- [Announcer] Production funding for Making it up North is provided by the citizens of Minnesota through the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

- I couldn't get into my new vehicle after a muddy ride, and I needed to find a solution.

A soapy washcloth just can't be beat.

- Get out the old brushroom.

One dirty mushroom in your bag.

You're going to dirt up all your other mushrooms.

So, you know, if you clean them as you pick them then all of a sudden you get home and you got like a fifth of the work you got to do normally.

- As a physical therapist we treat a lot with people on the ground but ultimately people want to get up and walk.

The goal of physical therapy is always to have people moving better.

(upbeat music) - There you go.

Here you go.

I've been mountain biking for over 30 years and it just, you know, I don't tell everybody this but I moved to Duluth with the family largely to be part of the mountain bike community up here.

It's phenomenal.

- Dad got us introduced to mount biking, like probably six, seven-ish?

- Seven for me, yeah.

- Maybe a little earlier.

- Yeah, maybe.

- The girls and I get out at least once a week.

And I get out probably three times a week onto the amazing trails we have here in Duluth.

For me, it's more about the adrenaline.

I just enjoy going really fast.

I'm competitive, so I'm always trying to improve my own personal records.

And Duluth's trails are known for being a little muddy.

So I couldn't get into my new vehicle after a muddy ride and I needed to find a solution.

So I bought every baby wipe, adult wipe that you can find and they just weren't cutting it.

And that's where crud cloth was born cause a soapy washcloth just can't be beat.

So this is a crud cloth.

And inside a crud cloth is a soap pod, that's kept separate from the washcloth and to activate it you don't need any tools.

All you have to do is smack it.

So it's kind of fun, just like an instant ice pack.

And this is our patent pending design.

So quite innovative, you just smack it, you pop the inner pod.

- I mean, it's pretty hard, but we've whacked it against tables and that's worked too.

- You squish it around to get the wash cloth nice and soapy.

It's a full size, a hundred percent cotton washcloth.

- It's a 12 by 12 washcloth.

- So you can clean yourself up from head to toe, we recommend.

And then when you're done, the bag is resealable.

So then take it home and launder it.

There's so many purposes for a nice cotton wash cloth.

(classical music) Like making a bunch of water balloons.

- Little soap, and then water and essential oils.

So it's just kind of, but like body wash.

But like it doesn't leave a soapy residue.

- [Tim] Yeah, we have a fairly simple assembly process that consists of making the bags ourselves, filling up the pods with our soapy water solution.

You know, we take all the care that we can to make sure that the pods are as sanitary as possible.

It's making sure that the pods themselves don't have any bacteria in them.

So we do a UV sterilization in a homemade tunnel that does an incredible job of making sure that those pods are shelf stable for a long time.

And then assembling them through inserting a washcloth, putting in a pod, passing it off to my daughter who then vacuum packs it.

And then my other daughter will squeeze it flat.

And that's also our quality control to make sure that the packs don't leak.

Yeah, it's a well choreographed and oiled machine.

We've got it down to a science.

- For the product that we had now.

We had to dunk the washcloths and soapy water.

And then squeeze them to wring them out until we have the right amount.

And then fold them.

- [Tim] We've probably got about 40 or 50 different iterations in the last couple of years.

- [Madison] It took a lot of tries to find one that is pretty good.

Like we're probably not still like at the best.

But hopefully that's coming soon.

- Yeah, I've got a fantastic work crew.

They're kind of obligated to help me out.

I started this business not only because I think we have an amazing product but because I want to give entrepreneurial experiences to children.

- [Madison] It's pretty special to have time with him and do a business or family business.

- What we were packing today actually is going to a bike shop in Boston.

They are curating group rides where their customers are paying a small amount and getting a gift bag after the ride.

So they've been a great customer for us.

This is now their fifth order.

- [Madison] Once we get an order then we make them not just always have stock.

But it's nice to have stock too.

- [Tim] I think our biggest-- Crud cloth's biggest challenge right now is getting the word out.

We've had really good success working through new digital channels including YouTube influencers.

- The Crud Cloth.

- And they've been happy to review it and giving us a huge audience.

You know, I think we've got like 31 subscribers to our YouTube channel.

Seth's Bike Hacks, over a million.

So to get a platform of that magnitude has been tremendous for us.

- [Seth] This one is Lavender.

- Really, you just can't give up.

