How does a company build for the quintessential duality of creating a product that is focused on unplugging from day-to-day life, and their customers connected? Whether it’s our new “work from anywhere” reality, or keeping a lifeline available in case of an emergency, a connection to key information and opportunity is often necessary for even the most die-hard campers and nature lovers. Enter Airstream, the iconic 91 year-old RV company that has to face its own mission of staying true to the past, while building for the future, and harnessing the power of connectivity to make it happen.
In this episode of The Restless Ones, we have the pleasure of sitting with Bob Wheeler, President and CEO of Airstream, who has led his company to embrace the notion that connecting with nature no longer means you need to completely disconnect. For a product that seemingly never changes on the outside, Bob and team are making hundreds of innovations on the inside. From electrifying the fleet to enabling connectivity that can allow users to control and monitor the vehicle, stay connected, and let the company harness the data they need to continue to push the company to the future – innovation is at the core of this iconic company.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Connectivity. It's huge. It's table stakes in a way, but
we find that people don't have connectivity, they spend less
time camping. And we got over our old attitude about
what camping means disconnecting from technology and you know, communing
with nature to look, if people are able to stay
connected when they want to be, they'll stay out in
(00:25):
nature longer. So it actually makes that experience better, not worse.
Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. As you
may know, I've spent the last fifteen years covering technology
and learning how it works, demystifying everything from massive parallel
processing to advanced robotics and everything in between. Yet it's
(00:48):
the conversations with some of the most forward thinking leaders,
those at the intersection of technology and business that fascinate
me the most. Today we're bringing you a conversation I
had with Bob Wheeler, the president and CEO of Airstream.
(01:08):
You know Airstream, the company famous for camping trailers with
that distinctive curved aluminum body. And you might think that
it's an odd choice for a show that's focused on
the tech sector, but as we found out, there's an
awful lot of technology involved from collecting and analyzing data
(01:28):
and an effort to evolve the product line to the
actual technology built into the trailers themselves. Bob has guided
air Stream through some transformative eras as the company embraced
connectivity as a way to encourage more people to set
out on a road trip adventure of their own. We'll
hear about the amazing e Stream prototype vehicle, which tackles
(01:50):
challenges like how do you create a towing trailer that
an electric vehicle can tow without draining its battery after
just a few dozen miles, And we'll learn about how
the pandemic had a counterintuitive effect on the company. But
first I wanted to get to know more about my guest. Bob.
(02:13):
Let me start off by thanking you for joining us
on the Restless Ones. Welcome to our show, Hey Jonathan,
I appreciate you having me on and look forward to
our chat me too. And I always like to take
some time to get to know my guests before we
really start jumping into tech and innovation and leadership. So
what was your career journey to Airstream? Yeah? Sure, so
(02:35):
when I got out of my undergrad with a mechanical
engineering degree that was the University of Rochester. I went
to work for General Motors and worked there for five years.
Great first job, learned a lot, learned a lot about
it what I didn't want to do. And one day
a recruiter called the office for a different guy, and
he said, I'm not going anywhere, but there's this young
guy over here I don't know, so he transferred the
(02:56):
call in this. You know, this is how life works, right.
If I hadn't been at my desk, there's no way
she would have called back because she wasn't even calling
for me when I happened to be there, and she
recruited me into the RV industry, recreational vehicles. I moved
to Indiana and joined Fleetwood Motor Homes and Decatur, Indiana,
and I've been in the RV industry ever since. Wow,
(03:17):
talk about right place, right time. Can you tell me
a bit about sort of what your career trajectory has
been within air Stream? Yeah? Sure, So I came here
in two thousand two. I was the vice president of
product development and engineering and working for the then president.
A guy named Dicky Regal whould come in to help
turn the company around. He got promoted, went back to
(03:38):
our parent company, and I got promoted to take his place,
became a president. And I love Airstream. I've always loved
the aesthetic. I've always found it really captivating. I often
associate Airstream with nostalgia, But how has the company actually
innovated and evolved its products over time? The brand has
(04:00):
been around since n This is our ninety first year,
and you know, the brand came really into its glory
in the fifties and sixties and that great post war
period of See America and Root sixty six. And I
think that's why people associated a little bit with nostalgia,
and the fact that the silver bullet and iconic Airstream
travel trailer really hasn't changed that much visually in a
(04:20):
lot of years. A lot of our focus on innovation
has been in technology, so we know that people as
they developed technology and convenience in their homes, they want
the same thing in their home on the road. Things
like smart connected products that allow you to control and
monitor your air streams either locally or remotely, cloud enabled
(04:41):
app support and control, smart monitoring of resource usage, which
matters a lot when you're in an r V. You
don't think about it when you turn on your tap
in your house, but in an RV, you've got to
pay attention to that and power and LP and tanks
and so making a convenient and using tech not for
techt sake, but to make a better experience. Connectivity it's huge.
