainless steel drinkware. Quality and performance are two of the most important cornerstones of our business and we’re fortunate enough to win head-to-head performance tests against some of our larger competitors. These independent tests have been conducted by Field & Stream, Outside Magazine, Forbes Magazine and Men’s Health, which is a testament to the quality of our products. We pride ourselves in excellent customer service and offer the ability for businesses and organizations to add their logos to our products to serve as customer appreciation gifts, employee recognition, lead prospecting and special event giveaways.
We have around 150,000 social media followers, and several hundred brick and mortar retailers across the country. It’s surprising to some people that we only 14 employees and manage to work with some of the biggest brands in the US. We were fortunate enough to get selected by Google for their “50 states, 50 stories” campaign, and were featured on a Super Bowl commercial that was broadcast in Texas.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Never become complacent with the quality of your products or customer service. Always focus on innovating and setting the tone for your industry. A relentless focus across a small, but mighty, team can compensate for a lack of resources or marketing budget. We have to work smarter and harder than our competitors, and it’s rewarding to know that we’ve been doing exactly that for almost 14 years.
Pricing:
- Drinkware starting at $24
- Made in USA Soft Coolers starting at $115
- Made in USA Hard Coolers started at $249
- Dry bags starting at $99
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bisoncoolers.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/bisoncoolers
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BisonCoolers
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bison-coolers/
- Twitter: https://x.com/BisonCoolers
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Bisoncoolers
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bisoncoolers
