Our Original "About Us" Page
| Published: Jan 10, 2015
All successful businesses grow and evolve over time. To preserve our history, I'm sharing our story from the original page here so we all remember our very humble beginning.
All successful businesses grow and evolve over time. So many things have changed since we started, and it's time to redo our About Us page and bring it up to date. To preserve our history, I'm sharing our story from the original page here so we all remember our very humble beginning. The original was written in 2008 and later updated with some new photos in 2012.
About Us and How We Started
We're just like you: rocket fanatics who love to fly and recover our rockets safely. I owe my interest in making parachutes to Martin, my rocket flying buddy. Throughout the year, we spent time with our kids touring west coast rocket launches. Both Martin and I are ultra meticulous flyers who place as much value on the "going up" part as the "coming down". Anyone who has seen my rockets knows that I don't just throw them together, so recovery is just as important as having a cool flight up on a big engine.
So how did we get into this? Martin started making parachutes some time ago and sparked my interest in it. At first, I used my daughter Janice's sewing machine and made a few myself. However, life got busy and I no longer had time. My wife, Paula, is an expert seamstress, so I turned to her to make some parachutes. With some coaching from myself and Martin, my wife started making parachutes, and they were spectacular with beautiful French seams and wonderful stitching. To finish our parachutes, we spared no effort in delivering them flight-ready, complete with bridles and swivels. When you get one of our parachutes, all you do is provide a quick-link and you are ready to go.
I owe our fun artwork and marketing ideas to my daughter, Janice, who is an honor student in high school. We came up with Fruity Chutes as a fun and easy-to-remember name. I always said "If you can name a rocket company after 'Mad Bovines' (referring to Mad Cow Rocketry) we can have fruit favored parachutes," hence our name, Fruity Chutes. Janice created the original design of the fun Fruity Chutes logo. While she doesn't build rockets, when she has time, she loves to attend launches and personally sells our parachutes.
I hope you'll consider us for your upcoming project and give us a call or email us. We are customer focused and eager to please!
Cheers!
Gene Engelgau - Owner & Evangelist - KI6IBL, NAR 86770/TRA 12243 - L3
Paula Engelgau - Owner, Wife, Mom, Business Manager and Head Seamstress
Email: fruitysales@fruitychutes.com
Fruity Chutes Inc., Monte Sereno, CA 95030 - USA - Contact us for full address
Gene and Martin at Snow Ranch, February 2008
Our website in May 2010
My son Phil and I at ROC Stock, November 2007
Our early logos and media
