St. Charles man makes a business out of a big stink

Peter Bogle's basement stunk.

The smell from the St. Charles family's four sets of hockey gear was making it difficult for him to work on home projects at his downstairs work station.

"You wouldn't want to stand there to do anything," he said.

He began fiddling with different combinations of materials to try to fight the smell. What he came up with worked so well he decided to market it.

Now, a little more than a year later, he's sold more than 30,000 of his O-Liminator packets, mostly to sports venues and athletes.

The 3-by-4-inch packets of pine-scented pellets are different than odor-masking sprays because they draw odors into the packet by getting rid of bacteria and moisture, he said.

As opposed to sprays, which have to be re-applied multiple times, one packet with 3.5 grams of pellets can work up to a month and a half, he said.

It isn't his first attempt at creating a product. Several years ago he made a golf club shaft with interchangeable heads, which would make it easier for golfers to carry and travel with. It didn't pan out, but he did see similar products marketed years later.

This time he's working with a sales and marketing team -- as well as his father, who lives on the East Coast -- to push the product. Orders are sold through his Web site, www.o-liminator.com.

His target audience has been athletes, especially hockey players. His customers include Geneva High School, Dick Pond Athletics and BBK Sports.

But as more people find out about the product, they are finding more uses for it, he said. He has sold cases to local car washes for their supplies and police departments for their squad cars.

A five-packet container usually retails for between $15 and $16.

He's also working on adding new scents like eucalyptus, vanilla and cedar.

The company plans to move from a 1,200-square-foot facility to a 3,000-square-foot facility in St. Charles this month.

And although Bogle hasn't been able to quit his day job in management and sales yet, he has spent his weekends pushing the product at sports events and overseeing marketing.

And as for his basement, he said it's safe to go down there again.