From Inspiration To A Fly Rod: The Vice Miami Limited Edition

Who are you and what do you do at Redington? Tell us about yourself.

My name’s Clay Nowak. I’m the in-house creative at Far Bank (Redington, RIO, Sage, Fly Water Travel). I live in Portland OR and I came up in the advertising and graphic design world. One of the agencies I worked for, Roundhouse, had a job come across the desk to do some T-shirts for a fly fishing company called Redington, way back in 2014. I volunteered myself for the project and never looked back. I’ve done website builds and banner ads and rod cosmetics and packaging and logos and photoshoots and tradeshow booths and video graphics and print ads – kinda everything and everything needed for a relatively small brand to put itself out there in the world, visually speaking. Oh, and it got me into fishing in a pretty serious way too.

How did you come up with the Vice Miami Edition?

I can’t remember exactly when I had the idea, but I think it was 2018 or ’19. I had been making some banner ads for Redington that featured product images on a background gradient. The NBA team, Miami Heat team had just done their “Vice City” Jerseys that featured this wild gradient from Neon Pink to Neon Blue and I thought, “we have a Vice rod” it could be a…. “Miami Vice” rod and we could use this gradient.

What was the process for this rod development? How did it come together?

When I had the idea, I wasn’t an employee at Far Bank yet, just doing contract work. I had sent along a really quick, crude mockup and I think it got a couple laughs and then we didn’t talk about it again for another year or so. Every once in awhile I’d just poke the bear and throw the mockup over the fence and see if it gained any traction this go-round. It did not. Fast forward to 2023 – I am now working in-house, mostly on Redington and we have a new Product Developer, Brandon Morton, start on the job. We’re talking about rods one day and I bring up the Miami Vice again. Finally a conversation that goes somewhere. Brandon gets excited about it and we think we have a way to launch it with limited quantities that will work. So I give Brandon my mockup and he takes it and makes it a real thing and sends it off to get a sample made. The first couple we got back weren’t great. The transitions didn’t look very seamless and the effect of the gradient wasn’t really there. So we went back and forth a few times, trying to get it right. Finally, the 4th sample was spot on and we were all really stoked on it. It took some convincing to get everyone on board to actually produce more than one of these “abominations” but it all worked out and it has been really cool to see the reaction from the public and subsequent reaction from folks who maybe hadn’t been so convinced previously.

What's next on your list of things you've always wanted to make?

Well… I can’t say anything specifically at the moment. But what I will say, is that we have some cool things lined up to continue doing limited edition products that bring a unique point of view – something that just feels a little different than what else is out there. Redington is a great brand to occasionally explore the boundaries of what fly fishing can look and sound like and these limited editions are a great platform for that. Stay tuned!

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