The answer, other than their celebrity status, is that both men are the proud owners of a C.F. Burkheimer – a high-end fly fishing rod made by a small Washougal company.
Kerry Burkheimer founded C.F. Burkheimer in 1992 after learning about the rod design and manufacturing industry, where he served as a consultant for 12 years.
“We started [the company] because we saw something lacking in the market,” said Burkheimer. “I was never satisfied with the aesthetics and the pride that was going into a lot of the businesses that I was visiting. So I thought, ‘I wonder if the public would respond favorably to someone that is really going to put out a heartfelt, sincere, passionately built product?’ That’s what this company represents.”
With rods starting around the $800 mark, C.F. Burkheimer designs and builds their products entirely by hand. Every component the company uses – other than cork imported from Portugal – comes from the United States. Finished rods are tested on the Washougal River.
“A lot of our customers fish all over the world and can afford to buy whatever they want,” noted Burkheimer. “They want to appreciate the pride of ownership, the pride of purchase. That’s really what they’re after.”
C.F. Burkheimer relies strictly on word of mouth to grow its customer base, despite repeated offers from industry magazines to invest in print marketing.
“I have magazines calling us all the time,” he said. “They want to make us high profile, promising us this and that. We don’t necessarily want to be a high profile company. We want to be the best company. And I’d much rather be known for the quality of our product than the quality of our advertising.
“We’re right where we want to be,” Burkheimer added. “Even in down economies we’ve grown every single year. In the worst we grew 15 percent; in the best (last year) we grew 35 percent.”
Currently, the company sells about 1,200 rods a year – a combination of direct sales and dealer sales, according to Burkheimer. The goal, he said, is to sell between 2,000 and 2,500 rods – A number he expects to reach in the next two to three years.
