The PRP Origin story with Aaron Wedeking on Episode 244

 From the garage to where it is now, everything happens with hard work and innovation. Aaron Wedeking shares the PRP Origin Story and where they are going now, through the ups and downs and twists and turns. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app. 

9:58 – I did well in school, but mostly, I was just waiting for the weekends! 

16:53 – I’ve never set a goal, I just analyze the situation and think, What’s the smartest thing I can do today?             

20:00 – We made six seats, I put them in the back of my Ford Ranger and this guy says, I’ll take them all. That’s how we started. 

25:08 – I had two weeks of paternity leave from my CPA job, I ditched my wife at the hospital and picked up all the parts of that business to move it. A pretty crappy dad move and a real crappy husband move. 

31:54 – It’s either work hard or be really smart, and I’m not, so I had to work hard 

38:23 – it’s weird, when you’re in it, everything is stressful, it really fogs your vision. 

43:01 – Nobody has come up with a lab test that can recreate exactly what happens in an off-road vehicle. 

53:12 – We’re constantly innovating at PRP, and a lot of it comes from use. 

Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast. 

Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app. 

Transcript

[00:00:01.080] 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Thse interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:45.280] 

Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two, Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Tread victoriously.

[00:01:13.020] 

Have you seen 4Low magazine yet? 4Low magazine is a high-quality, well-written, four-wheel drive-focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4Low is the magazine for you. 4Low cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4Lowmagazine.com to order your subscription today.

[00:01:39.840] - Big Rich Klein

Growing up in Temecula, California, seems to lead people into the off-road industry. Like my next guest that started off mowing lawns, then doing race prep, then construction, then into accounting, and then into building aftermarket off-road seats, Aaron Wedeking is one of those guys. Well, hello, Aaron Wedeking. So good to have you here on the podcast. We've known each other for quite a long time since I started CalRocs back in the day. So it's really good to have you on here. We're going to talk about your history.

[00:02:13.870] - Aaron Wedeking

That's great. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. I appreciate it.

[00:02:17.110] - Big Rich Klein

All right. So let's get started with the easiest question for you to answer. Where were you born and raised?

[00:02:24.550] - Aaron Wedeking

I was born and raised in Temecula, place I still live. It's It's a great place in Southern California. A lot of off-road influence people, either have businesses there or from there or were there.

[00:02:40.550] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I can think of quite a few.

[00:02:42.400] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, it's a great place to be. I really, really like it. Great place to raise a family, too.

[00:02:48.280] - Big Rich Klein

And lots of rocks.

[00:02:49.340] - Aaron Wedeking

Lots of rocks.

[00:02:53.080] - Big Rich Klein

I've always thought that would be a great place to own property. But now it's grown up enough to where I don't think I could afford to live there. Besides, I don't live on a boat.

[00:03:05.350] - Aaron Wedeking

You just spend a bunch of time on a boat. How did that go?

[00:03:08.960] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, that was awesome. That looked great. We did a week cruising from the Eastern side of Florida, across Florida, on a 62-foot yacht. That's what I'm going to call a yacht. We have a 48-foot boat. I don't call it a yacht, but that 62-foot boat we were just on is a yacht. But we started off in Melbourne, went down the ICW, the Intercoastal Waterway, and then took a turn and went inland and went through Stuart, which is a really nice fishing area. But the boats in the houses along the Bay coming in there to St. Lucy River is just incredible. I mean, There's more money than I can imagine.

[00:04:05.840] - Aaron Wedeking

Florida has attracted so much money. It's crazy.

[00:04:09.470] - Big Rich Klein

And the houses that are built down there. But we went across through the... Our goal was to do the locks along the canals and then going across the Lake Okeechobe. So when we finally get a chance to do the great loop in our boat, we won't have to go through that section. I want to go down and around the keys and all that. And so this was a good way to learn how to do locks. And so now I feel like I can take my boat into a lock and be comfortable and know what the process and the procedure is.

[00:04:47.330] - Aaron Wedeking

So that was the prep. Your goal is to take your boat and do that same or do the whole loop.

[00:04:51.960] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that is correct. Are you familiar with the loop?

[00:04:55.330] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah. My buddy and I moved to North Carolina, and so I'm I went to visit him, and we went out on his boat and did just a small piece of that channel there. I thought, he was explaining to me how the US built it for defense, and you can get up and down the whole Coast, you can go up to Mississippi. Being a West Coast guy and an off-road guy, never been anything I've ever been aware of until then. That's really cool. And that's my style. If I can see land, I think I'm okay floating, but I get so freaking sick. I'd be chumming the waters the whole time if I.

[00:05:37.120] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that's a tough one. I only get sick if I'm on a diesel boat and get the exhaust fumes, and the wind's blowing the wrong way, and it's really rough. If it's not rough, it's okay. But when it gets really bad in the Gulf of Mexico, I've had some seasickness because of the getting those diesel fumes. But watching the horizon helps, and then, Dramamine, I don't know about those bracelet things that they have. I've never tried them, but- None of it works for me.

[00:06:11.530] - Aaron Wedeking

I've tried everything. The patch, the bracelet, Dramamine.

[00:06:14.480] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, that sucks then. So I bet you better stay on land.

[00:06:17.750] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, definitely a land mamo.

[00:06:21.510] - Big Rich Klein

And the intercoastal waterway, though, is pretty tame, but there are stretches where you have to get across the Gulf. Some open water. Yeah, the big bend area of Florida. You got 70, 80 miles across there that I think it is. You're going across the Gulf. It's only 20 or 30 foot deep in most of that area, but the wave action can get pretty gnarly, depending depending on the weather.

[00:06:47.050] - Aaron Wedeking

No, thank you. Okay. No, thank you.

