As we reported in the digest Saturday, Austin-based YETI, makers of premium coolers that run about the price of a house payment, has decided to drop its sponsorship of Friends of the NRA banquets around the country. But the thing is, in a free market, there’s almost always someone to step in and fill a void left by a company that chooses to drop a particular market segment.
The punchline to this bad joke of a decision is that by rejecting the NRA, Yeti essentially turned its nose up to the idea of the gun rights the NRA heavily promotes and defends. Many in middle America tend to look at the NRA as a heavily defended wall that keeps the gun control wolves in the hills.
And YETI, without rhyme or reason, turned its back on it. That’s not going to sit well with Americans.
As we pointed out, there’s no shortage of companies out there that make similar products (think ORCA, Pelican, Grizzly…) that will be all too willing to step in to serve YETI’s soon-to-be-former customers.
Enter Houston-based RTIC Coolers.
Gun control is a losing issue for anyone who gets too close to it. Yes, there are those who would be so absurd as to strip all gun rights away from the populace thinking it will solve our problems — you can ask London how well that’s working — but for the most part, America wants to keep its gun rights right where they are. This was Yeti’s customer base.
Keyword “was.” Now it’s probably Rtic Cooler’s, as their marketing team seems to fully understand who their customers are, and what they like. Also, their Twitter banner is just better, but I digress.
In response to Yeti’s decision to toss it and leave it, Rtic pulled up quick to retrieve it and made it a point to let their customers know that they’re not pushing away their values by posting a picture of the 2nd Amendment on their Facebook page.
If you’re losing track of which companies have decided they’d rather not be associated with the NRA and their icky members, Fortune is out with a handy updated list today.
I had several yeti mugs that had various thin blue line stickers on them. They’re now in the trash. Here I come RTIC. #yeti nra@YETICoolers
— Craig Gripentrog (@TxSWATFrog) April 22, 2018
Go buy a RTIC instead. They posted this on FB right after YETI announcement. I have both brands in the tumbler, each the same quality but RTIC is not as expensive. pic.twitter.com/aVoLQLgjED
— Shauna Kuhn (@shauna_kuhn) April 23, 2018
Buy @RTICCoolers instead of @YETICoolers since Yeti doesn’t support the #NRA or the #2A
RTIC supports 1st responders too 100% of the proceeds benefits equipment for Houston Firefighters! @HoustonFire https://t.co/CT7aefvVHS or https://t.co/71r4OO2GYF pic.twitter.com/7JxWyPq1hd— James Bowie (@JBowie1776) April 22, 2018
So @YETICoolers drops sponsorship of @NRA and @RTICCoolers comes out swinging. RTIC, you’ve got yourself a new customer. #2A pic.twitter.com/zxZleDMbCR
— Dylan Gorski (@DylanGorski) April 23, 2018