About Us: The Man of Rubber Story
Gary Harper- the Original Man of Rubber.
Beth Harper- Man of Rubber's First Woman of Rubber.
The Short Version
Man of Rubber was founded by husband and wife team Gary and Beth Harper. We are a full service wholesale distributor and retailer of river gear, rafting equipment, and related outdoors products for the commercial outfitting industry and paddling enthusiasts. Our roots are as river guides, raft repair experts, and outfitters ourselves on the Class III-IV Ocoee River in Tennessee. We come from the river industry and we love to help others make their outfitting businesses wildly successful while they introduce new customers to the magic of river-running. We'd like to put our knowledge and experience to work for you and your business!
More about Man of Rubber
Key Events in Man of Rubber’s World View
With over 30 years of river-running experience, 10 years working in and managing outfitter businesses in each key operations areas like retail, finance, guiding, operations, reservations, equipment repair, Man of Rubber co-founders Beth and Gary Harper understand what it takes to run an outfitting business today. See below to understand just where they've spent their time "learning these outfitter ropes" over the last 32 years.
1976
- The Ocoee River starts running daily for first time in 64 years. The wooden diversion flume on the Ocoee River, TN is shut down for repairs in the fall of 1976 returning 1400 CFS (cubic feet of water per second) to the riverbed on a daily basis for the first time since the completion of the flume in 1912. Photo at right shows flume construction underway in background.
1977
- Gary’s first rafting trip down the Ocoee River.
- Gary and 3 friends start the first commercial rafting outfitter with an outpost on the Ocoee River in Ten nessee, Ocoee Outdoors and he became a professional river guide on his 3rd trip down the river! He also has his fi rst swim at Hells Hole Rapid, the first of many as it turns out...
- Gary named many of the rapids on the Middle Section of the Ocoee River including: Gonzo Shoals, Second Helping, Moon Chute, The Doldrums, Diamond Splitter, Western Flyer, Torpedo, and others). He named the put-in rapid on the Ocoee: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with the dam at the put-in being Snow White. The Seven Dwarfs were a series of "sections" or moves that had to be negotiated in order to run the rapid. The original order of the Dwarfs was Bashful, Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Doc, Sneezy and Happy. These days, folks just call the whole thing Grumpy since that ledge is the toughest part of Entrance Rapid. During that first season, Ocoee Outdoors is the only outfitter willing to launch above Grumpy at the base of the dam. They didn't want to cut anyone short on excitment.
- Gary attends his first trade show as an outfitter - the EPRO (Eastern Professional River Outfitters) show in Asheville, NC.
1978
- Gary meets Beth on a blind date on April 26, 1978. Gary takes Beth down the Ocoee on their second date and she is hooked on the River... ...and Gary.
- Gary becomes the first person to row a raft down the Ocoee River. He rows a 12 foot long Campways Hopi using 6 long wooden oars.
- First Gauley Season for Gary & Beth. They travel to West Virginia annually each fall after this to paddle raft and row private trips on the Gauley.
1980
- Gary sells his ownership stake in Ocoee Outdoors and he and Beth become guides, trip leaders and managers for another early Ocoee outfitter, Sunburst. Beth runs reservations, retail, and business management. Gary becomes equipment manager, river photographer, and general handyman. They learn every aspect of running an outfitting company over the next four years.
- Gary & Beth buy an 18 foot Green River raft to row on eastern and western river trips for the next 10 years.
1981
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First western river trip, Gary & Beth row down the Middle Fork of the Salmon in Idaho.
1982
- Gary rows the Lower Canyons of Rio Grande, the most remote locale in the 48 states. Over the next few years, Gary and Beth manage
equipment logistics and row week long trips on the Rio Grande for The Baylor School of Chattanooga TN.
- Gary has his first trip on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. He rows 270 miles in a 14 ft Avon Ranger. He claims that he was too scared to flip.
1983
- Beth & Gary work for O.A.R.S. on the Grand Canyon’s Colorado River as trainees, aka baggage boatmen. 1983 was a record high water year in the Canyon with the water peaking at over 120,000 cubic feet of water per second, but it had come down to around 50,000 cfs when they arrived at the put in at Lee's Ferry.
- Ocoee River TN Flume Line rebuild is finally completed and the rafting outfitters sign agreement with TVA for regular water releases for recreation.
- A fellow guide nicknames Gary “Man of Rubber”, after Gary nicknames his buddy (who loves Superman), “Man of Steel”. The names stick and the rest is history...
- Gary opens his own raft repair business as outgrowth of his equipment manager job and calls the company “Man of Rubber” because it is a name no one will forget.
1984
- Gary & Beth add wholesale distribution services to Man of Rubber’s business and become the eastern US sales reps for the Italian made Domar riverboats.
- Beth & Gary see their first Chums Eyeglass Retainers while working their yearly Grand Canyon trip. Chums becomes Man of Rubber’s second product line, and Man of Rubber is Chum’s first sales rep.
- Man of Rubber attends its first trade show as a vendor, the EPRO show in Daytona Beach, FL
1985
Gary works for OARS as a paid boatman in Grand Canyon while Beth works much harder as a baggage boatman.- Man of Rubber designs riverboats specifically for eastern rivers, and Gary & Beth travel to Italy to finalize designs at the Domar factory.
1986
- Man of Rubber adds more lines of river gear to its growing distribution business.
1987
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Man of Rubber adds manufacturing to its business, with development of its own line of waterproof drybags (those famous Ziplock uber-drybags now sold under the Watershed label)
1989
- Eastern Professional River Outfitters (EPRO) and the Western River Guides Association (WRGA) agree to merge to create a new organization, America Outdoors and hold the first joint conference in New Orleans.
1994
- Gary and Beth decide to leave manufacturing and return to their love, which is sales and service to river people. MoR sells the drybag manufacturing business to their best employee, Eric Revels. Eric still manufactures the drybags, under the name “Watershed”.
1995
Beth is elected the Vendor Representative on the Board of Directors of America Outdoors and serves for the next ten years.
1996
- Whitewater Slalom included in 1996 Olympics and a Whitewater Center and course is built on the Upper Ocoee River, TN.
1997
- Man of Rubber becomes the exclusive North American distributor for Leafield Marine, makers of the famous Leafield Valves that are used in over 90% of today’s riverboats.
1999
- Gary does his first Grand Canyon trip on a 37 foot motor rig as a swamper.
2000
- Jeanie Jackson joins MoR as sales and service specialist.
2003
- Beth forms Merchandising Magic to consult with outfitters on how to make their stores more profitable.
- Gary works a second motor rig trip in Grand Canyon as a swamper.
2007
- Jeannie Jackson leaves MoR to return to nearby Georgia.
2008
- Teri Bodley joins MoR as sales and service specialist.
- Man of Rubber expands retail sales with new website and hundreds more products online.
2009
- Man of Rubber celebrates 25 years of outfitting outfitters! Celebrations appropriately kick off at Confluence 2008 in Knoxville, TN during AO's 20th anniversary of the merger of EPRO and WRGA.