[00:06:50.900] - Big Rich Klein

So growing up in Temecula back then, it was still pretty rural. There wasn't the wall-to-wall... It's not wall-to-wall houses. I mean, most things out there on acreage.

[00:07:02.870] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah. I mean, at the time, there were track homes were just starting to bloom out there, at least for me at a young age. We rode our motorcycles everywhere, and there were no cops. Every once in a while, a border patrol agent would chase us, and we'd have to haul back home. But other than that, it was really rural and open. And through my high school, college years is really when Temecula just blew up. There's tons of homes now. It went from 15,000 people to 120,000 people.

[00:07:42.300] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that's a explosion.

[00:07:43.640] - Aaron Wedeking

That's a totally different town. Yeah, it's an explosion.

[00:07:47.200] - Big Rich Klein

So you're not still in the house that you grew up in, are you?

[00:07:51.360] - Aaron Wedeking

No, no. My parents moved in, I don't know, that's probably fifth grade or so. Parents moved to the house, and they're still in that house. And my wife and I were able to move just a few miles from the same neighborhood in 2010, when the economy died and real estate prices died. We were able to swoop up a home not too far from my parents. So it is cool being in the same neighborhood I grew up in.

[00:08:18.460] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent.

[00:08:19.520] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:20.190] - Big Rich Klein

That time, Shelle bought some houses through auction, and we only still have one left up in Montana, but she bought houses all across the country. And it was one of those things, well, we're just going to fix them up. And we ended up selling them all, except for the one. But some of them, we didn't even fix up. We just bought them, and then somebody approached us and wanted to give us more money than we bought it for. So it was like, all right.

[00:08:51.660] - Aaron Wedeking

Perfect. Yeah. That's smart. That's smart. What a great opportunity. Yeah.

[00:08:55.680] - Big Rich Klein

You got to be able to have the wherewithal to play in that game first. Yeah.

[00:09:01.840] - Aaron Wedeking

Not be scared like everybody else was, including myself. It was a scary time.

[00:09:06.990] - Big Rich Klein

It sure was. Especially in the off-road industry, we were hurt.

[00:09:11.290] - Aaron Wedeking

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it was brutal. It was brutal.

[00:09:14.270] - Big Rich Klein

We went from having 100 cars or so at events back in 2007 to by 2009, we were down to maybe 30 cars. And then in '10, there was events we did back east, where we had five or seven cars show up and try to put on a rock crawl then. We did it. And spectators didn't complain. I was panicked, but that's the life of a gambler. For sure. So growing up, you're riding motorcycles, things like that. What was school like for you?

[00:09:58.540] - Aaron Wedeking

I I did well in school, but it was a lot of work. I had to work pretty hard at it, but I did well at it. I played soccer and basketball, and so sports kept me motivated and interested in school. But mostly, I was just waiting for the weekends. My family was really in off-road, and we'd always go to Ocotillo Wells or Glamis, local desert for us. So that's pretty much how we spent most weekends. So my parents were really involved in off-road. We're out here for Thanksgiving for the weekend. They're the first ones out here finding a camp spot. They're still super involved in the play off-road lifestyle for sure. No racing, but that's always been their thing. My uncle, cousins, all into it. So it's cool. Excellent. Yeah.

[00:10:55.050] - Big Rich Klein

So what was your first vehicle? Not not, not, not, not, not cycles, but let's say four wheel.

[00:11:02.070] - Aaron Wedeking

Okay, so first vehicle, my grandpa gave me a Manx when I was probably 14 or 15. Wow. Yeah, it was purple, metal flake. Man, that thing was ugly. But it was a great time. I'm fixing it all up, so excited. I'm being 16. It's going to be my first car. This is going to be so cool. I did as much as I could with lawn mowing money to get that thing running and get it running well. I turned 16 and my parents are like, You're not driving that. No way. I'm like, What? Are you going to kill yourself? I was so pissed, but they are 100% right. I would be dead if I drove that thing. Shorten pan, swing axel, Well, that was not the car for a dumb 16-year-old boy to have, for sure.

[00:11:52.050] - Big Rich Klein

What did you drive then?

[00:11:54.240] - Aaron Wedeking

Then my first real car that I was allowed to drive was a 1964 Dodge Dart, the push-button transmission Slant 6. We found it on- That's a lady killer there.

[00:12:07.880] - Big Rich Klein

What color was it? Baby blue?

[00:12:10.310] - Aaron Wedeking

It was four-door, which sucked, and white. It had nothing. There was nothing cool about it. But I was able to weld a hitch on the back so I could tow my quad to the desert, which is a quad motorcycle to the desert, which is about all I cared about. Perfect.

[00:12:27.980] - Big Rich Klein

And You said you were mowing lawns at that time. Is that how you got your gas money and stuff?

[00:12:39.310] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, gas money. Well, actually, not too long after getting my driver's license, I went to work for a guy in town named Doug Ingles, and he prepped Marty Coin's old race truck. Oh, wow. So he had a fabrication business. He prepped Marty's old, I think it was a Class 8 at the time. And so I helped with that. And then he made wineries or big in Temecula, so he made some farm equipment, like light stands. They could pick grapes at night, big old vats to put the grapes in. So that was my job through high school, was actually working for him.

[00:13:16.880] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:13:17.810] - Aaron Wedeking

That was a lot of good experience, too. Kind of reinforce the off-road habit that I had. It was nice to see something different besides my dad had an old Dunebuggy, two-wheel drive stuff. It's always been our thing, but a race truck was a whole different level. That was really cool to be a part of at a young age.

[00:13:36.260] - Big Rich Klein

What industry did your dad work in?

