AeroFactor UPDATE

I found Rich Chiappe, the designer of the AeroFactor practice pad.

I located his current place of business and emailed him at his office.

When I got home in the evening, I found his very friendly response waiting in my inbox.

Here is his story:

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“The back story of the Pad is basically this (in a nutshell):

I’ve been a drummer for nearly 50 years.

I raised 3 kids — all of whom played percussion in band — one of whom is a professional drummer in Nashville.

They all needed practice pads.  So we bought them practice pads.  Lots of them.  All basically a circle of rubber glued to an MDF substrate.   

Some were big like a real drum - great for practicing in different stike zones but each zone sounded and reacted the same. And big pads are hard to take to school and home again without damaging them after shoving them into lockers, dropping them, etc.  So we buy another one.  And another one.  I wasn’t impressed. But they could be mounted in a 3-point snare stand for proper standing practice.

One of them was small and fit in a drum bag.  More practical but still saddled with improper technical response and now a limited number of strikable zones.  And it couldn’t be held at standing height other than placing it on a music stand (lame).

None of them had a rim. And come-on. Without a rim, what are you practicing!?  Shoulder strikes are NOT rim shots.

I was running an aircraft parts manufacturing business that was basically running itself and I got bored and creative. 

I dreamt up a better mousetrap:

• Use durable materials (aluminum)
• Design the bed of the primary strike zone to be a “spring” so strikes react like a real drumhead does
• Remove all the rarely used strike zones but retain a “runway” for practicing over the snares or up to to the rim for pianissimo dynamics and have the pad react like a real snare drum would there - tighter spring/return action.
• Make it mountable in a 3-point snare stand
• Utilize the unused nearside strikezone to simulate a warm-up pad (think “phonebook” action).  Put a cook graphic under clear soft silicone there that could be customized for a School or Drum Corps.  I designed the graphics there and put my Daughter’s name in there - see if you can find it. ; )
• Make it carryable in a (large) stickbacg
• Make it well - precision manufacturing - premium pricing.  A $100 drum pad you buy ONCE instead of 3-1/3 “cheap” ones.
• Kids were walking around with $1,000 cell phones in high school.  There would be plenty of families that could afford a quality drum pad.  Not to mention the professionals out there.
• Package it like an iPhone — beautiful boxing, detailed instructions, neoprene case that holds a drumkey, pencil and drumsticks and inserts that explain it all
• Make it a prestigious product — something a kid might strive for and cherish
• Emphasize our aviation roots and expertise in how we market and brand.  Note all the aviation references in the box art etc.

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I asked him about the sticks and he told me that had been a very small side quest, only a couple dozen sets were made and sold on Amazon. (He kept one pair for himself.)

He told me that about 400 pads were made and they were offered for sale on Amazon.

The original retail price for the pad in its neoprene case, in 2015, was $100.

(Imagine what that pad would sell for now, eight years later. I figure at least $150-200.)

Rich was tickled to be contacted, and happy that I had managed to get my hands on one of his pads.

He has no plans to revive the company at this time; he and his wife are enjoying their empty nest now that their kid are grown and gone, and he’s in a completely different line of work today. 

But he graciously shared these photos with me. The first is of the liner card that came with the pad. The other two are his sketches of the idea, before it went into production.

It was a lovely conversation and I am glad to know more about the pad.

Happy drumming.