From left to right: Duck Dynasty’s Jay Stone, John Goodwin, Justin Martin and Jeff Sorensen of Inhibitor
They are all clients of Jeff Sorensen. Jeff, founder of Inhibitor, an industrial strength, rust preventative system, has been a client of NIU EIGERlab’s Center for Product Development (C4PD) since its inception. Jeff’s well-known clients range from the Robertson family—better-known as A&E’s Duck Dynasty— Ted Nugent, Plano, Remington, the U.S. Government and a more locally known Midwest retail chain, Menards. He’s proud to share this is an American-made product.
Jeff has two additional claims to fame: owner of the first incubating company at NIU EIGERlab and one of the first companies that employed NIU EIGERlab’s 3D printing services. In utilizing all of the services which encompassed NIU EIGERlab’s one-stop resources, he completed the barrage of paperwork—an essential step to doing business with the U.S. Government—and now sells his unique products to four branches of the armed forces: Army, Marines, Air Force and National Guard. They use his rust preventative system on everything from handguns to tank barrels.
While still in high school, Jeff’s first entrepreneurial undertaking was men’s cosmetics and fragrances. With the economic downturn in the 80’s, he moved on to what would prove to be a more lucrative and innovative invention. He received his big break with the Inhibitor, which piqued the interest of Snap-on based in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There was an amazingly short window of time between the first sales call for the Inhibitor Toolbox Plug and Snap-on’s first sizeable order. NIU EIGERlab’s C4PD played a key role in his ability to quickly fill the order by utilizing their rapid prototyping equipment.
After almost 18 years, Jeff has built market share, brand and respect along the way. Jeff lives by the statement, “If you don’t innovate, you don’t survive,” and continues to call NIU EIGERlab’s C4PD a partner in his success. The Duck Dynasty crew have used his products since the onset, and Ted Nugent, an avid hunter, uses and strongly endorses the products. Jeff experiences approximately 10,000 website hits each month and has shipped Inhibitor products to many countries throughout the world.
Jeff’s future plans include a totally new endeavor—writing a book. He feels that sharing his crazy experiences including all of the twists, turns, setbacks, successes and offers to purchase his company, are something most inventors and entrepreneurs experience. He’d like to share his wisdom to assist others with avoiding setbacks. During his journey, even though he’s experienced disappointing lows, the exhilarating highs have outweighed the setbacks. Jeff stated, “He wouldn’t have chosen any other path.”