[00:13:39.260] - Aaron Wedeking

So he actually worked for the original developer of Temecula, Kaiser Development. And then that job had several different hats. Cable TV started. He had an interest in that. So the original developer started a cable TV company. And then when they spun off this cable cable TV company, he went with it and worked in the cable TV industry for years, but still on the real estate development, putting the cable in the ground stuff. And then, I don't know, I was probably sophomore in high school when there was a recession, a little recession there in '91, '92, and he got let go. And that had a pretty big impact on my life because I was like, Holy cow, dad's had a job forever. Now he doesn't have a job. When I go to I got to find something that will always be around. I got to find some career that I can always find a job because you never know what's going to happen.

[00:14:37.360] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That was a tough time. That was right after we went into Desert Storm that first time. And in California, it was more than a recession. I had a landscape construction company then with 18 employees, and it just vanished. I mean, it was gone. Yeah, really. It was like, oh, now, now what do I do? That That was my first big financial hit, because we were doing big houses and big landscapes. And I mean, three crews of install, plus a maintenance crew And it was six months, lost $360,000 and had everything that was on lease got taken back, and you still owed on it. And it's like, holy Christ, what did I get myself in?

[00:15:30.110] - Aaron Wedeking

I do? Yeah.

[00:15:31.330] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly. That was the first one.

[00:15:35.680] - Aaron Wedeking

Well, that fear has always laid in the back of my mind, and it's always affected a lot of decisions I've made. It eventually ended up I'm a self-employed PRP, but that's always been in the back of my mind. Is that what if? So it's affected a lot of decisions I made, which I'm sure we'll get into here as we discuss my career.

[00:15:56.130] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. Hopefully. So So then you're going through high school, you're playing some sports, you're driving your lady killer car, and you're involved with anything else besides some sports? Anything else in school?

[00:16:17.060] - Aaron Wedeking

No, not really. I mean, it was basketball, soccer, or off-roading. If those two things collided, an off-road trip always took over a sports event.

[00:16:32.300] - Big Rich Klein

So when you were- Pretty much my life. When you were in high school, did you have grand plans for when you got out? Did you know what you wanted to do?

[00:16:41.960] - Aaron Wedeking

No. I've never made a plan. I've never set a goal. I don't think ever in my life.

[00:16:49.900] - Big Rich Klein

Just gone with the- That surprises me. Okay.

[00:16:53.300] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah. I've just always gone with the flow and just analyze the situation that I'm in and figure out, well, what's What's the smartest thing to do today? So, yeah, I've never been a real goal setter or a plan maker. Okay. Yeah.

[00:17:12.780] - Big Rich Klein

That's interesting. So then, You get through high school. You're looking into the future. You're working for the prep shop.

[00:17:24.570] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, I know. I think by the time I got close to graduating high school, I was working at I'm in an instruction company as a mechanic, working on their equipment. And then I was trying to pick a profession that I could find a job in no matter what. Like I said, what can I do that no matter what? So I'm thinking, well, death or taxes, those two things are always going to be around. And so I decided I'd do accounting. So I started at junior college working on my accounting degree, got finished there, and then went on to San Diego State, where I did the last two years of my accounting. During that time, a friend of mine from high school, whose parents were self-employed, was talking about starting an off-road company. They were going to make Shox. And he was putting together a Baha bug to go race. That's how PRP got started, was with that buddy while I was I went to San Diego State to do my accounting.

[00:18:33.390] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, really? Well, let's talk about that. What was the process? How did that all come about?

[00:18:38.470] - Aaron Wedeking

Well, so we were building a Baja bug to go race at Glen Helen, just a small race series. They had a plastic molding injection business. And at that time, most of the plastic... This is '97, so this is after high school, I guess. And Most of the plastic molding injection stuff was either moving to Mexico or China. So their business was slowing down, so they were looking for other options. And dad being an off-road racer for years, trying to do something off-road. And so he was thinking I do start making shocks. The long travel dune buggy thing was just getting started. And so we started putting together this Baha bug with leftover parts that he had, dad had, and we couldn't afford pretty Pretty much anything, my buddy and I. So we were making most of it. So we made our own seats and bent up the frames, ran around, found a sewerer to sew us in the inner structure, and went to Joanne's and bought foam, and same thing with fabric to make a seat cover with. So that was our first two seats was for that Baha bug. We got that thing together, went out and raced, and we sucked at racing, and it was definitely not our thing.

[00:19:58.650] - Big Rich Klein

Were you comfortable?

[00:20:00.490] - Aaron Wedeking

We were comfortable. Yeah, the seats were great. The seats were great. And so we thought, Man, let's make some more of that. While dad's working on his shock side, let's make some more seats. And so we made six more seats. I put them in the back of my Ford Ranger and went down to this guy's shop in Oceanside that I always got parts from being our buggy. So I always got parts from my personal dune buggy from him and my dad's buggy and stuff. So I went down and talked to him and I said, Hey, we're going to start making seats. These the first six we've made. And he says, I'll take them all. These seats are so popular and we can't get them. And I'll take everything you got. And if you could bring me some more. I went, Holy cow, really? Oh my God. I figured I might get interest in a pair of them. Maybe I'd have to put them on consignment, see if somebody will buy them. So he pays me. I go home and I tell my buddy and his parents, Hey, we need to do some more of these.

[00:20:55.010] - Aaron Wedeking

These guys are really interested in them. So that's literally how we got started. We were in a corner of their plastic molding injection business. And so we made a few more seats. And by then, that plastic molding injection business got ran down to nothing. So we ended up moving into their garage. They had a separate garage next to their house. And so we just moved it into there. And it was just me and him building seats and then building the seat frames. And we got the interliners down. We got a sewerer helping us sew some of the stuff up, and we would assemble everything and put it in the back of our truck and drive around town, trying to find off road shops that would buy it. So that's how PRP got started.

[00:21:37.940] - Big Rich Klein

And what does PRP stand for?

