A large trailer was maneuvered into the snowy parking lot of Bell Canoe Works recently, and workers on ladders carefully loaded sleek, new canoes in rows five high and three deep.
Ensconced in cotton gauze and plastic wrap, the boats were headed for sporting goods stores in New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia and upstate New York, places that bear little resemblance to this small, central Minnesota town where Bell canoes are built.
Likewise, the trailer-loading process hardly resembled a big factory operation. Craig Johnson, dressed in overalls and Sorels, stepped from the front office to load boats and check the shipping invoice. He’s the company’s national sales manager. A guy with a shaved head stood on a ladder and lifted boats into racks. His name also happened to be printed on each canoe.
He is Ted Bell.
It’s a fact of life that the owner of a small company has to pitch in where help is needed, and Bell clearly was enjoying the hubbub of loading the boats on a trailer. But when he stepped back and scanned the load, something else was present in Bell’s wide grin.
Was it the realization his company finally had become a national force in the canoe industry in the last year? That his canoes now are sold in nearly every state?
Bell shook his head.
“I don’t feel like I’m that successful, because we still have bills to pay,” the 45-year-old former canoe racer said. “Maybe success won’t be realized until a day when I sell the company. But it’s becoming obvious things have changed in the past year.”
In 1987, Bell began building high-end canoes made of a composite of kevlar and fiberglass in his Zimmerman garage while holding down a job as a sales manager at a Minneapolis sporting goods store. His boats were aimed at a narrow audience that craved a lightweight, speedy canoe suitable for wilderness travel.
Bell’s early niche was even smaller, because he specialized in solo canoes. The first year, he made only 25.
This year, Bell expects he’ll manufacture 4,000 canoes, including models designed for duck hunters and other occasional paddlers wanting stability over weight.
His production jumped dramatically last year when he decided to build boats from less expensive but more durable Royalex. A plastic-like substance, Royalex isn’t as light as kevlar composite canoes, but its cost greatly appeals to price-conscious recreational canoeists.
“When we produced our first Royalex canoe in 2001, we instantly became the third-largest canoe manufacturer in the nation,” Bell said.
The canoe industry has taken notice. A Bell canoe was featured on the December 2001 cover of Canoe & Kayak magazine. Magazine editors called Bell canoes “quite possibly the best canoes ever” in an issue that was also the 2002 Buyer’s Guide.
Bell’s company grew from nine employees three years ago to 20 employees today. His boats are sold through 145 retailers across the country, including canoeing meccas such as New England and New York.
For Minnesotans who follow canoeing trends, an interesting competition has taken form in front of their eyes. Two of the nation’s largest canoe builders, Bell Canoe Works and Wenonah, based in Winona, are located in Minnesota. Both build high-end composite boats for Boundary Waters-type travel, and both build less expensive Royalex canoes.
Both are now sold side by side in Twin Cities sporting goods stores.
Bell, who owns the smaller of the two companies, doesn’t shy from the competition with the older, more established Wenonah.
“I like it,” he said confidently. “We’re competitors. I’m not afraid to tell my dealers that Bells and Wenonahs work in the same retail store.”
Bell grew up in Crawfordsville, Ind., which, despite its Midwestern, corn-growing location, is a hotbed for canoe racing. Weaned on a steady dose of camping and canoeing by his father, Bell entered his first canoe race at age 8.
When he was 25, he bought a small canoe-building company called Wabash Valley Canoes, which specialized in composite racing boats. In 1985, he came to Minneapolis to attend a canoe demonstration sponsored by retailer Midwest Mountaineering.
The next year, he moved to Minnesota and became a manager at Midwest. He started building solo canoes in his garage as a hobby.
“My goal was to get people to think of solo canoes like they would a bicycle,” he said.
He eventually acquired a mold for a solo canoe from Old Town, the canoe giant based in Maine that was designed and named by canoe expert Cliff Jacobson. The C.J. Solo was Bell’s first commercially sold boat under the Bell logo.
One of Bell’s early influences was Minnesota canoe designer Bob Brown, who would design several of Bell’s next models. Brown said he was impressed with Bell’s workaholic tendencies.
“He’d work about 16 hours a day,” Brown said. “He’d work 10 hours at Midwest Mountaineer, then go home and put six hours in his shop. That’s probably why he has been successful.”
Bell began expanding his line into tandem (two-person) canoes and gained a reputation for craftsmanship. Despite using kevlar, fiberglass and carbon-based fibers, Bell continued to trim his boats with wood gunwales and thwarts.
“His boats are known as being finished as nice as any in the industry,” said Steve Schon, a canoe buyer for the Ely, Minn., outdoors store Piragis. “A lot of people are interested in his canoes for the efficiency’s sake, but some like the beauty of the boats.”
In 1996, Bell quit his job at Midwest Mountaineering and devoted his energy to building canoes full time. “It was a big risk, but I felt it had to be done,” he said.
The jump from flashy, composite boats to slower, less sexy Royalex boats may confuse some of Bell’s ardent followers. A composite boat in an 18-foot model might weigh only 40 pounds, while a Royalex boat weighs more than 60. A composite boat might take an entire day to build using layers of fabric and resin, while a Royalex canoe can be molded from a single sheet of material in about 20 minutes.
Besides, it was Bell himself who often bad-mouthed Royalex boats all these years.
But the canoe maker defends the move, saying he’s not sacrificing quality by building Royalex boats.
“I don’t think I’m selling my soul to build these,” he said with a laugh. “I think we still can build a high-end boat from Royalex.”