(05:04):
It's table stakes in a way. But we find that
if people don't have connectivity, they spend less time camping.
And we got over our old attitude about what camping
means disconnecting from technology and you know, communing with nature
to look, if people are able to stay connected when
they want to be, they'll stay out in nature longer.
So it actually makes that experience better, not worse. So
(05:26):
it took a bit of a paradigm shift for us,
but we're we've really embraced it. I love that you've
already touched on something that I really wanted to talk about,
which was the connectivity part of it. We're living in
an era where people undergo actual stress responses if they
are without their smartphone or if they see that those
(05:47):
bars go down to nothing. I know a lot of
people who over the last six months have started exploring
again and and traveling across the United States, and I
really feel that that connectivity part of it is an
absolute necessity for it. It allows them to stay in
touch with work. And since we've now moved to sort
(06:10):
of a hybrid approach with a lot of places, that
means you can work from anywhere, doesn't have to be
your home, and it also just gives them that extra
sense of comfort while they're still getting to engage that
adventurous side of their personality. Is that sort of the
philosophy that kind of guided air stream as you were
looking to do things like really support connectivity within your products. Yeah,
(06:35):
that you really hit the nail on the head. It's
the ability to stay connected when you want to and
doesn't mean every minute, but you have the option. It's
not having the option that scares people, right, the ability
to stay connected with work. You know, we we say
you know w f H s w F A work
from home is worked from anywhere, and we've really promoted
that message during the pandemic that exploded and that's become
(06:56):
a real part of our customer base. It's safety. People
want to know if there is an issue, whether mechanical
or an injury or something and they're in a wilderness spot,
they can pick up the phone and get help. So
it's that sense of comfort and safety. So it's not
staying connected all the time, but it's having the option
that really drives these better experiences. We've been promoting the
(07:18):
idea of wilderness camping or boon docking, dry camping, camping
on National Use Force Service Lands, Force Foundation lands, national
wilderness areas. There are millions and millions of akers, So
the opportunity to camp somewhere you like you see in
the brochure exists, but in those places it's much much
(07:39):
tougher to stay connected. So we're trying to think about
the real use patterns moving forward and what we need
to do to support it from a technology standpoint, well,
out of curiosity, do those antenna include the ability to
receive and transmit in in five G frequencies? Yeah, we're
four G right now, but five G we're already scouting
(08:00):
good five G systems and as that becomes the standard
that fifth generation cell coverage becomes the standard, will migrate
to that just for the band with well, I love
talking about all this high tech solutions to improving and
evolving airstream. Is it ever a challenge to implement innovations
while also maintaining those customer expectations and staying true to
(08:24):
the aesthetic. Yeah, that's a great question. When I first
started at a stream, one of my friends said, what
do you do the product never changes? Yes, it does,
And let me tell you how. Most of the changes
we make and the innovations come under the skin and inside.
And luckily that shell is really the perfect example of
(08:46):
form follows function. It really functions beautifully for exactly what
it is. There's not a whole lot of need to
change it. So we're able to respect our past and
honor it, but not be constrained by it, and we're
able to push the brand forward and pack in innovations
and technology like connectivity. I talked about smart connected products,
really smart resource monitoring, So we're not afraid to push forward.
(09:09):
And frankly, our founder, while he buy them, he created
an industry, and he was inventing products that went on
their own then became major suppliers to the RV and
marine industries, like flush toilets and refrigerators and furnaces and
water heaters and awnings. And he invented these things because
they didn't exist. So the legacy and the history of
of innovation and pushing design and function forward is so
(09:33):
core to Airstream that we don't shy away from it.
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certain planter features Mobile dot Com. There was something else
I wanted to touch on, which is that I understand
(10:15):
airstream is extremely active in promoting environmental efforts. How does
air stream strategy align with environmentalism? How does that play
a part in your approach? So we think of our
our efforts to support sustainability in three buckets. One is
in the manufacturing process, the next is on the road
when it's being towed, and then the third is when
(10:38):
it's being used in its camping locations. So in the
manufacturing process, we've built a very efficient facility here where
we do our manufacturing in Jackson Center, Ohio. Led lighting,
variable speed compressors, recycling our rain bay test water we
use for leak testing, the products zero Waste to Landfill program.
We're looking at more sustain able energy sources. We buy
(11:02):
renewable energy credits today, which is a way to contribute
to renewable energy. We're looking at the potential of solar
fields here in Jackson Center to help support our energy consumption,
reduce our carbon footprint. And then when the vehicles on
the road, you know, how do we reduce the carbon
created when an air stream is being towed or driven?
