Awake Window & Door Co., a North American luxury window and door system manufacturer based in Arizona, launched its full website and has also declared its manufacturing facility officially “open for business” as its begins shipping production orders in the last few months of 2021.
Awake was co-founded in late 2020 by Scott Gates, John Engelstad, Andrew Darr and Maria Gates. After educating themselves on the deep issues surrounding mass incarceration and the soaring recidivism rates faced by formerly incarcerated individuals, their dream was to create a business focused on second chance employment for this vulnerable people group.
“We knew the ‘why’ of our business was rooted in a desire to create employment opportunities for a people group that is often overlooked and under-estimated. The ‘what’ and ‘how’ of that business ended up circling back to our decade plus of experience leading and growing a window and door business in Arizona,” says Scott Gates, CEO of Awake Window & Door. “We felt it would be incredible to show the market that some of the most vulnerable in our society are capable of building luxury window and door products that people love.”
The engineering team at Awake spent the past year designing and developing a full family of minimal frame window and door products suitable for the contemporary architectural market. Their product family includes thermally broken aluminum multi-slide doors, hinged doors, window walls, casements, awnings and sliding patio doors. The design philosophy focused on sightline reduction and sightline consistency across products, glass size maximization, wind load and water management, and energy efficiency. The final results included door interlocks as narrow as ¾ inch, door heights up to 18 feet tall, self-draining sills, casements that can be built up to 108 inches tall, and a full product family of tested and certified products.
“Today, we are excited to officially announce that we are open for business and are actively taking and producing orders for our dealer network across North America,” says John Engelstad, COO of Awake.
“We want to thank all the architects, dealers, installers, and suppliers that helped inform and shape our design and get this complex product family to market,” says Andrew Darr, chief revenue officer.
As the company tips from startup mode into active manufacturing, Awake is beginning to actively hire and staff their manufacturing team at its facility in Gilbert, Arizona. Their social mission of second chance employment is explained in detail on its website, is woven into the product series names, and is front and center on all job postings.
"Awake does not exclusively hire formerly incarcerated individuals, but, we do actively look for people that want to be a part of the solution instead of the problem,” says Maria Gates, chief people officer of Awake. “We are proud to partner with great nonprofits around the valley and help this people group know that we would be honored to have them on our team.”
