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PRODUCTS|
RIPCLEAR LENS PROTECTORS
Founders: Ryan Doherty & Zach Hines
Founded: 2014
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.ripclear.com
“WE HATE SCRATCHES AND WE KNOW OUR
CUSTOMERS DO TO”
We all know that the winter weather at Bachelor can be unlike any other. If you’ve ridden
on a storm day, you know that rime freezing to your lenses makes it almost impossible to
ride and you can destroy a pair of goggles in a day trying to chip away at the ice. This is
where Ripclear comes in. Ripclear is a lens protector, much like the one you might use on
your phone. It allows you to wipe your lenses with nearly anything without leaving harmful
scratches and destroying those expensive goggles. This is a product born on Bachelor
and based here in Bend.
You might think, “why didn’t someone come up with this already?” Well that’s exactly what
Ryan Doherty thought when he first came up with the idea for Ripclear. Ryan had moved
to Bend from Government Camp in 2012 and was working as the inventory controller at
Mt Bachelor. After a couple seasons, he realized that the storm riding was taking a toll
on his goggles and he was going through three or more lenses in a season. So, he did
what anyone would do and went to Google to look for some sort of product to protect
them. There was nothing. So, Ryan decided to recruit the help of his best friend from high
school, Zach Hines, and started creating prototypes.
Starting in 2014, these two began testing hundred of different plastic/glue combinations
until they finally found the right combo. There was nothing in the market that adhered to
a spherical surface while maintaining its optical clarity, so they essentially had to create
something that did not yet exist. Zach used his engineering expertise to design the specs,
while Ryan used his proficiency in destroying lenses to test them daily.
By 2016, they had perfected the Ripclear lens protector and began to sell the product
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