Industry Icon Vance Gillette passed away Aug. 10 after battling a long illness. He was 75.
Last serving as vice president of business development for Zodiac Pool Systems, now Fluidra North America, Gillette served the industry for 47 years before retiring in 2013.
Those not familiar with Gillette, whether because of proximity, tenure or age, nevertheless have been influenced by him. Those who did interact with Gillette, whether directly or through his speeches and articles, know that his impact reached well beyond his role with the Big 3 manufacturer, where he held sizable influence on current leaders and staffers who worked with him early in their careers.
At a time when pool professionals widely underestimated their own skills and potential to yield beautiful designs and deliver joy to consumers, Gillette provided good-humored talks that combined motivational speech with his vision for the industry. When builders and designers focused on nuts and bolts in their sales presentations -- putting the emphasis on construction methods, equipment, materials and features -- he would implore them to "sell the steak, not the sizzle." He cautioned the industry from allowing its safety messages to become too dour. And he reminded pool/spa professionals every chance he got that they bring joy into people's lives every day. He was able to get his message across and hold such influence among the influential through discipline to his message, his own joy and humor, and an ability to immediately engage virtually anyone.
He also played an important role in the formation of Genesis in the late 1990s, signing on to the organization's message immediately and gaining sponsorship from his employer. Over time he became known as an honorary founder.
Gillette got an early start in the world of pools and spas. He entered the industry in 1966, as a teenaged telemarketer selling pool cleaners for Arneson Products. He was eventually promoted to salesperson and, in 1975, left Arneson to serve as vice president of marketing and sales for Geni-Chlor, a producer of chlorine generators.
He began his road to iconic status two years later, when hired as executive vice president of Jandy Pool Products, a San Francisco Bay-area controller producer, which eventually became a flagship brand for Zodiac, then Fluidra.
Gillette remained with the Jandy brand through various ownerships, leaving only briefly in 2009 to serve as president of his own firm, Gillette Consulting. He returned to Zodiac the following year as VP of business development.
Beginning in the early 1990s, Gillette became frustrated with the messages that some pool and spa organizations were sending to the public.
Gillette believed that, in an effort to promote water safety, some trade groups placed too much emphasis on the hazards of swimming. “I said, ‘Is this is the best we could do?’” Gillette recalled at the time of his retirement. “Then a light came on in my head and I realized we had this thing all wrong.”
Through dozens of articles written for the trade press and hundreds of speeches at industry gatherings, Gillette was highly vocal in his philosophy that the industry should promote the positive lifestyle it helps create. He also advocated that mindset through his involvement with several committees of the national trade organization now known as the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance. When social media entered the scene, he used those platforms to further his message, posting hundreds of photos of high-end pools and spas.
“What’s kept me interested, involved and excited is what we offer the consumer,” Gillette said when he retired. “There’s no other investment, product or experience that can replicate the pool lifestyle ... I never got over the impact that it has on the consumer.”
He continued: “Just remember, it’s all about the experience and connecting our message positively to the consumer and feeling ecstatic about what we offer. I don’t think we give ourselves enough credit for what we do.”
More coverage will follow.
