Small Business Support Hub Success Story: Superior Fishing Products
Mark Heltunen has always loved fishing. Some of his earliest and fondest memories have been on the waters of Lake Superior. As Mark grew older and his fishing hobby became more advanced, he noticed a gap in the market. Many of the products he relied on didn’t fully meet his needs.
After years of putting up with insufficient equipment, he decided to begin fabricating his own solutions. What started as a passion project back in 2020 has now grown into Superior Fishing Products, a rapidly evolving manufacturing business right in the heart of the Keweenaw.
“I successfully turned a hobby into a job,” he laughed. “And I think that’s a good thing.”
– Mark Heltunen, Co-Founder
Mark quickly realized that the demand for custom-fabricated, high-quality fishing accessories was very real. In an effort to expand his product offerings and manufacturing, Mark brought on co-owner Luke Aho, an experienced machinist, back in 2024. Today, Superior Fishing Products, under the broader umbrella of Superior Welding Marine LLC and Superior Advanced Manufacturing, offers precision machining, welding, product design, and custom fabrication for both anglers and industry partners.
As the business continued to grow, Mark and Luke found themselves running into the same challenge: boat manufacturers constantly updated their designs. Each change forced Superior Fishing to remeasure product specs and adjust dimensions to ensure a perfect fit. This process, remeasuring and creating precise, custom solutions, was extremely time consuming.
Many of their accessories, for example, attach to boat gunnels, the top edge of a boat’s hull. Every company uses slightly different gunnel designs, and those designs often change year to year. In order to deliver proper-fitting products, Superior Fishing had to keep up with these frequent updates from major boat manufacturers. Even minor changes can created major obstacles for their team. Initially, Mark and Luke were measuring gunnels manually with tape measures and calipers.
“There’s human error, and sometimes we didn’t have access to the newest models,” Mark explained. “The real challenge was collecting accurate data quickly enough to keep up.”
Through the Small Business Support Hub Grant, Superior Fishing Products was able to purchase a professional 3D scanner. Instead of relying on physical samples or manual measurements, the team can now make highly accurately scans of boat gunnels and other complex parts. These scans create precise digital models, streamline prototyping, and significantly reduce design time.
“It’s already a massive help,” Mark shared. “We have real, accurate data now without the human error we used to deal with. It’s cutting down project timelines and opening the door for future products.”
Although they are still in the early stages of integrating the scanner into their operations, the impact is obvious. The increased precision and time savings transformed their workflow.
As Superior Fishing Products continues to grow, the 3D scanner funded through the Small Business Support Hub will play a pivotal role in developing new products, capturing better data, and staying competitive in an ever-changing industry.
Mark offers one key piece of advice to entrepreneurs in the region:
“Utilize the resources around you. There’s a lot of help out there, especially through MTEC SmartZone. We would have benefited from reaching out earlier.”
Explore more about Superior Fishing Products at Superiorfishingproducts.com
Learn more about the Small Business Support Hub at https://www.mtecsz.com/small-business-support-hub/