When a sneaky wave in Virginia Beach snatched some plastic toys from Air Force wife Kate Reimann in 2016, it gave something far greater in return: a mission to change the way families play in the sand.
“Being environmentally conscious has always been on my radar,” said Reimann, a mother of two boys. “I started the first recycling club at my elementary school.”
It was clearly a good first step for Reimann, now the founder and CEO of Rogue Wave Toys. The company sells completely compostable beach toy sets (pail, shovel and sifter) for $44.99, eschewing traditional oil-based plastic for a plant-based, proprietary blend of biopolymers. The result is a durable beach set that sheds zero microplastics or toxins for the entirety of its life cycle.
“It was really tough in the beginning,” said Reimann, who started Rogue Wave in 2017. “There was lots of trial and error.”
Once the Reimanns lost that first beach toy set, she knew she had to create a more earth-friendly alternative. But how does one just make a new product — especially if it’s in a category yet to be invented? All beach toys that Reimann could find were plastic. So she started dreaming and researching.
In the beginning, Reimann, whose airman husband Daniel Munter was a F-16 pilot and attaché, envisioned a mushroom-based material. After drawing a mold with her finger on an iPad, she went to a tech shop near their home in the D.C. area. “Can you help me figure out how to convert this design into something I could 3D print?” she would ask anyone who looked like they knew what they were doing.
“Then they would hold my hand and help me figure it out,” Reimann recalled.
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After locating a bio-based materials company, Reimann had her first prototype made from mushrooms. But it soon became clear that fungi would not work. So back to the drawing board she went, eventually purchasing her own 3D printer and hiring a toy designer. They finally settled on a beach set made up of sugar beet, cornstarch, cassava and other natural ingredients.
The entire process, full of “tiny little steps toward progress,” as Reimann said, took about two and a half years. Reimann’s sons, now ages 14 and 12, were the original product testers.
“They would get really aggressive with the prototypes and helped me redesign the sifter so it could last longer than 30 seconds,” said Reimann, now living in Hawaii after her husband’s 25-year Air Force career. “The business has really grown alongside my kids.”
Along the way, Reimann has used military-focused entrepreneurship resources like the Veterans Business Outreach Center of the Pacific (VBOC). Her VBOC advisor helped Rogue Wave through challenges like COVID-19, shipping material shortages and product delays, while Street Shares, a veteran-run pitch competition for military and spouse-owned startups, gave her a grant. The death of her mother put Rogue Wave on hold for two years, but in true military wife fashion, Reimann eventually got moving again.
“The military lifestyle really helped prepare me for the life of an entrepreneur,” she said. “Having to adapt to your surroundings, being versatile and able to pivot, building your network fast — that has all helped me build my business when it’s been really difficult.”
So far, Rogue Wave has shipped its beach sets, clothing and tote bags to 34 states and three Canadian provinces. Future goals include inspiring other businesses to use Rogue Wave’s materials (for which Reimann holds two patents) to replace the plastic in their own products, as well as inspiring other military families to get involved in making the earth a better place, no matter where they’re stationed.
And if that place is near the water? Even better.
“I think oceans and lakes are synonymous with happiness for me, and that feeling has never really left me,” Reimann said. “I want it to stay that way.”
Visit roguewavetoys.com to shop for Rogue Wave products.
