Two People and a Problem
We’re proud of what we’ve built at DECKED. When we look around, it’s hard to believe how far we’ve come — now with more than 200 employees across the country, 320,000 square feet in factory space, and more than 600,000 DECKED products riding around with happy customers. It’s downright heartwarming to think about.
Enjoying self-induced “warm and fuzzies” are great and all, but it’s not all that productive. The fact of the matter is, we still have a lot of drivers we need to get organized. New products to build. Existing products to improve. Bad ideas to scrap. There’s a lot to be done and we won’t be ready to celebrate until every American is organized, secured, and has that “I’ve got my sh*t together” look on their face.
When you have a forward-facing mindset, though, it’s important to take a good look behind you from time to time. Our story is a helpful reminder for us as we move forward, and we hope it’ll shed some light on why we continue to push so hard. A lot has changed around DECKED since 2014, and it can be easy to forget the one thing that hasn’t changed at all: why we started this whole thing to begin with. We Can Do Better Than Wood
For a little added flavor, we reached out to two DECKED OGs — Quality Manager Margo L’Heureux and VP of Distribution Denis McNamara — to sprinkle some of that salty senior-employee flavor throughout.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the DECKED origin story. Ben Franklin had a kite and a thunderstorm. Isaac Newton had an apple. All we needed was a napkin and a few beers.
We Can Do Better Than Wood
Once upon a time, there was a very smart guy named Lance Meller. He spent years living out of the back of his truck while he was hitting the slopes and exploring the vast expanses of the American West. In other words, he knew what it was like to battle the gear avalanches. He knew what it was like to fend off truck-stop bandits. He knew he put that headlamp somewhere.
It didn’t take him long to come up with a solution that millions of people have also come up with: the custom-built wooden drawers. We’ve all seen them. They’re born out of desperation, unbridled enthusiasm, and look like they come from the Appalachian edition of IKEA. Lance had officially upgraded from an empty bed (bad) to DIY drawers (slightly better).
I could fill pages with stories. But honestly, the most notable story is that we somehow survived the first production run. It had some unexpected surprises.”
– Denis McNamara, VP of Distribution
But, the honeymoon was short-lived. After months of the incessant rattling, waterlogged plywood, and splinters in his ass, Lance knew it was time to upgrade to the best. The only problem? It didn’t exist.
THE START OF A SYSTEM
Luckily, Lance happened to know a guy. In 2011, he reached out to another smart man named (and DECKED Founder) Jake Peters. They met up for a bite and a few beers at a local bar in Ketchum, Idaho, to talk about Lance’s battle against wooden drawers — why people want them, quickly learn to hate them, and how they could be better.
First off, what was the real problem? They began to look at trucks a little differently. All of a sudden the beds looked a little incomplete. They saw a big, empty space, which isn’t all that great for doing what a truck bed is intended to do — haul and store your stuff. They saw the bed as a one-trick pony and, by introducing another level of storage and organization, they knew that Jake could have their truck bed and use it, too.
Jake wouldn’t tolerate BS, laziness, or whiners. We were all expected to go above and beyond our job titles, to pull any oar we were presented with. Jake wasn’t easy – he expected a lot from us and was very demanding, but he was also extremely fair. The amazing part is that Jake was already retired. He didn’t have to start a company.”
– Margo L’Heureux, Quality Manager
But that still wasn’t enough. People had been making wooden drawers for years, which means that they already knew the truck bed could be better. The problem was that no one had actually cracked the code yet. The solution needed to be lightweight, but highly durable. It needed to be intuitive and versatile. It needed to be weatherproof and easily removable.
Most people would give up after seeing that laundry list of requirements, but not Jake Peters. He whipped out his bar napkin and sketched a rough outline of what would eventually become the first iteration of the DECKED Drawer System.
In that moment, Jake and Lance realized that if Lance hated the status quo and wanted something better, he probably wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The idea for the Drawer System quickly turned from a solution for one man’s truck into a solution for every single truck on the road. Game on.
If You Can’t Get It Done Right
A few late nights and patent lawyers later, DECKED was officially born in 2014. Lance and Jake put their engineering brains together to create the first version of the DECKED Drawer System, and what they saw was good.
After countless hours of trial and error, they’d discovered that high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was the magical substance that would be the foundation for the System — lightweight, incredibly durable, manufacturable, and made from recycled materials. The System itself was the essence of useful simplicity: two side-by-side Drawers that slid on rollers, with a flat top deck that covered the wheel wheels for an even surface to haul heavy cargo.
Our first office was a former chiropractor and urologist’s office located behind the main street grocery store. My view was of their receiving area and dumpster.”
Margo L’Heureux, Quality Manager
The idea was right. The product was right. All that was left was getting the manufacturing right, which turned out to be a challenge of monumental proportions. After testing the waters with overseas manufacturing, the earliest iteration of the DECKED team realized that outsourcing was not going to cut it. It made them too reliant on third-party shipping, increased costs overall, and most importantly, made it difficult to control the quality of every single system.
So, they made the hard (and the right) choice: to go all-in on American manufacturing. They found the goldilocks of locations in Defiance, Ohio, and the first DECKED factory was up and running. Paired with a 700-square-foot barn used for shipping and logistics, every piece was in place for DECKED to conquer chaos.
A Brand of Substance
Is this an abridged version of our backstory? Sure. We skipped all kinds of “what have we done” panic attacks, holiday-party meltdowns, and bathroom-stall pep talks, but that’s what it takes to make something great. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, and you can’t build a brand like DECKED without breaking a few brain cells along the way.
The team quickly grew, and a different set of engineers came on board. These people, like Greg Randolph, specialized in telling stories that connect with human beings. Greg (a.k.a Chopper/Chop/El-Choporino) is still building the DECKED brand to this day as our VP of Marketing, and he and storytellers like him have preached the gospel of organization to millions of people around the world.
This place is unrecognizable from 2014. The office was home to five people, and we shipped our accessories from rented space in a barn in Ohio. But, there are things that haven't changed: always put the customer first, relentlessly pursue product improvement, and we have great people.”
- Denis McNamara, VP of Distribution
But, the most beautiful part is that DECKED is not just a brand. It’s not just a product. It’s a brand with a product. This whole thing was born out of a need. And we’re talking about a real need, not just some nameless corporation’s “need” for more cash or your aunt’s “need” to sell scented candles out of her laundry room. The folks at DECKED saw that people weren’t getting the most out of their truck, and decided to do something about it. And just ask Chopper — it makes brand-building a helluva lot more fun when you actually believe in what you’re selling.
If you haven’t noticed, DECKED manufactures a lot more than Drawer Systems. Today, we have a full lineup of CargoGlide Systems, our very own Tool Box, Rugged Cases, and Protective Bins. You don’t even have to have a truck to enjoy the peace of mind that comes standard with DECKED’s products.
That being said, the Drawer System is (and always will be) the seed that started it all, and the perfect representation of why we love what we do. We’re not in the business of truck accessories or storage systems — we’re in the business of solving real problems for real people. If we ever need a helpful reminder, we’ll write it on a napkin. After all, it’s worked before.
