Copyright Insight Publications 2026
left, Dayne Rusch, CEO, Vyper Industrial
right, Dylan Rusch, President
Chris Rusch was pissed off.
A lifetime spent in the garage had led up to this moment: His shop chair broke underneath him, and enough was enough.
Chris had built a career around inventing solutions to his own problems. His Two Rivers company, Rusch Machine and Design, was known for the innovative tube bender he’d created back when he was building a Lamborghini and couldn’t find the right equipment. In the heyday of Discovery Channel’s gearhead television shows, Chris did the circuit: “Monster Garage,” “West Coast Choppers” and the like. He was an authority in the motorsports world, a world-class inventor and a successful business owner.
But all the while he was sitting on a hunk of junk.
It was on a thrift store shopping trip with his college-aged son Dayne for dorm digs that Chris stumbled upon a pile of large casters. They were $1 each. He bought four.
When he got home, he made himself a shop chair. It was orange, and it rolled like a Lamborghini. Problem solved.
A shop chair, but cool
Dayne Rusch acknowledges his father’s genius and says that there are likely hundreds of brilliant inventions sitting in Chris’s Door County garage. But when he and his brother Dylan came home for Christmas in 2019, the orange chair grabbed their attention immediately.
At the time, Dylan held an engineering position in the family business, which was no longer actually the family business after Chris sold it and retired in 2018. Dayne was a fresh college graduate with an entrepreneurial and marketing mindset who had started forming a brand around the name Vyper Industrial, importing motors.
“Dad, that chair is freaking awesome,” Chris remembers Dayne telling him that December day. “I can sell those.”
As it would turn out, the pandemic a few months later delivered a brutal blow to Dayne’s importing business, and the badass, muscle-y, evocative name “Vyper” had no choice but to find another product to attach itself to: Why not wheely chairs?
The Vyper shop chair has a wider base that helps with stability, meaning a user can roll over zip ties, cords and even concrete cracks without tipping, Dayne says. The casters roll with ease, and the thick, comfortable, adjustable seat helps with physical health and alleviates pain.
“It solves literally everything people complain about,” Dayne says. “And it looks cool.”
Worth every penny
Alex Ostrihonsky was pissed off.
The aspiring lawyer had taken his LSAT and was working as a case manager for a Florida law firm. With pandemic downtime on his hands he started learning about auto detailing, building out a garage and documenting the process on social media. One day, he rolled over “the tiniest of pebbles” on his “cheap Harbor Freight shop chair,” tipped over and hurt his knee. Enough was enough.
Having amassed a social media following of like-minded garage enthusiasts, Ostrihonsky put out a call: Does anyone know a better shop chair option?
One comment linked him to a pretty new Instagram page with a meager handful of followers: @vyperchair.
“I said, ‘Oh, these are cool.’ Then I saw the price, and I was like, ‘Yeah, no — definitely not doing that,’” recalls Ostrihonsky.
But after a conversation with his wife about the concept of worthwhile investments, Ostrihonsky had a change of heart and decided to explore the option. He liked that Vyper was located in Wisconsin. Maybe he would be willing to drop $450 on a chair if the company could throw in a case of Spotted Cow. He called and was impressed when the CEO himself, Dayne Rusch, personally answered the phone.
What Ostrihonsky didn’t know at the time was that Vyper didn’t have anyone else to answer calls — the staff was literally the CEO and his co-founder and president brother, Dylan, who were running the business out of a 400-square-foot apartment in Appleton, their father building prototypes in his spare time.
Ostrihonsky took a liking to Dayne, who agreed to throw in the beer, so he ordered a chair. Then the chair arrived, and everything changed. Ostrihonsky’s organic Instagram post praising Vyper went semi-viral, and before he knew it he was working for Vyper for free, helping create marketing content.
“I was wanting to be in law. That was my dream,” says Ostrihonsky. “Then I realized it was not a fun dream.”
Instead of pursuing law and the financial stability it offered, Ostrihonsky sold chairs out of the back of his truck, without pay, for several months. When the Rusch brothers called and offered him a job at “the lowest salary I’ve ever had,” Ostrihonsky agreed to become Vyper’s third-ever employee in February 2021.
