Another Dynamic Success
new firm flexes its muscles in fitness equipment industry
In a former life, I was a gym rat. Bar bells, weights, clangs, and grunts. Few women subscribed to this lifestyle then. The places were filled with testosterone and iron, black-colored equipment. They were dark, dank, and messy. Sometimes, this neatnik got a workout simply by putting things back where they belonged ... no matter how much they weighed.
Dynamic Fitness & Strength, the winner of this year’s Paragon Award from the Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corporation, has already transformed weight rooms as well as athletic and wellness facilities across North America with its new innovative and functional line of fitness equipment. The EDC presents the Paragon Award annually to a local business that is a “model of economic excellence through business expansion and development, job creation, and innovation.” Prior recipients include JAMF Software, Indianhead Foodservice Distributors, Hi-Crush Proppants, and Bush Brothers. The Paragon Award is sponsored by Royal Credit Union, the first recipient of the Paragon Award in 2001.
With a multimillion-dollar renovation, Dynamic Fitness & Strength has already breathed new life into the former 261,000-square-foot W.L. Gore/3M building at 2020 Prairie Lane in Eau Claire’s Gateway Industrial Park. By year’s end, Dynamic Fitness & Strength’s entire operation will be housed under one roof at the new location. Currently, the company is using four separate buildings at Banbury Place in Eau Claire.
Who’s behind this award-winning company? Seventy of the most dedicated employees – and more to come with the company’s intended expansion. Its leadership invests in the future and culture of its employees with on-the-job training, use of cutting-edge technology, and the endorsement a continuous improvement environment and culture. In a recent photo of a team huddle (not all 70 but close), the employees appear to revere the Paragon Award much like a team winning the Super Bowl would the Lombardi Trophy.
Curt Tambornino, who founded the company with his wife, Tammy, credits his employees for the rapid growth and success of the company. Daily, he and his team implement Kaizen, the practice of continuous improvement, and the 5S System, one of several lean manufacturing tools designed to improve workplace efficiency through facility-wide organization and cleanliness.
“One might read about or practice such methodologies but the reality of it all is simply applied common sense and good attitudes,” shares Curt.
According to the Kaizen Institute (us.kaizen.com), the 5S System is:
1. Sort. Sort out and separate that which is needed and not needed in a work area.
2. Straighten. Arrange items that are needed so they are ready and easy to use. Clearly identify locations for all items so that anyone can find them and return them once the task is completed.
3. Shine. Clean the workplace and equipment on a regular basis in order to maintain standards and identify defects.
4. Standardize. Revisit the first three guidelines on a frequent basis and confirm the condition using standard procedures.
5. Sustain. Keep to the rules to maintain the standard and continue to improve every day.
“These five simple steps are some of the founding principles of our innovations and way of life,” continues Curt. “With that said, many of our customers – from professional sports teams and figures to Division I, II, and III universities, colleges, high schools, fee-for-fitness clubs, and wellness centers – have endorsed our product innovations and strategy.”
Serial entrepreneur Curt got his start at Hoss’s, his dad’s café on Bridge Street in Chippewa Falls, back in the 1980s. Likewise, Tammy began working at her dad’s J&D Manufacturing in Altoona. The idea for selling trailer hitch balls – which led to the birth of CURT Manufacturing in 1994 – evolved after a conversation between the couple and Tammy’s dad. Curt took a simple thing like a trailer hitch ball and took it to the next level. The rest is an entrepreneurial success story of customized trailer hitches and a company that is now the No. 1 manufacturer of hitches in North America.
Fast forward to a few years ago, and after almost 20 years in the business, Tambornino divested CURT Manufacturing to a private equity firm. Why? To allow CURT Manufacturing to grow from something good into something great.
In 2011, Curt and his brother Jason founded Dynamic Fabrication & Finishing. Using more than 20 years of experience, this company specializes in contract steel fabrication and design. The company uses state-of-the-art 2D and 3D laser cutting, welding, and powder-coat finishing. Located in Banbury Place, Dynamic processes sheets and tubes composed primarily of steel, aluminum, and stainless steel, serving many manufacturing industries, including wind power, gas, and oil companies.
In 2013, Curt, Jason, Tammy, and their team decided that the company’s future business strategy needed to go beyond being solely a job shop. They needed to develop a business around which a brand could be built. They took their personal and respective interests in fitness and strength training and began to develop and manufacture their own innovative line of fitness equipment and storage units. Thus, Dynamic Fitness & Strength was born. The business will generate 75 new jobs over the next three years, which will require many different skill sets from engineering, skilled manufacturing, purchasing, various administrative functions, and sales.
Dynamic Fitness & Strength and its associates all look forward to the future and to the opportunities it brings.
“We are truly grateful for the EDC and RCU for recognizing Dynamic Fitness & Strength for the impact we’ve made in 2015, and we are truly honored to have been chosen for the Paragon Award,” concludes Curt.
To learn more about Dynamic Fitness and its products, visit mydynamicfitness.com or find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
