Chillin' out with Ryan Beeson: Abilene nurse has a totally cool side hustle
If a friend of his could make a go of selling coolers in Montana, where it's rarely too hot and more often real cold, Ryan Beeson believed he could do at least as good in West Texas.
A nurse married to a nurse who was from Abilene, Beeson moved from Seattle to Texas with his wife, Seba, in 2017. Since then, they have started a family that has grown to three youngsters and he has launched what today is called a "side hustle."
He's not selling peaches by the roadside or mowing lawns. He sells insulated coolers - Ice chests when Igloo and Coleman were the best-known brands.
His brand is Iceland.
Think Yeti, he said, but better insulated and a lot cheaper.
Beeson and his Iceland Coolers will be among the local businesses set up for Wednesday's Business Expo at the Abilene Convention Center. The one-day event has returned to March after moving around on the calendar as events weathered the recent pandemic.
Asked why he didn't go all-out Texan and call his product the Cactus Cooler or the Chillicothe Freezer, Beeson said it was a trip across the Atlantic to backpack with Seba that proved to be his inspiration. The first stop was Iceland, and the rugged landscape, hardy people and, yes, cold climate stuck with him. Want your stuff to stay Iceland cold? He has a cooler for you.
"What am I trying to project?" he asked himself. Sturdiness and long-lasting chill.
"I channeled that legacy," Beeson said of what he experienced in Iceland.
Thus the motto: "Keep it simple, keep it cold. Iceland cold."
His coolers are colorful, both in exterior design and name. One color scheme is camo.
There are four models:
Viking, the standard cooler size with a handle.
Berserker, which stands more upright and has two wheels
Longship, which is more rectangular with 70- and 110-quart capacities, with wheels at one end
Saga, a smaller, soft cooler carried by a strap that can carry 12 or 30 cans.
And there's Iceland gear - T-shirts and caps.
Beeson laughed when considering how Yeti coolers have become status symbols. Owners put Yeti stickers - that they probably buy - on vehicle bumpers and windows, announcing to the world they are outdoorsy folks who can afford an expensive cooler.
Yeti was founded in 2006 in Austin, meaning that coolers made in Texas do work. Yeti reported a net income of $212 million in 2021. That is a lot of cold, hard cash.
"It's a lifestyle thing," he said of the Yeti image thing. "A status sort of thing. Like the kid who used to wear Abercrombie & Fitch. They built a brand that says if you buy this, you are like this."
However, when it comes to quality, Beeson believes his coolers are just as good - some customers say better because of insulation at the bottom - and certainly less expensive.
Still, an Iceland is not cheap. Three sizes of Vikings, for example, range in price from $280 to $350.
But the guarantee to customers is that ice will stay ice for seven days.
Both companies push the fact that their product will last.
Iceland claims it's "the last cooler you'll ever buy."
Beeson does not make them.
"I'm a nurse. That is what I am. I'm not an engineer," he said, laughing.
He did his research and found a company that could manufacture this kind of product. He told them what he wanted, and "they take care of all that."
Being an outdoor guy, he wanted something good, like Yeti, but wanted to offer a better price "and include more things," he said.
"That's our claim to fame. They're unique because of the camo patterns and come with more stuff like hanging basket and hanging cup holder, cutting board and bottle openers and things like that," he said.
"All at a price point that is $30 to $100 less than the Yeti equivalent."
Why here?
The Beesons, who met at a church camp in Texas, lived for three years in Seattle after marrying here.
He is from Seattle, but has family in Texas. Her parents operate B&B Guns and Ammo on Butternut Street.
They were emergency room nurses in the Northwest, where Beeson enjoyed backpacking and some fishing.
They also were traveling nurses who would work for several months at one hospital ER and move on. After a contract expired, they would take a trip. One in the summer of 2017 to a dozen European countries paid off nicely.
It was in California that he warmed to the idea of coolers. His friend in Montana was successful.
"I thought, Well, if he's doing so well up there, where it's snowing half the year, how about in West Texas where it's 110 degrees?" he said, laughing. And it was that for three hot days last summer
"Him being up there and me being down here, that wouldn't be a problem. We wouldn't be infringing on each other."
The cooler venture began in late 2017, after the couple had come to Abilene.
When it came time to consider a family, they decided that embattled Seattle was not the place.
"She has a big family and we were going to have kids and this is a place to raise kids. Seattle is not," he said. "This is a faith-based community with a semblance of morality. You can focus more on the things that are good and right.
"And little bit slower pace of life.
They came to Texas, and Beeson said it was the right move. He is a Air Evac nurse now and Seba, who started her nursing career at Hendrick, is at home with their children who are 4, 2 and 9 months. She had gone from the emergency room to labor and delivery for four years ... until she began her season of personal labor and delivery.
Team Beeson - the Iceland Cooler project is theirs together - lives in Potosi.
Where can you find an Iceland?
Well, there's a map.
But if you're wanting a cooler, they are for sale at Ace Hardware and Higginbotham Brothers stores.
In Abilene, you can get one at the new Ace Hardware in Potosi, B&B, Malcolm Supply, Big Country Tire, Circle H Meats and Cross Timbers Interstate Battery.
"That one doesn't make sense but it works," he said, laughing.
Beeson said he was surprised about sales at tire businesses. Then, he realized there was a captive audience waiting for new tires and enticed to leave with a new cooler, too.
Currently, about 70% of the business is wholesale and 30% of his sales are online. He has noted purchases as far Guam one way and Norway the other. Even Japan.
"I know my customer base is not just Abilene," he said.
But 99% of sales are in the U.S. he said.
Beeson said that as a first responder, he wants to help out his brothers and sisters who are quickly at scene. So, he offers a 10% discount for online orders.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Chillin' out with Ryan Beeson: Nurse has a totally cool side hustle
