Inaugural Snow Snow Expo!
by Scott A. Sumner
I enjoyed attending the inaugural Snow Show Expo produced by Andrew Kondor at the CLE grounds mid October. Our firm did five strictly snowmobile shows many years ago at the same site and it brought back many nice memories.
“ This is the inaugural Snow Show Expo event where we are bringing together the latest and greatest of gear and tech by Thunder Bay's best retailers that sell winter, either recreation or sports products. We have everything from the typical powersports sleds to nice warm gear you can put on to do camping in the winter or just going for a nice walk. There are optical products for skiing, hot tubs, saunas, ice diving and motorcycles you can ride or race on the ice.” said Andrew Kondor. “ Fall in Thunder Bay is one of those times when you are looking forward to winter activities but there was no real show so we thought we would bridge that gap with a show for the local businesses to showcase what's new and upcoming.”
It has gone well and a great start according to Kondor.
“ It's was quite an undertaking to do this show, to pick a time that works for local vendors. We are hoping to make this an annual event.”
Andrew is an entrepreneur with many different ideas over the years, but skiing had always been a great interest for him. He became a Level 1 ski coach and instructor in his early days. “ We manufacture our own line of ski goggles and sunglasses that float in the water. Our company has been very fortunate that some of our goggles have made it the Olympics. This past winter one of our athletes won a bronze medal with our product- the Xspex Recon - Brendan Mackay on the Canadian Ski Team. We design the goggles here and have them manufactured at our overseas plants in China and Taiwan.”
“ All of our pro models are designed by the athletes themselves and they get a bit of a kick back from every sale at the end of the season to help fund their training. We have some indigenous artists that we use from across the country to design the straps on the goggles.”
Andrew Kondor also spent 20 years in the toy business manufacturing consumer hobby goods. He did a short stint in the aerospace industry with a patent they had but found it was a difficult process to begin a full on aerospace company with the technology they had but it is a business that has a place. Andrew has been at Xspex for seven years now and they are growing every year.
