Z-Man Fishing Products
In this day and age, finding consumer products – including fishing lures – that are made in the United States is increasingly difficult. Unfortunately, cheap labor has driven the manufacturing of most rods, reels, hooks, lures and lines overseas. At the same time, discriminating anglers still demand both performance and value when it comes time to select artificial lures. One company that has bucked the outsourcing trend and strived to provide top-notch lures that offer more bang-for-the-buck is Z-Man Fishing Products, based out of Ladson,SC.
Though Z-Man is a relatively new name to most anglers, the company has actually been in business for over 30 years. Z-Man began as a manufacturer of silicone skirts and skirt-making materials used to make bass baits, operating mainly behind the scenes and catering to many of the world’s largest lure manufacturers.
As the tackle industry evolved, Z-Man has adjusted its strategy and has worked hard to establish itself as a premium lure brand in both the fresh- and saltwater markets. Around 10 years ago, the company burst onto the scene with the introduction of the Original ChatterBait® brand bladed swim jig after that lure saw a tremendous surge in success on the national bass tournament scene. The ChatterBait has since cemented itself as a staple item among bass angles and is arguably responsible for more tournament winnings than any other lure in the last 10 years!
More recently, Z-Man has been making a big splash in both fresh- and saltwater lure markets with its proprietary 10X Tough ElaZtech® soft plastics, which are all manufactured in its Ladson plant. Unlike traditional plastics, which are made from PVC, ElaZtech baits are very soft but extremely durable and are even able to withstand multiple strikes from toothy gamefish. Anglers have reported catching more than 200 fish on a single ElaZtech bait! Perhaps more importantly, while regular soft baits contain chemicals called phthalates that are potentially harmful to fish and humans, ElaZtech is 100% non-toxic.
Today, you would be hard-pressed to find a serious angler who is not familiar with Z-Man baits. On the saltwater side, the durability of the ElaZtech material has made Z-Man’s line of Scented BaitZ, which are impregnated with a blend of baitfish scents, a top-seller among inshore anglers. While other soft baits are easily destroyed by toothy (and often pesky) saltwater species like bluefish, ElaZtech baits allow anglers targeting redfish, seatrout and flounder to keep catching rather than constantly re-baiting. With Z-Man based in the Lowcountry, local waters provide fertile testing grounds where company lure developers can fine-tune new products (like the brand new EZ ShrimpZ) to ensure maximum effectiveness.
In freshwater fisheries, Z-Man’s Ned Rig finesse system, which pairs small wormlike baits with light jigheads, has found its way into the tackle lockers of ardent bass anglers as an almost failsafe means of producing bites in tough fishing conditions and has brought ElaZtech into the limelight. The fact that the ElaZtech material itself is naturally buoyant allows lures like the Finesse TRD, Hula StickZ, and Finesse WormZ to stand up off the bottom at rest and attract strikes when other soft plastic baits will not. With the addition of a variety of worm, crawfish and baitfish profiles, there is now an ElaZtech bait for virtually every bass fishing application.
Z-Man is headquartered just outside Charleston, where it operates its injection molding plant, warehouse and offices from a new 37,500 square-foot facility. In addition to its 30 full-time employees, Z-Man provides work for many more individuals throughout the Lowcountry. Another 40 part-time employees assist with packaging baits from their homes, and Z-Man also works closely with the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Division to provide a steady flow of assembling and packaging work in its job training centers in Dorchester and Berkley counties. All-in-all, upwards of 100 South Carolinians may be engaged in selling, building and shipping Z-Man products on any given day!
In the last three years, Z-Man’s business has grown dramatically, both domestically and internationally. In addition to supplying independent retailers – including local shops like Haddrell’s Point, The Charleston Angler and Palmetto State Armory – Z-Man also now serves many national retailers and chain stores including Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Academy, Walmart and Dick’s, as well as multiple wholesale distributors. As anglers worldwide have learned about Z-Man’s incredibly durable soft plastic baits, its international business has also increased steadily; Z-Man now has distributors in over 30 countries on six continents and is the top-selling soft bait brand in Australia and New Zealand!
What’s next for Z-Man? At the recent ICAST fishing tackle industry trade show in July, Z-Man launched a record 17 new products, including a variety of new soft plastic profiles, jigheads and skirted jigs. If that’s any indication of what’s to come, then expect plenty more innovative, quality, cutting-edge, South Carolina-made new fishing lures coming down the pipe!