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The managing partner of a Regina company that custom-builds trampolines says tariff and trade challenges are just “another day in business.”
On Friday, Luke Shaheen gave a tour of Crazy Ape Extreme Equipment to Immigration and Career Training Minister Eric Schmalz, who used the location to highlight the jobs report.
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The company, which has a full-time staff of 13, has been producing custom-designed trampolines destined for places like Minneapolis, Phoenix, and California.
It began in a small facility south of Regina, and Shaheen says it’s already bursting at the seams at its current home in the city’s Ross Industrial Park.
Shaheen said that while most of its products are sold to U.S. buyers, the company is diversifying to new markets such as Europe and Australia.
“We’re still shipping,” Shaheen said, pointing to an order set to be shipped to Arkansas.
“We’re going to keep doing that, and we’re going to add new markets to that mix.”
He said that when the 50 per cent tariffs came in, it affected all of Crazy Ape’s products. But having a unique product to sell is helping offset that.
“We ultimately had to raise prices to the United States,” Shaheen explained. “But if you want the world’s most powerful trampoline, we’re the only place to get it.”
When asked whether the change in control of the U.S. Congress following Tuesday’s midterm elections made him optimistic about a trade deal, he said the company tries to stay out of politics.
But he does encourage other companies to diversify their markets.
“We all need to pivot. We all need to expand.”
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