[00:21:42.110] - Aaron Wedeking

Premier Racing products, because we were going to make, we were going to make Shox seats. He was doing a plastic molding injection business, had a lot of other suspension components, little rubber stoppers, beam bushings for Volkswagen beams, torsion housing bushings. So they had a bunch of that stuff already that they were selling to other off-road shops. So we were going to put that all under one thing and call it Premier Racing products. And the seats is really the only thing that stuck out of all that.

[00:22:16.870] - Big Rich Klein

So you became partners with your friend and his parents?

[00:22:20.870] - Aaron Wedeking

Well, so that was interesting. So I never really became partners. Most of the fabric, I just got so wrapped up in how cool this was to be able to make these things. So I had gotten a credit card when I was going to college. They just hand those out to college kids. I think I got a free pizza if I signed up for a credit card. So like a future fat kid, like, yeah, free pizza? Sign me up. So I got a credit card, and that's what I was buying all the fabric on. And we never really had anything official set up with the business. And And they just paid the credit card bill, and it wasn't making a ton of money. We weren't making it. We weren't really killing it. And I was still focused on, I need to become an accountant. I need to become an accountant, because eventually, when the economy turns, I still want to eat. I want to live indoors. That's all that stuff. So the off-road scene to me just was like something fun. I thought it was fun. It was cool. And we were doing it. It was just pain for itself.

[00:23:32.680] - Aaron Wedeking

It wasn't anything huge. So that was May of '97. By, let's see, by December of '98, I was done with college and my goal was to go get a job at an accounting firm. And so I had left PRP and then started at the accounting firm in January of '99. And I really was just touching base with my buddy seeing how everything was going. And so they ran at '99, 2000. And then right around 2001, it still wasn't much as far as profit and everything. They were feeding the family and making it through. But they decided, hey, we're going to move to Nebraska. We've got a job on the railroad and we want to get rid of the company. And I said, well, we're about ready to have our first child. My wife and I were high school sweethearts. We got married. We We're ready to have our first kid, and we're trying to figure out what we're both working to barely survive. We can't, one can't quit to take care of the kid. How the heck are we going to do this? Let's buy a business and hope that that makes enough money for us to live on.

[00:24:46.550] - Aaron Wedeking

So we ended up buying it back from my buddy when he moved to Nebraska, put it in my parents garage in Temecula and my garage in Escondido. So for two years, I lived in Escondido while I was working at a CPA firm down in San Diego.

[00:25:02.570] - Big Rich Klein

So that was the beginning of with you. I mean, that was for you.

[00:25:08.060] - Aaron Wedeking

That was beginning of with me personally owning it. Yeah, it was actually mid '21. I guess it was November '21, because that's... My daughter was born November first of 2001, not '21, 2001. And that's where I was actually in the hospital when they called and said, okay, come get all the stuff. So I had two weeks of maternity leave from my CPA job. I ditched my wife in the hospital, and went and picked up all the parts of that business, and put it in the two garages. So that was It was a pretty crappy dad move, and a real crappy husband move. But everybody's forgiving me for that now, but it turned out okay.

[00:25:56.010] - Big Rich Klein

That's the same time that I started Cal Rocks. My first event was in November 2001.

[00:26:04.060] - Aaron Wedeking

So the four-wheel drive stuff was pretty foreign to me. Being a two-wheel drive guy, doing buggies, motorcycles, and that type of stuff. The four-wheel drive, you see some Jeeps out on trails, and they're doing different trails than we're doing. To me, it was all new. But Jeff Knoll, I had to become friends with Jeff Knolll, and he had that CRCA in his backyard not far from me. That was the first time I really ever saw that California Rednecks on the Rocks. Is that what it was?

[00:26:33.830] - Big Rich Klein

No, it was the California Rock Crawling.

[00:26:37.490] - Aaron Wedeking

California Rock Crawling Association?

[00:26:39.500] - Big Rich Klein

Ca, Rock Crawling Association. California Rock Crawling Association. Yeah.

[00:26:42.750] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, that's right.

[00:26:44.070] - Big Rich Klein

I didn't even know that was going on when I started, because I'd been in Utah, worked with, was helping Ranch Pratt as a volunteer in the club president of the Cedar City Four-wheel Drive Club, and then left and came back to Northern California and said, okay, when I do that, I'm going to start my own rock crawling series. So I teamed up with guys like Bob Roggy and a couple of others up here in Northern California, mostly pirates, and getting started, trying to get the rock crawling events off the ground. And here I am, 24 years later, still doing them.

[00:27:23.900] - Aaron Wedeking

Still doing it. Yeah.

[00:27:25.710] - Big Rich Klein

Just like you in the seats. Awesome.

[00:27:28.090] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[00:27:30.060] - Big Rich Klein

We both have the same anniversary. Isn't that funny?

[00:27:33.150] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, that is pretty crazy. It's such a fun industry to be a part of. It's just great people. Everybody's typically having a good time. It's hard to beat. Hard to beat. Yeah.

[00:27:49.170] - Big Rich Klein

And so you saw the first rock crawling events at Jeff Knoll’s. What was it? The Wooden Nickel or something like that?

[00:27:57.330] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, it was like a little pile of rocks in somebody's backyard. But yeah, it was called Wooden Nickel Ranch in Menefee. And it was rock racing, really. They weren't. It was set up a course. It was the fastest way you could get through it. So a whole bunch of rock crawlers showed up and then just beat their junk. It was so entertaining as a spectator. I'm like, oh, this is great. I love watching people beat their stuff up.

