From Toppers to Flippers
From Left: Nick Neitzel, Bryan Vincent, Sean Palmer, Ron Lindeman, Nate Steen, Rob Rath
As we kick off our fourth year in business, we are excited to share some major news! American Pinball (AP), based in Palatine, Illinois, is rapidly expanding their team and capabilities, and we are proud to become a key part of that growth on multiple fronts.
Rob Rath & Nick Neitzel will be joining forces with AP’s talented new team members, under the leadership of their new owner Brian Vincent, to help with the creation of new games.
TEP will continue to release toppers for both new and classic games. In addition, we will become a key vendor for AP, delivering award-winning topper experiences for their upcoming releases.
To support this new era, we are simultaneously expanding our operations in St. Louis, Missouri and promoting several key team members who have been the backbone of our growth.
Read on for all the details below!
Game Design at AP
Nick talking pinball with Nate & Bryan @ AP
Rob & Nick are joining the American Pinball team, working alongside their new Creative Director, Melvin Williams, to bring a slate of remakes and original titles to life over the coming years.
Rob Rath is joining the AP team as Product Director, where he will oversee the planning, budgeting, marketing and go-to-market of many of their upcoming titles. He will also assist with game story and rules design.
Nick Neitzel is joining the AP team as Product Designer. He is already working on an upcoming game release and will be involved in the development of many more to come.
Future Toppers at TEP
We aren’t slowing down. We will continue to design and manufacture our topper experiences in St. Louis for both classic games, new industry releases, and of course various new AP releases. Keep an eye out for our first collaborative project with AP later this year.
TEP Promotions & Growth
Rob and Alec in 2023. Not brothers.
With more work on the horizon, we are scaling up to ensure our quality and speed remain top-tier.
Creative: Co-founder Alec Gleason is stepping into a more active role as Creative & Brand Manager, where he will push the creative boundaries of our future topper designs.
Operations & Production: We are pleased to announce John Miller, who has been with the company since its founding, will take the role as our new Production Manager and Dustin Howell will take on the role of Operations Manager.
Growing the Line: Please join us in welcoming our new assembly technicians, Michael Wangerin and Troy Ohden; bringing our total team count now to 12.
Rob will continue to serve as General Manager for TEP, ensuring that our collaboration with AP and our independent work on custom toppers continue to thrive in tandem.
From Left: Michael, John, Keith, Troy, and Dustin (not pictured: Margaret, Galen & Jesse)
TEP Facility Expansion
To support our increased production volume, we are expanding our floor space to 4,000 square feet, nearly tripling our current footprint, and doubling our production lines from one to two. This new facility will also house the R&D lab for our work with AP.
TEP new facility layout.
Pre-build out of our new space in St. Louis, Missouri
Thank You!
None of this would be possible without you, our dedicated customers and fans! Thank you for your support as we’ve grown from a small two-man crew to this new, exciting chapter. We can’t wait to bring our passion for design to the thing we all love most: PLAYING PINBALL!
We have more exciting updates on the way, so stayed turned - and please keep your topper suggestions coming!
Happy Flippin’,
The TEP Team