Who would do this?

Why I walked away from a 25-year technology career to build a camping gear company

Who would do this?

Walk away from a career that had provided a good life for more than 25 years.

Walk away from the stability, the paycheck, the experience, and the professional identity you spent decades building.

Then start something completely new.

With no background in the outdoor industry.

No history running a retail company.

No warehouse full of inventory.

No giant marketing budget.

Just an idea, a website, a blatant sense that life is short, and a persistent feeling that there had to be another way to spend the years ahead.

It sounds a little insane.

Maybe it is.

But sometimes something happens that changes the questions you ask yourself.

For me, that happened when my dad passed away.

The Question That Changes Everything

When you lose someone close to you, the finality of life hits differently.

You start thinking about time.

How much do we actually have?

How much of it are we spending doing what we are supposed to do?

How much are we spending pursuing the things we actually care about?

And perhaps the biggest question:

What would you do if you stopped assuming you could do it later?

I had spent more than 25 years working in information technology, primarily around large enterprise systems and solution architecture.

It was a career I was good at.

I knew how to take complicated problems, break them into smaller pieces, understand hundreds of moving parts, and figure out how they fit together.

I knew how to get things done.

Over the years, I had also learned something else: every new project could mean learning an entirely different business, industry, technology, or subject matter.

So, starting something new wasn’t quite as crazy as it first appeared.

After all, how much different could it be?

I was about to find out.

So What Does Any of This Have to Do With Camping?

Everything.

Because the more I looked at the camping industry, the more fascinating it became.

When you see a backpack, tent, sleeping bag, camp chair, stove, or other piece of camping gear sitting on a shelf, it is easy to think of it as simply a product.

But getting that product into your hands is anything but simple.

There are materials.

Components.

Suppliers.

Manufacturers.

Testing.

Safety requirements.

Packaging.

Shipping.

Importing.

Minimum order quantities.

Product development.

Quality control.

Customer expectations.

Pricing.

Returns.

Warranties.

Marketing.

And then there is the simple question every camping company eventually has to answer:

Does this product actually deserve a place in someone’s gear?

That question became increasingly important to me.

Because camping gear isn’t just merchandise.

Someone will take that gear somewhere.

Maybe it is a weekend at a local campground.

Maybe it is a cross-country road trip.

Maybe it is a backpacking trip.

Maybe it is a first family camping adventure.

Maybe it is an experience someone has been looking forward to for months.

The gear matters because the experience matters.

And that became the beginning of our philosophy at Camping.Tools.

We Decided Quality Had to Come First

I kept coming back to a backpack.

Not a high-tech backpack.

Not the lightest backpack.

Not the backpack with the most features.

An old leather backpack.

I bought it during my college years at Florida State University.

I still remember opening the box.

That smell of fresh leather.

The feel of it in my hands.

Soft. Substantial. Almost buttery.

The color was a little darker than true buckskin, and the craftsmanship stood out immediately.

People noticed it.

Friends noticed it.

Professors noticed it.

Even my geology professor managed to put it to good use—although he seemed convinced its primary purpose was carrying rocks.

At the time, the backpack cost about $120.

In 1989, that was a fortune to a college student.

But it was worth it.

And here is the remarkable part:

I still have that backpack today.

With a little leather care over the years, it remains in remarkably good condition.

More than three decades later, I can still pick it up and remember how it felt when I first opened that box.

That experience stuck with me.

It wasn’t just a backpack.

It was the feeling of owning something well made.

Something designed to last.

Something that made you feel good every time you used it.

That is the feeling I want to recreate at Camping.Tools.

The Backpack Became Our First Product

When we began thinking about what Camping.Tools should actually sell under our own brand, a backpack felt like the natural place to start.

Maybe my own history shaped that decision.

I’m sure it was.

But it also represented exactly what we wanted the brand to stand for.

Carefully selected materials.

Quality components.

Thoughtful construction.

Good design.

And something we could be proud to put our name on.

We are now developing branded Camping.Tools backpacks and other gear, while also curating products from other notable outdoor brands that meet the standards we are looking for.

We’re also preparing preorder pages for additional camping essentials, including tents and sleeping bags.

We aren’t trying to launch everything at once.

We’re building something worth keeping.

What I Didn’t Know About Making Camping Gear

Starting a company sounds simple from the outside.

Find a product.

Put your logo on it.

Sell it.

Reality is considerably more complicated.

I quickly discovered that manufacturing and sourcing camping gear is its own world.

And I had a lot to learn.

That meant conversations with manufacturers literally on the other side of the planet.

It meant learning how factories operate.

How materials are selected.

How components are sourced.

How production is controlled.

And how important it is to know who you are actually dealing with.

Plenty of stories exist about companies being taken advantage of by overseas manufacturers or entering relationships that eventually turn into failed ventures.

Those stories aren’t just internet folklore.

They happen.

So we became careful.

Very careful.

You learn to ask questions.

You learn to investigate.

You learn that a polished factory showroom doesn’t necessarily tell you what is happening behind the scenes.

You learn that some manufacturers specialize in very specific categories of products, and that certain regions of the world have developed deep expertise in particular types of outdoor gear.

You learn to distinguish between someone who can make something and someone who can consistently make something well.

And then you discover another world:

testing and compliance.

The Hidden Complexity Behind a Piece of Camping Gear

Depending on the product, there are different material requirements, safety considerations, testing requirements, and standards to navigate.

Some products have considerations around flammability.

Others involve insulation and warmth.

Some materials may come into contact with food.

Different products can have federal requirements, state-specific requirements, industry testing standards, and documentation requirements.

