The team
The Exit Traveler was developed by a team, according to Rick Denzien. Its U.S. distributor in the 1987 press was R.A.W. Rescue Products of Ambler, Pa. The company name “R.A.W.” stood for Rick And Win: Rick Denzien and his partner Win VanBasten. The company was later called Rescue Associates Worldwide, the name credited in the promotional video.
The press of 1987 described R.A.W. as the U.S. distributor. According to Rick Denzien, R.A.W. never set out to be just a distributor: it brought an Exit Traveler prototype to the United States so the product could be manufactured here, and distribution was only a step toward acquiring the product and developing it further. The distribution stage lasted only a very short time: R.A.W. then bought the patents, the production rights and the transfer of know-how, and began U.S. production of the Exit Traveler in Ambler, Pennsylvania. Key product changes were made by Rick Denzien and implemented by Win VanBasten. Rick also says that after the distribution agreement with R.A.W., all other distributors were tied to R.A.W. and no further production took place in the Netherlands. Patent records list the assignment of U.S. Patent 4,588,046 to R.A.W. Rescue Products, effective September 8, 1988 (see Patents).
The press says the product was originally made in the Netherlands and was available in Europe before its U.S. introduction. Its lowering mechanism was patented in 1984 by its Dutch developers, Abram P. van der Neer and Harm W. Holman, of Van der Neer International (VDN) in Doesburg, and Dutch newspapers covered its launch in 1985 (see the Dutch press). In the Philippines it was distributed by Unirel Industries Corporation, according to the Manila Standard. See the press clippings.
Statements about the team, the company name, the acquisition of the patents and production, and the product changes are from Rick Denzien, personal communications, October 27, 2026; press mentions are linked on the Sources page.
About this archive
This site gathers the Exit Traveler record in one place: the text of the original Exit Traveler website, seven press clippings shown as full scans, further magazine pages, advertisements, Dutch newspaper reports and patents found in public archives, promotional photographs, the information video and Rick Denzien’s own account. Everything shown comes from those materials. Dates, figures and quotations are attributed to their sources, and where sources differ both are shown.
The original one-page website’s text is quoted on the History page, and everything it showed is part of this site. Links people have used to the old files, such as the press PDFs and photographs under /images/, continue to work.
For questions about the history, please see rickdenzien.com.