In this episode of The Epic Outdoors Podcast we talk with Petra Hilleberg of Hilleberg Tents. A tent can make or break a hunt when weather becomes an issue. Having a high quality tent built to cater to those of us who will put them to the test is critical. Hilleberg tents are high quality in every aspect. Over the past several years we have put them to the test on hunts across the west. In this podcast we learn more about Hillberg and the history behind the tents that we use here at Epic Outdoors.
Disclaimer: this podcast has been transcribed from the original audio and likely contains errors. This transcription does not reflect the views and opinions of Epic Outdoors LLC. Please consult the original audio with any concerns.
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Backpacking and sheep hunting and all, you know, of course we use it on all kinds of different backpack trips.
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Very, very specialized tents for what I would just call hardcore, serious outdoor,
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Anything to do with Western Big Games.
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Welcome
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To the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour.
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Hey everybody, Jason Carter and Adam Bronson here with another Epic Outdoors podcast. So anyway, we’ve been cranking ’em out. This one was a is with a special guest, Hillberg, the tent maker company with Petra Hillberg. We’ve known her for years and years, dealt with her products. All they do is make tents. They make some of the best tents in the entire industry. It’s just really revolutionized hunting for us and some of the different hunts that we go on. So anyway, before we get ’em on, we’d like to thank Under Armour for sponsoring this podcast, as well as a lot of different things that we’re working with them on, which are come out soon. So anyway, appreciate Under Armour support. They give Epic and, and our crew here couldn’t have these podcasts without ’em. Today we’re gonna give away a free hat, maybe to a couple of you.
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Not sure yet, but I imagine it’ll be a couple of you. We’ll give away a couple of hats, send ’em out to you. Anyway, to enter Day Win, you go to epic outdoors.com/podcast. On the right hand side is the podcast giveaway entry form. Enter the podcast code, let’s go Epic swag, E P I C S W A G, your name, your email, your phone number. Hit Submit one Entry per guy, or you’ll be disqualified. And then we’ll choose a winner here in a week and we’ll get that sent out to you. So you’ll be able to choose from any of our models. You can obviously go onto epic outdoors.com under apparel and you’ll be able to see, you know, all the different options that we have. So of course you can buy our apparel on our website as well. If you’d like to buy some different Epic swag, get on there, put it in your shopping cart, check out and we’ll send it to you. So what do you think, Bronson? You ready to talk to Petra’s?
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You bet. Let’s do it.
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All right, let’s get her on the phone.
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Looks like Rockstar Energy Drink. Sponsoring you today, Carter.
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Hey everybody. Adam and Jason here with Epic Outdoors Podcast, sponsored by Rockstar. Some days it’s monster. Some days it’s Diet Coke. I don’t know. All right. All right, let’s give her a holler.
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This is Petra.
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Petra. Hey, Jason Carter here. How are you?
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Good, how are you? Long time to talk.
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I know where you been.
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I’ve been right here
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Making tents, selling tents.
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Yes, exactly.
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Good. Pretty
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Much.
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Good. How about you? Oh, we’re just right here in the magazine. Yeah. Making magazines, trying to sell tents.
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That’s awesome. I like it.
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Let’s see, where, where are you located at?
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So I’m in Redmond, Washington.
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Oh, okay. And tell, tell us about the factory. Like where, where, where you guys are mainly out of, or is that like a subsidiary office or is that your main place or?
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Well, so our, our main office technically is in Sweden or our office where we do the product development. And the material research is in Sweden. And then we also do all sales in Europe at the office in Sweden. And then here in the US we have our office where we do all sales outside of Europe. So we also, obviously sales in the US but also we work with our Asian distributors. And we also do all marketing. All marketing, all advertising and social media, website, all of that. And video is done from our office here in Redwood for the whole company worldwide. And then we have our factory in Estonia, so in Eastern Europe. And that’s where all the tents are made and set up and inspected and all that.
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Wow. That’s
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Kind of our, our, our little group of offices
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Here In about 20 minutes. I’ll probably have you go over that again, just because I lost track. You guys got a lot of facets to that little company. It’s great. And it’s probably not so little. I
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Know you guys, I mean it’s, I mean, to some extent it still is really little. You know, it was my, my dad or my parents started it 45 years ago. And then I think I was about 12 when I said I was gonna sell tents in the US and then I set up the office here in 2000. And then we’ve just kind of, but we’ve always just been kinda really slowly growing and always just focused on one thing. And that’s making tents as best as we can. So it’s never been, you know, it’s not huge and it’s not giant in anyways, it’s just, we just have three offices since I wanted to live in the us.
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So you said, you said you wanted to sell tents when you were 12. When did you, you surely didn’t move out at 12 and come to the US at that point, right? Or maybe did
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Right. Well, and yeah. Not quite. Yeah, my dad is like, yeah, yeah, of course you are. Right. So, no, I went to, I ended up going to school here in the us. I went to Seattle University and then set up the office at the same time as I was graduating. And then started the first 10th, I shipped out two days after I graduated.
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Wow. Wow. So didn’t waste any time.
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Oh,
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Well, yeah, I was a little bit of a, it was an interesting story, but it worked out. So the first two years I was by myself doing all the little things and shipping and packing and, and then we’ve added people since then. And now we have like 12, 12 people here in the office in the us.
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Wow. And so, let’s see, let’s back up just a little bit and talk about your family, how it kind of got started. Yeah. You know, give us just a little bit of that background.
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Yeah. So my dad was a forester and he also did his military service and he was a mountain ranger, they called it in northern Sweden. Okay. And he just, so he was out a lot and he just didn’t like any of the tents that were on the market at the time. So he started designing his own, the company’s basically started in 1971. Oh, okay. And the first tent that was commercial was sold in 1973. Geez. That’s
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Before Adam was born, I think.
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And about five years before Jason was born.
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Now,
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There you go. It might actually have been before I was born too.
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Oh yeah. Well
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It’s quite common, it seems like in this era for people mountaineers or you said your dad’s a forester too. There wasn’t a lot of great gear, period. And so there’s amazing how a lot of starts happen because of people, people like your dad, you the true need, you, he, he just was getting wet, he was cold, nothing held up to the elements and is like, I’m gonna do something about it.
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Yeah. You know, he talking about him doing prototype work in the beginning, you know, he had these ideas of double walled tents, you know, ’cause he didn’t wanna set up the, the outer, the inner tent first and then put the outer tent on top of it. So he was experimenting with this and he had like, he did one with like a foam layer in between and then that got wet and heavy and fell apart. And like all these different things that he did in the beginning. Super interesting. Wow. And also at that time, there was no shock corded poles. So the first tent we had was a ridge tent. So just two straight pul poles. And, and that was actually the tent. That was the first tent that had inner and outer tent connected together. Yeah. So they went up together. But then some years later, so our Caron tent, which kind of is still our flagship tent, came in 81. And that was, ’cause then there was polls that were shock corded, so you could use a longer poll, otherwise it just kept falling apart. So it’s all, all kinds of interesting struggles there in the beginning to get the right models going.
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Wow. And so how have they, I mean, is one of these the original model that’s keep going? Or are you, you know, obviously it’s actually, is it?
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Yeah, the Keon is still kind of our flagship. Oh, it’s, it’s still,
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What’s it called? It looks different. You say Keon? The Keon. Okay. K
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E r o N. So it’s a, an all season in our black label. Just a really strong comfortable tunnel tent.
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Yeah, I’m seeing like a black label. I can see it on the web here. Like just, you’ve got like a a thousand, 2000 1200, 1800. What’s the different models there?