[00:28:25.180] - Big Rich Klein

It's exciting. It's like one of those... It's a continuous How to make America laugh type videos. Totally. So then you got involved with some of the rock crawlers for marketing, basically. I know Jody Everding was a big part of that. I remember his Leopard Skin. I think it was Leopard Skin. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:54.780] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah. Jody is a character. He was so much fun to be involved involved with. And that was probably the first event, because I can't remember if it was Jeff's first event, but it was definitely the first one that Jody and I had worked up with. Jody hit me up and said, will PRP sponsor me. I'm like, I can't afford these seats for my own car. I can't afford to give any away. You're nuts. I said, How about I sell you some? And if you do what you say you're going to do and get the attention you're going to get, I'll give you your money back. That was about all I could do as far as sponsorship. At the time, we were barely surviving. So he shows up at that event and just puts on a spectacle. I mean, he's got the orange metal flake paint job, aluminum tub Jeep. He's just thrashing his stuff, super entertaining. And he's on the front page of the local newspaper. I'm like, oh, this is the guy. This guy This guy's great for me. A lot of attention. Big old PRP sticker on the side. It was really cool.

[00:30:07.700] - Aaron Wedeking

So that started about a five or six year relationship with Jody and working with him on different competition events. It was good.

[00:30:21.580] - Big Rich Klein

When did you move out of the garages?

[00:30:25.240] - Aaron Wedeking

Okay, so 2001, we were in the garage, and that lasted probably until late. It was about a year where we were in multiple garages, and I was still keeping my CPA job. So I was waking up early in the morning, assembling seats in the garage, maybe leaving at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning from Escondido to go drop some off in San Diego. We had some customers in San Diego, ORW, and Johnson's Bug Machine, some of the guys that were in San Diego. And then I would go work at the CPA firm. And then that job would get done at five or six o'clock. Then I would drive to my parents house every night where we did... The sewing was done in Escondido, and the seat frames, and the foam, the glue, and all that stuff was done in my parents garage. And then I would drive up to their house in Temecula and put seats together, bring them back down to Escondido, put the covers on them, and have those ready for the next day. I did that. I mean, those were, I don't know, 18 hour days. I did that for about a year.

[00:31:35.960] - Aaron Wedeking

And then Belinda goes, something's got to give. And I was a crappy dad. I was a crappy husband. All I did was work. It was seven days a week, 18 hour days, easily, right?

[00:31:50.320] - Big Rich Klein

But that's what we did to keep things, keep things- That's the only way.

[00:31:54.500] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah. It's either that or you got to be really smart, and I'm not. So I had to work hard.

[00:32:00.250] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, that's been my problem. Okay.

[00:32:02.010] - Aaron Wedeking

I'm pretty sure that's my missing link, is that. Hard work, I understand, and I can do that. But coming up with some great idea that I can patent and make millions of dollars off of? Not me. I've got to put in the sweat. And that's what I did. So January 2003, I quit my job right before busy tax season. And the boss is like, well, can you help us out part-time? So let me try. I didn't want to leave them hanging either. So I did some taxes in January '03 and went full-time on at PRP because my wife was, I mean, she was delivering seats with a screaming baby in the car with the 1-800 number for PRP forwarded to her cell phone. She was stressed out of her skull, too, trying to do everything. So So I said, okay, well, I'll quit the accounting. I'll help out at PRP. And that was January of '03. And then we moved it into a... I had picked up CarTech as a customer. I'm not sure if you're familiar with them, but they're a great off-road store in Corona. And they really helped me out, too. Listen, these are the seat styles that people want.

[00:33:25.190] - Aaron Wedeking

This is what people are asking for. You need to change this or modify that. And I love that type of feedback because that's really what built PRP is just listening to customers. And if they tell you, Hey, I need a seat that's taller here, shorter here. Yes, sir. I'll do whatever you want. So Yeah. So CarTech really helped us out a ton. So I had CarTech as a customer, and I thought, well, we've got enough little repeat business built up. Let's rent a shop, put it all together. And we did that in the beginning of 2003. So here in a year in a couple We did it in a few months. We did out of our garages.

[00:34:04.770] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's not too bad.

[00:34:06.580] - Aaron Wedeking

No, it wasn't too bad. I mean, it was, I don't know, like growing a business and running it, you're broke all the time. It's crazy. When did you know you make it? You don't.

[00:34:19.040] - Big Rich Klein

You're flush at noon and then you're broke by five. Yeah.

[00:34:21.710] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, exactly. It's such a wild experience.

[00:34:29.210] - Big Rich Klein

But But Velinda stuck in there.

[00:34:32.660] - Aaron Wedeking

Oh, yeah. She's awesome. Awesome lady, wonderful wife, wonderful mother. It was definitely a testament to us, I think, the hell that we went through to make PRP work.

[00:34:49.350] - Big Rich Klein

Nobody really knows it but us, but it was hell. Then you started expanding the product Both line besides seats. When did that start happening?

[00:35:06.670] - Aaron Wedeking

Seats and bags were right from the start. The Dune Buggy world wanted... Everybody had an Igloo cooler in the front. They had to have a cover that match, that cover their igloo cooler that match their seats. They need a little round bag that matches their seats. So that was day one. Those were our three products, we were making mostly seats, but those little type of things. I didn't start doing seatbelts until 2010 or 2011. And then we started doing seatbelts. And then, that's about the same time, UTVs were really taken off. And so we started doing vehicle-specific bags, and it was basically UTV bags. If a new UTV would come out, I would fit a... Let's make a door bag that fits this door exactly. Let's make a bed bag that goes in the that fits exactly only this vehicle. So vehicle-specific bags, I probably didn't start till 2012, 2013. So mostly was seats. That was all that was supporting us up until then.

[00:36:13.080] - Big Rich Klein

So Not bad, not bad I wish.

[00:36:15.490] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, I wish I had expanded faster. I mean, Hindsight 2020, all those other items were, they were great. They went right alongside with seats. It just your head's buried in the sand trying to work. And what's the saying, you don't see the trees when you're stuck in the forest. You don't see the forest when you're stuck in the trees. Something like that. I didn't see nothing.

[00:36:37.040] - Big Rich Klein

I don't know. I'm not smart enough to put all those words together, right?

