Door County, Kewaunee County products don't advance in 'Coolest Thing' contest
MADISON - Unfortunately, online voters decided the “Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin” this year isn't coming from Door or Kewaunee counties.
Neither the variable width mobile boat hoists built by Marine Travelift, Inc. in Sturgeon Bay nor the SAS Extreme Auto Processor made by SAS Forks in Luxemburg made the cut for the top 16 products in the eighth annual “Coolest Thing” contest sponsored by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and Johnson Financial Group.
The products from Marine Travelift and SAS Forks were among 115 nominees from across the state for the first round of voting, which was open to the public via the contest website and ran Sept. 18-26.
The top 16 vote-getters from the first round have been placed into "Manufacturing Madness" brackets for tournament-style, head-to-head matchups, with the winners again determined by online public voting. The vote to determine the top 8 runs from Sept. 28 to Oct. 3, followed by the vote from Oct. 5-10 to narrow the bracket to the top 4 and the final round to determine the "Coolest Thing" from Oct. 12-18. The winner will be announced Oct. 19 during WMC's Business Day event in Madison. The public can cast one vote every day on any device.
Marine Travelift, which specializes in boat hoists and other boat handling equipment, was nominated for its innovative variable width hoists that offer more flexibility in servicing and storing boats by being able to use space that otherwise would be taken up by a standard, fixed-width hoist. They are available with a variety of lifting capacities.
SAS Forks, which builds equipment for the the auto salvage industry, was nominated for its new auto processor that's designed to recover valuable materials such as wiring harnesses, radiators, heater cores, engines, transmissions or catalytic converters from scrap car bodies.
The goal of the contest is to highlight the state’s diverse manufacturing industry, and that can be seen in the 16 products still in contention for the "Coolest Thing," which are seeded and matched up based on votes garnered in the first round.
The top seed is the Bevi Bottleless Water Dispenser made by Plexus Corp. in Appleton, and other contenders include a data server, an offroad vehicle, safety-toed work boots, a safety helmet, a limited-edition snow thrower, a dry van (enclosed box) trailer for semi trucks, a self-sharpening lawn mower blade, a magnetic embroidery hoop, ammunition, a street car designed to resemble a 1950s race car, Skee-Ball, string cheese, Nueske's smoked bacon and Jolly Good soda.
To vote, visit madeinwis.com during the voting periods and click on the "Vote Now" button.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin's 'Coolest Thing' won't be from Door County, Kewaunee County