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Right, okay. So the, if you wanna look at the, the label system. So because we have quite a few models, some of them look a little bit alike. Yes. A couple years ago we decided that we are gonna divide ’em into a label system. And we went with a color that are neutral because basically we, we talk about the black label pens are, they have our strongest material, sorry, carolon 1800, which has a tear strength of minimum 18 kilos. And what you find on most tents on the market is about one and a half kilos. Wow. So it’s a huge difference in strength on the materials. So we have the Carolyn 1800 fabrics and 10 millimeter poles. And then also all the poles are the same length and you have large vents. So lots of comfort features. And so they are our strongest but also most comfortable and easiest to use tent.
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So for instance, like the Caron, like we talk about since 81, it has, it’s pretty much standard on north and South pole expeditions. So if someone comes to me and they’re going to the North Pole, I will tell them to take a Caron. But at the same time, if I have a family coming to me who are looking for a tent, that’s gonna last some a really long time. And that’s very comfortable and easy to use. I’ll also recommend the Caron. So black label doesn’t mean, you know, expedition only or extreme. It also has the most feature and most comfort. So obviously then they weigh a little bit more. But then you go down to the red label line and there you have slightly lighter materials. So Caroline 1200, so 12 kilo pair, nine millimeter poles. And then the, the poles are a little bit offset so they’re not all the same length. So you save a little bit of weight, still easy to use and still very comfortable, but not quite as comfortable. You have a slightly lighter fittings and features on it compared to the black label. But, so both the red and black are all season tens, so they can use Yeah.
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For snow of the year, snow, anything, anytime,
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Anything. So we try to talk about all season instead of four season. ’cause very often if you say four season, people think that it’s only for winter and it’s heavy. Yeah. Yeah. So, but it’s all season, so year round and what we consider an all season tent or is that the outer tent has to go all the way down to the ground so that you don’t have snow, wind or sand coming in underneath it. And also that all mesh panels should be able to be closed up so that again, you don’t have snow, wind or sand coming in that all vents need to be high enough that in case your tent is buried more or less halfway up, you still have venting. And also that all the vents can be closed up for both regular material and mesh materials. Wow. So that’s kind of our definition of an all season, season time. And then obviously that they should be able to stand up to any season, any weather.
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And then as you progress through the red and then through the yellow yellow’s, when you lighten up even more material-wise and weight-wise and, and just from a, I guess a lightweight and maybe covering a lot of miles just to, just to lighten it up frankly.
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Exactly. And also they are for the snow free months of the year. So we don’t really call ’em three season. ’cause again, it depends on where you are, but we usually don’t recommend it for snow because the outer tent doesn’t go all the way down to the ground. And then we mesh panels. So you don’t have the fabric backing for Yeah. So you can, so a little bit cooler sand
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Blowing in or wind blowing or snow blowing up and through and things like that. If, if you, exactly,
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And we obviously know quite a few of our deer hunting friends like Aaron Snyder who loves to use his yellow label tents in the snow, but it’s not what we recommend it for.
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Why is he using, why is he using yellow label tenses in the snow?
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’cause he is very stubborn.
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What does he want? Does he just like breathability or, you know?
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No, he likes the weight.
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Oh, okay. Yeah, that’s, he, he’s a hunter. We’re always concerned about that. So
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Yes. What, and you know, and that’s, that’s obviously reasonable and, and he obviously he is a very experienced, he’s out all the time and he knows what to expect and what, you know, so he’ll probably have a warmer sleeping bag if he uses that in the cell. Sure. Makes sense. But again, it’s not what it’s made for. You’re
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Not telling every your everyday customers to go with, you know, take a yellow label tent to the snow
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Or North Pole? No, I tell them not to.
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Yeah. Tell us about the blue label. It looks like you got some specialized opportunities.
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Yeah, so they’re, right now they’re just a group la group tents that we have. So we have the Atlas, which is a big modular dome tent, which is cool. You can attach as many as you want. So for like a, a base camp Oh. Where you can have like one dining room or like group area, geez. And one giant sleeping area bathroom, you connect them,
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You can do
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Bathroom if you
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Want. That’s I shower. Well the only thing I picture with hilberg tents would be backpacking and sheep hunting and all, you know, of course we use it on all kinds of different backpack trips, but never have thought of ’em as, you know, add-ons and having family rooms, you know? Yeah.
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But yeah, if you’re doing like a base camp style and then just spike out from there. Yeah. Then you can set up a really, you know, instead of having a wall tent or something like that where you can set up a really solid base and then go up on your day trips from there, you can set it up, make a really, really nice setup and very comfortable setup.
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Wow.
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So it’s crazy. So, and then the altai is like a, it’s, it looks like a yurt and there we have two different materials in it, but that’s also as a group gathering or like a, if you, so a lot of outfitters use it. That’s I impress,
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Yeah.
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Where you can have either as a, again, as a base camp or just kind of where you meet and gather. We do a lot of courses in the mountains in Sweden where we bring customers out. And there we usually have that as like a evening gathering or eating place. We have one of those and then people sleep in their smaller tens otherwise. So that’s kind of an interesting
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Well, and that’s an impressive model really. It’s like you, you correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re basically looking at like a 10 pound tent that, that makes it to where, you know, it looks like 15 people can gather in there and eat dinner, you
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Know? Yeah. I think we’ve had like probably around 20 people max that’s maybe a little bit more than, but yeah, you can easily have 15 people sitting around there.
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Bunch of skinny hunters probably get 20 people in there. Well how did you, how did you get involved in the hunting industry? I know Adam and I be, you know, have become familiar with you and your company maybe, I don’t know, probably three or four years after you came Yeah. To Seattle, you know, or exactly, you know, Washington
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Early 2000. Yeah. I think what happened was really, I’m gonna say Brian Martin, who I would say guides a lot. And we met and he started using our tents and then he wrote some articles and just started using them. And he comes in contact with so many hunters and so many outfitters. And it was really kind of word of mouth to start out because in general in Sweden, most hunters, they don’t stay out overnight. But, so then when we met Brian and learned more about the, the whole, the big game western hunting and the needs that are there when it comes to equipment, it was kind of a, a, a good match there.
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Yeah. It’s definitely very well, well accepted out here how we hunt our deer, elk, sheep, goat, you know, moose, everything. Whether it be, you know, Canada, Alaska, or the Western US. Exactly. It is very common. And you know what, what I was always, I guess somewhat impressed with is that when we first got to know you, it’s not as common. Most, most people that make tents make a lot of other things. You know, they have a lot of other outdoor equipment for a variety of different things. You know, outdoor, you know, whether it’s stoves, sleeping bag, I mean, you name it, you know, whole catalog lines and you guys just did tents and Exactly. And very, very specialized tents for what I would just call hardcore serious outdoor or, you know, mountain climbers and things like that, whose literally life, life and death type depends on your tent.
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But tell us about exactly how that word of mouth and how that, how that started to catch on. Because it’s, it’s not common for, you know, just to make one, one product like tents that’s, you know, seemingly, you know, not unique. You know, there’s a lot of people that make tents and how did you, yeah. How, what makes you different from other tents and how do you think that that that that background from your father and, and what you really specialized in and the type of tent built has transitioned for hunters and make that made them, you, you successful in their minds?
