Kurt Walchle, Survival Straps: The Bracelet That Can Save Your Life

For Kurt Walchle, being prepared is a lifestyle. "I use paracord for everything -- it's like duct tape," says Walchle, who founded Survival Straps, a company that hand-makes paracord bracelets that can be unravelled for emergency use.

Six years later, Walchle and his growing group of craftsmen have built a reputation among adventurers and soldiers alike, with their product starring in some pretty incredible survival stories, including drowning rescues and saving soldiers on the battlefield. Now overseeing nearly 70 employees, Walchle and his wife, Melissa can't believe what their "small, home-based business" has turned into.

Armed with logo licenses for the military, collegiate sports and organizations like the Wounded Warrior Fund and breast cancer awareness, Survival Straps are being used to not only save a life, but to remember one, too. "Our customers use our straps as a symbol of strength, and it means so much to us to hear their stories."

Who is that doing their best Crocodile Dundee impersonation in that video?

It's not a joke! It's actually very real. That's Coyote Peterson. He's starring in a new show called Brave Wilderness. He and his crew had been using Survival Straps for some time, so they approached us a few months ago and asked if they could use them in the show. A few months back, he actually captured a 14-foot alligator with a Survival Strap. They're the real deal.

What was your light-bulb moment?

I was out on a dive trip, and my watchband was about to break. I dug out some paracord out of my dive box and tied the watch to my wrist. I made the first watch band and fastened it with a marine-grade stainless steel shackle, and then people started commenting on it. It hit me that it was a neat application, and I had actually read an article about how Navy Seals used to stow paracord on themselves during battles in Vietnam, so that's how we started marketing it as survival gear.

There are quite a lot of survival stories on your site. What's one that stands out?

Over the past few years, especially, we get one to two stories a day, but one that stands out was from a soldier named James Little, who always wore two Survival Straps. He was a sniper in Iraq, and his hideout spot was taking fire from insurgents. He was hit in the leg with shrapnel, and was bleeding pretty badly, so he unraveled one strap and tied it around his leg to make a tourniquet, and then used his other one to tie up some of the rubble around him as more cover. He credited us to helping save his life while he was at war. We relay that message to all our craftsmen, that you don't know who is going to be wearing that bracelet, so we are ridiculous with our quality.

How important is it for your company to give back and to replace used straps?

People use our straps for all different kinds of things. We're about helping people, and we especially like to support our armed forces. So far, we've donated about $445,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project, and our goal is to get to $1 million by Christmas time. Our customers buy our care packages and send them overseas, and we usually match their donation so that all the guys in the unit can be outfitted with a Survival Strap. Overall, about 10 percent of our net is donated. We started the replacement program, because we would get letters from customers telling us that they were in a situation where they could have used their strap, but they loved it too much to destroy it, so we started the initiative that if you send us your story, we'll send a new Survival Strap for free.

Entrepreneur Spotlight

Name: Kurt Walchle
Company: Survival Straps
Age: 42
Location: Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Founded: 2006
Employees: 62
2011 Revenue: $6 million
Website: www.survivalstraps.com

RATE IT!   |  

VOTE

CURRENT TOP 5 PICK YOUR OWN TOP 5

USERS WHO VOTED

NEW! CREATE YOUR OWN SLIDESHOW

Comments

[CrawlSF]

11:19 PM on 05/02/2013

This is a very cool product, however their recent marketing for "Boston Strong" Straps is really sad. They are using the Boston Bombings to market their product and only offering 25% to charity.

25% goes to the cause? How generous. Making money off of something like this is really sad. $24.99 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Assuming the product costs about $1 (which is probably pretty accurate) and shipping costs about $3, they are making $18 to $20 per "survival strap". Also, they can write off the part that they donate. Anyone wearing one of these should be slapped. That being said, it's one hell of a business model. Well done.

Don't be a idiot and buy one of these. While I am hesitant to donate to most charities because there is a lot of shady stuff going on (Like Wyclef's "charity" for Haiti) , here is an article with a list of better options (which I found from a simple google search):

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/how-to-donate-online-to-charities-supporting-boston-bombing-victims-and-first-responders/

[KBallard]

03:15 PM on 04/09/2012

Image number 8, Windland should be Wildland. My son is a wild land firefighter and wears your products everywhere.

[anitafeeney]

04:24 AM on 04/06/2012

i would use these they sound great

[GOODDOC1]

12:31 AM on 04/06/2012

This is an EXCELLENT idea! That and duct tape could keep you going for a while. And they donate to the Wounded Warrior's Project, to boot! I'm ordering one now!

[drblair]

12:11 AM on 04/06/2012

I was on an XC ski camping trip to Mt. Marcy in the Adirondaks in New York state. A full days ski from the nearest road, I encountered a woman who's ski boot tip had broken off, leaving her without one ski in several feet of snow. I attached her broken boot to the ski using the Indian snowshoe tie, using parachute cord that I carried in my pack for emergencies. I would have used the Survival Strap if they had been invented by then.

[whatsurbrain4]

10:55 PM on 04/05/2012

LOVE it! Creative,giving-back, life-changing & saving as well as profitable. Now THAT'S a GREAT business!

[Lacy May]

09:12 PM on 04/05/2012

Very cool story in the midst of trying times!

[happyjoyjoy333]

04:05 PM on 04/05/2012

re: "Overall, about 10 percent of our net is donated."

Kudos!

[Podzak]

02:48 PM on 04/05/2012

Didn't McGuyver make a natomic bomb from one of these and a melon?

[realitycheck101a]

01:58 PM on 04/04/2012

That's brilliant ! ! !

[Schneb]

01:26 PM on 04/04/2012

brings to mind Gollum's last guess during 'riddles in the dark': a piece of string, or nothing.

-IIRC.

[Schneb]

01:25 PM on 04/04/2012

'like'

[bdaved]

01:02 PM on 04/04/2012

My dad often carried a fairly substantial piece of string in his pocket, and I generally carry some paracord in my back pocket for reasons of my own. When he was 31 years old, he lost both his legs, and had to use his belt to keep from bleeding to death. I wondered if that was why he carried the string, but I never asked him.