Name Cindi Walters | ||
Cindi Walters is the founder and president of Chapman Walters Intercoastal Corporation (CWIC), a corporation which develops and manufactures diving, snorkeling and recreational aquatics equipment. She took over bankrupt Sea Pro, a California-based water sports equipment manufacturer, then broke off to develop Cal Pacific Manufacturing, a scuba equipment manufacturer. Walters served on the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association's (DEMA) Board of Directors from 1989 to 1998 and became the board's first female president from 1994-1995.
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In 1996, Walters founded CWIC. The company became a licensee of the water sports brand Body Glove and a licensee of Disney. CWIC also develops products under its own brand name, Fluid Water Sports.
Walters formed a charity, Aqua Angels, which, according to its website, provides "swim lessons, hydro therapy, and water safety instruction to special needs" children, which was founded in Orange County, but moved to the East Bay of San Francisco.
Cindi Walters grew up in the water-sports industry. Learning the ropes with the family business, SeaPro, she then guided her own company, Cal Pacific Manufacturing, an OEM supplier to scuba clients, in the manufacture of diving gear. She swiftly became a jack-of-all-trades who could actually create new innovative products in the highly technical industry of scuba equipment. Walters is an old-fashioned entrepreneur in that she understands her business from the ground up. She conceives, designs and manufactures original product, devises the marketing and oversees delivery. From the beginning, she pioneered innovative gear, including designs for the female form, children’s products, and even high-end advanced technical diving equipment. In 1996, Walters founded C. Walters Intercoastal Corp (CWIC), which created specifically designed diving, snorkeling, and recreational swim gear for men, women, and children, and effectively changed water sports from a small specialty category to a mass-market phenomenon in every arena she entered.
Early life
Cindi Walters’ story is all the more remarkable for the disadvantages and lack of support in her youth. With no birthright in the industry, Walters’ hardships began as her parents divorced when she was six, then becoming a surrogate parent to her brother. Her father was entirely absent and her mother worked and went to school. Shortly thereafter, Walters’ mother remarried and had another child, to which Walters also became caregiver. Mother and father to herself and two siblings, Walters developed quickly into a creative thinker and problem solver.
Adult responsibilities molded Walters form at an early age, yet she was unable to pursue a conventional career as so many do. Without money for college, she instead married at 17 and began her family quickly, having three children at a very young age. After only six months into her marriage, her skills for turning adversity into opportunity kicked into high gear.
Business career
When her husband’s family water sports equipment business Sea Pro went bankrupt, Walters rallied her skill for working out difficult situations. The young couple fought to finance a purchase of the molds and other assets that would allow them an enormous chance for their own future. They succeeded in their plans, and within a short period, Walters and her husband were running their own company, even if financially they were far from being in the clear. After a few years of learning every facet of the industry and business from the ground up, Walters left Sea Pro to launch her own company, Cal Pacific Manufacturing.
Walters founded Cal Pacific Manufacturing where she designed the first buoyancy compensator (BC) to accommodate the female form. Before that, women who wanted to scuba dive had to make do with uncomfortable, ill-fitting equipment made for men. Walters was also in the forefront of creating masks made specifically for the smaller faces of women and children. To that end, she has incorporated elements of high fashion into the women’s line of products when she formed her next business and began as a licensee of Body Glove, a brand that has been around for over a half a century and is one of the most successful in the world.
In 1996, Body Glove offered Walters the brand license that was previously held by Voit, and C. Walters Intercoastal Corp (CWIC) was born. She formed the corporation from square one, specifically to distribute Body Glove snorkeling and swim products out of her Cal Pacific facility. CWIC was seeing huge growth quickly, and Walters was running both businesses concurrently. It soon became apparent that all attention needed to be focused on CWIC, so in 2001 Walters closed Cal Pacific Manufacturing to focus solely on her growing venture. In an effort to secure the company's current 110,000 square-foot facility in Foothill Ranch, California, Walters mortgaged her home and sought loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
CWIC treated swim, learn to swim, and snorkeling gear as something worthy of specialization, not as a poor cousin to scuba equipment. With CWIC products, millions of swimmers of all ages and abilities could find snorkeling gear that fit and was comfortable. By creating and patenting new products that had clearly defined consumer benefits, CWIC quickly became the leader in the marketplace for creative, innovative, and unique product designs. By expanding its category retail price points, the company went on to exceed all expectations. In 2010, CWIC sold more masks, fins, snorkels, and swim products in North America than any other brand and enjoyed nearly 70% market share in full line sporting goods stores. With the strength of CWIC’s efforts, Body Glove moved up in consumer awareness from 47th to 34th place in just a few years’ time. CWIC had grown into a key supplier of recreational snorkeling gear, a thriving company that had earned the loyal business of clients such as Walmart, Costco, and the Sports Authority.
Cindi Walters was responsible for 90% of the company’s sales. In 2009, Walters traveled 300,000 miles on company business. The personal relationships she developed with her clients and her rapid consumer-response effort are what kept CWIC a prime vendor in a very competitive marketplace. Walmart had designated CWIC as one of their "innovative" partners as Walters would always bring in new ideas and products. Walters understood her business from the ground up. She conceived, designed, and manufactured original products from all factories all over the globe in an effort to keep quality and deliveries to the high-level buyers came to expect from CWIC. Walters would devise the marketing and oversaw direct ship deliveries. Walters is proud to say that in her tenure at CWIC, she created over 900 products, many with patents.
Always a visionary, Walters is continually upgrading existing products and has several new, much anticipated, products under development. Walters is known throughout the industry as a pioneer and innovator who, as was her goal, created specially designed diving, snorkeling and recreational swim gear for women and children, effectively changing water sports from a small specialty category to a mass-market phenomenon. If she didn’t quite achieve this single handedly, she most certainly helped get the ball rolling. Nominated three years in a row for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a finalist for the honor in 2007, Cindi Walters personifies everything the word “entrepreneur” stands for. This success was and continues to be achieved through hard work, keen intelligence, bold ideas and a fierce will to succeed. Cindi Walters is a bona fide American entrepreneurial heroine who refuses to rest on the laurels and gains of her many accomplishments in nearly three decades in aquatics. Instead, she continues to look to the future for bigger challenges and greater triumphs yet to come.
Media
“In the Swim” Fortune Small Business: Startup [1]
“20 Women to Watch” OC Metro Magazine 2007 [2]
“Web Extra: Cindi Walters” OC Metro 1 June 2009 [3]
“Foothill Ranch-based C Walters Intercoastal Corp. team with ‘For Dummies” OC Metro 9 June 2009
“Best Companies to Work For” OC Metro
Awards and Nominations
2005 Nomination for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
2006 Nomination for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
2007 Nomination for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist
2008 Nomination for the 14th Annual Women in Business Awards
2009 Nomination for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Finalist