[00:00:00] Tayson: Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back to the Live Ultralight podcast. Today, we have a pretty special episode. This is our 100th episode. On the podcast, not every day. You get to record the 100th episode. And so we thought we would do something a little bit different today. So, today is going to be a lot about the business. It's going to be a solo episode. I'm just gonna be talking through things that
[00:00:21] Tayson: have been happening in the business, you know, where we've been in 2022 and where we're headed, so should be pretty insightful. I also think it will be insightful for you guys to maybe hear more about the behind the scenes stuff here Dr. Vitals what I mean by that is by knowing more about what's happening behind the company, you're going to know more about the products and all about more about the direction
[00:00:41] Tayson: that we are heading. I think all of those things are very exciting, but they translate into the products, they translated into what you guys are getting when you purchase from us or what you get when you follow us, why we do the things that we do. Because we do a lot of different things than other companies and so that's what this episode is going to be about. It's gonna be a solo
[00:01:00] Tayson: episode. Hopefully, I can keep engaging and being I don't know. Keep you guys listening. I hopefully we'll have a good time with that. But if you're just turning listening and tuning in to the podcast, this is the Live Ultralight podcast. It was powered by a revivals, just the company behind the podcast and Really, this whole podcast is about, getting you outdoors more comfortably and more confidently, so you can have better outdoor
[00:01:25] Tayson: experiences. We've believed for a long time that it's not just about the product here. That's, you know, obviously, where we make our money is on the product, but we put a ton of energy, a ton of effort into education and to the recording of things like podcasts and into video to help people overcome additional concerns. They have with getting out there, backpacking adventuring and just overall, spending time Outdoors. So that's what
[00:01:52] Tayson: this podcast is about. If you're into that, if you're into getting Outdoors, make sure to give us a subscription or subscribe. So hit the Subscribe button, man. This is gonna be a long episode if I can't get my words straight here. Um, but make sure to hit the Subscribe button. If you've been following us for a while, make sure to go leave this review, we will read it on the podcast. We
[00:02:09] Tayson: probably have some reviews over there that I haven't read for a little bit just because we've been so busy around the headquarters. So, let's just dive into what the heck is going on here? It out revital because it's been a lot. It's been a lot. We just came through July, we just launched. Essentially launched three basically. Four new products. We Launched Usher rain jackets, the altitude Sun hoodies. We started shipping, the
[00:02:33] Tayson: Cota, UL backpacks and we also started shipping the presells on the 40th, which we just launched at the like the first day of August. So it's been an extremely busy time. All while people are spending time out of the office with families on trips. We've been doing trips, I just finished a my very first ultramarathon. There's been all sorts of things happening and it's been crazy to say the least. But let's
[00:03:01] Tayson: talk just a little bit about other things that have happened here in 2022.
[00:03:05] Tayson: We've gone on a bunch of trips. We've gone to the Grand Canyon. We've done 100 miles on the 80. We've launched more products, we've updated new Summits, we launched new wool pieces, out of the turns
[00:03:18] Tayson: turn t-shirts, turn hoodies. I'm honestly not gonna be able to list them all the. We launched the NOAA Prov vest we've we've brought out a ton of stuff which has meant that we've been extremely, extremely busy. Now, I think if you were looking at a bigger brand you would think it doesn't seem like a lot of product launches, but when you're looking at a brand the size of our vitals, it's a
[00:03:45] Tayson: lot. We push very, very hard here to continue to just push the envelope for. I think everyone here has a lot of ambition and we, we live our core values internally. We do have some core values and I thought it'd be kind of fun to share with. Those are on the podcast right now. So internally what we actually you know, rate our employees by what we push them by what we value.
[00:04:07] Tayson: What we give little prizes away. Once a month is though, is that are attributing to these core values and they are Um number one live ultra light I think everyone understands what that means. If you're on this level try podcast we see a lot of that. A lot of our employees, literally are living, the brand value and getting out there. For sure to be tenacious, we are very tenacious at the company.