“Everybody else in my life told me I was an idiot,” Ostrihonsky says. “And I’m usually that person who listens to everybody else. For whatever reason, with this, I didn’t. I just kept doing it.”
Keepin’ on
With true believers like Ostrihonsky and his parents bolstering his confidence, Dayne says the business quickly grew out of the apartment and into a 2,500-square-foot building on Ramada Way in Green Bay. Then a major order from the U.S. Air Force allowed the company to make another move in 2022. Chet Lamers, then Northeast Wisconsin Technical College’s facilities director, helped Vyper secure a lease on a 43,000-square-foot space on Larsen Road, which was owned by the college.
“We had to pitch [NWTC],” Dylan says. “And they believed in us, and they let it happen. If it wasn’t for that, who knows what would have happened? [They saw us] being creative and putting in the hard work.”
One Inc. 5000 second-fastest growing company in the Midwest recognition later, Vyper was on the move again. This time, village of Wrightstown Administrator Travis Coenen served as the champion for finding Vyper’s forever home. Last September, the company opened a gleaming 65,000-square-foot headquarters on 8 acres along I-41, leaving Vyper room to grow again without relocating.
Coenen says the location offers Vyper prime visibility, and securing a business of Vyper’s caliber is a huge feather in the village’s cap, bringing people into the community and demonstrating that Wrightstown is development-friendly and willing to move at the pace of business.
It was a real estate match that was meant to be, he says.
“They’re already asking how they can contribute to the community,” Coenen says. “They’re just really cool. They’re still keeping their feet planted where they started, but, man, with some big visions of where they want to go.”
Dylan says it can be surreal pulling into the Vyper parking lot and seeing it full of cars, knowing this business that was headquartered out of an apartment just five years earlier is now the livelihood of more than 50 people.
“It’s a feeling I’ve never felt before,” he says. “[The building was a] big risk and it’s a big weight to carry.”
Shooting for the moon
Dayne says the business has been built by “taking risks every single day,” and the ones that don’t work out provide valuable lessons that he and his brother, who are both just in their early 30s, are willing to learn.
“What’s the alternative? If you don’t do it, you shrivel up and die,” he says.
“What they did is way beyond where I would have ever taken it,” Chris says of his sons. “Dayne is super aggressive on the sales end. He scares me a lot of times, the moves he makes — boy, does he make some big moves. He shoots for the moon on everything.”
There’s a big moon to shoot for. While sitting is a pretty universal activity and consumers are constantly finding new applications for the Vyper chair — from crafting to medical, the company for now will stay focused on the garage market that put it on the map. Vyper is growing its business to business team, Dylan says, as the company is currently about 80% e-commerce. Though it currently has retail partnerships with tool truck vendors like Snap-On, Vyper is actively pursuing big box retail opportunities in 2026.
As for adding new products, Dylan says the company has long-term visions of “10x-improving” other shop items that have long been fodder for complaints, but Vyper is sticking primarily to chairs for now. Accessories like the “Big Boy” attachment for larger users and the tool tray have been big sellers. They also sell carts, creepers and floor mats, and the garage market still holds huge growth opportunity. Even the idea of sitting in comfort can be a revelation.
“We always say it’s the most overlooked tool in the shop,” Dylan says. “It’s something you use the most out of any other product. There’s a certain [customer that will] have that macho side, like I don’t need that; I don’t sit when I work. Those people will end up caving and get a chair, and they’re just so thankful and grateful for it. It’s cool to see the journey.”
Dayne says reading product reviews affirms that Vyper is making a difference.
“The amount of people who say ‘I am finally able to get back into the shop and finish that project I’ve always been wanting to do’ — it is so cool to see that we are literally bringing people back into the garage and doing things they love,” he says.
Getting the word out
Ryan Fielding remembers the day a trio of scrappy chair salesmen walked into his garage at Ringbrothers in Spring Green, armed with a fancy-looking stool for him to try out.
A third-generation fabricator who currently serves as Ringbrothers’ fabrication shop manager, Fielding grew up using a “garbage” steel stool in his father’s shop. He says he was immediately impressed with the chair, even more so after learning it was a Wisconsin product.
“Honestly, I was upset with myself that I hadn’t thought of it,” he says.