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Yeah. Well, so our philosophy has always been to make tents that we ourselves want to use and that we want, that we are comfortable having our best friends use. And also knowing that we have customers around the world that put their lives into basically our hands when they’re sleeping in these tents. So the quality has always been our absolute number one focus. And that’s why we have our own factory in Estonia and why we use these materials that are obviously more expensive. And, you know, putting this much emphasis in the, the, our own manufacturing because that’s, it gives me often gray hairs that to, to be able to keep top quality in the production and making sure that everything is at top quality from the pattern making into like every little detail in the whole manufacturing that owning that whole process.
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But that’s always been, in order for us to be able to make the absolute best tent we can. And I would say, people have always asked us why we don’t make other products. And we’ve just felt like as long as we have things that we feel like we can develop within tents, then that’s what we’re gonna do. You can’t be ex, you can’t be an expert on everything, but we’re an expert at tents and that’s why, you know, we could have built it massively big and sold a lot of things and you make a lot more money doing it that way. But that’s not, that was never our goal.
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Well that’s the, that’s the, that’s the American way. And you live in American now,
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Do everything, a little bit of everything.
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And I love humble Sweet, I love your name. The hillberg, the tent maker. I think it says it all. And, and like Adam says, I mean you, you just, you know, it is nice you guys. It’s what you really specialize in. You do it well. You’re not deviating from that. At least that, that we’ve seen. Maybe there’s some things in the works, but
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Yeah, no, it’s
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No question. Should you guys excel at that? And I, and I know from the Hunter’s perspective and, and like you said, your, your introduction with Brian Martin and, and he wrote some articles there and did a great job on ’em and, and, and endorsed you guys. And once you get an endorsement from somebody like Brian and then a few other people catch on and word of mouth and the hunting industry has some money, we’re we, we willing to spend money on good gear and Yeah. You know,
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And that’s, and that’s off of what I say, like the, the hunters that are using our tents there, there’s a big difference to this. Like you said, there’s a lot of tents on the market and for most camping situation or backpacking situation, anything is gonna be fine until the weather is not cooperating with you. Right. So if you’ve spent thousands of, thousands of dollars on a certain tag and you’ve gotten your tag and you’ve spent all this money on getting your tag, getting your equipment, getting your outfitter or guide or whatever you’re doing, or if you’re doing it yourself, if then your equipment starts failing when you’re out there, you’re not gonna, you wasted all that money and all that time that you spent on getting this tag and you’re not gonna be able to do it. So air is a category that actually need that extra, extra quality where it actually matters. You know, again, for most, like, you know, if you’re a climber and you’re sitting below a rock face and you’re kind of hanging out and then climbing and sleeping a little bit and it’s nice and warm, it doesn’t really matter. But when you’re out there in the western states and you’re hunting and you have a goal set for what you’re doing, the quality matters.
00:22:09:08 –> 00:23:21:07
Yeah, absolutely. And I, you know, us being hunters, we, we, we see it through that perspective and that how much other investment we have into whether it be bonus points we’ve accrued for 10 or 20 years Yeah. Or money that we’ve worked out for an opportunity that we don’t wanna squander. And so I totally get it. And it’s, it, it’s been simple. I, from the, from the start, you know, it’s been Jason probably 10 or 11 years ago, we, we got your, your Atco and your atu, your Atco single man and your ATU to person. And they are, for all intents and purposes, I use ’em every single year. And maybe not as hard as Brian Martin and maybe in places like that end with a stand where he’s taken ’em all in Asia stands coca. I know. But, but having said that, they get used, it’s not like they’re in my garage every year, but they, they’re in great shape and I use ’em every single year on some of my hunts and they are incredibly well built. And, but maybe, maybe go through some of the features that you’ve maybe a commonality, I mean weight is always one that comes up with hunters obviously, but maybe some other features that you feel are most important to hunters and maybe get into maybe some of your most popular styles with the hunters
00:23:21:23 –> 00:24:10:22
For So kind of as a baseline, everything we do has to have a functional purpose on the tent. So we never add a detail for looks or anything like that. Everything has to be functional, easy to use when you’re out there. So for instance, when it comes to wind rating, you’ll have some companies that’ll give you a wind rating saying, oh it’s gonna stand up to these wind speeds. But what usually happens when something like that is done is that they, they have wind machines and they’re, the tents are bolted down into the floor and then you turn on the wind machine and you clock it and see what a wind speed it will take. We have a wind machine at our office in Sweden and what we do, we turn it on and then we go in front of the wind machine and we set it up and then we see what it can do.
00:24:11:09 –> 00:25:28:17
’cause if you can’t set up your tent in the wind, then it doesn’t matter how strong it is. Right. Yeah. There’s a different approach. Yeah. So, so I never thought of that. Yeah. So we have a philosophy on every single model, including like the big atlas model that you should be able to set up your tent in the dark by yourself wearing big gloves in the storm. ’cause otherwise it doesn’t matter. Right? Yeah. So they’re all functionally easy to set up. And what looks a little bit different to most others on the market is that we have the poles on the outer tent or on the fly. We have pole sleeves there and then the inner tent is attached with shockles and toggles on the, on onto the outer tent or the fly. So everything goes up together. So you push your pole through or clip it to, depending on which model it is, and then everything just goes up together. Yeah. So you have a really quick system. You also have a flexible system where you can set up the inter 10 by itself or you can move the inter tent to the side if you wanna have a group gathering. Like if you get stuck in a storm and you have two, two people, two different tents, you can sit button out the inner tent out of one of ’em and then you can sit there and play cards for the night.
00:25:30:19 –> 00:26:22:23
And then everything is always, like I said, every detail is on there for a reason. So we don’t do, there are tents that are lighter on the market, but we never wanna put our name on something that we feel is flimsy or not strong enough for Yeah. The conditions that we’ve built the tent for. So some of the popular models always have, we talked about the Caron and the Caron gt, A lot of outfitters are using that for as group tens. We talked about Brian, he uses it a lot in the, in Kka and Tji is Dan when he is there. Yeah. ’cause they have really kind of bad weather in the black label line. We also have the Ika, which is a two person, it’s fully freestanding, including the vestibules, which is unique. Usually you have to peg out the vestibules or something like that.
00:26:23:14 –> 00:27:30:06
But here the Theca is completely freestanding. So you have two entrances, two vestibules inside the whole nice. Within the Tructure. So no pegging needed, obviously we always peg it out no matter what, but that’s a good one. Yeah. One of our biggest buries black label tens is the ci. So we have Mark Seacat and Adam fos. They often go out in Montana. They have a, a late, a late season elk hunt that they go October-ish I think. Yeah. Where the weather has already started to be really bad in Montana. And they basically go and chase storms with this tent. So they go and they know the weather’s gonna be the worst that they can be. And then they go up there and they have the CI and hang out there because then basically no one else is out there. And then they’re actually already deep up into the mountain when the storm resides and then the animals come out. So the big elk come out at that time. So that’s, that’s been kind of their little secret trick when they hang out in,
00:27:30:18 –> 00:27:47:20
Well we’re this podcast, we’re gonna air everybody’s secrets, Petra. I know. So let’s have ’em, let’s have them. No, and I, and I noticed that on your website that it’s the Citer I think is how you pronounced it. It just unbelievable. It’s like a, a bomb shelter. I mean it is built.
