AUSTIN, TX (BRAIN)—Marcin Sochacki, founder and chief executive officer of triathlon/cycling product manufacturer Rocket Science Sports, has made a move to assure brand quality.
“Leading the triathlon and cycling industry to new levels of technological performance cannot be done through research and development alone,” Sochacki said. “Everything that is designed must come together at the factory, and we’ve learned that assuring consistency and quality at the level we desire is not effectively achieved by calling the factory on the phone or emailing the owners alone.”
It is for this reason that Sochacki has picked up his family and moved to China where assembly of its products happen. “There is no better way to develop new processes and products than to be on the ground working with the factories on a daily basis” said Sochacki, who was already making at least five trips a year there to build factory relationships and to oversee production.
This move was preceded by the opening of an office in Dong Guan, China in April, and hiring production manager Cathy Wang, formerly of Adidas. Wang is ISO 9000 and a Six Sigma certified which are crucial qualifications needed to build the foundation of Rocket Science Sports production processes.
Sochacki and Wang will be working personally with Rocket Science factories, which have committed to learn these processes in quality assurance to greatly lower defect rates and raise overall quality.
“In order to advance our technologies and product performance we had to find those factories which were willing to not only learn and implement these principals, but also be able to adjust processes and purchase equipment which will allow us to produce things that have never been done before,” said Darren Zielinski, vice president of sales and marketing for Rocket Science Sports.
Zielinski will remain at the home office in Austin, Texas to oversee the U.S. side of the company while Sochacki builds the overseas office over the next couple of years.