[00:36:40.460] - Aaron Wedeking

Exactly. Had I been, I wouldn't have had to work so hard.

[00:36:47.130] - Big Rich Klein

So you got to a point where, did you have some partners, or did you sell to your partners, or what?

[00:36:56.190] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah. So in 2006, I had some guys that wanted to partner up. And so we were partners in '06 till the end of '07. And I thought, man, this is this is tough. The business was doing well at the time, but not well enough to support two more families. And that's really what it turned into. And I said, just buy me out the rest of the way. And that whole thing where I mentioned being afraid of losing my job and trying to find... I saw that everything's slowing down a little bit. I should cash out of this and go do something else because I think we've had a good run, even though it was only six, seven years. But I was afraid of any downturn and being able to live through it. So they ended up buying me out at the end of 2007, and then they struggled through '08 and '09, and then finally just at the end of '09 said, Man, we just can't make it a go. So I ended up negotiating a deal to get it back in January of 2010. So took it back in 2010, and that's really when...

[00:38:23.660] - Aaron Wedeking

It's weird because when you're in it, when I was in it from 2001 to 2007, Everything is very stressful. It really fogs your vision. It really fogs your big picture of what I should be doing running a business. That two years where I was out of it and the pressure's away, you start going, Man, why didn't I hire a sales guy? Why did I try to do it all myself? Why didn't I go get some professional help on the accounting side? Why I, whatever it was, all of the stresses that I had while I was running it, when you're not in it, you look back and go, Shit, this wasn't really as hard as I made it out to be. I should have done this and should have done that. Those two years gave me some clarity. So I came back in 2010 with a lot of vigor. The economy sucked, but I just knew a lot. I just had a better vision of what to do to make the business grow and and really become an impact. So that's when we hired a sales guy to take the load off because I was trying to do all of that myself.

[00:39:38.890] - Aaron Wedeking

I wanted to make sure that I was friends with all of our customers. I still try to be as well. And so when they call and say something's wrong, that's a personal attack on me. I've got to find some way. I got to fix it right now. And so I didn't want people representing the brand incorrectly or representing the company incorrectly. So it was really hard to let go of that. But once I did, the only way you can grow it. Right. So, yeah, that helped. Hiring a sales guy, start expanding the product line. That's when we started doing seatbelts, started doing more vehicle-specific bags, just trying to find a niche. To get some other revenue. And it didn't hurt that the UTV world was blowing up at that time. Rhinos were big. Polaris had come out with a razor. That was a huge impact in the off-road industry because it just brought our lifestyle to so many different people that hadn't seen it before. Before, you either had to build something or you had to have the skill to modify something that already existed. You couldn't just go turnkey buy something, and now you're- Go buy, take, get a loan to go buy an off-road machine.

[00:40:52.970] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, just to do that. I mean, just to get a loan to buy an off-road machine didn't exist, really. So the UTV world brought... Being a long term, hardcore desert guy, it's hard to say that it was a great thing, but being in the business, it was a great thing. It brought a lot of people to the sport.

[00:41:14.090] - Big Rich Klein

Well, it's like the hardcore jeepers. Just when the JK came out, they got up with the TJ. Then the JK came out and they were just like, Oh, my God, what is happening? Every soccer mom is going to have one. Now, jeeping's ruined. But the JK saved the four-wheel drive side of the industry.

[00:41:38.630] - Aaron Wedeking

Totally. Yeah.

[00:41:41.560] - Big Rich Klein

People bought them that would never have gotten into off-road.

[00:41:48.150] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, and it creates a whole bunch of aftermarket. And when you have one aftermarket company building a part for it, there's no motivation for that off-road company to innovate or improve. But now you Now the market's big enough to where you could have four or five competitors. Well, that ends up great for the end user, because it just drives innovation, and it makes us, as suppliers, lights of fire under our ass. You got to have something cooler, better, different than everybody else, figure it out. So it's a positive all around, I think.

[00:42:22.400] - Big Rich Klein

So what is your take on suspension seats There is so much out there on seat designs for racing, especially, and rock crawling, which is different impact packs than desert racing. And there's all these different theories on what seats should be used for what. And what is your take on, because you guys specialize in suspension seats?

[00:43:01.970] - Aaron Wedeking

We specialize in suspension seats. We do make hard shell seats now. A lot of our new innovation has been directed towards hard shell seats. And when you use the word theory, That's exactly it. Nobody has come up with a lab test that can recreate exactly what happens in an off-road vehicle to where we can say, This is the answer for cures all problems. This one solution cures all problems because there's just... Every situation is different, every body size is different, the way the vehicles react is different, the way your vehicle reacts when it's hitting a corner and a bump at the same time is different. So it's hard to say that there is one right answer here. What I typically tell people is, I'm not play riding, I'm in a seat all day long. There's so much more comfortable to sit in. You don't end up with wear spots, with pressure points, not if you've got the right size suspension seat for it. It's just a more comfortable ride. I'm not spending an hour straight at 80 plus miles an hour where my body is getting dryed around. I went 80 for about 10 seconds and then said, Okay, that was a cool thrill.

[00:44:27.870] - Aaron Wedeking

Slow down and make sure I don't break my stuff. So play riding, 100 %. If you're in a limited suspension race vehicle, I would still go suspension seat. And if you're in a vehicle that's doing 80 plus miles an hour for an extended amount of time, a hard shell seat is the way to go. Your body ends up being a lot less fatigued because it's not moving around as much. So you watch in-car footage of a guy in a suspension seat. Every the time he hits a G out, that seat sinks down, the seat belts get a little loose. Then you come back up, your body now takes two impacts. It slammed into the seat. Now it's slamming up against the belts. And you don't get But in a in a hard shell seat, you're not slamming back up against the belts, because they're never getting loose. They're constantly tied on you.

