From Penn State project to industry leader with a community-first mission
In State College, entrepreneurship comes in many forms. Small businesses are a staple of the community — from restaurants to clothing stores to homegrown manufacturing companies like DiamondBack Covers.
Sporting the motto “Built Different,” DiamondBack sprang to life in 2003 from the minds of co-founders Matt Chverchko and Ethan Wendle. Tasked with a class assignment, Chverchko and Wendle formed a plan to build the best locking truck bed covers in their ENGR 497 course. Now, DiamondBack Covers has grown into a successful business built for the local community.
From truck covers, truck bed accessories to full-blooded camping shelters, DiamondBack’s inventory gives Centre County consumers exactly what they’re looking for in safe truck equipment. Having its manufacturing housed in Philipsburg is an added perk for the company, its consumers, and the university that helped its growth.
Penn State SMEAL’s Garber Venture Capital Fund — an opportunity for entrepreneurs to compete for a chance at financial investment — came in handy for DiamondBack in the early stages of the company. “Garber’s investment in us at the time they invested in us, I think, saved the company,” Wendle says about their 2006 Garber Fund win. “Having the Garber fund was a very unique partnership … their investment was pretty critical.
“We were able to repay them, we were able to give them a successful exit to the investment, and it was a great learning experience.” Penn State ties helped Wendle and Chverchko raise enough funding to make their business profitable. As a result, DiamondBack has become more than just a go-to destination for truck equipment; it’s now at the heart of the Centre County community.
For DiamondBack employees, the benefits of working with the company are clear in the owners’ desires for a mission-driven business in their hometown. “The primary driver was to recognize the company is a partnership of the employees and the owners,” Wendle states. “And the other part of it is the desire to keep the company in Centre County, to make sure that it stayed rooted in this community.
“We’ve seen our industry has undergone massive consolidation, where the majority of truck cover companies that we know have been bought and sold by a stream of private equity companies, moving ownership further away from the communities in which they operate.” Together with every other member of the business, Wendle, Chverchko, and Chief People Officer Morgan Forney work to mold and create versions of personal and professional care that best fit DiamondBack.
Thirty-five-hour workweeks that pay for a full 40 hours of work and profit sharing plans were just the beginning for DiamondBack employees. Those benefits evolved into the company’s newest ESOP, which was launched in October 2025. “We just felt like the further ownership gets away from the communities in which it operates, the less impact it can actually make there in the long term,” Wendle says. “Through employee ownership and employees becoming the largest shareholder in the business, that’s really DiamondBack saying, ‘We want to be here for the long haul,’” Forney adds.
DiamondBack wouldn’t be the community blueprint it is if it weren’t for that initial Penn State investment, and Wendle’s biggest advice for local entrepreneurs is to utilize their large array of surrounding resources. “Between the Happy Valley LaunchBox and the [Invent Penn State] Summer Founders Program, there’s almost no barrier that they haven’t taken a stab at helping companies get past,” Wendle says about the university.
In the end, DiamondBack’s Built Different mantra has more to do with its solid products and Centre County history. Their employees, from the co-founders to the newfound ESOP owners, are a prime example of what Centre County’s small business workforce can look like now and into the future.
“Some of the transformation and redemption that we want to see in the lives of our employees and community are like long-term investments. It’s a belief and idea that our business could be a part of bringing restoration and wholeness, and health and human flourishing,” Forney adds.
Want to learn more about what it takes to be Built Different? Look no further than DiamondBack Covers by scanning the QR code below or check the company out on YouTube (@diamondbackcovers). Browse diamondbackcovers.com for your favorite truck accessory, read their staff community stories, and soak in all the inspiration DiamondBack brings to the community. T&G
Angelique Redwood is a freelance writer based in State College.