Like if it doesn't work out at first, you just have to kind of keep going at this.

- Try again.

The curd cloth has come a long way through trial and error.

- [Madison] It's a lot faster than it used to be.

- [Molly] Like one or two crud cloths a minutes to now-- - [Molly] Probably three.

- [Madison] There or-- - [Madison] Yeah, three.

- Well, you know, we're growing rapidly and I don't think we've, we've made it yet.

Every week, we're advancing our operations, we're increasing our sales, we're reaching new markets.

- [Tim] Let me, let me just finish a few more.

Then I can cross it off my list of to-do today.

I think making it for us is where-- Where we can be a little bit more hands off and feel like the business is sustainable through the momentum that it's achieved.

But right now it's, you know, it's a hard fought.

Everything, every sale we make, every crud cloth we make is our blood, sweat and tears into it.

- Dad carried it, dad uses it first.

- Sure.

- [Tim] Well, I'm a serial entrepreneur and I love starting businesses.

So we're looking to get this business to a point that we can attract some partners.

And maybe sell the business so we can start our next thing.

And their girls can be with me along the ride for that as well.

- There, yeah.

- And it still keeps going.

(chuckles) (drums beating) - You ready (indistinct)?

- Oh, there they are, it might be a king.

That's a scaly Bay chanterelle.

So this is a bullet.

So that's lobster mushroom right there, that's a good find.

- Yeah, he makes it fun.

You know, it's something, a hobby a family hobby that I never thought I would get into.

- That's a real nice one.

I like the ones with the big stocky stem.

- Looking for yellow right now, specifically and orange.

So anything that stands out.

- So all in this mossy area you can just see the little gold popping through.

It's not as good as it has been on some occasions but it's still a decent spot.

And it goes back a ways.

For the most part lots of mushrooms kind of reoccur in the same area year after year.

When you do find that honey hole you're just like, "Oh yeah, there it is."

And they're all just right there for the pickup, so.

Chelsea's real good at mushroom hunting.

She's found a lot of firsts First lobsters and first chanterelles and stuff like that.

That, that looks like a nice one.

Is that the one you're talking about, Chelsea?

This one is prime, almost.

From the backside, it looks real nice.

Get out old brushroom.

My name's Luke Durand.

I got a little, etsy shop called Workshop to Woods.

One dirty mushroom in your bag.

You're going to dirt up all your other mushrooms.

So, it might be a kind of a pain in the field.

And when you're all excited and you're on a patch of mushrooms, but you know, if you clean them as you pick them, then all of a sudden you get home and you got like a fifth of the work you got to do normally.

(buzzing and whirring) - I think it is in the Winter and I just wanted-- I wasn't doing anything at the time.

So I wanted to try to make a mushroom brush.

So I actually bought a couple of different brushes.

And when I got them in the mail, some are too long.

And then I settled on a shaving cream brush and then I shaped it to, you know, a mushroom shape.

And then I dribbled it and it actually looked really good.

(buzzing and whirring) So then I made six of them and then just posted that to Facebook.

And I think the name, the brushroom, and like just the fact that they're kind of nichey and cute.

Like really got some people that normally wouldn't buy them for foraging to buy them.

So, so that worked out all right.

(country music) Now, I just printed off a bunch of decals at my place, I work.

I'm a graphic designer at Advanced Design.

So the boss is nice enough to let me come in after hours and print off what I need.

We got there a little mushroom scrolls.

They're about 30 inches wide, five inches tall.

So it gives a description of what the mushroom actually is, the habitat, when you might find it and the lookalikes.

There's thousands and thousands of species, you know, and not all of them are edible, but those are the main ones.

(buzzing and whirring) (upbeat music) People say they're good.

The bristles are like soft enough to where they don't damage the mushroom.

But they're stiff enough to where they're still cleaning and you can kind of pinch them and get into cracks and crevices too.

So they're kind of more universal in that sense where you can really, you know kind of do whatever you need to do with them whether you're cleaning a mushroom, a lobster mushroom over a large surface area, or, you know you're cleaning their fall gills of a chanterelle, It works out for both pretty well.

- He's persuaded me to try a number that I wouldn't have tried.

and you know, it just, I think he's aimed and he's focused and he's going to try his best.

And we're just going to keep going.

I just like making stuff.

And, you know, I-- I just feel good when I make stuff.

And then like, if like I sell one to somebody really likes it, you know, that's going to make my day right there.

