For some, the path that life takes can emerge early on. For Kristen Gossler, it began unfolding when she was so small she could barely see above the top of the living room table as her parents, Virginia and Ralph, built a successful business.
“It was so fun. I did piecework for them as they crafted plaques and awards. Mark Twain had an adage in ‘Tom Sawyer’ about turning something that’s a chore into a privilege. I really believed it when my parents told me that,” Gossler said. “I felt like I was contributing.”
Founded in 1952, the Gosslers’ business, American Trophy and Supply Inc., produced and sold hundreds of mementos and plaques over the next two decades.
“When I was older, my dad took me on sales calls,” said Gossler, who grew up in the 1970s. “It was kind of weird for an 8-year-old to be chiming in, in front of clients but that’s when I discovered I really enjoyed screen printing. My other passion was art.”
American Trophy evolved due to a combination of her father’s vision and her mother’s team effort, Gossler says. Ralph Gossler was an Olympic-level swimmer and pre-med student who began creating molds of body parts during school. Endlessly curious and entrepreneurial, he recognized that with some creativity, he could turn the process into a business.
Using melted-down car bumpers he found at junkyards, he fashioned molds in his basement, transforming hunks of metal into sports awards and medals. Virginia Gossler did all the words on the awards, handwriting with an engraving tool. At first, the couple sold the work out of their house in Pawtucket.
Kristen Gossler didn’t immediately go into the family business. She studied philosophy at Connecticut College but also took a couple of art courses. It didn’t take long for her to recognize how much she loved it. “I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, this is what I want to do,’ ” she said.
She transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with a fine arts degree in painting. She found that she had absorbed her father’s dual vision of art and business.
In a nod to her passion for art, Gossler’s been painting and showing abstract works since she graduated in 1989. In 25 years, she has exhibited in galleries around New England. It’s nice to be able to work on both her artwork and the business, she says.
“I think that’s what mentoring does,” she said. “You have an appreciation of where things come from and where they’re going.”
Gossler and her husband, Peter Cameron, bought American Trophy from her parents in 1990. Today, the business, now in East Providence, has expanded far beyond its original trusty line of plaques and awards, to include multiplatform brand marketing. The customer roster numbers roughly 500 to 750 repeat clients and some 1,000 one-timers.
The company targets the high end of the industry, offering custom capabilities for the client. Gossler, who is listed as American Trophy’s president, says this pivot was her idea when she came on board, extending the business over time to national and international accounts.
In 2020, American Trophy launched New England Graphic Services, with branding, apparel, large format printing and graphic design. About 20% of the business, however, is still designing and manufacturing awards.
As director of operations, Gossler brings in new clients and hands them off to a staff that ranges from a total of eight to 12, depending on the company’s project volume.
“Our strengths are in-house graphic design and manufacturing with consistency,“ she said.
Like many small businesses, the company had to scramble at the outset of COVID-19 three years ago. Gossler compares that time to sticking fingers in the dam to stop it from collapsing. Suddenly, they had to overhaul their planning. “Long range” no longer meant looking ahead a year or more. Now it was a matter of one month or six months.
“We learned we could pivot,” she said.
The company provided shirts for nurses on the front lines, signage to help people navigate through COVID-19 vaccine shots, and she launched a portal, PPE-NewEngland.com, to give a focus to personal protection equipment on one site.
Company clients range from NASCAR (a hand-cast trophy with custom logos) to Moet & Chandon (a brass and walnut plaque presented by Swarovski AG). Cameron, the special projects manager, handles some special custom projects and is overseeing a recent, unusual request: creating a memorial sculpture for a firefighter who died in the line of duty. The client is his widow.
Gossler points out that the works American Trophy creates are more than just the standard keepsake with an engraved brass plate. The award must stand for an idea and an accomplishment of someone, she says.
“Whether you’re making a hundred tennis trophies, or the one that’s going to Serena Williams, it represents why someone gets up every day,” Gossler said. “This is a serious business. It means we’ve seen that you’ve done this accomplishment.”