00:27:48:13 –> 00:28:52:25
Yeah. So that’s obviously not for everyone. But, and then the red label, like you said, the kite that you have is kind of the lighter weight version of the Keon. Yeah. So two entrances to Vestigo are really roomy for two people. Especially if you’ve got two big burly boys and you don’t necessarily wanna sleep face to face. You can, you have the same amount of space you sleeping head to foot. Yeah. So you have one vesti eat and that’s kind of a nice way for outfitters as well. If you have two clients that don’t know each other, being able to have your own vestibule. So you have one guy facing one direction to one vestibule and then the other person the other way so that you don’t, you’re not in near each other’s space so much. Yep. So That’ss kind of a good one. The LAC is probably one of our more popular models. It’s also, it’s a red label version of the Tica. So a little bit lighter, also two entrances and two vestibules and completely freestanding including the vestibules.
00:28:52:27 –> 00:28:58:23
Basically a two person, two person tent with the vestibule two person freestanding. Which is, that’s very easy. It’s nice.
00:28:59:01 –> 00:29:49:20
Yeah, exactly. And there you also, you sleep alongside the vestibule so you can stay in your sleeping bag and reach your, all the stuff you have in your pack in the vestibule, which is nice. And that’s also a very strong works for all conditions. That’s probably one of our more popular with the hunters. Hunters, yeah. For two men situation. Yeah. Yep. And then in the yellow label line, the onion. The onion too. And then also the onion gt. So GT is a term we have on a bunch of different tunnel models. It means it basically stands for extended vestibule. So you have your regular inner tent and your sleeping area and the vestibule, but then the vestibule is extra extended. It actually has an extra pole. So for those trips, often
00:29:50:07 –> 00:29:52:13
In your CL keeping your gear dry, just a lot of
00:29:52:15 –> 00:30:05:29
Gear. Exactly. Exactly. So if you’re out in Alaska or BC or Northwest Territories or something like that where you’re expecting a lot of bad weather, being able to get out of the weather and have that vestibule space makes a huge difference.
00:30:06:12 –> 00:30:06:20
Yeah.
00:30:07:23 –> 00:30:46:00
So we have that on the on GT and the Nalo gt a very popular, the Rogan we redesigned this last year. And that’s also a yellow label, the two entrances to vestibules. So that’s a nice one. And then our most popular tent is actually our one person. The Acto. Yeah. Like you said, the red label. So it’s an all season one person tent. And I think for a lot, again, a lot of hunters sleeping with your hunting buddy might not be the first choice. No. So them being able to go out together,
00:30:46:00 –> 00:30:48:04
Everybody brings their own tent. Everybody brings their own
00:30:48:04 –> 00:30:51:02
Tent. Everybody snores. Go find your own part that,
00:30:51:04 –> 00:31:08:20
And that’s a one person tent. We’ve got it. And it’s actually really, really nice. You had zippers on the ends, you can, you know, it’s to moderate the heat and whatnot and just, just an awesome tent lightweight. Yep. Seems like you’re coming in around full 1 3, 3 pounds. Yeah. Three
00:31:08:20 –> 00:31:18:06
Pounds, 12 ounce is pack weight, including everything. Yeah. And then that’s, that’s again an all season. We had a guy spend 60 days on a north pole with his, geez,
00:31:18:10 –> 00:31:20:02
66 0. Yeah.
00:31:20:13 –> 00:31:23:12
Yes. Wow. That’s, so if you wanna do that,
00:31:23:19 –> 00:31:31:12
He got to know every part of your stitching of that tent, didn’t he? Yes. He, he expected your tent very well during those two months.
00:31:31:22 –> 00:31:35:04
Yes, I’m sure he did. Oh, so for one
00:31:35:04 –> 00:31:36:10
Person, he’s now in the looney bin.
00:31:38:15 –> 00:31:40:20
60 days. No, because he had a good tent, he didn’t need it.
00:31:40:20 –> 00:32:37:19
That’s right. That’s a good point. That’s a good point. I will tell you on these tents, I, I will tell you, they revolutionized, you know, felt like at least our, you know, I know our involvement in the industry when, when we, when we became affiliated with you guys years ago, like Adam was saying, and, and we used your tents. I mean, you can set these things up and wet tundra and jump in it, you know, we would set ’em up. I was up in the high country in, in Wyoming and was getting pounded on and just set it up and jump inside and you’re warm and dry and it just, it felt like you guys kind of, I don’t know, I wanna say revolutionized the hunting industry, but just the hunting industry wasn’t used to quality tents at that point in time. Yeah, of course you brought an awareness to that. And I’m sure you’ve got a few competitors, but it just felt, I don’t know, it just felt like everybody, you know, that was doing sheep hunts or crazy hunts, you know, at least 10, 15 years ago was went to Hillberg and it sure changed a lot of people’s lives. So
00:32:38:09 –> 00:32:57:27
Yeah, I think it’s, you know, I think here in general, I, I often hear people talking about, oh, I’m gonna go sleep in a tent and of course I’m gonna get wet. And that is just like so far off from anything I would ever think. I’ve never been wet in a tent. Right. You’re not, you don’t, it’s just that doesn’t happen. And that’s completely
00:32:58:06 –> 00:33:03:27
Opposite, like you said, it is co about 99% of any family camping trip or whatever, you know,
00:33:03:27 –> 00:33:08:07
So. Well I always expected you had to put down a ground cloth or some kind of tarp and extra tarp
00:33:08:13 –> 00:33:11:29
Over your tent. Yes. Even though as a fly you put an extra tarp over it just
00:33:11:29 –> 00:33:27:27
To keep and under it. And we never had to, we just would throw it out and then even, you know, sometimes of course the outside would have due on it and you’d pack it up and throw it in your back, in your backpack and take off and then that night put it back out. And we just never had those issues. It was always dry inside.
00:33:28:23 –> 00:33:33:10
Yeah. Yeah. It’s just, it’s kind of, yeah, we don’t,
00:33:33:12 –> 00:33:40:22
Obviously the materials, obviously your, you know, your materials will differ from the, you know, from the floor to the sides and all that.
00:33:41:11 –> 00:34:25:29
Yeah. So we have completely waterproof windproof outer tent and then the inner tent is breathable and water repellent. So you don’t have the moisture from the inside of the outer tent coming through to the inner, but you have warmer vapor going out from the inner tent. So you have a, a breathable water repellent inside and then you have a really strong puncture proof and waterproof floor. So it just kind of different materials everywhere, obviously mesh panels and again, on the all season tens, you can cover them up as well. So just different, just features on, on all of them to make sure that you can set it up, you can use it any condition.
00:34:26:13 –> 00:34:43:07
So we’ve got a, you know, Adam and I do a lot of stuff in, he does a lot of desert sheep and I’m out in the desert a fair bit and stuff. And so, you know, I was looking at kind of what’s new for 2018. It looks like a mesh tent, which I would use in a, in a lot of situations. Tell us a little bit about what you’ve got coming out.
