History on Racked-Out™ (Like a Roller Coaster Ride)
In 2008 I Mike Sportato, age 23, teamed up with Jake Peters in Jake Peters welding shop to come up with a way to hang our elk skulls with easy on and off capabilities and the desired rear back look of the brow tines.
After a few prototypes we came up with a locking system on the mounting bar that worked great for our bulls, but when we tried it on other friends bulls, we realized we still didnt have the design right. Many hours later and several hundred dollars for lazer cutting and drafting fees we came up with a good looking and practical system to display euro elk and deer.
In 2009 I took on the company by myself and ran with some of the early prototypes of systems for sheds and skull caps. I taught myself how to weld and spent many hours working out kinks on the product line. I really felt that I had something special since the nearest design to my product that I could even google and find was a company called euro-mounter out of Canada. Our systems appeared to be different and they were made in Canada so I was real confident that they have not touched the business here in the USA.
Summer of 2009 I sent out over 200 letters to taxidermists across the US. In October of 2009 I recieved an email from a guy who told me he thought I had a unique product and wanted to help me out by telling taxidermists about it. I sent this guy information (power point disc, brochure, etc...) He then confirmed that he recieved the information and I never again heard back from this guy.
7 months later at the Big Horn Show in 2010 I heard someone tell me about a company that has a product like my product. After the show I googled the info and came up with a good chance the company was owned by the guy in who I sent the information to.
In September of 2010 I checked back on the site only to find that the Address I sent the info to back in 2009 was indeed the same.
In the winter of 2010 I decided to re-do Racked-Out™ products by making them more consumer friendly and easier to ship. The new Line Up gives you the consumer the ability to interchange back panels without having to purchase all new systems. It also offers a cheaper solution for your antlers and alows the mix between old school wood panels and modern look and functionality of steel.
This information is just a summed up version of the Racked-Out™ Timeline. I am not saying 100% that my information was falsely stolen, but I am saying that everything I wrote is true to a T =)
Sincerely Your Pal,
Mike Sportato