And maybe the ultimate expression is this EA stream trailer.
(11:25):
I talk about where the battery on board can help
power the trailer forward, solar power on the roof. Almost
everything we ship out of here has some solar panels
on the roof, depending on the size of the trailer.
And then finally in the campground where it's being used,
solar power allows you to keep your batteries tapped off.
Low flow water fixtures allow you to keep your water
(11:46):
consumption low. So those are the three areas were able
to touch on sustainability and environmental support. It's great to
see a company practice these philosophies and then promote that
further all the way down to the customers, so that
we have this kind of ongoing chain of responsibility and
(12:08):
accountability while simultaneously enjoying everything nature has to offer. Well, Bob,
I want to learn all about the eastream concept and
the purpose that it serves with an air stream. Can
you give us kind of an introduction as to what
E stream is? Yeah? Absolutely, So the Eastream is an
(12:29):
airstream travel trailer. It looks pretty traditional and typical on
the outside to the naked eye, but underneath is a
fully integrated battery pack and power train drive train that
drives the axle at battery, two motors, wats of solar
on the roof, full smart control system with integrated app control,
(12:50):
Alexa voice control for some functions. So this is a
pretty high tech piece of engineering, and it's really driven
by the movement. And we started seeing this two years ago,
but it's really intensified in the past twelve months, even
six months. This move towards electric vehicles. So we make
(13:10):
motor homes and beautiful ones, but a lot of our
products are travel trailers that are pulled behind vehicles and
as those fleets start to migrate to electric evs and
battery power. But what do we need to do to
change our products to accommodate that. What can we do
to make sure that people don't have to make a
compromised toe with their evs. So that led to this
idea of the East Stream. It's a pretty simple concept
(13:32):
that's takes a lot of technology to execute. That big
battery pack which runs all the systems, allows you to
live off the grid with air conditioning, some pretty high
consumption appliances. And then also this is this is what
people are really interested in, even though it's one of
the minor features. So there's this lore and legend within
the RV industry that you know, backing a travel trailer
(13:53):
into a campsite is like this thing. That's this rite
of passage, and the air stream saying is wherever your
marriage is headed, backing in airstream up together, we'll get
it there faster. So this Eastern trailer, because it's got
powered wheels, you can get it near your campsite, unhitch
it and news use the app and your finger on
the phone, you can back it into the campsite without
(14:15):
your tow vehicles. So we call it the marriage saver,
and we think it's going to be a pretty popular feature.
So that's kind of the money shot of mixture good optics.
But the real benefit of this platform is in all
those other areas. We packed a lot of concept and
technology into this and ways that will bleed down into
the product, our products for years to come. That's incredible.
I mean, if you can do something similar for two
(14:38):
person kayaks, I would really appreciate it. I found that
that is probably the fastest route for marital disputes. And
tandem bikes. That's the other one I hit. Tandem bikes. Yeah,
anytime you have two people having to work together very closely,
somehow the person in the back is never peddling, regardless
of who they are, not, right, that's right. Yes, it's
speaking to my heart here, Bob Well. I love all
(15:00):
the features you were mentioning with the east Stream, and
I think it's incredibly forward thinking for Airstream to be
looking at this, because, as you point out, we've already
seen countries around the world start to place a date
on when they will no longer allow the sale of
new internal combustion engine vehicles. And we even have a
(15:21):
couple of states in the US that are talking about
something similar. So the east Stream is essentially like an
R and D platform that demonstrates various technologies that you
anticipate are going to find their way into different airstream
models moving forward over the next several years. And that's right,
this was a halo product. Like I said, we packed
(15:42):
a lot in there. Now we need to go back,
and we are going back to say, all right, what
a customers really need, what's practical, what's affordable? Out of curiosity,
did you have any other experimental connectivity features in the
Eastream apart from the ones we've already discussed. I mean,
obviously using your phone to control at trailer would be
a big one. Yeah. We already have a fully developed
(16:04):
smart control platform and a lot of that has to
do with remote monitor and control, so you can keep
track of your resources, which matter a lot when you're camping, obviously,
water power, LP, tank levels, temperature. You know, you're out
on a hike and it's hot and you're gonna be
home in twenty minutes. You can pull out your phone
and turn on your air conditioning. We'll put your owning in.
