Bringing a Project to Life

Notch Equipment Product Management Director Mike Ziecik speaks on how we bring a project to life and what’s next for Notch Equipment.

Notch Equipment is committed to providing innovative product solutions, that our customers count on to work and pursue their passions safely and efficiently every day. We strive to provide the most comprehensive assortment of products for arborists, climbers, emergency, and other work-at-height professionals.

We take the development of our products very seriously starting with a focus on improving function, fit, form and/or ergonomics. By using a combination of factors including input from our sales team, market focus, brand fit and continuously analyzing consumer insights, to decide which new products to pursue.

Once we greenlight a product we focus on leveraging our core competencies, which include manufacturing hardware, plastics, textiles and partnering with various designers and engineers in specific product line categories, to solve problems and enhance products in a unique and innovative way.

Next is the fun part. We vigorously test, test, test the prototypes in both laboratory & real life application settings. In this development phase we strive to not only meet, but to exceed compliance to all applicable safety standards.

To date, our biggest innovative project was bringing the Rope Runner Pro to the market. No easy feet trying to improve on the most successful SRS climbing device out there. We started by working in collaboration with the inventor of the Rope Runner (Kevin Bingham) in every phase of the project, from concept drawings and prototypes to the final design. Over this two year span, we created 4 different models, including 6 different working prototypes, until we achieved the final version that is now on the market.

While the goal of each project is to solve a market need or existing problem, we often seek solutions that are unique and offer us the capability of developing our own Intellectual Property. We own a few patents and trademarks, but our main objective is creating products that solve a problem or increase efficiency, production, and safety.

We are always actively expanding our product assortment to provide new innovative solutions in existing product categories. Currently we are developing new work positioning harnesses, rigging blocks, ropes, spurs/climbers, & mechanical split tails along with many other products for the upcoming seasons. Keep checking back for sneak peeks!