Hello. Don’t mind us. We’re just designing packs over here. What are you doing here anyway? You couldn’t possibly have heard of us yet. I mean, we’re brand new.

Well, now that you’re here, you might as well hear the whole story.

We’re a bunch of outdoor industry veterans, some designers (yay!), some marketers (whatever) who have banded together to create the kind of outdoor equipment we’ve always wanted to make. So what does that mean? After all, there’s plenty of outdoor gear out there and lots of it’s great.

Here’s what we’ve got in mind:

1. Less Everest. More everyday.

We see lots of commuters, travelers and everyday folks humping around packs that were designed for summit bids on 8,000 meter peaks. We don’t see a lot of gear made for the way people we know live their lives. For most of us, daily life is a little of this a little of that: rushing to work, shopping on your lunch hour, yoga or a run before dinner.

Even when we play, we mix things up: long flight to somewhere nice, a day surfing, a day hiking, maybe a day climbing or snowboarding. Despite this collage of daily activities, most gear is designed to do just a single thing. There are climbing packs and ski packs and travel packs and bike packs. We think it’s time to make some lots-of-things packs.

2. Iterate to Innovate

A lot of outdoor brands focus on cutting-edge technology. That’s fine. Somebody’s got to invent that stuff. But we’re more concerned with great design. Our challenge is to make beautiful, hard-working gear from cost-effective, time-tested materials. Great design often doesn’t require new technologies, just new ways of thinking about old problems. That and lots of patience.

We find great designs come in small steps, and great realizations happen through the little lessons learned as prototype after prototype gets better and better.

3. Make Things That Make Things Better

Most companies that make outdoor gear focus their attention on a small group of elite mountain athletes. While those guys sure do put packs and tents and bags through their paces, there are lots of other hardcore gear users out there, folks who rely on their gear just as much, day after day, month in and month out. Many of these are working hard in unforgiving environments to make the world a better place.

We know people who live in tents in Baja 150 days a year saving sea turtles, NGO staffers lugging laptops around central Asia and doctors who leave their practice for months at a time to live, work and save lives in some of the most desperate places on earth.

These are the people we turn to for inspiration. They help us understand what makes great, versatile outdoor gear work. And we think we can help them help the world with access to gear designed to meet their needs.

So, that’s what we think. Over the next few seasons, we’ll be introducing new designs for people who like to go places and do things when they get there. We started with a line of technical packs and we’ll keep you in the loop as to what’s coming next. Thanks for stopping by.