As The Village Companies works to build on its tradition of creating products that bring families together and help customers enjoy life, it’s celebrating one of its newer and increasingly popular divisions: Maverick Hunting.
MCL Fabrication, which is part of The Village Companies’ contract fabrication division in Pulaski, acquired Minneapolis-based Maverick Blinds in 2019 from a single owner-operator who decided he couldn’t keep up with demand on his own. Tonya Dittman, director of engagement for The Village Companies, says the acquisition was a natural fit.
“It’s really cool to hear about these companies that are started by somebody who just generally has a passion,” Dittman says. “You have our three shareholders who did that, and over the years [it’s about] helping somebody who has this idea and it continues to have life.”
The seller stayed on with Maverick for a year following the transaction, and the company quickly flourished under The Village Companies umbrella. Today Maverick Hunting utilizes The Village Companies’ vast pool of manufacturing resources and has a dedicated marketing staff of three, led by Maverick Hunting Brand Director Greg Davis.
“You take a one-man owner-operator who barely had a website, much less social media or paid advertising, and it was all he could do to keep up with a couple of retail partners,” Davis says. “So we’ve taken that and tried to grow. We’ve more than doubled the business since 2019.”
Rebranding from Maverick Blinds to Maverick Hunting opened the opportunity for additional product lines to be brought on, including Booner panel blinds and Nex-Level elevation accessories — and Davis says additional growth in the hunting market is planned for the near future.
The products, which are available at major retailers like Fleet Farm, have also experienced growth in direct-to-consumer sales at maverickhunting.com. Davis describes the line as affordable and accessible to a wide variety of hunters, as they are basically “your first step away from the typical tree stand tent pop-up line that you have to replace every couple of years.”
The hard-sided plastic blinds are easy to transport, a cinch to assemble and are designed to last, Davis adds; they are also growing in popularity for a variety of reasons. Availability of public hunting land has declined nationwide, increasing the appeal of more permanent structures as hunters turn to hunting on private properties. In some cases, he says, landowners set up multiple blinds on a farm and leave them there. Additionally, the hard-sided blinds offer more comfort and therefore allow people to enjoy the hobby later in life and for longer periods of time, without “climbing a tree or sitting on a bucket in the cold.”
Of course, most Wisconsinites think of warmth as their primary comfort need during hunting season, but Davis says most Maverick Hunting customers are actually looking to stay cool. Maverick Hunting customers are all over Canada and the U.S., including a large concentration in Texas, where hunting season is hot.
All of Maverick Hunting’s products are produced in the Midwest, including at a facility in Oconto, and all assembly is done on site in Pulaski.
For Jenna Bares, Maverick Hunting’s associate brand manager, hunting products are fun and rewarding to market because they bring people together and are rooted in storytelling and legacy.
“Our tagline is ‘Your Hunt. Your Way, Your Story,’” says Bares, who collects and posts submissions on the Maverick Hunting website and social media channels as part of her day-to-day work. “The story aspect is pretty big. A lot of people want to tell you about their experiences or what they did.”
And Bares has seen it all — including customers using the products for things like play houses, hot tub shelters and even a cigar shack. “At the end of the day, it’s a building,” she says.
Bares and Davis say that building, however, signifies something important to members of the hunting community: the opportunity to bring more and new generations of people into a beloved hobby.
“It’s an industry people participate in to bring them joy, and our products add to that,” Davis says. “Working to promote that and share that with others is a rewarding feeling.”