(16:25):
There's a storm coming in, and we you know, we
could have gone local and done it in bluetooth, but
we thought it was important and have remote connectivity and
cloud connectivity, and that also gives us access to a
lot of product data which is really going to help
drive better products in the future. Fantastic. I would love
to be able to talk about data analysis all day
because I find it so fascinating to be able to
(16:48):
find the signal amongst the noise. I mean that we've
gotten to a point with data collection where we can
get so much that the challenge then becomes how do
you find the meaning within all of that? And you
turn data into knowledge. Yeah, that's that's the challenge. Yeah,
and then knowledge into actionable things you can do to
improve I mean, it's it's a multi step process. Before
(17:11):
it was how can we collect the data? Then it
was all right, we've got all this data, now what
can we do with it? And now we're at the
point where people are really innovating in the space of
analysis and then taking action based upon that analysis. Yeah,
AI applied to that massive data set can do some
amazing things. We're very focused on improving the customer experience,
(17:33):
the user experience, and there's so much we can do.
I mean, we can mind that for years to come
in ways that only make the product better. Well, let's
transition a bit to talk a bit about some challenges
and opportunities. We've mentioned a couple already, but one I
wanted to know about is what type of strategic partnerships
are important to the continued progress and innovation at Airstream. Well,
(17:56):
all sorts of stuff. You know, you think about the
partnerships it took to get the EA stream to market
with companies like z F that manufactured the drive train
system and batteries. Are connectivity partners, are cloud connected platform partners,
even our cellular data partners that provide the data flow
for those connected trailers and people's you know, on site WiFi.
(18:18):
So really we are a brand about partnerships, and luckily
we've got a brand that people really like in respect,
so there's hardly a door we can't get open when
we come knocking and at least have a conversation. Can
you tell us a little bit about maybe a challenge
you've faced while at air Stream and how you addressed it? Yeah, well,
(18:39):
how much time do you have? I think all the
time you need. When the pandemic hit in the spring
of we immediately started to see these recessionary pressures, you know,
wages dropping, unemployment spiking, consumer spending dropping, and we immediately
harkened back to the recession of a eight o nine
(19:00):
was a broad spectrum recession and the RV industry to
com beat down, including Airstream, and so we immediately assumed
that it was going to be like that for us again,
and we cut of the company, just really got proactive
and we knew where things were headed. Well, lo and behold.
You know, we came back from our six week in
post shutdown and things weren't as bad as we thought.
(19:23):
They weren't great, but then within the following two months
this would have been May, June, and July, our sales
exploded through the roof dealer inventories cleared out, backlogs exploding.
So we really miss judged that this pandemic induced recession,
if you will, was very specific to certain industries and
(19:44):
really was a boon to others, and we were lucky
enough to be in the others category. So we'd laid
off folks. We didn't really need to lay off. We
should have kept producing at high speed and just didn't
anticipate at this this response. Now, we hired them all
back by August, so I feel good about that, but
we missed a market opportunity in the meantime. You know,
it's easy to cut production rates and very hard to
(20:05):
get them back up. When you're building a product by hand.
It's very crafted and you know, a lot of labor
hours go in. We should have been more thoughtful about
When I say well, I mean I should have been
more thoughtful about what we were really looking at and
not just thinking it was another broad spectrum recession. So
that was a painful lesson, but I'll take that one
with me. Before I could let Bob go, I had
(20:26):
to ask him one more thing. What's the best piece
of advice You've ever received? The best piece of advice
I've ever received. Hire people smarter than yourself, which luckily
is not that big of a stretch in my case.
And I have a sun world in a fantastic team.
(20:48):
I will I say, I have no talent except recognizing
talent and others. And I actually stole that quote from
somebody I don't know who. So, you know, surround yourself
with people that are committed to the cause. Don't be
afraid to hire smarter people than you are. They keep
you out of the weeds. They help make your common
cause that much more achievable and effective. So I've tried
(21:09):
to do that. Well, Bob, this has been a real pleasure.
I've really enjoyed our conversation, and after all of it,
I can't wait to get outside and do some more exploring. Yeah, thanks, Jonathan,
great chatting with you. Really appreciated a great questions and
you know, I hope we see it down the road.
(21:32):
Bob's philosophy is clearly aligned with air Stream's mission statement,
a company dedicated to craftsmanship, promoting outdoor activities, and staying
relevant in a world where technology plays an increasingly important role.
Hearing about how air Stream is committed to supporting customers
with value added features that in turn encourages those customers
(21:54):
to take some time to enjoy nature is well, it's
just cool. There's a restore orative effect you experience when
you get out there exploring parks, visiting new states and
just experiencing a new lifestyle for a while. And of course,
incorporating technologies that make getting away easier helps a lot.
(22:15):
I hope we see many more companies in the tech
sector adopt Bob's point of view when it comes to
finding ways to combat climate change and promote environmentalism and
innovate while still meeting customer expectations. And I really hope
I get a chance to spend some time in an
airstream myself before too long. Please be sure to join
(22:38):
us for future episodes of The Restless Ones. As I
talked to more leaders who are serving as the pioneers
of our future, I'll see you then. T Mobile for
Business knows companies want more than a one size fits
all approach to support. I want the work, so we
(22:59):
provide three sixty support customized to your business, from discovery
to the post deployment. You'll get a dedicated account team
and expertise from solutions engineers and industry advisors already right now.
