In the late 1950’s, two young brothers John and Brian were paid a bounty of 10 cents by their father for every mouse they caught near the outside of their house. The brothers first tried cheese as bait, since mice in cartoons always loved cheese. The results from cheese weren’t as good as expected. Then experiments began with different baits on the mousetraps. The goal was not just to find a bait that worked better than cheese, but to find a bait that the mice really went for and would attract every mouse that went near it. From these humble beginnings the spark was kindled and the earliest foundations laid.

In the 1960’s the family moved to a more remote location with many animals around. Always eager to improve on their success, the brothers soon began to think about the different scents that different animals reacted to. Whenever they would see anything written about scents attracting animals they would really dig into it. From there it was just a short step to conducting experiments in hopes of learning how to improve upon what was available to hunters at the time.

After years of hunting trips, hobby experimentations, and lots of trial and error, the brothers, with help from their Dad, hit on an irresistible formula that attracted deer like nothing they’d ever seen before – Trail’s End #307.

We created Compact by Design to identify products that, while they may not always look very different, have a more efficient design. With the removal of excess air and water, products require less packaging and become more efficient to ship. At scale, these small differences in product size and weight lead to significant carbon emission reductions.