Megabass's New Design Engine Additive : STW

Introduction: Creating product to meet the needs of your target market is a challenge each and every manufacturer faces on a year in and year out basis. In the tackle industry, for the most part, it's a guessing game. On the surface, it would seem like a simple proposition - make a product that helps an angler catch fish and it will sell. But with the market for bass gear so flooded with similar options in each and every category, it's nearly impossible for the consumer to sift through which products are truly effective, and which products are simply there to catch fishermen.

Megabass Pros Zaldain, Clausen, & Martens meeting with Yuki Ito discussing prototypes.

How many recent stories have you heard of a product that's been in existence for x number of years only to suddenly gain widespread popularity based on the results of one or two big tournament wins? And when that word does get out, that same product is impossible to acquire because the manufacturer wasn't ready for the sudden upswing in demand.

Meetings continue at the Megabass showroom in Osaka prior to the Japan launch of Orochi Double X.

Megabass is well aware of this phenomenon having felt the sudden surge in demand themselves with certain little rip bait. Now with Megabass of America in play, and their growing list of top tier prostaffers, they've developed a new internal program to draw inspiration for new product, develop these ideas, and test the eventual product in real world, tournament conditions before releasing them to the public.

Clausen explaining to design team leader, Sugiura, where he wants the rod in question to transition between tip and backbone.

The acronym is STW and no, it's not an additive for your fuel tank to make your engine run smoother, but Megabass is hoping their Support To Win program is does add a little pep to their design engine so they can more efficiently add to an already potent product line.

Zaldain's turn for input on that same stick.

Through STW, pros like Aaron Martens and Edwin Evers can communicate with the design and engineering team to build baits that suit their individual needs. Maybe Luke Clausen needs a tweak to the F6-70XX Tour Versatile's taper, or Chris Zaldain needs an extra few inches in the F7-72XX Perfect Pitch, through STW this can happen quickly and expediently.

From left to right, Clausen, Zaldain, Yuskei Murayama (VP), and Tsuboi (Design Engineer) discussing rod characteristics.

The hope is the new process will shorten development times and lead to the creation of more relevant products to help their pros succeed, and if these products do well, then they will likely be made available for sale to the public.

Martens getting animated during the discussion of a bait prototype.

It sounds like an interesting proposition and to be quite honest, if we weren't on hand to witness the collaboration between pros and design and engineering staff, we'd have dismissed the announcement as a marketing ploy. But we sat down with each pro to discuss this program and what it means to them to have a company like Megabass cater to their tournament needs.

Kenichi Iida, Luke Clausen, and Aaron Martens going over a box of prototype baits.