Win-door committee chair Rick Pries, left, and Win-door committee member Skip Maclean, right, help Michael “Pinball” Clemons, center, cut the ribbon to open the show.

The revitalized Win-door North America trade show got off to a rousing start in Toronto on Tuesday with an energetic speech by Canadian football legend Michael “Pinball” Clemons.

Clemons’ wide-ranging presentation, punctuated by call-and-response shouts of “sweet spot,” touched on family, business and more. Clemons, who excelled at pro football for 12 seasons despite being only 5-foot-6 and 170 pounds, packed his enthusiastic presentation with lots of advice for overcoming adversity and achieving greatness.

“Learn to cheer for people in life,” Clemons said. “My greatest strength is I understand how important I’m not. None of us is as good as all of us together. Don’t feel sorry, don’t complain, don’t quit.”

After Clemons’ speech, the trade show opened to attendees.

One of the new events on opening night was the innovation presentations. These 10-minute talks let companies take the stage and showcase their products and services to the entire Win-door crowd.

Renotrend Applications showed off its Façade door and window designer app. Veka president Joe Peilert talked about Veka Academy, his company’s educational program for professional development. Mastergrain presented its contemporary fiberglass doors. Verre Select talked about its Urban Frame line of door frames.

Later, Windowmaker Software gave a presentation on its Windowmaker Measure app. ODL Canada presented its Blinds Between Glass. Vinyl Systems Ltd. talked about its window products.

Groupe Eugenie  discussed the company’s door solutions, which it says are the industry’s only smart connected machines.

Skyreach L&S Extrusions  presented its PD02/PD04/PD06 and 4800 Hopper Window System.

Finally, Quanex Building Products  showed off the Mikron C3-11300TM AW-Rated window and door system.

There were many other products on display as well from the nearly 100 exhibitors on the Win-door show floor.

Endura’s booth featured its Z-Articulating cap sill, which is self-compensating and eliminates the need to caulk the sill and door bottom.

Vi-Lux showed off its aluminum-reinforced mull post. The company says it supplies superior rigidity, which is a desirable property for mull posts.

Vi-Lux also might have had the most interesting and innovative booth at the show – though it was unintentional.

The company exhibited at September’s Glassbuild show in Atlanta, and it hoped to replicate that display at Win-door. However, the shipping company it hired never delivered the contents of the booth back to the company, so Vi-Lux was forced to improvise with some products from a famous Swedish home-goods retailer.

“We knew we had to do this fast track, so we went down to Ikea and we bought some shelves,” said Richard Moldovan of Vi-Lux. “We improvised, and it looks really good. We know that this show is important for us as well.”

The Win-door North America show runs until Thursday.