At the 2016 International Off-Road & UTV Expo, we interviewed Marcelo Danze with Assault Industries about all their accessories, products, and new things coming soon.
Transcript
Scott: I’ve now got Marcelo from Assault Industries here with some cool new things they’ve come up with since 2015 when we were here, talked to them then as well. I’m looking at this stuff and it’s … man oh man, how do you come up with the ideas? Obviously there’s a safety feature involved, there’s practicality involved, but what drives you guys to come up with something better and better and better every single year?
Marcelo: It’s just really our engineering crew that we’ve got. I’ve got a great engineering team that helps us. We look at these things, we run ’em, we ride ’em, we drive ’em, and every time we’re out there we’re all putting our heads together trying to figure out what can make a better product, and that’s how we came up with this new B-2 Bomber. We made it all out of 6061 aluminum. It’s probably one of the toughest mirrors that you could get out of the market. We guarantee this thing for life. We make it customizable so you could change colors on both sides. The glass on it is replaceable, so if you break it just call us up, we’ll replace it for you. It does break away, if you do hit a tree it’s very easy to adjust. Those are some of the features that we’ve included in this new B-2 Bomber.
Scott: As I’m looking at some of the things you’ve got here on display, it’s almost like UTV’s version of race it on Sunday, buy it on Monday kind of thing. It’s like you goes out, you guys test it, you wreck it, you fix it, “Okay, I think we got something here,” and then you come out on the market with it.
Marcelo: Absolutely, and not only us but I’ve got a lot of racers out there that run our mirrors and our product, and these guys are banging up against other cars, they’re flipping their cars. It’s crazy when they call me up, they go, “Dude, you got to look at this picture, look at this video.” These car are rolling, they’re landing on their wheels or on their sides, they flip them over and their mirrors are still intact, which to me is incredible. One of the craziest stories, we were out at [Moab 00:01:58] this past couple of months ago, and this guy was going up … god I can’t remember the trail … but he literally fell on his side and the mirror was holding his car up. No, it was crazy. We’re really proud of our product, we try to manufacture it here in the USA. We’re American proud, we’ve got probably about three million dollars worth of equipment here in California, so we want to keep those machines running and keep the jobs here. That’s another thing that we’re really proud of.
Scott: There’s also some other things. I’m looking at some different mounts, specifically with the fire extinguisher. I hate to say it, but the more UTV’s in the trails and the dunes, the more times you’re going to probably need something like that. You guys are following the trend, “Okay, let’s make something bigger,” almost like re-inventing the wheel but doing it better.
Marcelo: Absolutely, yeah, this is probably one of our best sellers at the show. Everybody is looking for fire extinguishers right now. We came up with this, a one pin design, super easy. Basically just pull this pin, it just comes out, it hangs up, just grab it, you’re ready to use it. It’s a very light kit; again, we use it on the race cars. We use it ourselves. It’s a very needed product and everybody loves our design of it.
Scott: What are some of the things you’ve come up with within this last year? Obviously you’re focusing on the mirrors and the fire extinguisher, but what other things do you guys have going on?
Marcelo: We came out with a new D-shaped wheel, which I can grab it for you. This is what it looks like, it just looks very race. We do put a billet plate on there just to make it look a lot nicer. It is stronger. It just seems that every day we’re coming out with something new. It’s just hard to launch everything, But yeah, we’ve got new hydration door bags. It’s one of our coolest soft goods that we’ve got here. We put a hydration pack like a camel bag inside of it, so now when you are driving out in the desert and you get thirsty, all you got to do is reach for the little hose, put it in your mouth and drink some water. It’s good, it worked out really really well for us.
Scott: How many skews or what’s the number of product line that you have in the Assault Industries’ arsenal?
Marcelo: That is a good question. Aaron?
Scott: Am I stumping you? Did I really …
Marcelo: That’s a good one. You know what? We’ve got so many new products that we haven’t even released right now, but what do we have?
Marcelo: Between 40 to 50.
Speaker 3: variation of colors, then you multiply to 250.
Scott: Here’s the thing I got to ask you now. I personally just bought a book. I’m really liking this steering wheel, and the one that I have now is kind of worn out. Is there something along the line? Would this work for me?
Marcelo: I’m so glad you mentioned that because in our manufacturing shop we work with hundreds of companies. We are Assault Industries and we are actually coming out with marine products, we are coming out with snow products. We are going to be doing it all, and yes, we are going to make these adaptable to boats real soon here.
Scott: Since you’re expanding the product line so diversely, where can we drive people to see your products? What’s the website, where can they go, where are you guys located?
Marcelo: We are located in California, in Garden Grove, Orange County. The website is assaultutv.com. Yeah, just give us a call, check us out online. I appreciate all the support out there and we are trying to have the best company out here. We do stand behind our products. I appreciate all the supporters out there right now.
Scott: If your mirrors are an indication of … a kickstand for your UTV on the race course, they’ve got some pretty good products, you might want to check it out. Assault Industries, Marcelo, thank you so much.
Marcelo: Thank you, I appreciate it. Thanks.
