Paddling through Northwest Arkansas with Scott Holley of Eddyline Kayaks

Show Notes

(0:47) Introducing Scott Holley

(2:31) All about Entrepreneurship through Acquisition

(7:23) Deeper Look at Eddyline Kayaks

(9:20) Exploring the Technological Aspect of Making Kayaks

(17:15) Scott and Eddyline Kayaks’ Connection to Bentonville

(26:20) Scott’s Vision for Kayaking’s Impact on Northwest Arkansas

(28:34) Scott’s NWA Kayaking Bucket List

(39:23) How Bentonville Can Help 

(42:10) Superpowers and Closing Thoughts

Links

James Bell 

Scott Holley

Eddyline Kayaks

Ozark Kayak

Quotes

“We are out there helping people to safely access healthy and clean waterways. So for us, the safety portion is really important. We use all of our products, and we make sure that we design all of our products for a comfortable, high performance experience on the water, but also with safety in mind.” Scott Holley, (7:23)

“One of the things that we’ve seen, especially during Covid, is that consumers are looking to have a more direct relationship to the brand. So whereas before, a retailer would really push product out to consumers, consumers are now coming in armed with a lot of information, a lot of foreknowledge…We know that we need to maintain that relationship with the end user. ” Scott Holley, (23:58)

“What I would love to see if we fast-forward 5-10 years from now is that the development looks a lot like what we’ve seen [with] mountain bikes and biking in general, and I can’t think of a place anywhere that has really created that model better than Arkansas.” Scott Holley, (26:20) 

“If you have people who kayak, they’re going to be intimately aware of shoreline health…so it’s a little bit of a virtuous cycle, right? More people will kayak if you have healthy waterways, and then the more kayakers you have on healthy waterways, the more that they’re going to be invested in protecting and preserving those, and then creating new opportunities for access.” Scott Holley, (30:42)