Tate Wood & Bobby Windham
‘Crack of dawn’ winter mornings, miserable weather and freezing water – nirvana to a duck hunter.
Duck hunters themselves, Tate Wood and childhood friend Bobby Windham, Jr. earn their living making that hardiest breed of outdoorsmen comfortable in the foulest of conditions. You might say the two former high school football teammates are joined at the hip waders.
Two self-professed “Mississippi Delta country boys”, Wood and Windham grew up in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway, the bird migration route which starts in central Canada and runs right through the middle of North America along the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2001, the Greenwood native sons co-founded waterfowl hunting apparel and accessories company Drake Waterfowl on literally a wing and a prayer.
“We’d always talked about starting a business together some day, we just didn’t know what, or when we might get the chance,” said Wood. “Twenty years ago, Bobby and I both found ourselves unemployed and decided the time was ‘now’.”
Wood says the biggest impetus in starting an outdoors apparel company was control. He vowed not to quit until the business was successful or he was old and gray.
“We were determined to build a business that we owned while doing things our way,” he said. “Neither of us were interested in working for someone else ever again. We jumped in with both feet in the water and never looked back.
“People say ‘sink’ or ‘swim’ – we just said ‘swim’ and never really considered the ‘sink’ possibility.”
Two decades later, Olive Branch-based Drake Waterfowl has expanded into fishing (Drake Performance Fishing), turkey hunting (‘Ol Tom), deer hunting (Non-Typical), outdoors lifestyle (Casual) and college sports (Collegiate) apparel. The company carries hundreds of products, from hunting jackets and vests, to aluminum duck blinds and hip waders.
None other than venerable outdoors magazine Field & Stream listed Drake Waterfowl as one of the publication’s “Top Brands.”
“From Day 1, we wanted to enter the other markets but first we had to dominate in waterfowl,” said Wood. “Many of our waterfowl customers also deer and turkey hunt, and fish, just like we do. Those markets are much larger than waterfowl – diversifying Drake Waterfowl was simply a smart thing for us to do.”
Wood’s personal favorite Drake product? The company’s aluminum duck blinds.
“I love a lot of our products but right now, today, I’m more excited about our aluminum duck blinds,” he said. “We carry a boat blind, several field blinds, and shallow water chair blinds,” he said. “They’ve all been monster hits and we sold out of some of our more popular models last year in about 30 days. I’m even more excited about what’s coming for the rest of 2021.”
With outdoors lifestyle brands exploding on the national scene in the last 20-30 years, Wood says the secret to being competitive with larger and more established brands such as Columbia or Browning is in the details.
“Columbia was a dominant number one in waterfowl when we first started,” Wood said. “The difference is we are a waterfowl company, not a clothing company. Bobby and I were laser-focused on building waterfowl gear for how we hunt.”
The duo has developed many innovations in duck hunting apparel over the years, including hinged shot shell pockets, magnets to hold pockets closed and the half waterproof-upper and half fleece-below jacket.
Innovation isn’t bred from gimmicks – it comes from spending years on the water and in the woods hunting, according to Wood.
“We added features that we wanted to use ourselves in the field,” he said. “And, we worked extremely hard to differentiate our products with real value-added hunting features. It’s a process of thinking through the steps A-Z. We identify anything what is frustrating along the way, and then fix it or solve the problem by making it better.”
Duck hunters are a passionate lot even though deer and turkey hunting are more popular with the average Mississippi outdoorsman. Wood attributes that fervor to two factors.
“It’s a combination of spending time with the people you care about the most and how exhilarating it is to be out on the water, in the dark, when it’s freezing cold and finding your way around,” he said. “Having that optimistic faith that the (ducks) are gonna show up, then hearing the whistling wings and watching them react to your call.
“And, just when you think you’ve got them figured out, they humble you.”
Active in outdoors conservation efforts and a Ducks Unlimited contributor, Wood has lobbied Congress for action on conservation matters and acknowledges that the movement is vital to the Drake brand and beyond.
“Now, more than ever, we need all hunters and fishermen fighting to keep what we have,” he said.
"wood" - Google News
March 30, 2021 at 09:09PM
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ON A WING AND A PRAYER — Wood and Windham take Drake Waterfowl sky high - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
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