It’s been a couple of years since we last checked in with Blizzard Lighting, the company based just outside of Milwaukee in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I was quite impressed when I checked in with them at LDI six months ago. They are no longer what one would have referred to as a mom and pop company just a few short years ago. They have expanded their business in size and the diversity of their products, at a rapid pace. They are indeed, a major player in the lighting manufacturing biz.
To recap their history, Blizzard was started six years ago by Will Komassa, an attorney who also happened to play in a local band. Recognizing the need for a visual display to augment the 80’s rock songs they played, he started bringing old lighting fixtures to gigs. Before long, the trailer they towed contained more bulky lighting fixtures than musical instruments. Will started tinkering with building his own LED products as well. Not long after the birth of these new lights the company that employed him, let go of all their lawyers. He decided to venture into the lighting business as his primary occupation. Why the name Blizzard? One night Will found himself sitting in a bathtub on a snowy evening. “It just sort of popped into my head while I was recreating The Arctic WWII Naval Battle Operation Wunderland with hotel mini-soaps.” That, plus his geographical location and the penchant for severe weather in that region, the name Blizzard popped up. “When you think of a blizzard you think of extreme conditions. I wanted to build lights that were suitably tough, with plenty of good old Midwestern value, too. It’s also a wellspring of great vocabulary, so we play off that theme. Many of our fixtures have ‘weathery’ names, like Flurry, Torrent or TOURnado.”
A Well-Lit Space
I’m sitting in Will’s cozy corner office at the company’s new 40,000 square foot facility that they moved into recently. It is four times the size of their previous facility and has plenty of space for now, but at the rate that this company develops new unique fixtures, stocking their inventory here will surely fill the shelves. With a full time staff of 21 and more than 100 dealers in the U.S. alone, they are at a pretty good size now. I ask Will how one goes from playing in a band to designing their own LED fixture to filling up a space of this magnitude.
“If you had asked me five years ago if I ever thought I would have a company in this sized facility, I would have said no. Will we outgrow this space in another five years? I would say no again, but it would be nice to be mistaken.” As far as designing a fixture, Will admits, “I was the young guy with the band, and they were always giving me crap about dragging this heavy gear to the gigs. I started looking around for things that would be smaller and brighter. That was smack dab in the middle of when LED gear was becoming more cost effective. It wasn’t that big of a stretch for me to take ideas and off-the-shelf parts that were already out there, to improve and build fixtures differently. I also had this vague, unscientific notion of how I thought competitors went about their business, and I thought that I could probably do this at least as successfully as they could.”
One of the other folks in Will’s band was Bob Mueller. Bob dove right in with Will at the company’s birth and has been integral in the design and development of their products. Once the two of them realized that Blizzard was actually “more than a passing fad in their lives,” as Will recalls, they needed help with a professional player who knew the ropes. That’s when they brought in veteran salesman Frank Luppino as a partner. “We needed someone that had a certain skillset that we did not possess.” Will admits. “Someone to make sure everyone got to taste the Kool-Aid, so to speak. Well, have you met Frank? He’s the embodiment of the line from Tommy Boy, ‘This guy could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves’. And the sick part of it is, it’s not an act! He’s just a really good guy that people trust and listen to.”
These three guys make up the nucleus of Blizzard lighting. As Frank likes to say, “We like to be the hip company. We don’t do things quite like anyone else.” Will agrees with his partner. “We are three anti-corporate type of guys, running a corporation. And, we have like ‘multiple growth rings’ of lighting people overseeing the operation. I’m in my 30s, Frank’s in his 40s and Bob is uh, somewhat older than that.” Frank refers to himself as the resident adult of the group.
Focus on Fixtures
They all share the same business theme — to make quality, affordable fixtures. This started with the Flurry first sold in March 2010. But it was “the Puck,” their thin version of an LED par, that would go on to sell huge after first being offered in June 2010. With 144 10mm RGB LEDs, it packed a punch, and with a price range that appealed to everyone. It sold volumes, opened a lot of doors and set the company up for designing more products.
Although their products can be used in all sorts of applications, from concerts to installs, Blizzard appeals predominantly to the theme park, house of worship and mid-level production industries. Their principle philosophy is to keep everything within a reasonable margin. As Luppino flatly states, “Everyone needs to make money. When I started here, I realized that what this business really needed was inexpensive ETL listed products for under $200. Intertech ETL lighting is huge in theme parks. Corporations such as Disney felt the same way, and we are happy to fill that niche.”
Nowadays Blizzard has more than 100 different products listed in their catalog — from all sorts of spinning heads to conventional fixtures to accessories. Their fixtures all had one thing in common, LED light sources. Recently, Blizzard did something unexpected by releasing their first fixture with an arc light source instead of LED. I asked why they went this route. “It’s not that we were ever really opposed to this,” Will told me. “Innovation doesn’t always need to be on a semiconductor wafer. But if we were going to do it, it most definitely could not suck. So, we now make a killer version of the 700-800 watt range of moving light for what we think is a very affordable price. We are quite proud of the new Kryo.Morph fixture.”
With all this said, it’s only been a short six months since Blizzard released a plethora of new fixtures at LDI. I’m taken on a tour of the shop that shows me no fewer than six new fixtures currently going through the final touches of Quality Control. Each new fixture that enters this warehouse undergoes a rigid test to ensure there are no defects and everything was built according to spec, before it leaves to a new home.
Showing me around the new gear is Blizzard’s Nick Airriess. They are not big on titles around here. His business card actually reads “Deputy Director of Deputy Direction,” which gives one a good idea of how things flow around here. He gives me a full demo of some of the latest neat products that have come out since 2016 started. (See below).
Recent Products from Blizzard Lighting
Here are some of the interesting products that Blizzard Lighting has launched recently. In addition to lighting, Blizzard is also offering dependable fog machines (including the Hex Jet fogger with an anti-gravity pump) at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. They have recently announced plans to expand to South America soon. To take a look at all of their products please visit them at www.blizzardlighting.com.
The Block Head Big Eye: This moving head features a 3×3 pixel matrix head with nine individually controlled 15W RGBW cells. It features fast movement speeds and continuous pan and tilt capabilities. Chock full of user-friendly effects macros and multiple auto programs.
The Skybox Micro: This single cell RGBAW+UV fixture is a stationary light that can run off a battery or AC. Comes outfitted with wireless DMX capabilities. Compact and perfect for table spotting or close proximity washes. Great mounting bracket on a rugged enclosure.
The ProPar Z19: The LED par features an outstanding 5° to 60° zoom. Featuring 19 15W LEDs it comes in an all white version or with four-in-one colored LEDs. Built in chases and macros can be run via DMX or in stand-alone mode.
The Flurry Beam: A moving head fixture featuring a single sharp 2.5° beam. A single 60W four-in-one RGBW light source with an ultra smooth dimming system and strobe capabilities.
