Coyote Design

New Products & Markets

Company: Coyote Design
Headquarters: Boise, Idaho
Category: Consumer Products

Coyote Design is a company based in Boise, Idaho that designs, tests and manufactures components used in the fabrication of prosthetics and orthotics (P&O). The father and son founders of the company, Dale and Matt Perkins, are both amputees that had struggled to achieve their athletic dreams due to lack of product quality and variety.

Coyote Design is led by Matt Perkins who through focus, determination, hard work, and desire became a world-class alpine skier and triathlete. Matt uses those same traits to develop P&O devices that are, in Matt’s words, “low tech, high function and affordable”. Coyote is committed to improving the quality of life of a wide range of orthotic and prosthetic wearers around the world through research, development, and construction of innovative, high functioning, reliable, and quality products.

“Ideally all amputees everywhere should have access to the best possible options. That is not realistic. We have focused on creating extremely high functioning prosthetics using less expensive and lower-tech methods and we plan to continue development in this area. We would like to develop methods that apply to folks with limited funds in this country and throughout the world.”

– Matt Perkins, Alpha Dog, Coyote Design

Existing Situation:

Over the years, Coyote put a lot of work into product design, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing. As Coyote grew, the company began to receive product inquiries from around the globe. Market research had shown that the true market for Coyote’s products was “The World”. In order to maximize the effectiveness of Coyote’s small team, Matt decided to participate in Export Excellence, Idaho’s ExporTech Program, to develop a proactive way to identify and enter profitable export markets.

Solution:

Coyote was accepted into Idaho’s highly competitive Export Excellence program based on its successful line of products and its potential for worldwide sales. Coyote’s Export Excellence team consisted of Matt along with staff responsible for international orders and shipping. Coyote was paired with a coach from the Idaho District Export Council and an intern from Boise State University. The team worked over three months to research export opportunities and create an action plan to enter promising markets. The Coyote team used the process to narrow the field to Germany, India & Taiwan. They chose to focus first on Germany, a large market with a good healthcare program and solid distributors.

Impact & Other Results:

Coyote negotiated a distribution agreement and implemented a marketing strategy with a German company that offered complimentary products.
Coyote’s European expansion helped the company continue 15 consecutive years of growth and 94% growth in sales volume since 2006.
In addition to Germany, Coyote expanded to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Japan, The Netherlands, and Spain and created a network of distributors in 12 countries.
The company toured Cuba’s P&O industry in early 2015 and is exploring opportunities.
The company has grown from a handful of employees to 19 people.
Coyote outgrew its 6,000 sq ft facility and moved in June of 2015 to a plant that is twice as large.
Coyote is bringing more development work in-house so it can get winning products to market faster.
Coyote is taking more control of its manufacturing process by adding equipment needed to make small quantities of components.
Matt added 3-D printing capabilities that he believes will be key to the manufacturer of prosthetics in the future.