I want it now, three six support that's customized for
your success. That's unconventional thinking from T Mobile for Business
Connectivity. It's huge. It's table stakes in a way, but
we find that people don't have connectivity, they spend less
time camping. And we got over our old attitude about
what camping means disconnecting from technology and you know, communing
with nature to look, if people are able to stay
connected when they want to be, they'll stay out in
(00:25):
nature longer. So it actually makes that experience better, not worse.
Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. As you
may know, I've spent the last fifteen years covering technology
and learning how it works, demystifying everything from massive parallel
processing to advanced robotics and everything in between. Yet it's
(00:48):
the conversations with some of the most forward thinking leaders,
those at the intersection of technology and business that fascinate
me the most. Today we're bringing you a conversation I
had with Bob Wheeler, the president and CEO of Airstream.
(01:08):
You know Airstream, the company famous for camping trailers with
that distinctive curved aluminum body. And you might think that
it's an odd choice for a show that's focused on
the tech sector, but as we found out, there's an
awful lot of technology involved from collecting and analyzing data
(01:28):
and an effort to evolve the product line to the
actual technology built into the trailers themselves. Bob has guided
air Stream through some transformative eras as the company embraced
connectivity as a way to encourage more people to set
out on a road trip adventure of their own. We'll
hear about the amazing e Stream prototype vehicle, which tackles
(01:50):
challenges like how do you create a towing trailer that
an electric vehicle can tow without draining its battery after
just a few dozen miles, And we'll learn about how
the pandemic had a counterintuitive effect on the company. But
first I wanted to get to know more about my guest. Bob.
(02:13):
Let me start off by thanking you for joining us
on the Restless Ones. Welcome to our show, Hey Jonathan,
I appreciate you having me on and look forward to
our chat me too. And I always like to take
some time to get to know my guests before we
really start jumping into tech and innovation and leadership. So
what was your career journey to Airstream? Yeah? Sure, so
(02:35):
when I got out of my undergrad with a mechanical
engineering degree that was the University of Rochester. I went
to work for General Motors and worked there for five years.
Great first job, learned a lot, learned a lot about
it what I didn't want to do. And one day
a recruiter called the office for a different guy, and
he said, I'm not going anywhere, but there's this young
guy over here I don't know, so he transferred the
(02:56):
call in this. You know, this is how life works, right.
If I hadn't been at my desk, there's no way
she would have called back because she wasn't even calling
for me when I happened to be there, and she
recruited me into the RV industry, recreational vehicles. I moved
to Indiana and joined Fleetwood Motor Homes and Decatur, Indiana,
and I've been in the RV industry ever since. Wow,
(03:17):
talk about right place, right time. Can you tell me
a bit about sort of what your career trajectory has
been within air Stream? Yeah? Sure, So I came here
in two thousand two. I was the vice president of
product development and engineering and working for the then president.
A guy named Dicky Regal whould come in to help
turn the company around. He got promoted, went back to
(03:38):
our parent company, and I got promoted to take his place,
became a president. And I love Airstream. I've always loved
the aesthetic. I've always found it really captivating. I often
associate Airstream with nostalgia, But how has the company actually
innovated and evolved its products over time? The brand has
(04:00):
been around since n This is our ninety first year,
and you know, the brand came really into its glory
in the fifties and sixties and that great post war
period of See America and Root sixty six. And I
think that's why people associated a little bit with nostalgia,
and the fact that the silver bullet and iconic Airstream
travel trailer really hasn't changed that much visually in a
(04:20):
lot of years. A lot of our focus on innovation
has been in technology, so we know that people as
they developed technology and convenience in their homes, they want
the same thing in their home on the road. Things
like smart connected products that allow you to control and
monitor your air streams either locally or remotely, cloud enabled
(04:41):
app support and control, smart monitoring of resource usage, which
matters a lot when you're in an r V. You
don't think about it when you turn on your tap
in your house, but in an RV, you've got to
pay attention to that and power and LP and tanks
and so making a convenient and using tech not for
techt sake, but to make a better experience. Connectivity it's huge.
(05:04):
It's table stakes in a way. But we find that
if people don't have connectivity, they spend less time camping.
And we got over our old attitude about what camping
means disconnecting from technology and you know, communing with nature
to look, if people are able to stay connected when
they want to be, they'll stay out in nature longer.