[00:45:23.320] - Big Rich Klein

Right. As a promoter, there's certain things with the rules and safety that you can require, like fire extinguishers, harnesses, helmets, window nets, fire suits. And then you get into seats, and everybody builds their rig differently. Everybody's driving style, and we're just talking rock crawling, is different. And I've had We had one of our drivers that broke his back in Indiana at a rock crawling event, where he did this climb, and and endo-flipped it, landed back down on his suspension, and compressed his back and broke off of his back, the little wings off of your spine, those tabs there, that compression fracture-like. Oh, wow. Yeah. And he was... There was like a month later, we were in his area, and he goes, Hey, you need to come by. So we met for lunch, and he goes, You need to outlaw suspension seats or hard shell seats. And I told him, I said, Chris, I can't because of insurance. And he goes, What do you mean? Hard shell seats are going to paralyze people. And I said, well, I've got There are other instances of guys with suspension seats that have done the same thing. And maybe it was builder error, where they put the transfer case underneath the suspension seat.

[00:47:12.440] - Big Rich Klein

So when it bottoms out, their ass is hitting. So there's that. But you can't... I told them, insurance-wise, if I tell somebody that you have to run this particular seat style, and then somebody gets hurt in it, then it opens up myself for liability because I force somebody into that. Where if they have their own choice, it's not on me, as long as the seat contains them so that they don't fall out of the vehicle. And he understood that, but he still never wanted to see a Kirky seating a rock Crawler again. And I said, well, they make paddings for those. You didn't have padding in yours. So then it becomes just like putting your suspension seat right on top of the transfer case.

[00:48:13.490] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah. And what a suspension seat have helped him? Who knows? If you get the right impact, the right whiplash, the right... It's really hard to recreate an off-road accident to see how the different things would react.

[00:48:28.450] - Big Rich Klein

Right So what are the great innovations that have come through, say, in seeding, as far as you're concerned?

[00:48:41.230] - Aaron Wedeking

So for me, I take a lot of customer feedback because there's not really an industry expert or somebody that you could turn to that has done all the testing for all the different angles off-road, all the different things that could happen. And so you take feedback from somebody like that. Okay, well, what can we do? How can we modify our suspension seat? Can we put more shoulder containment in? Can we put dual stage foam in the bottom so it helps absorb almost like a bypass shock. You got a soft and then a firm after a big hit. And we've done all those things. We're doing a lot of that, a lot of those changes, trying to just keep up with customer feedback. And then it's explaining to customers, look at this is what this seat does, and this is why we did it. But most of it on the suspension seat side is It's a bit in containment. You've got a low sided seat for guys that are got vehicles with doors. We're trying to get in and out of them. They don't want to climb up over that big hump.

[00:49:54.160] - Big Rich Klein

Old fat guys like me.

[00:49:56.290] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, exactly.

[00:49:57.660] - Big Rich Klein

I was so happy to see the the design of the seat that you had in the auction at Ormhoff Gala this year. Oh, yeah. Because it had the wings to contain the shoulders and your sides, but I didn't have to climb over the seat to get into it.

[00:50:15.200] - Aaron Wedeking

To get into it, yeah. I mean, that series of seats is two different bottoms and two different backs, and then you can mix match them, right? And it creates four different seats that all have different containment. A little more on the butt or less on the butt, more on the shoulders or less on the shoulders and more on the kidneys, right? So it's all all just and that really comes down to personal preference. You really have to sit in it. You've got to try to, for your situation, find the seat that fits your situation. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's the biggest takeaway from from seat design is everybody has an opinion, everybody has a use, and they're all slightly different. Right. So it is trying to make an answer for everybody. I think PRP does a really good job of that. I mean, we really do listen to customers, really do listen to feedback, and we really do try to, Okay, well, you need this seat two inches taller? We can do that. I don't know where else, especially when it comes to offer a seating, where else are you going to get that?

[00:51:27.450] - Aaron Wedeking

I don't think anybody does it.

[00:51:28.530] - Big Rich Klein

The customization, I don't think so either.

[00:51:30.790] - Aaron Wedeking

Customization, yeah. I don't think anybody's doing it.

[00:51:34.500] - Big Rich Klein

Well, once I get those seats in the Jeep, where the Jeep is being worked on as we speak to get it so that it's running It had no oil issue because it sat for two and a half years and it's LS-based. And I think that we lost the seal on the pickup tube for the oil. But It's in a shop, and it's going to be wheeled in there shortly, and they're going to run some tests on it and figure out what the lag of oil is doing. But once that happens, then I'll be mounting those seats. And I'm really looking forward to putting my Fanny in there and seeing how well they fit. And it's going to be my wife's daily driver and trail rig after that. And then it'll go to the shows that I'm setting up for a booth for Ormhoff, and then also for Four Lowe magazine and stuff. So it'll get seen with that beautiful embroidery that says Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. It fits right in there. The license plate The license plate on there is Ormhoff. So I'm really looking forward to getting that rig out there.

[00:52:53.580] - Aaron Wedeking

Great. That's good. I'm looking forward to the feedback. You have to let me know what you think. Absolutely.

[00:52:58.860] - Big Rich Klein

So what What's in the future for you? I mean, what are you... Anything on the horizon that's going to be new and great, or something that you've just released recently?

[00:53:12.270] - Aaron Wedeking

Well, we're constantly innovating at PRP, and a lot of it just comes from use. Getting out here like I am today and running around and figuring out, you know what? We could have something that would be a game changer in the off-road world if we this. And so some of the latest things we've done, some really simple stuff, like a dust, dirt, waterproof, cam lock seat belt. That's our newest that I'm really proud of. The cam lock seat belt has been something that's pretty standard in on road racing, and mixed reviews in off road racing, and it should be, because the mechanism that's inside there is so finicky. There's just little tiny springs, and that are holding everything together, and you get dirt and water in there, and you're not 100% sure if it's latched or not when you think it is, until an impact hits. And there's been stories of that. So we've come up with a rubber seal, basically. When you latch that thing in, that opening is sealed tight. You're not getting dirt and water in there. That's really cool. We did a stupid little thing, like an adjustable That crotch strap.

