Industry Retail Founded 2007 Key people Chip Foose, Maxine Clark | Products Toy Cars Type of business Limited liability company | |
Headquarters Irvine, California, United States Profiles | ||
Ridemakerz reopens in the downtown disney district anaheim ca
Ridemakerz (alternatively written "RIDEMAKERZ") is an American retailer of customizable toy cars. The business was started in 2007 by Larry Andreini, Chip Foose (of TLC Overhaulin'), and Maxine Clark (of Build-A-Bear Workshop).
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Ridemakerz downtown disney district build your ride remote control custom r c car ridemakerz
History
The first location opened June 1, 2007 in Myrtle Beach, SC at Broadway at the Beach. Since then, twelve locations had opened in ten other states. In late 2009 Ridemakerz began closing most of their stores. By the end of 2009, Ridemakerz will have closed nine of their twelve stores, the four remaining stores will be Myrtle Beach, SC, Downtown Disney Walt Disney World, Downtown Disney Disneyland, and Branson, MO. Plus they will be selling their products in the newly repurchased and re-imagined Disney Stores.
The company currently holds licenses to make the Chevrolet Corvette, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Ram, Dodge Viper, Ford F-250 Super Chief, Ford Mustang, Mini Cooper, and the Scion xB.
In April 2008, Ridemakerz won "Best Attraction Retailing" for stores under 5,000 square feet (460 m2) in Chain Store Age Magazine's Retail Store of the Year awards
Company information
Ridemakerz is a limited liability company. It was founded in 2007 in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Rancho Santa Margarita, California in 2009. The main financier is investor Norman Pozez. Build-A-Bear owns about 25% of the company. In 2010 it is opening a warehouse and distribution center in Valencia, California (it currently uses the system of Build-A-Bear) and moving its headquarters to Irvine, California. There are approximately 250 employees nationwide and 16 employees at its headquarters.
Process
While in the store, the customers (known as "customizers") come into the store and build "ridez" that can either be a freewheeling car or remote control car. It is estimated that over 649,000,000 different ride combinations are possible.
Stores
There are (at present) three locations. Each store's number is prefixed with "15" and the order of opening denotes the individual store number. The number 1513 was skipped.
RZ Virtual World
December 2008- Ridemakerz launched their Ridemakerz Virtual World, which is similar to Build a Bear Workshops Build-A-Bearville, closed beta testing.
March 2009- RZ Virtual World opened from its closed beta test.
September 2009- Ridemakerz stopped tech support for their virtual world.