So it actually makes that experience better, not worse. So
(05:26):
it took a bit of a paradigm shift for us,
but we're we've really embraced it. I love that you've
already touched on something that I really wanted to talk about,
which was the connectivity part of it. We're living in
an era where people undergo actual stress responses if they
are without their smartphone or if they see that those
(05:47):
bars go down to nothing. I know a lot of
people who over the last six months have started exploring
again and and traveling across the United States, and I
really feel that that connectivity part of it is an
absolute necessity for it. It allows them to stay in
touch with work. And since we've now moved to sort
(06:10):
of a hybrid approach with a lot of places, that
means you can work from anywhere, doesn't have to be
your home, and it also just gives them that extra
sense of comfort while they're still getting to engage that
adventurous side of their personality. Is that sort of the
philosophy that kind of guided air stream as you were
looking to do things like really support connectivity within your products. Yeah,
(06:35):
that you really hit the nail on the head. It's
the ability to stay connected when you want to and
doesn't mean every minute, but you have the option. It's
not having the option that scares people, right, the ability
to stay connected with work. You know, we we say
you know w f H s w F A work
from home is worked from anywhere, and we've really promoted
that message during the pandemic that exploded and that's become
(06:56):
a real part of our customer base. It's safety. People
want to know if there is an issue, whether mechanical
or an injury or something and they're in a wilderness spot,
they can pick up the phone and get help. So
it's that sense of comfort and safety. So it's not
staying connected all the time, but it's having the option
that really drives these better experiences. We've been promoting the
(07:18):
idea of wilderness camping or boon docking, dry camping, camping
on National Use Force Service Lands, Force Foundation lands, national
wilderness areas. There are millions and millions of akers, So
the opportunity to camp somewhere you like you see in
the brochure exists, but in those places it's much much
(07:39):
tougher to stay connected. So we're trying to think about
the real use patterns moving forward and what we need
to do to support it from a technology standpoint, well,
out of curiosity, do those antenna include the ability to
receive and transmit in in five G frequencies? Yeah, we're
four G right now, but five G we're already scouting
(08:00):
good five G systems and as that becomes the standard
that fifth generation cell coverage becomes the standard, will migrate
to that just for the band with well, I love
talking about all this high tech solutions to improving and
evolving airstream. Is it ever a challenge to implement innovations
while also maintaining those customer expectations and staying true to
(08:24):
the aesthetic. Yeah, that's a great question. When I first
started at a stream, one of my friends said, what
do you do the product never changes? Yes, it does,
And let me tell you how. Most of the changes
we make and the innovations come under the skin and inside.
And luckily that shell is really the perfect example of
(08:46):
form follows function. It really functions beautifully for exactly what
it is. There's not a whole lot of need to
change it. So we're able to respect our past and
honor it, but not be constrained by it, and we're
able to push the brand forward and pack in innovations
and technology like connectivity. I talked about smart connected products,
really smart resource monitoring, So we're not afraid to push forward.
(09:09):
And frankly, our founder, while he buy them, he created
an industry, and he was inventing products that went on
their own then became major suppliers to the RV and
marine industries, like flush toilets and refrigerators and furnaces and
water heaters and awnings. And he invented these things because
they didn't exist. So the legacy and the history of
of innovation and pushing design and function forward is so
(09:33):
core to Airstream that we don't shy away from it.
Conventional thinking says you have to pay more to get more.
I want the world. But Team Mobile for Business uses
unconventional thinking to deliver premium benefits for better r o
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We help you reach your business goals right now, I
(09:55):
want it now, innovating to improve business today and tomorrow.
That's conventional thinking from T Mobile for Business. Capable device
required covers not available in some areas some US require
certain planter features Mobile dot Com. There was something else
I wanted to touch on, which is that I understand
(10:15):
airstream is extremely active in promoting environmental efforts. How does
air stream strategy align with environmentalism? How does that play
a part in your approach? So we think of our
our efforts to support sustainability in three buckets. One is
in the manufacturing process, the next is on the road
when it's being towed, and then the third is when
(10:38):
it's being used in its camping locations. So in the
manufacturing process, we've built a very efficient facility here where
we do our manufacturing in Jackson Center, Ohio. Led lighting,
variable speed compressors, recycling our rain bay test water we
use for leak testing, the products zero Waste to Landfill program.
We're looking at more sustain able energy sources. We buy
(11:02):
renewable energy credits today, which is a way to contribute
to renewable energy. We're looking at the potential of solar
fields here in Jackson Center to help support our energy consumption,
reduce our carbon footprint. And then when the vehicles on
the road, you know, how do we reduce the carbon
created when an air stream is being towed or driven?
And maybe the ultimate expression is this EA stream trailer.
(11:25):
I talk about where the battery on board can help
power the trailer forward, solar power on the roof. Almost
everything we ship out of here has some solar panels
on the roof, depending on the size of the trailer.
And then finally in the campground where it's being used,
solar power allows you to keep your batteries tapped off.
