Manufacturer’s Spotlight Chris Mc Loone
Honeywell First Responder (HFR) provides a variety of personal protective equipment (PPE) under brand names well known to the fire service. Morning Pride, Sperian, and Pro Warrington are brands the fire service has come to know but might not be aware are part of Honeywell First Responder. I recently caught up with Travis Mikalauskas, sales manager for HFR, to talk about HFR’s history and product lines.
CM: Would you provide a brief history of Honeywell First Responder?
TM: Honeywell First Responder is spearheaded by our flagship brand Morning Pride. Morning Pride started in 1921 and has more than 100 years of being involved in the fire service. In 2008, Honeywell acquired Morning Pride, along with other products such as Ben Franklin fire helmets and Pro Warrington fire boots. Honeywell First Responder added to its portfolio with the acquisition of Sperian in 2010, which included the current Viper and Edge gear lines of business. With offices and manufacturing both located in Dayton, Ohio, Honeywell First Responder continues to be a leading provider of PPE to firefighters, EMS, and first responders in the United State and beyond.
CM: Describe how Honeywell First Responder is “Protecting the Protector.”
TM: HFR, back to its Morning Pride standalone days, has been a customer-focused business. Working with end users to spark new ideas, drive innovation, and generate voice of the customer (VOC) feedback has been a core staple for the business. Interactions go beyond traditional sales reps and distribution interaction. HFR is working to get end user interaction in the field with sales, marketing, design, manufacturing, and even the business leadership. Each of these areas benefits by truly getting to understand the ideas and pain points of the customer.
Two areas that HFR and Morning Pride have always prided themselves on are the ability to provide both custom sizing and custom options to its gear.
We understand that each fire department is unique in its specification needs based on SOPs, SOGs, etc. Because of this, our team and network of distributors are at their best when they are sitting down to review our offerings and educate the end users on them to truly customize what the department is looking for in performance and setup of its gear and options.
We have also long recognized that each firefighter is uniquely created, whether male or female. Walk into the room with any group of firefighters, and no two members will have the exact same dimensions. Morning Pride measures to the firefighter. Some firefighters may have larger chest measurements and smaller waist and hips. We can taper this garment to fit accordingly. Other firefighters may have larger hips. We can flair the coat as needed to accommodate and can still increase hip sizing with or without increasing the waist. We also can take measurements for the neck, biceps, stomach, thigh, and calf if need be. Finally, we recognize that torso length is extremely critical to creating a proper fitting pant and coat. Therefore, we take a crotch rise measurement to give proper fitting pants that do not hang/bind and also do not ride uncomfortably too snug into the user’s upper crotch area.
CM: Would you provide an overview of the Honeywell First Responder product lines?
TM: Our flagship line is the Morning Pride Tails garment. We also have three other lines of turnout gear that are unique in their own way to serve the fire industry: Morning Pride Viper, Morning Pride EDGE, and Morning Pride Essentials.
Outside of our structural PPE coat and pant, we also provide USAR/Rescue and Recovery (RAR) gear that is certified to NFPA 1951 and 1999. Additionally, on this same platform, we have the Multi Response Gear Line (MRG) MR1 1951 and MR2 1951/1999.
We have the Ben Franklin structural traditional helmet series with our popular Ben 2 and new to the market Ben 3 structural helmet.
We have a large boot portfolio that is based on the longtime Pro Warrington brand, known for its durability, strength, and toughness. This includes station boots, multiple structural boots, and structural/ARFF boot.
Finally, we have our Maskmate hoods, which come in multiple material offerings as well as with a particulate-blocking option.
The newly released Ben 3 is a product we are extremely excited about. Made from the same FYR-Glass as the Ben 2, the Ben 3 combines the strength and ruggedness of the Ben 2 but with a decrease in both overall weight and height of the helmet. We believe the fire service is going to love this product!
CM: What keeps you awake at night?
TM: Our team at HFR is made up of a combination of long-time team members and retired or current members of the fire service. For most of us, this is all we have ever known. This is our passion and our livelihood. Our customers being safe and protected is the goal. Seeing and hearing feedback or testimonials from our customers that “the gear did its job” and that a member was safe in a fire is the most rewarding thing we can experience. It’s why we do what we do.
