PRODUCT RELEASE
Designed and manufactured in the U.S.A., Connect-Ease® makes outdoor activities more enjoyable with reliable, clean power and affordable, easy, hassle-free rigging solutions
In the early 1970s, Cal Munkvold, hardcore angler, shooting sports expert/instructor, and hunter, grew up in Dakota farm country and learned at a very young age how to improvise fixes on broken equipment and machinery to keep things running smooth.
These experiences stayed with him throughout his life, and he lives by a simple motto we’ve heard him utter more than once in the Connect-Ease® shop: “We love to find ways to make things work better while solving everyday problems along the way.”
After a long career in the I.T. consulting industry and a patent for an innovative project management system, Munkvold was encouraged by friends to bring his solution focus to the marine and outdoor industry and he decided to create Connect-Ease® in 2013, following his passion for a lifetime for outdoor pursuits.
Still abiding by the 12-hour work day he learned growing up, Munkvold’s brain is always buzzing with new ideas of how to improve the outdoor experience, especially products that allow an easier, problem-free experience on the water fishing and boating.
“I keep a notebook on my nightstand. Sometimes, I’ll wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning with a customer’s question or problem and write down an idea for a new rigging product. It’s always been that way. I like to make things work easier, faster, and better,” says Munkvold.
And that’s been the case with an outdoor power/rigging solutions company called Connect-Ease, a boot-straps project Cal started of a modest residential garage space in 2013.
The result?
An unprecedented system for connecting outdoor equipment, with easy removal, maintenance, and replacement of all deep cycle and marine-style batteries in various outdoor sports applications.
Additionally, a growing number of Connect-Ease products have been designed specifically to meet growing power demands and lithium battery technology.
“After rigging countless fishing boats, ATVs, golf carts, and lawn tractors for buddies—as well as my own—over the years, I knew there had to be a better way. The same goes for hooking up batteries in everything from RVs, sporting clay machines, backup power for basement sump pumps, UTVs, golf carts, farm machinery, off-grid systems, you-name-it,” says Munkvold.
From the very start, Munkvold was innovating—creating a family of products like nobody had ever seen before.
He started with a series of easy-to-use, bullet-proof connections for sporting clay machines, then a series and parallel rigging kit designs for easy and reliable trolling motor installations, followed by a better way to rig today’s complex fishing electronics without countless trips to the hardware store in search of the correct gauge wire, fuses, fuse blocks, connectors, etc.
“Our focus from the start,” says Munkvold, “was to serve the needs of the overall outdoors community and provide innovative, quality power/rigging kits, parts, and accessories, at an affordable price.”
The interest and growing demand quickly became apparent.
Connect-Ease began growing to serve an ever-larger market, and in 2017, Munkvold moved operations and warehouse facilities, which the company quickly outgrew. The company then began a great partnership with a top-notch American manufacturing, assembly, and packaging team to serve their growing customer base.
In 2021, Connect-Ease opened a new R&D facility, warehouse, and installation facility in Prior Lake, Minnesota, while expanding their assembly and packaging location in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, to better serve their retail partners (Bass Pro/Cabela’s, Scheels, various distributors, retailers, and multiple lithium battery manufacturers).
The Connect-Ease R&D and installation location has quickly become a national resource and destination for outdoors industry enthusiasts and professionals. Customers from across the country were excited to finally get the power rigging products they needed but were unable to find elsewhere—all at a fair price.
The Connect-Ease team’s expertise helps customers create products and custom solutions that are designed for their unique power/rigging application, all at or below budget.
“From the start, Connect-Ease maintained facilities staffed with power/rigging experts for all outdoors-related equipment, from complex tournament fishing boats with today’s sophisticated electronics, to RV/off-grid systems, motorsports, to equipment for the field and farm. Besides offering turn-key, retail-ready Connect-Ease rigging solutions, our expertise includes creating unique, custom power/rigging applications for multiple industries. The Connect-Ease goal has always been to offer high-quality products that make the outdoors experience problem-free and long-lasting,” offers Munkvold.
Fast-forward to 2023. Connect-Ease now has a nationwide customer base and wide end-user acceptance with literally hundreds of viewable 5-star reviews online. In the fishing arena, the launch of GRAPH-POWER® Pro has earned accolades from tournament pros to weekend anglers for making the set-up of today’s elaborate forward-facing sonar and other fish-finding products a breeze. Rigging that used to take hours now takes minutes.
From a small, garage operation to a nationally recognized leader in their field, Connect-Ease has made excellent use of its expanded facilities, experience, and expertise to serve the outdoor community in the Fishing, Camping, Hunting, Adventure/Play segments, recently adding countless product lines in Kayak Fishing, Ice Fishing, Solar, RV/Off-Grid/Boondocking, Golf Carts, Jet Skis/ATV/UTV, and Agricultural vertical markets.
Connect-Ease products can be found at retailers including Bass Pro/Cabela’s, Scheels, Camping World, Made in USA, Dakota Lithium—and are also stocked by wholesalers/distributors SeaWide and Northern Wholesale.
What’s next for Connect-Ease?
Helping the next guy who drives across the country with his boat to put an end to ongoing power problems—while still providing products via wholesale and retail partners that customers can order online and finally fix their own power/rigging issues affordably at home, and on their own timeframe—or with the rigger of their choice.
Anglers can also visit Connect-Ease in person at the Bassmaster Classic Expo, Booth #116, March 22-24, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Or visit www.connect-ease.com
ABOUT Connect-Ease®
Connect-Ease is a Minnesota-based company with a passion and mission to develop innovative, practical, long-lasting, and easy-to-install power/rigging systems that allow sportsmen and women to enjoy more time in the great outdoors.