Cause that's what I like doing, is making stuff for people that are going to appreciate it and, you know, just see it for what it is.

I think if anyone gave mushroom hunting a chance, you know, it's like you find a couple of things that you're looking for and it's like, "Why am I not doing this every day?"

So, yeah, we enjoy it.

We enjoy being out in the woods and yeah just making the most of it.

(soft music) (upbeat music) - We had a client who had injured his neck in a industrial accident.

And most things had come back really nicely but he couldn't run.

Body weight support was just coming out at the time.

I had seen systems couldn't afford them and decided I'd rig up my own.

So I took a bolt winch, we had a high ceiling in place, so I ran a cable up a wall, over a steel beam, came down onto a fish scale cause you had to have some up and down motion.

And attach that onto a traction belt.

And Dan was kind enough to say "Okay, I'm ready for this".

And he got on and started moving and there was all kinds of clunking and everything else.

But within about five minutes, he said, "It doesn't hurt."

- As a physical therapist, We treat a lot with people on the ground or on hands and knees, et cetera.

But ultimately people who want to get up and walk.

And that's why I developed, Lightspeed.

It was a way of holding them up and helping them to get to that next stage.

- He takes 30 pounds of the 35 pounds or 40 pounds off of me, so it becomes easier.

- The idea in my head was how do we come up with a system that can fit within a normal physical therapy practice, work with existing equipment, because most people have treadmills, and be inexpensive.

As someone's moving, there's an up and down motion, there's a rotation motion, there's a side to side motion and you don't want to block that.

So to get this as normal as possible that was the whole goal.

- We're changing fundamentally the way that we think about movement, about training, rehabilitation.

We're bringing it back to the center and saying, "Let's rethink how we're doing this."

- This could help people, even if they're not injured they could run faster, farther.

With that light bulb in my head, it became more important to have a system that was efficient and comfortable to use.

Because the systems that were there were designed for someone that had a full-out stroke or was paralyzed.

And we needed something that would be comfortable and portable.

It was not my intention to develop this.

I wanted to have it available.

Went to trade shows, looked at trade journals.

Right I had a couple of other systems but nothing was really there.

I knew that it had to be, it had to lift from the hip because that's where the center motion is.

And once I saw it that there was a paradigm switch.

I saw a French trampoline with a cage on it.

I went, "Oh, yeah.

That, that's how we can make this fit around a treadmill."

All along the way really saying if somebody comes up with a better design I'm happy to step aside, but this is the best design that's on the market for the majority of people.

And so forward we go.

Phil is a man I've known for a long time.

He's a personal trainer himself and helps people move.

He's been dealing with a very, very sore knee for years now, 20 years or so.

And as a result, he gained weight, lost mobility.

Plus lost some of his zest.

He's a man who was exercised all his life.

Even after his knee replacement, he was still having trouble.

He still had a significant hitch in his giddy up, so to speak.

He's been fun to work with because I can't push him hard enough.

- Walking with the walking with the straps on, I can walk fast.

My goal is to be able to be functional that I really don't need the Lightspeed.

That I got my posture back, I could walk better.

I can-- My balance has got better because as we get older we start losing those things.

I've walked on my own now, not really fast but faster than I did before because of this.

Everything that in the Lightspeed system is-- Was designed in Duluth by a local engineer, Mike Burgess, with Fanstech Design.

It's manufactured by Hydro Solutions, a company up by the airport there.

They do great work for us.

90% of the sewing is done in the Lincoln Park district by JC Sewing, works out of the Frost River Building.

She's a magician and has really helped us out huge local.

And it's allowed me to be nimble on this.

If I was trying to work this even out of Minneapolis it'd be so much more awkward.

But there's tremendous talent in Duluth.

Bud has been tremendous at opening opening doors and getting more people to see.

We brought in elite athletes.

We have a base awareness of the product in this country in college athletics, in elite athletes and in some rehab centers that it's a great product.

Works, it's cost-effective and it's efficient to use.

University of Oregon just purchased three of them to put in their newly remodel Hayward field.

Custom painted, colored.

So it will get used by athletes from around the world, the best in the world.

I went into physical therapy to help people move better.

I had the honor of doing that with many people in the Duluth secure community over the years.

This is a project that I've got to see through to get it to the next level where it is used by more people around-- Around the country and around the world.

I'm a marathon man, myself and that's what I've signed up for.

(upbeat music)