ODESSA, Texas — A man who was born and raised in Odessa says entrepreneurship has always run in his blood, but he had no idea putting a pen to paper would end up with him creating the first retractable, four-wheel cooler.
AJ Gonzales was a business major at Texas Tech when he was inspired by a beach trip that would eventually lead to his growing business, Infinite Coolers.
"I just thought about it one day in my apartment in college we've had plenty of these and took them to the beach and saw a huge problem there has to be an easier way to transport these," said Gonzales. "So I put a pencil to paper and from there this is where we're at."
In 2017, Gonzales started putting the ideas he had in mind on a scrap piece of paper, and that was the first step of creating the four-wheel retractable design.
The Odessa native would come home for the summers and work to pay an engineer to get the design finalized. They ran through nearly ten prototypes.
"I've always had an entrepreneurship mindset at heart but I had no idea that I'd create a cooler one day and that this is what I'd be doing," said Gonzales.
The funding and design were only the beginning though, COVID-19 delayed the product's launch because of manufacturing challenges, but now with a warehouse in the DFW area, Gonzales says his business is finally rolling.
"I've had a lot of support from my friends and family... I'm truly blessed", said Gonzales.
The Odessan says he's received a lot of local support and for that he's thankful.
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