THE ROAD TO ADVENTURE...
OUR BEGINNINGS
Riderz™ were “discovered” by Dr. Shannon Beardsley. Like many children, his daughter Eva loved to bring a stuffed animal with her on trips in the car. At some point they always seemed to end up on the floor or under a seat where they would get dirty and pick up germs. This bugged him, a lot! His car has several cupholders and he often had the thought: “Wouldn’t it be cool if she could have a stuffed animal specifically designed to ride in the cupholder where she could grab it whenever she wanted”. That weekend he bought some material and a sewing machine and got to work. After several trips to the craft store and a lot of experimentation, the first “Riderz” cup holder companion was born.
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Eva loved the cute little companion he had created and how it would ride along in the car on trips with her. She would grab this particular stuffed animal over the others when they went anywhere. She thought it was extremely cool that it was designed to ride with her wherever she went. Once she realized that this character could ride in the water bottle section of her backpack, that was it! The stuffed animal would go from the cupholder in the car to the water bottle section on the outside of her school backpack. It was with her on all of her life’s adventures (elementary school is definitely a life adventure!). Soon, all her friends at school were asking her where she got her new “cupholder companion”, and Dr. Beardsley received many requests for more cupholder companion stuffed animals! Perhaps not surprisingly, he even received many requests from adults!
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Shannon showed Eva’s cupholder companion to his friend Kurt Walchle who has been an entrepreneur in the lifestyle products space for many years. Kurt has 3 young kids and liked the idea. He showed it to his kids and all three of them LOVED it! Kurt saw the potential, joined Dr. Beardsley, and is very excited to play a part to bring this new category of stuffed animals to life!
OUR GOALS
Together, Dr. Beardsley and Kurt Walchle are very excited about the future of Riderz™. This will not be just another stuffed animal company. We will be rapidly expanding our offerings throughout the future with many new characters to come. More importantly, we aim to create a community of Riderz™ that has an overall encouraging and uplifting tone. After all, there has been a lot of craziness going on in our world these past couple of years, and it has been especially difficult for kids. We look to provide a product and interactive community for all kids that is positive, uplifting and encouraging to all.
