A key player in the hot designer beverage container craze is Silipint in Bend, proudly producing a rainbow array of safe, 100 percent silicone drinkware for every lifestyle. Founder and CEO Rick Fredland is thrilled with their recent patent approval and is optimistic about the company’s bright landscape. by Jeff Spry CBN Feature Writer
“As of July 25 our patent was approved so we now, in the United States through the U.S. Patent Office, own all the patents on our proprietary silicone drinking glass products,” he said. “Our business has been growing five-fold a year and that was without the patent.
So now with this new award we can go into different markets. It simply allows us to justify our pricing and the value of our product more and has actually let us close several large retail accounts with major retail distributors around the country. It absolutely legitimizes our entire line much more for our clients and customers and that’s a big deal.”Available in shot-size and pint-size, Silipint’s creative catalog of colorful cups are dishwasher, freezer and microwave safe, BPA free, totally unbreakable and fully customizable.
Their goal is to help redefine what drinkware can do in your life, with a bouncy and begging-to-be-played-with line of silicone products created for maximum fun and versatility for your drinking pleasures, while also being ridiculously simple. Pinch it, pull it, drop it, squish it, squash it… Silipint cups can handle anything.
“Silipint was started in 2010 and the genesis of it was another business I owned called Tazlab that sold dog collars, leashes and bowls,” said Fredland.
“I had the very first silicone dog bowl in the pet industry, the Aqua-Fur. The idea for Silipint came from needing to produce a promotional product for trade shows to bring attention to my dog bowl. It became clear really quickly that intellectual property on silicone drinkware was non-existent and that we’d luckily discovered a niche in the market that wasn’t filled.
There was an eager demand for a greener, more functional drinkware piece and we launched with that. “We manufacture in China and bring them all into the United States, then do the decoration domestically in various locations including Bend. This is a growth period for us and it’s been fun.
We do it because we live in Bend and want to be part of the community and that gives us more control because it’s local.”Silipint cups can be purchased at many locations like Newport Market, Cascade Cottons, East Bend Liquor and many more.“My wife and I moved here from Pasadena six years ago after working for Patagonia for a while. We never really belonged there and decided Bend was where we wanted to live.”Silipint’s best selling product is the pint glass, which has been on the market the longest, but their shot glass is really catching on too.
“We also have a half pint and the biggest reception has been with kids and at beer festivals where they want to hand out a good souvenir rather than a throwaway cup. Then we have our shorty, similar to a 9-ounce highball glass, which fills out our whole little family of silicone drinkware.
”There are six employees right now at Silipint and Fredland expects to be much busier in the near future.“A lot of big retailers we’ve been after for a while are now coming to us. The next six to twelve months are going to be a pretty steep growing curve for us.
What I was after when I thought up the product but to create a culture that is valuable within our business that extends to the consumer. “Basically, we have what amounts to a patented widget, and it’s providing jobs and a lifestyle here in Bend that we can all enjoy and prosper within.”
www.silipint.com 541-678-5044
