Loudspeaker maker introduces products

Aluminous Audio, a company that Luke and Kelsey Zitterkopf founded in their Spokane Valley home four years ago to design and build high-end consumer sound system speakers, has launched its initial products and has begun marketing them through its website.

Luke Zitterkopf, Aluminous Audio’s president, says the company’s first two products are the A13.02 Sealed Cabinet Monitor, which are available as stereo pairs or as single speakers for surround-sound use, and the SU13.01 Subwoofer.

As reflected in the company’s name, both products feature aluminum sealed-cabinet construction, which Zitterkopf claims give them certain sound advantages over wood-enclosed speakers. A pair of the monitors sells for $15,000, and the subwoofer, which is driven by an internal 175-watt amplifier, sells for $5,000.

Zitterkopf, who holds an MBA degree from Eastern Washington University, says the products are designed to appeal to audiophiles, the majority of whom aren’t affluent but love owning and listening to music through high-quality speakers. Though expensive compared with a lot of speakers, he says Aluminous Audio speakers are priced at the low end of the audiophile market segment.

Along with marketing the speakers through its website, Zitterkopf says the company is working to establish a dealership network—starting with Reference Media, which operates stores in Bellingham and Everett, Wash.—and might do some collaborative promotions with other companies that offer luxury lifestyle products. It also expects to do some advertising in prominent industry publications, he says.

Zitterkopf says he’s spent the last several years designing and refining the speakers. The company acquires its speaker components from mostly European suppliers, although a USWP Manufacturing shop in the Valley has done some of the required aluminum plate machining, he says.

Zitterkopf is assembling the speakers at his Valley home and is the company’s only full-time employee. He says he hopes to see demand for the speakers grow to the point that he eventually can lease a 20,000- to 30,000-square-foot production space and employ as many as 10 to 20 people.

—Kim Crompton

Empire Cycle adds amphibious ATVs

Empire Cycle & Powersports LLC, at 7807 E. Sprague, says it recently has added a new product to its inventory that’s part all-terrain vehicle and part personal watercraft.

The Gibbs Quadski Amphibian, made in the U.S. and retailing for around $45,000, is designed for users who want to be able to drive their ATV on trails down to the boat dock and directly into the water. The Quadski becomes what’s called a high-speed amphibian, or HSA, in five seconds at the touch of a button, says Debbie Ellis, Empire Cycle co-owner.

The Quadski has a lightweight composite hull, uses proprietary water-jet technology, and is powered by a four-cylinder K1300 BMW Motorade motorcycle engine and transmission, Empire Cycle says in a press release. It weighs 1,300 pounds, is fitted with a 15-gallon gas tank, and can reach planing speeds within seconds after transitioning from land to water, the Spokane Valley dealer says. Typical buyers, it says, are wealthy individuals using the amphibian recreationally.

 “They’re buying them because they’re the coolest thing to come on the market in the last 20 years,” Ellis asserts. “A typical situation would be a homeowner who lives on a lake. He wants to go play out on the water as well as take a ride through his acreage while enjoyed the diverse road capability of it. It can do things that nothing else has ever done.”

She says the Quadski was designed with a more utilitarian use in mind, that being for search-and-rescue, lifeguarding, emergency-services, and aid personnel to be able to reach quickly areas inaccessible to other convention vehicles or watercraft.

Empire Cycle also carries Triumph, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Arctic Cat, and Vespa brand vehicles.

 

—Kim Crompton

Lawyer opens office north of downtown

Attorney Sean E. Johnson has opened a new law firm here doing business as Johnson Law Firm PC. 

Housed in a two-story building on the northeast corner of Maple Street and Sharp Avenue, the law practice occupies about 1,000 square feet of floor space. It will focus on personal injury, criminal defense, business formation, and estate planning legal issues, but it also will take on real estate and family-law cases, Johnson says.  

He currently employs a local virtual support company for general office help.

“I’m hoping to grow the business here and eventually will add more employees, but right now I’m keeping overhead low,” Johnson says. 

Johnson and his wife, Trina, who works for the Shriners Hospital for Children-Spokane, relocated to Spokane from Butte, Mont., in February 2014, due to a promotion she received with the hospital. Sean practiced law in Butte for 11 years.

He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Montana in Missoula and his law degree here at Gonzaga University. He is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts in Montana and Washington, as well as before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Johnson’s previous experience included litigating jury and bench trials, resolving cases through alternative dispute resolution, participating in administrative hearings interpreting contracts, and appellate work. 

 

—Judith Spitzer

Technology firm launches new app

Adworkz Inc., a Spokane-based advertising technology company, has launched a new, free mobile application called Rimento, aimed at helping users organize insurance documents, says co-owner Evan Ernst. 

Ernst, who co-owns Adworkz with Alec Foster, says the Rimento app launched in mid-May. It’s available now in the iTunes app store, and soon will be available for Android phones as well, he says. 

Rimento, Ernst says, can store and organize insurance paperwork and identification cards. 

 “When a user downloads the app, they can snap photos of their existing ID cards, or they can scan a code on them that documents it directly into the app,” he says. “On the surface level, it’s an app that makes it easy to manage your insurance documents and IDs for free.”

Adworkz occupies a 4,000-square-foot leased space on the fourth floor of the Peyton Building, at 10 N. Post downtown. The company currently is working on developing partnerships with insurance carriers so that documents can be downloaded directly to the Rimento app, eliminating the need for hard copies entirely, Ernst says. 

“It would replace the process of getting new ID cards, whether it’s medical, home, or auto,” Ernst says. 

He acknowledges that many insurers have their own apps. Rimento isn’t meant to replace those, he says, but rather to give consumers the option to store insurance documents from multiple carriers in one program. 

“It’s a place you’d keep all the documents across all the existing insurance (carriers) you have,” he says. 

Adworkz, which has 10 employees, opened in Spokane in 2009, Ernst says. In addition to Rimento, the company has Web programs geared toward automotive dealerships and a few other mobile products, such as coupon and membership card creating apps. 

 

—Katie Ross