At the Michigan International Auto Show in Grand Rapids last month, Ringbrothers showed “Octavia,” an impressive specimen with “nuclear olive green” accents and a rich caramel-colored interior. Simultaneously, it also announced the limited-edition drop of the matching Vyper chair with Ringbrothers co-branding. “It perfectly matches the car,” Fielding says. “It’s beautiful.”
Vyper offers much more than utility and has gained its share of enthusiastic collectors. A retired dentist in Oklahoma has purchased about 37 Vyper stools, Dayne says.
Credit Ostrihonsky, who as director of brand partnerships today is constantly pursuing co-branding and design opportunities.
“He’s brought this whole new level of brand awareness to Vyper,” Dayne says. “He knows who people know, and we’re building relationships with who we need to in order to get where we want to go.”
Ringbrothers, Hoonigan, Garage Beer, Martin Brothers Customs and professional drifter Adam LZ have been among Vyper’s brand ambassadors. Its two largest partners for branded collections are Hendrick Motorsports, the winningest team in NASCAR Cup Series history, and, oddly enough, outdoor apparel manufacturer Realtree, making camo-print chairs that Dayne says might be his favorite.
“In what world do hunting and chairs — our line of chairs — ever collab? [But] we’ve been able to bring that coolness factor to our products and tap into a whole different industry and find success,” he says. “One of our most successful collections we have is the Realtree collection.”
Branding has been at the center of Vyper’s success. It’s about creating a vibe that transcends products. The company’s leaders say that has been achieved through social media, humor, video, and a cool name and logo.
“That’s our brand: Create cool stuff and make people want to be a part of Vyper,” Dayne says.
Walk into the vaulted atrium of Vyper’s new building and you’ll see suspended overhead an airplane that was handcrafted by Chris Rusch in the garage when the two young boys were underfoot. There’s also the original orange Vyper chair, roped off in a corner like an antique throne at a museum, and racks of branded merchandise. All of it warms the heart of Chris, who says his biggest regret as a business owner was not branding himself better.
“You can put Vyper on a coffee cup and sell it,” Chris says.
‘There’s attention, and there’s marketing’
Dayne says Vyper’s overall risk-taking approach factors heavily in its marketing. No good idea is off the table, even if it’s out of the box. And perhaps no one is better at creative and crazy than Ostrihonsky. He has the tattoo, and the scars, to prove it.
Dayne says Ostrihonsky got “Black Friday 20% off” tattooed on his back to bolster sales one year. And it wasn’t even a usable idea: “We didn’t do 20% off,” Dayne says, laughing. Ostrihonsky has also made a video of a truck towing a Vyper tool cart and took “a pretty gnarly spill.”
“A lot of stuff we do, I think most companies would get nervous about,” Ostrihonsky says. “We’re big on, if you fail, who cares as long as you learn something? Like, we do as much as we possibly can … In my opinion, there’s attention and there’s marketing. Attention is going to work way faster than marketing.”
Another attention grabber was Vyperfest, which is coming back and will be held on Vyper’s grounds Sept. 19, 2026. The first one was held at the Larsen Road location in 2023, featuring a concert, car show, burnout pit, food trucks and a beer tent; it garnered massive attendance on a short promotional timeline. And the event was definitely all about vibes and community, Dayne says: “I don’t even think we had a single chair there.”
Ostrihonsky says the first Vyperfest helped bring attention to Greater Green Bay; many of Vyper’s customers, even ones located in the Midwest, think the company is based somewhere like California.
Talent attraction is important to Vyper as it continues to grow, and with most of its supply chain located within 100 miles of Vyper headquarters and the new building grabbing attention like a billboard, now is the time to lean into the company’s Wisconsin roots.
“We honestly never thought about moving. We love Wisconsin. I don’t think Vyper would be what it is if we weren’t in Wisconsin,” Dayne says.
As a fellow Wisconsinite, Fielding says the Rusch brothers’ humility and passion resonate with him and inspire him to cheer on Vyper’s success.
“They’re just solid dudes that are in it for the right reasons and are passionate about what they do,” Fielding says. “I’ve only thought more of them as time goes on.”
Photography by Shane Van Boxtel, Image Studios
