Joel Childress

Design and develop firearms and knives for sporting and self defense for Browning and Winchester firearms.

Design and develop fishing products including fishing reels and rods for recreational, competitive, and professional anglers through product ideation, innovation, concept illustration, and 3D CAD design; active participant in product testing to ensure mechanical functionality and stability as well as product familiarity and research for continuing product innovation; develop product graphics and cosmetics including original logos, feature branding, finish/substrate selection, and component specifications

Key Accomplishments and Honors
● Lead researcher for a product research project of our major competitors in our main business categories. Produced nine product landscape documents detailing items such as price, brand, category and market for easy and informative comparisons. Published these documents on the server and made them available to the sales and marketing team as well as printed out large full scale documents for review during the Go-To-Market strategy meetings.
● Designer of the Dock Demon fishing combo that received the Best in Category award from Wal-Mart in the sporting goods department. The Dock Demon combo was designed to achieve a very aggressive price point that caters to the youth fishing market without the use of licensed character branding.
● Co-lead in a cost reduction team that redesigned legacy product with a focus on product cost savings and was able to identify and execute designs that will save the company $320K annually. Responsible for identifying $120K in cost savings.
● Key player in the recent redesign of Zebco’s flagship product line, the 33 family of fishing products, that incorporates spincast and spinning reels combined with corresponding rods in various forms of retail configurations.
● Designed Zebco’s top selling spinning reel, the Genesis spinning reel, which is sold at the nation’s top retailor.
● 2012 Editor’s Choice for best spincast reel design in Outdoor Life Magazine for the Omega Pro spincast reel.

ISO 9001-certified developer and manufacturer of armaments and related technologies supporting the special operations community. DOD endorsed systems for all contractors since 1991

Designed firearm components through the use of product sketching, research, and CAD software for military and civilian markets. Managed projects and sourced manufacturers for a variety of products.

Notable Projects
● Drop in AK 47 Trigger pack that is preassembled and encased to ensure proper alignment of the components for a light, smooth, and consistent trigger for select AK variants.
● Ruger Mini 14GB style folding stock assembly designed to mimic the original paratrooper folder but with a more robust folding mechanism for better lock up and stability. Mounting block was machined out of billet steel and Rockwell hardened for added stability.
● Ruger 10/22 accessory rail utilizing the 1913 rail system designed into an aluminum extrusion that could be cut and shaped to maximize production and reduce scrap, saving material cost and reducing secondary processes.

A custom screen printing provider with a full service graphics and printing to suit local printing needs. Specialist in all screen-printing techniques as well as offering a wide range of additional services such as embroidery, direct-to-garment transfers, business cards, vinyl cut lettering, sublimation, banners, and other unique promotional items

Notable Projects
● Designated as the custom illustrator for projects that required hand drawn artwork and caricatures.

Managed the flow of products to retail establishments; delivered products to customers; provided customer service; handled technology concerns within the company network.

Key Accomplishments
● Built and managed the retail website for all company products. Uploaded all the content and linked all the products to the appropriate cost tables and SKU information.

Controlled all laser production and technician responsibilities, regulated inventory, trained new employees in laser operations and software programming, created a new applicant screening test and training packet

Key Accomplishments
● Increased productivity by 75% by reducing cycle times of laser etching on vinyl plaques, increasing output of laser cut products by programing proper laser frequencies and power levels for specific materials, allowing more layers of product to be cut at one time and by aligning design patterns to achieve maximum product capacity per square foot.