RedLine owners want to share their ‘toys’

POSTED: Monday, December 8, 2008

by Gaye Bunderson - http://www.idahobusiness.net/archive.htm/2008/12/08/RedLine-owners-want-to-share-their-toys

At one point in their otherwise successful lives, Dustin Weniger and his business partner Joseph Holbrook found themselves wanting something they couldn’t have: other people’s toys.

“We had ‘toy envy,’” said the 34-year-old Weniger. The two men would leave their upper management jobs at a corporation called Cintas in Salt Lake City and head for the outdoors. What they found was despite their well-paying jobs, they still couldn’t afford all the fun stuff they saw other people enjoying: the boats, the water craft and the motor homes.
It wasn’t just a matter of wanting to leave their families behind for some rugged male recreation. In fact, according to Weniger, both men really wanted to bring home the boat as well as the bacon so their wives and kids could live it up in style too. “We wanted to ultimately have a really nice setup to play, and have our families play,” Weniger said. “We wanted to create lifetime memories.”
The men first discussed pooling their resources so they could share the expense of recreational toys. But after factoring in the costs of the initial purchase, then the insurance, storage and maintenance fees, their plans for an envious array of recreational apparatus came up as a deficit. “We found ultimately, for all the toys we wanted, it would be like a second mortgage on the house,” Weniger said. “Homes appreciate, but recreational toys depreciate.”
They decided it was time to couple their resources with their business acumen in hopes of not only outfitting themselves for adventure but starting a company for like-minded recreational enthusiasts. The men conceived “toy share.”
For two years, while maintaining their corporate jobs, they studied the concept through Internet and other research, occasionally borrowing ideas from similar, successful firms. “A fractional (ownership) world is what we’re coming to,” said Weniger. “We thought why not take the concept and apply it to toy ownership.”
Their career paths had led them to Idaho earlier in the decade, and they launched the company they now call RedLine Recreational Toys Inc. in March at 535 N. Locust Grove in Meridian.
They partly self-funded but were also able to interest investors.
Weniger said business is going well for the “exclusive recreational toy club.” The partners own everything they have at RedLine; they sell memberships from Novice to Executive levels, and members are allotted a certain number of credits depending on which level they buy into. The credits give all members access to all recreational items, with the highest number of credits going to the highest levels of membership.
Entry level fees are $225 a month and, according to Weniger, there are currently 50 members at various levels.
Available toys include ATVs, snowmobiles, personal water craft, duck boats, small and large toy haulers, ski and jet boats, competition ski boats, and Class C and Class A RVs. Weniger said he and Holbrook especially wanted all-season toys – a four-season reason to have fun outdoors.
The startup business keeps both men very busy and, in an odd twist, now they have access to all the toys they once coveted, they don’t have sufficient time to use them. But, Weniger said, “we’ll get there.”

Contact info

Phone — 208.908.1555

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Web site: www.redlinerectoys.com