00:34:43:27 –> 00:36:01:10
Yeah, so for 2018 we have a, a, like I said, a mesh tent. It’s a, last year we introduced a TARP five. So just a little tarp that we have that has a shape basically more or less for one person. And the mesh tank, you use it either by itself or you use it in combination with the tarp five, but it’s like a little one person ridge. Yeah. With a sewn in floor. So just super light and just easy to use for, for things like that weekend. Can John who works in the office here, he was up, he’s a hunter. He was just in the Olympics last weekend I think. And he was doing some glassing and, and checking out where he is gonna hunt later on. And he just used it because he was going really steep. So he just took the mesh tent knowing that it wasn’t gonna rain. And he used that. He had two hiking poles, he used the hiking pole in the front and then because where he was, was really steep, so he wanted to use the second hi hiking pole. So he just found a stick for the back end. So either use hiking poles to suspend the ridge or you can use, we’ve used paddles or sticks or you can suspend it from trees as well. So it’s a really simple setup and use for it and just
00:36:01:17 –> 00:36:03:06
Really like keep all the flies and Yeah,
00:36:03:06 –> 00:37:14:29
That’s, I was gonna say that for, that’d be very interesting to try out. ’cause a lot of times I don’t take a tent to the desert if I see where we’ve get a high pressure. Yeah. You know, you don’t, we can get rained on but, but it’s not gonna snow on you out there. But the times that I’ve done that a couple times, even early September, I know it’s, and my dad’s taken his tent and I have, and I thought I’m just gonna lighten up, save three or four pounds. All right. And the gnats are the nats, the s in, in June we have little no seams or, or gnats. Yeah. And they are brutal. Yeah, brutal on you. And that’s all you need is to get them off you and you can’t sleep without ’em. Or in fact, in some places where you’re, maybe you’re by a mountain lake or any kind of body of water or just at the wrong time of year with a mosquito hatch, you just need those off you. I’ve been in BC at times and we’ve had a full on tent. But had you not had you said, Hey, we’re just going to, you know, spike out tonight, you, you could not have slept five seconds that there was thousands of mosquitoes. And that’s, that’s got some applicability there. Just for, let’s say you’re just hiking up hiking and you wanna stop and have lunch sometime by a lake and you can’t even stop because there’s so many mosquitoes. Just something simple. It’s so light. You could always just yeah. Throw it in your pack. In
00:37:14:29 –> 00:37:33:06
Fact, it’s about 400 grams and I a pack super light. If you combine it with a tarp five. So if you’re out and you think it’s gonna start raining and you just pop that in your pack too, that one’s 320 grams. So between the two of ’em it’s 730 grams and p super small. Wow. So it’s a really nice small, which
00:37:33:06 –> 00:37:46:12
Is about pound and a half-ish. I mean 400 and something is a pound. I’m trying to, how do you know that? That’s on my main 454. Am I right Petra for a pound? Four 50 something grams. That’s something like that I can’t remember is who
00:37:46:12 –> 00:37:47:11
Knows that. Those kind of details
00:37:47:26 –> 00:37:48:13
I saw. I
00:37:48:13 –> 00:37:49:12
Know, I obviously don’t.
00:37:50:12 –> 00:37:55:20
Yeah, that’s part of you growing up in Sweden. It’s ki lows and grams and we’re ounces and pounds. It’s over here.
00:37:56:05 –> 00:38:01:10
I know. It’s so easy to divide and multiply things by 10 and a hundred, but you know, crazy
00:38:01:19 –> 00:38:04:23
American 16 ounces. Yeah. You know. That’s right.
00:38:05:20 –> 00:38:08:11
I’ve only been here for 20 years. I’m not ready for it yet.
00:38:09:05 –> 00:38:09:12
Oh
00:38:09:19 –> 00:38:41:12
Geez. Well, tell us, I mean, one of the things, not to cut you off, but the profiles of your tents have always been something that are, I I, I think unique. I mean there’s, there’s some tents out there that aren’t meant to withstand winds. And I’ve been in Yep. In my little tents before when it’s you, you were glad you were in it because if you were out of it, your tent would’ve been Yeah. A mile down the ridge somewhere. Even with everything on it, I mean mean it’s blowing 60 miles an hour and there wasn’t any rocks or anything. And we don’t get those 10, we don’t get those winds like, you know,
00:38:41:27 –> 00:38:43:10
The, the wind rivers up there in Wyoming.
00:38:43:13 –> 00:39:09:07
Yeah. We don’ts the winds normally like maybe other places in high peaks where some of your mountain climbers are doing. But I’ve been in mine and I, I think the simple, the profile of your tents, you know, allow them to, to withstand a lot more of the wind, you know what I mean? And talk about that and the design. That’s gotta be, you know, trial and error I’m sure is, you know, what doesn’t work and what catches stuff and flies up and open.
00:39:09:29 –> 00:40:09:20
Yeah, I mean like we’re talking about every detail has a function. So like the, the placement of the guideline, everything like that, it has a a reason for, you know, if you’re in a strong wind, obviously you wanna make sure that, especially if you’re using a tunnel tent, that it’s set up nice and tight. So tunnel tent, it’s reliant on at least four pegs, so it’s not completely freestanding like some of our others. But tunnel tent will give you the best weight to space RA ratio. So you have the most amount of space for the least of least amount of weight. So that’s why they’re very popular. It’s like the kitum that we talk about. Technically the ACTO is also tunnel style and nalo and the onion. So if you have at least the four pegs and you make sure you have a good stretch of the bridge line with that. And then we have guidelines that are double looped throughout that you can set up. We, me personally, I always peg out all peg points and all guidelines no matter what I do. It’s just kind of ingrained. Yeah. That,
00:40:09:25 –> 00:40:21:08
That, that wasn’t my case. That was like, you get in it at night and pretty soon about three hours in you’re like, well, something’s coming outside and I should have probably batting down the hatch a little more. And you’re just glad you’re holding,
00:40:21:12 –> 00:40:29:28
I should grabbed a bigger rock for each corner that’s right inside. Yeah. I mean, we’re hunters, we’re not, I mean that’s just it. I mean if it’s freestanding, but,
00:40:29:28 –> 00:40:31:23
You know, taking that, taking that extra
00:40:32:20 –> 00:40:32:29
Time
00:40:33:04 –> 00:41:25:22
Minute. Yeah. Yeah. The, the one little minute that’ll take you in the evening to peg down your tent completely saves you a lot of good sleep because it’s, it’s so easy to do. Right. So no matter where I am, I always peg it out and I peg out the guidelines and like on the, even on the sica that’s completely freestanding, I’ll peg down the corners of each pole to the bottom of each pole. Because if you get a really strong wind, it’s gonna start racing those corners a little bit and it’s gonna start there, stand there and, and jump on you. It’s just gonna make it a lot more noisy and it can’t perform as well as it could if it was pegged out and, and set up properly. So that’s just for the, I’m always prepared for worst case scenario. My dad always tell, tells everyone to, to always, you’re always prepared for storm.
00:41:25:22 –> 00:42:41:10
Like on a boat you always anchor your boat as if the storm was coming at night. So that’s kind of the same with the tent. You don’t need it, but it’s good to have it. So we always, as far as storm goes and wind goes, we always, we build in a little bit of flex into our tents. Even like the big burly CI is, or the dome tents that we have, there’s a little bit of flex with it. So if you have a really strong wind, the tent is gonna move a little bit with the wind rather than trying to be rigid and fight it. So sometimes we hear other brands that might have exploded in the wind more or less. It’s because they’re trying to fight the wind. Yeah. Until they can’t. Whereas we, we build in a little bit of gives so that it, it plays with the wind and then the wind goes over it in a totally different way. That’s why like in, in the winter we don’t build snow walls around our tents, we just kind of throw up snow up around the base of the tent depending on where you are and how exposed you are. If you throw it up almost halfway up the tent and you kind of, you create a ramp over the tent almost. Yeah. That is more stable than, than spending all this time to build a wall, which then kind of creates winds going in strange directions around the tent.
00:42:43:20 –> 00:42:48:12
So that’s kind of, we’re always ready, ready for the weather and if needed.
