EP 207: It's Been TWELVE Years...What's Next?
episode
Live Ultralight Podcast | Backpacking, Travel, and Adventure
31 min
6 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What inspired Tayson to start Outdoor Vitals and how did the company begin?
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Live Ultralight Podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals. Today you have a very special episode. It is a solo episode with just me as I sit and talk to you about 12 years of Outdoor Vitals now. We're about to have our Founders Day sale, and it's the podcast episode that I like to just come on here solo, talk about company history, talk about how things have gone this last year and where we are going in the next year. Um It's wild. It's wild to me to think about the fact that this idea that I had in college um played out the way that it has. It's been so much work. It's been so much energy, so much focus, so much sacrifice. Um, but geez, am I thankful to have been able to live this American dream and build a company from the ground up.
And just wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude for those of you listening to this podcast as well as those of you that are customers at Outdoor Vitals. Um, this is always a fun episode to to film, just because I get to sit and reflect on a few things. And so before I jump into, you know, how did the last year go and where are we going? You know, some of that sneak peek stuff that you guys love to hear. Um I just wanted to talk a little little bit about the origins. The origins of O V. Um To me, and you guys many of you probably heard my backstory, but if you haven't, um, you know, I grew up in the Boy Scouts, grew up in a rural town in southern Utah. And I just always loved getting outside. And as I got into college, I started to get into some higher performing gear.
And I thought, holy cow, this would change the world for so many people out there. And so I wanted to start a company that was direct to consumer. I wanted to start a company that educated people. And the motto that it started under was was opening the outdoors. Um, because I thought that if, you know, we built the product, sold it direct to consumers, and, you know, helped with some of the education side that it would just get more people outside. That's always been the goal. Our purpose as a company is to connect people to the vital outdoors, you know, get them outside. And I don't know why that motto popped into my head this morning of opening the outdoors. Um and I think for some people it feels like maybe things have changed over twelve years because
When I did start the company, we started with lower price gear. And in that phase of my life, I was coming out of college. I was an extreme saver. I I mean, I grew up in a family that was, you know, middle class. I'm very thankful for for my dad and my mom working as hard as they did to provide what they did, but they were extreme savers and they really taught me how to be financially um careful with money and And so the idea of spending money was just always hard. It was always hard to spend money, unless it was something that I was absolutely obsessed about. And so as I started to get into backpacking and acquiring some of this gear, I was like, man, how do I just make this so that everyone can have this gear?
And that's always been the goal. It still is the goal today. I don't want to get away from that. But it this the saying came into my mind, sees growing up in a rural town and so. Utah, my grandpa had horses and I'd go train horses with him every summer. And I remember my grandpa saying the saying of, you know, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force him to drink. And somewhere along the lines, a few years into the business, I realized that that that origin of like you know, providing this, this really affordable gear was really important. But um I could make the best gear ever at the cheapest possible prices and you can't force people into the backcountry. And so then I started to just get more passionate about making performance oriented gear, the gear I actually wanted to be using and just make it better and better and better.
And that's been the twelve year journey is making this the gear that we have today um that's that that does change your experience in the backcountry. You know, you can go farther, you can go lighter, and you can have that confidence in the pieces of gear that you have.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What inspired Tayson to start Outdoor Vitals and how did the company begin?
0:00–5:10
2
How did Outdoor Vitals shift from affordable entry‑level gear to performance‑first ultralight equipment?
5:10–10:02
3
Why does Outdoor Vitals focus on high‑mountain wilderness performance rather than being the lightest possible gear?
10:02–16:18
4
What is the OV 100‑Mile Challenge and how has it impacted the community?
16:18–22:12
5
Which new products were launched in the past year and what are the upcoming 2026 innovation drops?
22:12–27:46
6
How is the women’s product line expanding and what does hiring a second designer mean for future gear?
27:46–31:39