A U.S. Manufacturing Success Story – Simple Wave LLC

by Harry Moser, founder and president of The Reshoring Initiative.

This past year, focus on the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs due to offshoring (sending jobs overseas) has intensified. In the rhetoric surrounding offshoring, all too often we hear stories of individuals losing their jobs to the “lower” cost of production. I have worked to dispel this notion using analysis and data obtained by the Reshoring Initiative’s Total Cost of Ownership Estimator™.



One company, SimpleWaveLLC, has embraced the shift in collective thinking from ‘offshoring is cheaper’ to ‘local reduces the total cost of ownership.’ In doing so, the California-based company received the 2012 U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Achievement Award during a ceremony at NPE - a chemicals trade show and event organized by The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. While presenting at the show, I had the opportunity to congratulate the Calibowl creators and thank them for their efforts toward bringing solid, well-paying manufacturing jobs back to the United States.

Simple Wave and its award-winning Calibowl, the innovative bowl featuring a patent-pending inner curving lip that moves food back into the utensil or chip, eliminating spills, is the creation of Jeff Bollengier and partner Rich Stump.

Jeff and Rich first presented Calibowl at the 2008 LA Gift Show and were immediately featured in the “O” Favorite Things list. That led to placement in the Rachel Ray Show, QVC, the Shopping Channel, Readers Digest, Canada Homestyle Magazine and many more. As they say, “The rest is history.”

Calibowl is much more than a unique solution to one of life’s many problems. Simple Wave’s brand serves as a reflection of both Jeff and Rich’s personal values. These values are then carried out in their production of Calibowls. Jeff and Rich’s dedication to the U.S. economy led them to move the manufacturing process from China to the United States.

In an April 3 interview with The Street’s Elizabeth Blackwell, Rich spoke to being a U.S. manufacturer and the demand for U.S. manufactured products. "Our customers in Korea, Canada and even China wanted U.S.-made products,“ says Stump. ”The Made-in-America brand has real value overseas…So far, we've created a total 15 jobs in the U.S. just in manufacturing, and we expect to add a few more each month,“ says Stump.

As accounted for in the total cost of ownership, Simple Wave believes U.S. manufacturing will reduce freight cost and improve the company’s response time as well as reinforce its green image through a reduced carbon footprint. Now Calibowl is MADE in USA and is exporting to Canada, Singapore, Korea, and even China, a business practice the Reshoring Initiative and Simple Wave hope other manufacturers follow.

You can support Simple Wave, Calibowls and their reshoring initiative at BevMo!, Amazon.com, JC Penny’s, and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Connect with Calibowl via their website calibowl.com, Facebook, and follow them on
Twitter at @CaliBowl.