The Pillow Sled 1- 7 2021

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Out in the valley, in a workshop that doubles as the garage of Alaska Mountain Products, Raymond Leroy is tinkering, testing, and perfecting his invention.

“So this is called The Pillow Sled,” proclaims the former ski racer.

For Leroy, this passion project is the realization of a lifelong dream.

“I’ve been redeveloping it for the last 30 years waiting for that one moment to finally pull the trigger and say okay we’re gonna try this,” says Leroy.
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The Pillow Sled sets itself apart from other products in two ways, the padding protects the body from bumps and jumps and bruises.

In fact, one of the selling points that Mr. Leroy touted was that it can actually get parents back on the sledding hill without them having to worry about being banged up the next day. The second component comes from that ski racer background, this sled is fast.

“It becomes, you know, kind of a competition on the hill. Who’s got the faster sled? And you know, will we win hands down almost every time you know so the word of mouth has gotten out,” says Leroy.

While the legend of this locally made sled is growing, none of this would have been possible without getting the same go-ahead that all great need, or at least all of the married ones.
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“When my wife said yes okay you can, you know, you can try really what I did was I built a prototype for my for my daughter,” says Leroy.

Building that prototype took time. There were designs and redesigns, building and testing of materials. Raymond and his partner Tom Fredricks even had to figure out the best practices for producing a larger number of sleds.

“I mean we went through every kind of trial and error process you could go through. We vacuumed foam to have it blow up on us and before you can even figure out what’s happening [the] things back to its normal size and you got to start all over again,” says Leroy.

Eventually, all that work proved worth it and Raymond’s daughter wasn’t the only one who was impressed. “The next thing you know all of her friends were fighting her over her sled. You know everyone wanted to be on it and it was like oh man, maybe we have something here,” says Leroy.
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Along with his partner Tom Fredricks, who owns Alaska Mountain Products, the two men have started selling The Pillow Sled. With a $250 price tag, largely due to material expenses, the sleds aren’t cheap but that hasn’t stopped the orders from coming in.

“Our first run was of 30 sleds. I was anticipating a good bit of time, you know, to try to sell them and get them out there and I found myself scrambling to try to produce more,” says Leroy.

So far all of the interest in these furiously fast-moving sleds has been drummed up by word of mouth but it is spreading.

“It’s not just here in Alaska, I have friends from ski communities and winter communities all over the lower 48 that have seen this and they’re like yeah, I don’t care what it cost get me one. So I think the demand for it is there,” says Leroy.
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Until recently you could only reach Leroy via Facebook and Instagram but their website is now live for those who would like to place an order. As for the sleds themselves so far there is only one size in a few different color options but eventually they hope to make a smaller version for younger kids.

So perhaps someday, maybe even soon, when you look up at a powder-packed hill swarming with kids that want to go fast they will all have a sled developed right here in Alaska.

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Видео The Pillow Sled 1- 7 2021 канала Michael Nederbrock