Low flow water fixtures allow you to keep your water
(11:46):
consumption low. So those are the three areas were able
to touch on sustainability and environmental support. It's great to
see a company practice these philosophies and then promote that
further all the way down to the customers, so that
we have this kind of ongoing chain of responsibility and
(12:08):
accountability while simultaneously enjoying everything nature has to offer. Well, Bob,
I want to learn all about the eastream concept and
the purpose that it serves with an air stream. Can
you give us kind of an introduction as to what
E stream is? Yeah? Absolutely, So the Eastream is an
(12:29):
airstream travel trailer. It looks pretty traditional and typical on
the outside to the naked eye, but underneath is a
fully integrated battery pack and power train drive train that
drives the axle at battery, two motors, wats of solar
on the roof, full smart control system with integrated app control,
(12:50):
Alexa voice control for some functions. So this is a
pretty high tech piece of engineering, and it's really driven
by the movement. And we started seeing this two years ago,
but it's really intensified in the past twelve months, even
six months. This move towards electric vehicles. So we make
(13:10):
motor homes and beautiful ones, but a lot of our
products are travel trailers that are pulled behind vehicles and
as those fleets start to migrate to electric evs and
battery power. But what do we need to do to
change our products to accommodate that. What can we do
to make sure that people don't have to make a
compromised toe with their evs. So that led to this
idea of the East Stream. It's a pretty simple concept
(13:32):
that's takes a lot of technology to execute. That big
battery pack which runs all the systems, allows you to
live off the grid with air conditioning, some pretty high
consumption appliances. And then also this is this is what
people are really interested in, even though it's one of
the minor features. So there's this lore and legend within
the RV industry that you know, backing a travel trailer
(13:53):
into a campsite is like this thing. That's this rite
of passage, and the air stream saying is wherever your
marriage is headed, backing in airstream up together, we'll get
it there faster. So this Eastern trailer, because it's got
powered wheels, you can get it near your campsite, unhitch
it and news use the app and your finger on
the phone, you can back it into the campsite without
(14:15):
your tow vehicles. So we call it the marriage saver,
and we think it's going to be a pretty popular feature.
So that's kind of the money shot of mixture good optics.
But the real benefit of this platform is in all
those other areas. We packed a lot of concept and
technology into this and ways that will bleed down into
the product, our products for years to come. That's incredible.
I mean, if you can do something similar for two
(14:38):
person kayaks, I would really appreciate it. I found that
that is probably the fastest route for marital disputes. And
tandem bikes. That's the other one I hit. Tandem bikes. Yeah,
anytime you have two people having to work together very closely,
somehow the person in the back is never peddling, regardless
of who they are, not, right, that's right. Yes, it's
speaking to my heart here, Bob Well. I love all
(15:00):
the features you were mentioning with the east Stream, and
I think it's incredibly forward thinking for Airstream to be
looking at this, because, as you point out, we've already
seen countries around the world start to place a date
on when they will no longer allow the sale of
new internal combustion engine vehicles. And we even have a
(15:21):
couple of states in the US that are talking about
something similar. So the east Stream is essentially like an
R and D platform that demonstrates various technologies that you
anticipate are going to find their way into different airstream
models moving forward over the next several years. And that's right,
this was a halo product. Like I said, we packed
(15:42):
a lot in there. Now we need to go back,
and we are going back to say, all right, what
a customers really need, what's practical, what's affordable? Out of curiosity,
did you have any other experimental connectivity features in the
Eastream apart from the ones we've already discussed. I mean,
obviously using your phone to control at trailer would be
a big one. Yeah. We already have a fully developed
(16:04):
smart control platform and a lot of that has to
do with remote monitor and control, so you can keep
track of your resources, which matter a lot when you're camping, obviously,
water power, LP, tank levels, temperature. You know, you're out
on a hike and it's hot and you're gonna be
home in twenty minutes. You can pull out your phone
and turn on your air conditioning. We'll put your owning in.
(16:25):
There's a storm coming in, and we you know, we
could have gone local and done it in bluetooth, but
we thought it was important and have remote connectivity and
cloud connectivity, and that also gives us access to a
lot of product data which is really going to help
drive better products in the future. Fantastic. I would love
to be able to talk about data analysis all day
because I find it so fascinating to be able to
(16:48):
find the signal amongst the noise. I mean that we've
gotten to a point with data collection where we can
get so much that the challenge then becomes how do
you find the meaning within all of that? And you
turn data into knowledge. Yeah, that's that's the challenge. Yeah,
and then knowledge into actionable things you can do to
improve I mean, it's it's a multi step process. Before
(17:11):
it was how can we collect the data? Then it
was all right, we've got all this data, now what
can we do with it? And now we're at the
point where people are really innovating in the space of
analysis and then taking action based upon that analysis. Yeah,
AI applied to that massive data set can do some
amazing things. We're very focused on improving the customer experience,
(17:33):
the user experience, and there's so much we can do.