00:42:48:18 –> 00:43:04:24
Yeah. So properly peg it out. That’s, I know you told me that years and years and years ago I’d send you these pictures and you’d be like, Hey, I pray you don’t show anybody that. That’s like the worst. That’s like a, you know, a five year old sitting up that tent and you basically chastize me. I’m like
00:43:04:24 –> 00:43:07:11
11 year old boy scout that you’d turn loose tent
00:43:07:11 –> 00:43:14:13
For the first time. I’m like, I don’t know why we need all these pegs. Well she’s given me like eight extra pegs. I only need one or two.
00:43:16:13 –> 00:43:52:28
’cause on the tunnel tents, you know, it’s so easy. Right. But I think, so like for, for you or a lot of people, they haven’t had a tunnel tent before. They’re used to pegging at the bottom of the poles first. Yeah. And if you do that on a tunnel tent, you can’t get a good stretch of the ridge line. Yeah. So then you get the sagging or Yeah. You know, you might get more condensation and then more flopping. Right. But you wanna, you, you push the poles through, tighten the pole holders and then you peg two little pegs and the one vestibule end. So you secure one end, you lift it out, pull it out and peg the other end. And then with that you have a perfect pitch.
00:43:53:06 –> 00:43:57:14
Then you do your guys as, as needed. We’ll just say Jason after that
00:43:57:20 –> 00:44:06:28
I just pgg, I p the first loop. I see. I’m terrible. I grab the biggest rock I can throw inside. You’re
00:44:06:28 –> 00:44:10:06
Gonna think about me, you’re gonna know that I’m gonna yell at
00:44:10:06 –> 00:44:23:13
You. You gotta realize that, that we live down here, Utah, Nevada, they’re the two driest states in the United States. So we normally don’t think it’s gonna rain tonight. Yeah. I mean it does, but that, that’s somehow, you know, the
00:44:23:13 –> 00:44:31:22
Tents are well built. It doesn’t matter if it’s stretched tight or not. Jump in there. If you got enough room, call it good. I’m terrible. I know,
00:44:32:07 –> 00:44:36:07
But you know that I’m tossing and turning in my sleep for ’cause I know it’s not sitting up beautifully.
00:44:36:12 –> 00:44:40:06
It’s not looking. You’re dying. You’re, you’re just like, this is the picture perfect tent. These
00:44:40:06 –> 00:44:43:06
Are my babies. Remember you can’t treat ’em like that.
00:44:44:05 –> 00:44:51:04
You’re waiting for those pictures the next morning that look the same as it did the night when you set it up. That’s what you’re after Petra. Right,
00:44:51:11 –> 00:44:51:25
Exactly.
00:44:52:01 –> 00:44:58:24
Mine never looked that good. Ever. Like these pictures I’m looking at on the website, never have I seen a tent like that in real life.
00:44:59:09 –> 00:45:02:18
It’s so easy. It’s ’cause you haven’t camped with me yet.
00:45:02:25 –> 00:45:12:04
Honestly. I know. So tell us these, you know, I added up the models. I’m, I’m counting 40. Are you, is that where we’re at? On sounds,
00:45:12:04 –> 00:45:12:26
The sounds about right.
00:45:13:19 –> 00:45:15:25
It’s unbelievable. I guess if you’re gonna,
00:45:16:00 –> 00:45:19:00
If you count like the two person and three person versions of different models,
00:45:19:09 –> 00:45:27:08
Well you’ve got that and you’ve got black label, red label, yellow label, like, like it’s an, it’s an incredible assortment of 10 tents you got
00:45:27:28 –> 00:45:34:14
For whatever your needs got. You know, the, the ACTO that we talked about, you’ve got now got the, you know, like an inion
00:45:35:09 –> 00:45:36:13
We were looking at that. I like it.
00:45:36:18 –> 00:45:37:08
It’s like a sorry,
00:45:37:20 –> 00:45:41:05
It’s like a two pounder. I I that’s a kind of tent we could use down here. Yeah.
00:45:41:09 –> 00:45:42:00
You know, it’s two.
00:45:42:15 –> 00:46:11:06
And also the, the neac, you should look at the neac. We, it’s also in our yellow label. It’s a free standing freestanding three pound, 12 ounces freestanding. Yep. You have to peg out the vestigo. But freestanding, it’s technically a two person 10. But because it only has one entrance, we, we originally called it a 1.5. But then looking at the measurement and comparing to what’s on the market, it’s a two person tent. So it has measurements for two, but we use it for one person and it is luxurious, very roomy.
00:46:11:06 –> 00:46:11:18
When you
00:46:11:18 –> 00:46:17:18
Got, so that’s a three pounds. Yeah, three pounds, 12 ounces. The same weight as the Acto. But again it’s a yellow label. So not for weight but just
00:46:17:18 –> 00:46:18:10
A lot more room.
00:46:18:10 –> 00:46:23:17
That’s the kind of tent I’d like. Like it, it looks like a lot of room top to bottom. Yeah.
00:46:24:00 –> 00:46:29:10
Could be something that you’d spend the spend in there with your wife or something because you can, you know, you’re not having to wait
00:46:29:16 –> 00:46:32:11
Not a big deal climbing over each other here and there. Yeah. You don’t have to
00:46:32:13 –> 00:46:36:10
2, 2, 2 sheet punters in there together is probably gonna, they’re gonna, that
00:46:36:10 –> 00:46:37:14
Ain’t gonna work. Cuss a couple times. I
00:46:37:14 –> 00:46:40:02
Mean yeah, that’s, that’s not really the
00:46:41:03 –> 00:46:45:18
Two brothers. Two brothers would be fine. Two brothers, two sisters, husband and wife. Then
00:46:45:18 –> 00:47:02:10
You have the Rogan, which is also yellow label. You have two entrances and two vestibule. That just makes such a big difference right away. But for one the niac is really nice. Or one person and a dog. Yeah. I have my big Bernie’s mountain dog and he, he’s very happy in there.
00:47:02:25 –> 00:47:07:20
He’s happy nine tent. My dog never sleeps in a tent. My dog’s outside chasing away bears and stuff.
00:47:08:09 –> 00:47:16:28
Oh yeah. That’s never, I’ve never had that, that a dog sleeps outside. They like to stretch out right next to me.
00:47:18:20 –> 00:47:19:19
All right, well does that
00:47:19:23 –> 00:47:23:01
Rogan, does it have two? I I does it have two entrances?
00:47:23:05 –> 00:47:58:08
Has two? Yeah. Yeah. That’s the two entrances. Two vestibule. So it’s four pounds, 10 ounces pack weight. So we always talk about pack weight because that’s closer to, that’s basically how they are on the shelf here. Yes. Which if you’re comparing different manufacturer’s tents, it’s better to look at the minimum weight. ’cause otherwise, like you said, we give you a lot of pegs and guidelines and line runners and extra pull sections and, and that is included in the pack weight. But if you’re comparing then you should compare minimum weight. ’cause that’s kind of an industry standard of just the inner or outer and the pulse. ’cause otherwise we get penalized for giving you a lot of extra things.
00:47:58:22 –> 00:48:04:10
If you compare, you’ve got instructions that are, you know, really detailed and paper and ways, I mean, 40
00:48:04:17 –> 00:48:05:25
Some people don’t look at
00:48:06:20 –> 00:48:07:23
Yeah. Some people,
00:48:08:01 –> 00:48:12:26
Hey, hey, I’m just looking at these are pegs. They go here, put ’em in there. What,
00:48:13:00 –> 00:48:19:25
What, what Jason sees that he’s like, Hey, put that in a Ziploc in case we need to start a fire. Keep it dry i’s so bad. Keep it dry.
