The Archery Trade Association is pleased to present its fourth annual 2023 New Product Launch Award and Impact Award winners. ATA staff announced and congratulated the winners on Jan. 11 at the 2023 ATA Trade Show during The Connections Celebration, presented by Mossy Oak.
"These highly selective awards represent the best in the archery industry," said Jeff Poole, ATA's president and CEO. "From those who are making a significant impact in the archery and bowhunting community to the best new, innovative products, we're honored to give these awards to truly deserving recipients."
Fourth Arrow and Wyndscent received an Impact Award. Photo Credit: ATA
The ATA’s Impact Award is presented to people and companies that use their voice or platform to inspire others to enjoy and participate in archery and bowhunting. The 2023 recipients are:
Hunter Aimar, 21, helped grow the local homeschool archery programs in Dearborn and Gibraltar, Michigan, from six to 60-plus students ages 6 to 18 years old in a year and a half. He teaches the students, created the archery class curriculum and uses fun, challenging activities to help each archer grow their archery skills and love for the sport. He also works with autistic students and receives praise for helping them interact and participate at a higher level. Aimar is a USA Archery Level 3 archery coach and member of the Lincoln Bowmen archery club, which attributes its survival through COVID to Aimar and the income received from the youth program he oversees. He was happily surprised to receive the award.
“I’m honored to receive this prestigious award,” Aimar said. “I am passionate about my coaching career and have been driven by a love of the individuals I teach and the archery lifestyle. I started shooting at 10 years old and as I grew in the sport, so did my desire to get others involved. Our youth archery program and those established by many other organizations are the lifeblood of this several millennia old tradition. The most impactful part of archery is those who will be there to pass on these teachings when we all have gone and returned to Mother Earth.”
George Chapman founded The George Chapman School of Archery in the 1970s. He loved archery and enjoyed teaching dealer schools, bowhunting schools and shooting schools across the country. After his death in 2010, Chapman’s family asked Steve VanZile and Monte Maliongas to continue the training schools. Several hundred dealers have attend the school since George passed. Steve VanZile accepted the ATA’s Impact Award on behalf of the operation.
“George Chapman’s dream was to grow archery and the archery industry through educating the dealer base,” VanZile said. “The school was designed to teach dealers and archery techs the latest bow technology and how to stay in business by making a profit. He was my friend and mentor, and it has been my honor to continue the school in his name.”
Fourth Arrow and Wyndscent launched in 2016 and have sponsored and partnered with Raised at Full Draw, an organization focused on introducing young people into archery and bowhunting, since its start. The companies have provided crucial funding to RAFD camps held nationwide that have helped introduce hundreds of kids to archery each year. Fourth Arrow and Wyndscent also started hosting an annual RAFD youth archery camp in 2021 in Michigan. Company staff trade their regular job responsibilities for a week to set up the camp, teach the students and also work with state agency staff to provide hunter and bowhunter education.
“We are honored to be nominated for the ATA Impact Award,” said Mark Wynalda. “We are grateful to be a part of such a great industry the last seven years and to share in ATA’s goal of promoting archery and bowhunting. We are excited to continue to support programs like Raised At Full Draw and others that focus on training the next generation of bowhunters."
Silver for New Product Launch went to Mystery Ranch. Photo Credit: ATA
The New Product Launch Showcase features products that launched at the 2023 ATA Trade Show. This year, three out of over 120 products received an award for their new product design, innovation and ability to meet customer demands. The winning products are:
The honorable mentions were the 2A Bow Sling by The Bow Hitch and the Waypoint Arrow Level by Hamskea.
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Bronze went to Redline Bowhunting. Photo Credit: ATA
Latitude Outdoors created the all-new, first of its kind Carbon SS Climbing Sticks that took first place in the New Product Launch Showcase. The climbing sticks use Carbon Speed Series Technology, which stems from the aerospace and automobile industry, making the product extremely durable without increasing weight. They weigh 19 ounces and are the lightest climbing stick to exist on retail shelves. They feature a patent pending attachment method and the double step design has zero moving parts and no hardware. The Carbon SS Climbing Sticks eliminate metal noise in the woods and deliver a new level of ultralight durability for the mobile hunter. Learn more at www.latitudeoutdoors.com.
Alex Chopp, co-founder and chief brand officer for Latitude Outdoors said, “After a challenging 3-year process, we could not be more thankful to win this award at the 2023 ATA Show. As a new company, recognition like this is extremely impactful to our business and will support a successful launch of the Carbon SS Climbing Sticks.”
The second-place product, the POP-UP 30 and POP-UP 40 Bags, by Mystery Ranch are direct results from user feedback. The packs feature a taller, more slender design which combines perfectly with their unique telescoping POP-UP frame. The POP-UP packs are low profile, functional and provide everything necessary to take you from deer hunter to deer hauler in seconds. The POP-UP function allows the frame to easily expand and adjust to carry loads up to 100 pounds. Whether you’re a backcountry elk hunter or a mobile public land whitetail hunter in the Midwest, the new POP UP 30 and 40 have all the features required for day hunts, meat hauling, treestand carry and much more. Learn more at www.mysteryranch.com.
Michelle Fleming, senior product marketing manager for Mystery Ranch, said, “We make our Whitetail packs and gear with the end user in mind. We solicit feedback from our consumers, ambassadors, and our employees that get after season after season. They put our packs through the wringer so that we can deliver the best load bearing gear of the utmost quality. We are here to make your hunts more successful, and we are so honored to win this award because we built these packs for you.”
Coming in third place is the RL Torch Dovetail 2 Pin Sight by Redline Bowhuting. The torch is a sight that can match your aggression in the woods ounce for ounce and yard by yard. The new sight is ideal for any range, any scenario and any hunt. The sight was designed and engineered to deliver flawless performance. The L Torch Dovetail 2 Pin Sight features a USB rechargeable light, left and right dual yardage tapes, brass self-lubricating micro windage adjustment, dual vertical pins, bubble level and adjustable hard stop sets on the wheel slider for quick yardage selection. Learn more at www.RedlineBowhunting.com.
Eric Young, brand director of Redline Bowhunting, said, “We appreciate the acknowledgement, and have worked hard to provide quality bow hunting accessories. We appreciate the full support of the bow hunters using our products, our shop partners, and the ATA.”
The ATA created the awards program in 2020 to recognize individuals and companies that make significant contributions to the future of archery. The ATA would like to thank everyone who made an Impact Award nomination. If you know of a deserving recipient, watch for communications from the ATA in late summer to learn about the nomination process for the 2024 awards.
For more information about the ATA’s awards program, please contact Allison Jasper, ATA’s senior director of marketing and communications, at allisonjasper@archerytrade.org or (507) 233-8136.