Then comes the practical question:

Where do you actually get those tests performed?

What tests are required?

What does legitimate testing cost?

What documentation should a manufacturer provide?

What materials are competitors using?

What should we use?

What can we responsibly put into a first production run?

And then there is one of the most important acronyms anyone entering manufacturing learns very quickly:

MOQ — Minimum Order Quantity.

Manufacturers don’t necessarily want to make ten of something.

They may want to make hundreds.

Or thousands.

For a startup, that changes everything.

You have to manage quality, cost, inventory risk, cash flow, demand, shipping, and the possibility that your first product isn’t quite as good as you hoped.

This is not the simple world of “find a product and put it online.”

It’s product development.

And we’re learning it one decision at a time.

From a Marketplace to a Brand

That brings us to where Camping.Tools is today.

The original idea was larger than simply creating another online camping store.

We wanted to build a marketplace—a place where campers could discover useful products and where brands and vendors could reach customers without depending entirely on the traditional big-box retail model.

The marketplace is gaining traction.

We’re seeing organic traffic.

People are discovering the site through search and word of mouth.

And yes, maybe the name helps.

Camping.Tools.

It says exactly what we are.

Tools for camping.

We’ve used analytics and monitoring tools to understand what people are looking for and where they are coming from.

We’ve also built relationships with more than 70 affiliate vendors, giving us access to a broad range of camping products without pretending that a startup can stock every item in the outdoor industry.

Another reason this model matters to us is this.

We believe there should be alternatives to the increasingly expensive customer-acquisition path that pushes independent businesses toward marketplace fees and what we jokingly call the Amazon tax.

The goal isn’t to compete with Amazon on size.

The goal is to create something different.

A Place to Discover Gear — Not Just Buy Stuff

This is where the idea of Camping.Tools gets bigger.

The website is one part of it.

The marketplace is another.

But ultimately, we’re interested in the community.

Because camping isn’t really about equipment.

Equipment enables the experience.

The real product is the weekend.

The trip.

The fire.

The mountain.

The lake.

The trail.

The sunrise.

The conversation around the campsite.

The stories you bring home.

That’s why we’re interested in more than selling products.

We want Camping.Tools to become a place where people can discover gear, understand what they are buying, learn how products are made, compare options, and eventually share their own experiences.

Why We’re Starting Small

We’re a startup.

No secret pile of venture capital sits behind the curtain.

We don’t have the purchasing power of a national big-box retailer.

We can’t buy thousands of products, put them in a massive warehouse, and hope they sell.

Honestly, we don’t want to pretend that we can.

So you’ll see us introduce products a few at a time.

You’ll see branded Camping.Tools products alongside carefully selected gear from established outdoor brands.

You’ll see preorder opportunities as we develop new tents, sleeping bags, and other camping equipment.

And you’ll see us make decisions slowly enough that we can stand behind them.

That may not be the fastest way to build a company.

But we think it is the right way.

Standing Behind What We Put Our Name On

One of the promises we are making with our branded products is simple:

We have to be willing to put our name on it.

That means taking the time to choose materials and components carefully.

It means paying attention to craftsmanship.

And it means standing behind what we sell.

For our branded gear, we’re committed to giving a limited lifetime warranty because we believe a company should have confidence in the products it puts its name on.

We’re not interested in making something that looks good on a product page and becomes disposable a year later.

I want the future owner of a Camping.Tools product to feel the same thing I felt when I opened that leather backpack decades ago.

That this was worth buying.

That it was made with care.

That it feels good to use.

And that someone actually thought about the person who would carry it.

We’re Still Learning

There is something else worth saying.

We don’t have all the answers.

We’re learning.

We’re researching.

We’re talking to manufacturers.

We’re evaluating materials.

We’re learning about testing and certifications.

We’re figuring out which products deserve our name.

And we’re discovering just how many decisions have to happen before one piece of camping gear ever makes it into your hands.

That’s part of the story.

And we’re going to share it.

Because I think people deserve to know more about where their gear comes from and how those decisions get made.

So…Who Would Do This?

Apparently, I would.

A guy who spent more than 25 years building enterprise technology solutions decided to step away from the career he knew and start building something completely different.

Maybe because losing someone close to you changes your perspective.

Maybe because freedom becomes more valuable as you get older.

Maybe because adventure sounds better than another calendar full of meetings.

Maybe because there is still something satisfying about building something with your own hands—even when “building” means choosing a fabric, evaluating a manufacturer on another continent, or figuring out whether a particular component deserves to make it into a product; we are personally involved.

Or maybe it is simply because the years keep moving.

And eventually you realize:

There is no guarantee that “someday” is going to show up.

So this is our someday.

Camping.Tools is our attempt to build something useful, something permanent, and something we can be proud of.

A marketplace.

A brand.

A community.

And eventually, we hope, a basecamp for the people who love getting outside.

Welcome to Camping.Tools

We’re just getting started.

You’ll see more branded Camping.Tools gear.

You’ll see backpacks.

You’ll see tents.

You’ll see sleeping bags.

You’ll see products from other notable outdoor brands that we’ve selected because we believe they belong in the camping experience.

And you’ll see us keep building the marketplace and community around them.

We may not be the biggest camping gear company.

We aren’t trying to be.

We want to be the company that remembers there is a person on the other side of every purchase.

So when you have a question, email us.

We’ll answer.

When you think a product could be better, tell us.

We’ll listen.

When you want to talk about camping gear, product design, materials, manufacturing, or what would make your next trip better, join the conversation.

That’s the kind of company we’re trying to build.