Believe it or not I never in a million years saw myself looking to start a high-level technical apparel company. That is a profoundly odd statement coming out of my mouth given that I am literally on the verge of launching a technical hunt apparel company!
The reality is that I was perfectly fine with the products that I was using for years upon years, until I wasn’t. One of the interesting things that occurred along my journey was assisting with building an adjacent brand in the vertical. For years I assisted in the scaling of this adjacent brand and from that I learned absolutely every single thing that I did not want to do if I ever decided to start one for myself. For around a decade I played my part, albeit small, I still held my ear close to the tracks and listened to our community. As many large companies did things like lessen thread tensile strength to make products less durable to sell more, to corporate buyouts and non-hunter influenced vertical plays, I began to tire of the literal garbage that went on within the industry.
One company that I will not name is literally owned entirely by folks who have never hunted a day in their life to the date this was published and still at present do not hunt. Supporting companies with roots as shallow as their next meta marketing budget in combination with the next social media promo code is about as disappointing as my annual Western hunt draw results.
The next reality and one that scares me the most is that VC money has entered the chat with every single premium brand out there. There are no more “Best In Class” hunter-funded, hunter-owned companies. With the entrance of bank owned, comes the decisions of bankers and portfolio managers looking at bottom line margin. With these optics come things like cutting out the proprietors, cutting the metric of quality such as lessening tensile strength on thread used to sew your garments, all the way to moving manufacturing to lesser tooled factories that offer better bids to make more top end margin. Look, I am in business, I understand that things must be done in order to save money and ensure that margins are in good health. However, that should never, ever come at the expense of quality or durability.
For many, many years, even well beyond a decade, we saw nothing but advancements coming our way. Many of us started in cotton realtree long sleeves that faded after a couple washes and even without fabric brighteners appeared bright on a hillside, even with a slight blue tint to them. Enter Scentlok and Sitka with actual gear that was no longer being made out of cotton, and we were seeing massive advancements in comfort and durability. These garments were tough too! I am sure that many of you can attest to those OG versions that so many of us still have today! They were made with quality materials and were extremely colorfast. For over a decade we enjoyed companies that created better and better gear. Fast forward into the 2010’s we were feeling like we had solid options to enhance our mountain hunting experience.
When Jason founded Kuiu, is genuinely where we saw the most innovation. I would state that in general, we saw a passionate man that cared so much, that everything mattered and we all knew it. We were all so bought in that it was unthinkable of choosing anything else because it was simply subpar and average. Many others followed and attempted to emulate what Jason had done. However, the reality is that no one was up to par. Not a single man had the credit, trust or backbone that Jason possessed.
If we fast forward to today, everything name brand in hunt apparel is either bank owned, bankrupt or too small to name. We have the examples of proprietors who struck out to build something and God bless them! While they are maybe “decent” in business and have an idea of what they want to do to service the vertical, I cannot think of one proprietor who is a true savage assassin in the mountains. If I am being honest, I do not know a single technical hunt clothing company owner right now in our community who is an absolute weapon.
If we want to be the best, we absolutely must place ourselves in position to be equipped with the best that is made on earth.
Since technically, we are positioning ourselves as highly qualified to advise and address a community, shouldn’t that individual be extremely well qualified? Afterall, if someone is average in killing, are we likely to take their advice for an upcoming hunt? If someone is average in business, are we likely to invest in their business? If someone is mediocre in their faith, are we interested in learning about faith from them? The most common answer is “no.” If a man is of average build, or average faith, average discipline or mediocre to poor in their passions, should we be taking advice from them about what we require to be successful in the mountains? This is a business based upon the effective and efficient taking of life. We are built on being the highest form of predator on the mountain. Building a company based off of products that can keep us in the game longer, keep us comfortable, quiet and high functioning while we are in the field is the goal.
I am not here to make everyone feel good about me over someone else. That is absolutely not the goal of this message whatsoever. What I am trying to say is that in general, we as humans tend to seek out the very most qualified people that we can find in the pursuit of whatever it is that we are looking to achieve. Given that we are in the field of becoming highly effective at taking life in the mountains in the name of a hobby, past time, sport or whatever we choose to call it, make no mistake that if we want to be the best, we absolutely must place ourselves in position to be equipped with the best that is made on earth; built by highly skilled and knowledgeable individuals who are both efficient and effective in the field.
"Built with function at the forefront of our minds, crafted for the mountains we hunt in, we seek to truly bring back that “for hunters by hunters” ethos"
To set the record straight, I do not think I am the best hunter on earth. I know of many men that are incredible at their craft and many men that have achieved much more than I have. I believe that the point I am trying to make is that I believe we need someone who is a skilled assassin, who does know how to scale a business, who can change the narrative of where our industry has failed over the last decade; someone who is fearless that holds a high level of accountability within the fabric of family, faith and leadership. So here is what I can promise: to keep our company free of paid opinions, influencers looking for handouts, VC control and lackluster leadership. I can also promise to build quality products with meaningful innovations and remain Western hunt centric as we scale, never losing our core as we grow. I aspire to bring traditional values back into the lifestyle tradition we love under the premise that we deserve not only more, but we deserve better.
With the launch of Gray Light technical hunt apparel, my team and I will produce a new take on hunt clothing. Built with function at the forefront of our minds, crafted for the mountains we hunt in, we seek to truly bring back that “for hunters by hunters” ethos. I dare to say that we aren’t here to join the pack. As a matter of fact, we want nothing to do with what has happened to our community, we desire to establish a new direction for our community where we take a stand for the greater good. We will be a company that stands behind our product with an uncompromising, common-sense warranty, we will innovate, we will make garments that are durable with an emphasis on lighter weights when possible and we will not disrespect your hard-earned dollars by creating some sort of nonsense excuse to launch another inventory sale to pump margins. We won’t spam you with influencers and their affiliate promo codes or paid opinion. If we make a mistake, we will own up to it. If we buy too much of an item and it flops, I would rather burn it than put it on sale to try to recover from our mistake. As a matter of fact, if you don’t ask for an item, there’s a strong likelihood that we will not even make it, and if we do not have a lot of folks looking for certain sizes, we will most likely protect the company and not make something until a time arrives where demand meets production volume break even at minimum.
The reality is that we want to build the most rock-solid company in hunt since the inception of the best-in-class predecessors that came before us! They at one time inspired me and their ethos lives on as a result. However, innovation cannot die with them, we have the duty of obligation to find our footing and re-invent greatness from the very bones of our own DNA. We must create the future of hunt and brick by brick, build back what was once a proud, strong, free and independent thinking group of innovators! Something that is very real and within reach if we can simply embrace the concept that progress must occur and the next generation of greatness is as near as the mere turn of a page away! With raw instinct, intuition and smart thinking, with a solid team, strong leadership and all of you, this is something that we can do now and we can do it together!
