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How It All Started

Father Son Project

It all started on May 23, 1998 at the Young At Heart's Parade in Loves Park IL. Doug Schiller had recently joined the Northern IL. Corvette Club and was staging for the Memorial Day parade in the Woodward Governor parking lot. The club's social director handed Doug two American flags to display on his Corvette. Well Doug had just bought a 1990 ZR1 with 1,445 miles on it. He looked at the flags and wondered how he could put the flags on his car without scratching or damaging it. Looking around he saw other club members taping and wiring the flags to their cars.

No Way! This was his baby, and no tape or wire will touch his baby. Well he did the parade without the flags, and said there must be a better way. He also noticed that after the parade several people had lost their flags. This was not good. He knew he had to develop a way to easily and securely mount the flags without causing any damage to the car. Several weeks later he had the solution. Being that everybody took the tops off their Corvettes for the parades why not attach the flags to the roof latch brackets? Now the fun starts.

Two years of looking and measuring and testing (thanks to all the members in the club for the use of their cars) and now he was ready to start with the proto types. It's amazing how many different latches GM made in 46 years. Well it just happened that his oldest son had access to a lathe so he could make the proto parts. Dad would draw up a proto type and his son Corey would make the part. They would test it and try again. The biggest problem was to make as many parts as possible that would interchange with each year to keep the cost down. What kind of material would be best to use? Steel or aluminum, they might scratch the car if dropped. So they decided that 6/60 nylon would be the best even though it would cost more.

The next step was flag 101. They needed a flag that would fly at low speed and also fly at high speed without making a lot of noise and one that would last a reasonable amount of time. Yes, who would think that would be a problem. Ok, have special flags made, and you are all set. Now all they needed was advertising. It just happened that his youngest son Todd was in collage studying computer programming and web page design. With the help of his son a web page was posted. Now he had product and a web page. Next step was a flyer for advertising. Again with the help of his sons and close friends/club members they were all set. "Club members" that keeps popping up. There must be more to a Corvette club than just shinny and fast cars. Sounds like a lot of good and helpful friends to me.

Next step. Who will produce the flag caddie? Well it just so happened that another club member and good friend Bruce Mayer happened to have a machine shop (Jefco Screw Machine Products, Inc.) that makes parts for the airline industry. Doug talked it over with him and he thought it was a good idea so production started. Next step. Get a business permit and stop by the patent/trademark attorney office. $$$ Ouch!!!

Next: Will the Flag Caddie sell? Chicago IL. Chevy Vette Fest 2000. Before heading to Chicago Doug called one of the Corvette parts catalog CO. for some advise. They told him that if he sold one or two Flag Caddies at the show he might have a good product that would sell in the catalog. Well he sold 47 that weekend, not bad when they say you only need to sell a couple.

What is the most rewarding part of this venture?

Doug said, when people come up to his booth at the shows and say that their club has their flag caddie's and they love them and you remember how much fun he and his boys had making it happen.

Flag Caddie is a trademark of Flag Caddie Company.

The Flag Caddie logo and instruction images are copyrighted for the sole use of Flag Caddie Company and FlagCaddie.com.

For questions or comments on Flag Caddie or FlagCaddie.com, please email us at Sales@flagcaddie.com

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