[00:54:31.360] - Aaron Wedeking

Have you ever jumped in a race car and that crotch strap is stuck way down there and you can't hook it to your lap where it's way too long and serves no purpose? Put an adjuster on it. It seems pretty obvious, but nobody sells it. Nobody does it. So that type of stuff. And a lot of that just comes from using it, just using the vehicle and thinking, Gosh, we could we could modify this. Those are some of the latest, the The last big one that we did was a cooled seat option, heated and cooled. That was the play guys, even the race guys. It's one of the biggest request that we get is, It's hot. How do we cool this seat off? Especially since every tow rig comes with ventilated seats now. It's high on everybody's priority. So we worked with a company that makes a heat exchanger that absorbs body heat, and that works phenomenal. So It's pretty cool. A lot of work to put it in a seat, compact everything down and get all the right ventilation you need in there. But it works. It works excellent. It's been a good selling product for us.

[00:55:41.610] - Aaron Wedeking

And, again, that's just customer demand driving me or us to figure out, how the heck are we going to do this?

[00:55:50.700] - Big Rich Klein

Well, cool.

[00:55:51.920] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, my role at PRP now is basically that, right? Help out with new products stuff and help the new The new team that's there, I did, I haven't mentioned this yet on the podcast, but I did sell the company in 2018 to the best top group, and they own quite a few different companies. And they've been just absolutely amazing to work with none of the None of the issues that several of these private equity groups have had. They value my feedback. They're keeping me on to help out every which way I can. So it's been pretty good. It's been a great relationship with them. I think it's really helped PRP grow the last few years, where I just didn't have the balls to do it. It comes down to that.

[00:56:41.610] - Big Rich Klein

Taking that risk.

[00:56:42.730] - Aaron Wedeking

Taking that risk, yeah. I mean, in 2018, we were growing like crazy, and I was renting buildings all over Temecula. And we needed to go rent one big building to put everything under. I just didn't have the labels to do it. It's tough. Tell my wife, Hey, we're going to refinance the house so I can come up with the down payment. And then our rent is going to be $45,000 a month. If we have two bad months, We're homeless. That's really what it is when you're trying to run a business that size on your own. It's just scary, scary decisions like that. And I just didn't have the balls to do it on my own. So finding a like Bestop has been great because it's put us all in one big building, helped us out with software, a lot of really expensive decisions that we had to make and to get the company to continue to grow. And you either grow or you die. You grow or you perish. And as a self-employed, I would much rather not grow, honestly. I really like to just be in steady because cash flow was better. But it really caps your people.

[00:58:07.250] - Aaron Wedeking

Once you get really good people working for you, they want to grow, too. They want new challenges and new exciting stuff. And if you just say, we're not going to do any of that growing stuff. We're just going to hang tight. That's not very exciting for anybody. True. Very true.

[00:58:23.260] - Big Rich Klein

Well, I'm glad it's been a good relationship with Bestop.

[00:58:28.860] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, it's been Excellent. It's just a great group, and I've really enjoyed it. So it's been good.

[00:58:35.420] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. I just talked to Tough Country and Kelly Davis, and he bought back that whole thing blew up, and he bought back his company and is real excited about what the future holds for him. So I'm glad that everything's going good for you and that it's working out.

[00:59:00.350] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, it's been good. So that was with the Day Star. He was with the Day Star Group. Correct. Yeah, that's been a bit of a mess.

[00:59:12.180] - Big Rich Klein

And that's one of those that I thought would really work because it was all the off-road industry that was involved in it and not a bunch of outside money. But I guess that was not quite what was happening.

[00:59:29.660] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah Yeah, exactly.

[00:59:33.510] - Big Rich Klein

Well, I want to say thank you so much, Aaron, for coming on and being a guest and talking about your life and the trials and tribulations of being a business owner and going for it and walking away from that comfortable job to follow the dream, even though that wasn't maybe a goal. And you said you never set goals, but it sounds It sounds like there was some lingering back there. Maybe you never wrote them down, but it sounds like there was some drive there to obtain.

[01:00:09.680] - Aaron Wedeking

Yeah, definitely a drive to feed the family and live indoors. It's always a nice drive.

[01:00:16.230] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. So what would you... Last thing, what would you... Word of advice for anybody that wants to get into the off-road industry, who's maybe an enthusiast right now and wants to jump in, maybe they have a great idea for a product, or they just want to get beyond their 9:00 to five job that's out of the industry and get into one that's in the industry. What would your words of wisdom be to them There's 24 hours in a day.

[01:00:46.730] - Aaron Wedeking

Use them wisely. So don't quit your job. Get your off-road idea proof of concept. Prove that it works. Prove that it can make money. Make whatever it takes. 18, 20 hours a day, whatever it takes. Anybody that's made it will tell you, I think, will tell you the same thing, that you have to put that type of dedication in at the beginning to make it work. Perfect. That's what it took for me.

[01:01:20.770] - Big Rich Klein

That's great. Well, Aaron, thank you. And you enjoy your week, your Thanksgiving week out in Calico, and having fun off road. And that's why we do this.

[01:01:35.190] - Aaron Wedeking

I will for sure. I love it out here. It's great. A lot of family and friends. It's going to be an awesome week. So I hope you have a great Thanksgiving, too.

[01:01:41.330] - Big Rich Klein

All right. You too. Take care. All right. Take a pleasure. I'll talk to you later. Bye.

[01:01:44.930] - Aaron Wedeking

Okay, see you. Bye.

[01:01:46.850] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.