00:48:20:01 –> 00:48:21:00
I’m so bad. I’m sorry,
00:48:21:20 –> 00:48:24:20
I I can set this up myself however I want, but leave me
00:48:24:20 –> 00:48:27:20
Alone. That’s, I could do this myself. Hey,
00:48:27:23 –> 00:48:28:00
So
00:48:28:03 –> 00:49:03:02
We actually had that, there was a, a guide company, a a mountaineering company that were using the care on GT up on Denali. And they were hating the tent. It was flopping around and it was not performing well. And they were sitting up all night against the, the poles and they were hating life. And then one of the female guides, I will point out female guides finally, I can’t be right. And she read the instruction book and then went out and set it up. Right. And they’ve loved it ever since. And they used, they used nothing but those tents. Now that
00:49:03:02 –> 00:49:09:20
Sounds like a detailed oriented something the woman would point out probably. Yeah. Instead of us guys just get it up, let’s go to bed. You know,
00:49:09:23 –> 00:49:12:05
We don’t have time for that. Women have more time than guys do.
00:49:12:29 –> 00:49:13:29
Oh, is that what it’s,
00:49:15:00 –> 00:49:16:24
We’re just making excuses, I guess. So
00:49:17:16 –> 00:49:20:14
I wish that you could point to that time that it all of us have.
00:49:20:28 –> 00:49:22:05
I know. I know.
00:49:22:13 –> 00:49:41:08
But, but you know, in general though, if you’re using the tent and for some reason it seems like this is not working right or this must be wrong, call us. Because literally, like I said, every detail is there for a reason and everything has a functional effect. So if it seems like something’s not working right, then let us know because it is.
00:49:41:24 –> 00:49:47:20
Well, and I’m, I’m seeing like on your website, you’ve got videos, instructions. I mean, it, there’s
00:49:47:20 –> 00:49:49:24
No reason to not know how to use it. Right. Reason. Yeah.
00:49:50:00 –> 00:49:52:29
Yeah. And again, you’re making it sound like it’s super hard. It is. No,
00:49:53:05 –> 00:49:54:05
I’m not it
00:49:54:05 –> 00:49:54:12
Not
00:49:54:19 –> 00:49:55:13
Peg out, peg out. And
00:49:55:20 –> 00:49:58:00
It’s again, we’re just, I’m just careless.
00:49:58:15 –> 00:50:03:08
I’m just careless. We have have one pole. No, the Acto has one pole.
00:50:03:08 –> 00:50:04:07
They’re the easiest things in
00:50:04:07 –> 00:50:05:19
The world and Yeah, they are. Yes.
00:50:05:19 –> 00:50:48:11
That’s what you were when you were talking about a tent inside of a tent kind of thing where the rain flies, you know, attached 24 7. Yeah, it’s, it is nice. It is nice. Especially when like, you know, we’ve set ’em up when we’re dealing with heavy rain or you know, sleet or whatever’s coming in and you’re trying to jam it together, you know, you’re not setting up this inner tent and then it gets pounded and then you’re trying to put this fly on. You set it up and it’s all together. It’s dry inside. Exactly. There’s been a lot of, I mean, a lot of times we’ve dealt with that and it’s been, it’s been awesome. On this yellow label versus red label, I mean black label is, is like your base material different on those different labels? Or is it just the walls that are different or the poles or
00:50:48:16 –> 00:50:48:25
Is there
00:50:48:25 –> 00:51:00:25
Everything about different? So it’s, it is, so the black label has a Carolyn 1800, which is our strongest, and then the black red label has Carolyn 1200. So you go 18 kilos to kilos and then the yellow label has Carolyn 1000. That’s ki
00:51:00:25 –> 00:51:07:24
So what we were talking about earlier, you lost me for a sec. But then, then we’re basically talking about the ba the bottom, the floor
00:51:08:07 –> 00:51:09:01
And the walls? No,
00:51:09:01 –> 00:51:09:28
The outer. Oh,
00:51:09:28 –> 00:51:11:06
The outer. The outer, okay. The outer,
00:51:11:08 –> 00:51:27:24
The floors do have a little bit of a different, so they all have slightly different materials. Right. So a little bit lighter. Okay. You know, not for, like, we call for the red, the red label for all but the most extreme conditions. Okay. Whereas black label, but exterior and then the yellow label exterior.
00:51:27:24 –> 00:51:38:06
So the exterior stuff is exterior is thicker, beefier. I mean, I don’t know how, how the, the Yeah. Unit of measure you’re using. Again, I’m not familiar with that, but that’s so,
00:51:38:25 –> 00:51:39:01
So
00:51:40:07 –> 00:52:27:05
The terror strength. Yeah. So black label has a 40 pound tear strength. So basically what that means is if you take a little, if you make a cut into the fabric, you need 40 pounds with a, well with a certain method, a double tongue method to rip it. So it’s just gonna give you a longer lifespan on the tent. And also greater insurance if something happens. So like if, if for some reason something breaks or rock shoots on it or something like that, it’s not gonna keep ripping and you will have a longer lifespan on the tent. So that’s why we, we want to use those materials. It’s about seven times stronger What mo than what most materials you can find on the market in a tent. And that’s again, that’s why the tents are a little bit more expensive. Yeah. That and also our own factory in Europe. But
00:52:27:11 –> 00:52:33:06
Well, and I’ll point out like, like we said, we use ours every year and that’s been 10 or 11 years. Have
00:52:33:06 –> 00:52:34:21
You one out out? No. Have you wore one?
00:52:34:22 –> 00:52:35:11
It’s not even close to
00:52:35:13 –> 00:52:55:00
Now. And that’s what I’m saying about some of this is, is you get what you pay for and you guys, I mean they’re not cheap tents, but having said that, they’re not cheap tents, you know, and who wants a cheap tent? I mean, there’s, you can get away with it at times. And, and maybe my kids when they go to Boy Scout camp, like I’m not sending them with my Hiller. And I did catch one trying to get it out the house and I’m like, that’s not happening.
00:52:55:18 –> 00:52:59:10
Yeah, stop. Right. There’ll, they’ll start a little little fire on, in and on the floor.
00:52:59:11 –> 00:53:15:15
So you kind of have to look at is we often have people who’ve had a couple of tents before, so, but if you add up a few tents that are not quite as good, you’re gonna have a much longer life on this. Yes. So it’s, it’s kind of a value in impact and,
00:53:15:17 –> 00:53:23:22
And you’re gonna be dry, you know? Yeah. There’s a couple key, couple key elements there. Do you, what kind of a warranty do you give on your tents? Just give us a little spiel on that.
00:53:24:13 –> 00:53:56:08
So we have a lifetime warranty on material and manufactured defect. Okay. So anything that is wrong with it. And then, and then, so it’s for material, if there’s anything wrong with materials or any sewing that is bad, that’s a lifetime warranty. And then we have our repair department here in Redmond, in Washington. Also in Washington State. Awesome. Awesome. So, you know, if there’s something, you know, we’ve had people sending in tents that have been mauled by bears and, and all kinds of,
00:53:56:11 –> 00:53:57:20
So they’re not bear proof. Okay.
00:53:58:07 –> 00:53:58:24
They’re not bear
00:53:58:24 –> 00:53:59:29
Proofs. We need stronger materials.
00:54:00:28 –> 00:54:01:05
Yes.
00:54:01:26 –> 00:54:04:28
When you have a big grizzly pouncing on top of it, I can’t
00:54:05:02 –> 00:54:09:13
G cold. You’ve, you’ve really kind of, you’ve really, they’re having, you wash out the bloodstains in those tents or what?