I mean, we can mind that for years to come
in ways that only make the product better. Well, let's
transition a bit to talk a bit about some challenges
and opportunities. We've mentioned a couple already, but one I
wanted to know about is what type of strategic partnerships
are important to the continued progress and innovation at Airstream. Well,
(17:56):
all sorts of stuff. You know, you think about the
partnerships it took to get the EA stream to market
with companies like z F that manufactured the drive train
system and batteries. Are connectivity partners, are cloud connected platform partners,
even our cellular data partners that provide the data flow
for those connected trailers and people's you know, on site WiFi.
(18:18):
So really we are a brand about partnerships, and luckily
we've got a brand that people really like in respect,
so there's hardly a door we can't get open when
we come knocking and at least have a conversation. Can
you tell us a little bit about maybe a challenge
you've faced while at air Stream and how you addressed it? Yeah, well,
(18:39):
how much time do you have? I think all the
time you need. When the pandemic hit in the spring
of we immediately started to see these recessionary pressures, you know,
wages dropping, unemployment spiking, consumer spending dropping, and we immediately
harkened back to the recession of a eight o nine
(19:00):
was a broad spectrum recession and the RV industry to
com beat down, including Airstream, and so we immediately assumed
that it was going to be like that for us again,
and we cut of the company, just really got proactive
and we knew where things were headed. Well, lo and behold.
You know, we came back from our six week in
post shutdown and things weren't as bad as we thought.
(19:23):
They weren't great, but then within the following two months
this would have been May, June, and July, our sales
exploded through the roof dealer inventories cleared out, backlogs exploding.
So we really miss judged that this pandemic induced recession,
if you will, was very specific to certain industries and
(19:44):
really was a boon to others, and we were lucky
enough to be in the others category. So we'd laid
off folks. We didn't really need to lay off. We
should have kept producing at high speed and just didn't
anticipate at this this response. Now, we hired them all
back by August, so I feel good about that, but
we missed a market opportunity in the meantime. You know,
it's easy to cut production rates and very hard to
(20:05):
get them back up. When you're building a product by hand.
It's very crafted and you know, a lot of labor
hours go in. We should have been more thoughtful about
When I say well, I mean I should have been
more thoughtful about what we were really looking at and
not just thinking it was another broad spectrum recession. So
that was a painful lesson, but I'll take that one
with me. Before I could let Bob go, I had
(20:26):
to ask him one more thing. What's the best piece
of advice You've ever received? The best piece of advice
I've ever received. Hire people smarter than yourself, which luckily
is not that big of a stretch in my case.
And I have a sun world in a fantastic team.
(20:48):
I will I say, I have no talent except recognizing
talent and others. And I actually stole that quote from
somebody I don't know who. So, you know, surround yourself
with people that are committed to the cause. Don't be
afraid to hire smarter people than you are. They keep
you out of the weeds. They help make your common
cause that much more achievable and effective. So I've tried
(21:09):
to do that. Well, Bob, this has been a real pleasure.
I've really enjoyed our conversation, and after all of it,
I can't wait to get outside and do some more exploring. Yeah, thanks, Jonathan,
great chatting with you. Really appreciated a great questions and
you know, I hope we see it down the road.
(21:32):
Bob's philosophy is clearly aligned with air Stream's mission statement,
a company dedicated to craftsmanship, promoting outdoor activities, and staying
relevant in a world where technology plays an increasingly important role.
Hearing about how air Stream is committed to supporting customers
with value added features that in turn encourages those customers
(21:54):
to take some time to enjoy nature is well, it's
just cool. There's a restore orative effect you experience when
you get out there exploring parks, visiting new states and
just experiencing a new lifestyle for a while. And of course,
incorporating technologies that make getting away easier helps a lot.
(22:15):
I hope we see many more companies in the tech
sector adopt Bob's point of view when it comes to
finding ways to combat climate change and promote environmentalism and
innovate while still meeting customer expectations. And I really hope
I get a chance to spend some time in an
airstream myself before too long. Please be sure to join
(22:38):
us for future episodes of The Restless Ones. As I
talked to more leaders who are serving as the pioneers
of our future, I'll see you then. T Mobile for
Business knows companies want more than a one size fits
all approach to support. I want the work, so we
(22:59):
provide three sixty support customized to your business, from discovery
to the post deployment. You'll get a dedicated account team
and expertise from solutions engineers and industry advisors already right now.
I want it now, three six support that's customized for
your success. That's unconventional thinking from T Mobile for Business
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