Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2019 - 46

Hardgoods / BREAD+BUTTER

Bringing
It Home

1. TOPO DESIGNS TRUCKER JACKET AND
KLETTERSACK BACKPACK

The men's Trucker Jacket ($189) from Topo Designs,
based in Colorado, started with raw denim produced
at Cone Denim in Greensboro, North Carolina, which
forms to the body over time. Then, Topo's pattern makers had to experiment with the fabric, really get to know
it, and figure out how to stitch it perfectly. Skilled sewers
in California assemble the jackets with custom copper
shanks and buttons.
The Klettersack backpack ($169), made from 1000D
nylon ripstop, is sewn in Louisville, Colorado, where each
worker typically produces about 10 each day. Production
usually ranges from about 35 to 45 packs in total each
day. "You find the right people to do the right thing," says
Randy Kleiner, Topo's product manager. "The right people
to make our Klettersack are in Louisville."

The push for U.S. manufacturing is on.
But what does it take to make product
in America? These brands show how
it can be done. by Kassondra Cloos
THE "MADE INAMERICA"TAG ISASOURCE OF PRIDE FOR
many outdoor gear brands. It says, "We made this. With our
hands." Sure, there are challenges. In many cases, it's less expensive to manufacture abroad. And sometimes it's just too
hard to do it here-either there aren't enough skilled laborers,
or there isn't a factory that can produce that specific product,
or it's prohibitively expensive and no one would ever buy it. But
when it is possible, it's celebrated.
Take Blue Ridge Chair Works, based in Asheville, North
Carolina, for example. Founder Alan Davis says a lot of
manufacturing jobs in his area were going overseas when
he started his company in 2000, and craftsman were being left behind in favor of cheaper goods. "It became very
important to me to try to keep a small part of that heritage
alive," he says. And his furniture sells exceptionally well
abroad, where he's found that European and Japanese consumers in particular revere American manufacturing.
Cascade Designs, which owns and operates Therma-Rest, MSR, Platypus, PackTowl, and SealLine, makes
most of its gear-from sleeping pads to dry bags to water bottles-at factories in Reno, Nevada, and Seattle,
Washington. Walking through Cascade Designs' Reno facility, you'll see various sections dedicated to different brands
and products. And you can witness some of the myriad benefits of manufacturing different product so close to home.
Foam scraps left over from sleeping pad production are upcycled into pillows. As far as Greg Dean, director of product
at Therm-a-Rest, is concerned, it's worth it to make product
in the U.S., in spite of the challenges. "Manufacturing in the
U.S. allows us to iterate new product solutions as rapidly as
possible. If we have an idea or new concept we want to try,
we can prototype it on production machinery and test it onsite within a day," he says.
Here's a behind-the-scenes peek at a few pieces of gear
that are made here.

46 OUTDOOR RETAILER

/ Winter 2019

Photograph by Andrew Kornylak

Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2019