00:54:10:04 –> 00:54:35:18
We haven’t had that yet. It was really funny ’cause we had this one guy who was a little backpacker who came in here and he was a little concerned ’cause he had his tiny little hole in there. And I was like, I looked that, and I was like, it’s a mouse bite. It’s not a material defect. It’s a mouse bite. Yeah. I was like, that is really not a problem. I said, and, and at the same time we had this tent that had been mauled by a bear. Yeah. I was like, that is a problem. Your little mouse bite is not a problem. Yeah. And he was going,
00:54:35:26 –> 00:54:37:10
This is a problem. Yes,
00:54:37:19 –> 00:54:39:11
Yes. He was embarrassed. That’s good
00:54:39:11 –> 00:54:52:16
To to know that you Yeah. You’ve somehow, you, you don’t stake it down. Well you leave, it blows all onto the trees, tears something to the outer and you can set it in. You guys, you guys, you repair it to some extent or replace whatever needs to be done. So
00:54:52:20 –> 00:55:09:29
Yes. And we’ve tried to repair, we, we managed to repair some of the bare mold tents. Some have been a little bit beyond, but usually we, and also like the same thing that we don’t want you to have anything that you’re not happy with. So yeah. We really try to make sure you’re in the right tent and, and
00:55:10:14 –> 00:55:18:17
Well, I’d want the same tent if I had a bear trash it. I mean, it’s just kinda like, I don’t know. It’s a little piece of history. And you’re hunting Yeah. Gear.
00:55:18:17 –> 00:55:23:04
Couple of scars on there. Yeah. Some, some So marks on, on the roof. Yeah,
00:55:23:04 –> 00:55:40:28
That’s right. So for sure on, so tell us a little bit, Petra, like as far as helping people, obviously your website’s super informative. There’s all the different models on there, a lot of the different specifications and whatnot. I guess a guy just kinda cruises through it comes down to five options. Can he call somebody and get a little help or,
00:55:41:11 –> 00:55:59:24
Yeah, for sure. We have, we’re here, I would say Monday through Friday, nine to five. We’re always here as really happy to answer any questions on and give and just in general, any any questions or any set of questions people can call it too.
00:56:00:18 –> 00:56:08:25
Okay. And then do, when we, when they order something, do they, do you, I mean is it an order direct deal? Do they also have, do you have dealers? How do you guys work?
00:56:08:28 –> 00:56:12:26
People can see 10 a showroom somewhere or do they just online? We
00:56:12:26 –> 00:57:09:04
Don’t have tents set up here. So at our office here in Redmond, we, we do have some people come in, they set up, set up an appointment that we can show tents here. But otherwise on our website you can order. We also have some dealers that we work with. They’re also listed on the dealers on our website and I like that. Gotcha. So perfect. But hilberg.com and also if you go there, you can order a catalog and when we send out the catalog, we, I mean it’s downloadable online also, but when we send it out, we include a little fabric sheet that it has a tear sheets that you can basically test and try to rip those materials. So I challenge you to try to rip it. There’s one, one piece of material that is kind of what you find as on a lot of tents on the market. And then you have our other four materials and it’s just kind of a little bit of a, a good show and tell to, to try to rip that material.
00:57:09:20 –> 00:57:17:09
I think you’re being nice. What you’re telling, what you’re telling us is there’s other, other competitors that just aren’t as good and don’t use the right materials. That’s what I’m hearing. That’s what I’m hearing Petra.
00:57:17:17 –> 00:57:22:21
They they are, they’re using other solutions that they want. We’re using other ones.
00:57:23:24 –> 00:57:50:14
Well, it’s awesome. And I think what’s nice is you’re, you know, you know you’re accommodating. You got tents that accommodate everything from the North Pole to the Escali desert, you know? Yeah. And there’s something for everything. I did take the Acco out to the Escalade Desert in 90 degree weather. Good. It was a little warm. It was a little warm. Yeah. You know, but you know, it’s nice. You got 40, 40 different models and there’s a, there’s something there for everyone and, and quality built no matter, you know, which model you choose.
00:57:51:20 –> 00:57:54:26
Yes. We try our very best every day. For sure.
00:57:55:24 –> 00:58:30:29
Well, we appreciate your support of us at Epic Outdoors. You were one of the first supporters of us as we started backup producing our magazine. We appreciate that. Yeah. We’re glad to work with you as a partner there. Help promote your products and your tents and appreciate again, your support of us and, and yeah, encourage anybody listening to, to check it out. The, the virtual catalog is awesome. It’s, you know, from setting it up to, you know, reading all night long about, you know, pros, cons, you know, dimensions and styles. It’s all there. So you very
00:58:30:29 –> 00:58:32:14
Informative. Yeah, we, we like
00:58:32:14 –> 00:58:37:19
And we also have a Facebook page that, that’s hillberg hunting. Okay. Hunting
00:58:37:25 –> 00:58:38:10
Did you say?
00:58:38:26 –> 00:59:14:14
Yeah, Hillberg hunting. That’s awesome. Great. Is the, and then also same thing on Instagram. We have hillberg hunting on Instagram and I think in the next, actually yeah, pretty here in early August we’re coming out, we have a series where I’m talking to different users and we have one coming up with Adam fos, who’s a great archery hunter for those of you who don’t know. And he has lots of experience with the different models and tons. So we have an interview with him coming up that might be a good one to check out as well. All the different models that he uses.
00:59:14:17 –> 00:59:15:04
That’s perfect.
00:59:15:23 –> 00:59:31:11
I know, well, I, I guess Jason and I have a challenge of ourselves then to, to set up our tent in a manner worthy to take a picture that you would re-tag our picture if we ever tagged you on Instagram. Because as of right now, I, we don’t have one that you would repost.
00:59:32:15 –> 00:59:35:22
We do have a lot of experience using your tents, but we’re a little sloppy.
00:59:37:02 –> 00:59:38:08
We have lots of pictures.
00:59:38:14 –> 00:59:41:26
I’m a little bit picky, but I would love, I would love to see your photos.
00:59:42:04 –> 00:59:42:11
Oh
00:59:42:15 –> 00:59:45:13
We’ll, we’ll work on ourselves, you know, then how’s that? That’s a good, you know,
00:59:45:20 –> 00:59:47:05
I have faith in you. Alright,
00:59:47:21 –> 00:59:49:02
Well we appreciate you. My, my
00:59:49:02 –> 00:59:53:12
Little four year old niece can do it, so Yeah, I have full faith in you.
00:59:53:15 –> 00:59:57:29
Well she’s probably had a lot of training. You know, she’s self-talk guys are a little, she’s
00:59:58:02 –> 01:00:02:28
Got an an That’s very meticulous. That’s right. No, no, no, that’s not, you know. That’s right. Member step one for
01:00:03:17 –> 01:00:05:19
So well anyway. Yeah.
01:00:05:19 –> 01:00:13:25
Well thanks a lot for your time, Petra. It’s been been good. Very informative podcast. Thank you. So thank, thanks a lot. And there’s anything we do to help you out, let us know.
01:00:14:03 –> 01:00:21:20
We appreciate you. We’d like to hear it epic outdoors. We only partner with the best and you’re the best as far as we’re concerned. So thanks a lot. Well,
01:00:21:20 –> 01:00:23:11
Thank, thank you. All
01:00:23:11 –> 01:00:25:01
Right, care. We’ll talk to you later. Take care.
01:00:25:07 –> 01:00:25:13
Mm,
01:00:25:14 –> 01:00:26:12
Bye-Bye Bye.
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