Ron Weber
Once a regional sales manager for Pflueger Fishing Tackle, Ron Weber left the position in the late 1950’s and R.W. Weber sales, his own tackle company, was born.
On a fishing trip North of Duluth, MN in the late 1950’s, Ron Weber, who was a highly-skilled and dually successful angler, found himself out-fished by a friend who was using “some Finlander plug”.
“I had been fishing since I was five-years-old and I thought I was a pretty good fisherman”, reflects Weber. “It wasn’t every day that I got outfished, but when I saw a friend catching fish after fish, I became a believer on the spot. There was something different about this wobbler. It was a Rapala.”
Weber purchased two of the lures on his way back to Minneapolis following the trip.
Weber approached good friend and regular customer Ray Ostrom, who owned a tackle shop in Minneapolis, showing him the lure that caught so many fish. Ostrom tried the lure and was immediately convinced of its prowess.
The two friends sent a letter to Lauri Rapala in Finland on September 23, 1959, stating in part, “We are interested in importing for the purpose of sales and distribution of these and any other lures which you may manufacture”. Written in English, the Finnish speaking Rapala family had to bring the letter several miles to another village, where a school teacher translated the contents.
On February 10, 1960, Weber and Ostrom placed their first order for Rapalas, totaling 1,000 lures. One year later they ordered 2,400. In the first twelve month period of the newly formed relationship, Lauri Rapala shipped 3,400 lures to Weber and Ostrom for distribution. During the period between 1960-1961, that number multiplied to 31,135 lures. In 1962 Weber and Ostrom changed the name of their new company to Nordic Enterprises Inc. However, the Rapala name remained registered.
Per a contract signed between Nordic Enterprises and Lauri Rapala and Sons, Weber and Ostrom agreed to buy as many lures as Rapala could produce—up to 300,000 lures against their written orders—July 1962 to August 1963.
In August of 1962 the Lauri Rapala story appeared in Life magazine, an issue featuring Marilyn Monroe’s life following her death. Public demand for Rapala lures skyrocketed and sacks of letters arrived for Weber and Ostrom each day. “In no time at all we had orders for about three million pieces”, said Weber.
Weber and Ostrom, though still committed to the American market, formed Rapala Limited in Winnipeg, Canada.
Since 1959, Rapala has distributed lures to only one company in the USA; the company Ron Weber and Ray Ostrom created—all because of a fishing trip.