[00:04:32] Tayson: We we are firm, we hold on, we we struggle we fight, we will push forward because we're just tenacious, it's we're intense, we're intense people or intense as a brand and the things that we do we feel like are very intense when we get Outdoors. So it's a value that runs through the entire organization of the company. Number three, ask why? We spend a lot of time trying to ask why? When
[00:04:58] Tayson: we go to design a product, we're trying to figure. Why what's the basic need that? We're trying to solve what's what you know, what are what's the reason behind even looking at this particular product when we're doing systems and processes when the within the organization we want, everyone in the organization to understand the why the why this is important? Why are we doing it this way? That's been a very, very strong
[00:05:19] Tayson: and important core value for me. Personally, it's something that has ring extremely true. When I understand the, why I can endure about any what and
[00:05:29] Tayson: we've bled that into the company as well.
[00:05:33] Tayson: Number four act responsibly, we want everyone to act responsibly within the organization and that that value to bleed outside of the organization. Whether that's our giving back program, we do 1% Revenue share program where we give back to communities or whether that's just, hey, if I don't do my job properly, how does it affect the person next to me? If I don't Design This properly? How does it affect the customer when
[00:05:57] Tayson: they get it? We try to to Really indulge in a company culture of being very responsible for yourself. Two, if you can't take responsibility for yourself, there's no improvement that can never be had. What I mean by that is if you are always blaming, if you're always blaming the person next to you, if you're always blaming, it was
[00:06:16] Tayson: the suppliers fault. It was my co-workers fault. It was the mailman's fault, whatever it is. There's no
[00:06:23] Tayson: accountability in that without accountability. There can be no improvement until you can take ownership of things. There's, there's no way to to move forward and improve. And last number five, here as far as our core values are to hike in their shoes. Now, hiking in their shoes, has a lot of meaning for customer support side. It really means having a lot of empathy for our customers for design. It means the same
[00:06:44] Tayson: thing, having a lot of empathy, but just trying to put ourselves in other people's shoes and look backwards and understand what they're seeing is a core value that we have even again with it, whether it's one Department, struggling with another department, we encourage everyone to put themselves into their position, really seek to understand and then to be understood. So I want to share those. I don't think I've ever shared those publicly.
[00:07:07] Tayson: Those are core values internally that we live by. We really stress. and, Value within the people that we hire the teammates that we have, those that we are continuing to hire, that's something that we really really focus on. So That would be fun to share, like us mentioning here, but yeah, as far as the company itself, the Outlook is very positive. We've had a lot of product, launches, I will say, There's,
[00:07:34] Tayson: there's not going to be as many product launches, you guys are going to see, you know, over the next six months or so. But You'll see us, you know, improve some of the marketing around, some things we're doing. I think there's a lot of products that still are not understood at a high enough level. Maybe it's the Nova's, maybe it's just just other pieces that we have that people don't fully understand
[00:07:57] Tayson: what we've and what we're offering. And so, we're gonna spend some time definitely working on some of those things. 2022 we've. We've had a lot of growth as a brand and what I mean by that is we've had features and outside and Backpacker magazine. We've had a lot of features around the web and other areas we've continued to hopefully impress, some of the influencers out there with some of the things we're
[00:08:19] Tayson: doing in the directions that we're going. Some of the influencers, you know, that come in and hang out with us too. They get a little behind the scenes inside on what we're doing as a company and where we're headed, and I think that's very insightful for them to know. Just just what we're doing is a brand, right? There's a lot of Brands out there and you kind of you're always trying to
[00:08:37] Tayson: look and see what brand you align with. And, and Wear their head. And I think there's Brands out there that they get pretty comfortable, they get pretty stagnant. And they're just not not pushing forward with that with that tenacious value that we have. And I think you're going to just see us continue to push and continue to grind and continue to grow. We have very high aspirations but the funny thing is
[00:09:02] Tayson: we want to grow but it's not really about Making the money. You know, me is the owner of the company. I'm the primary owner of the company You know, I don't have Partners I don't have Venture, capitalists pushing us to grow. It's not about growth for money. I live a very comfortable life. In fact I think for my age at This barely into my 30s. Now, I, I can, I, I'm very,
[00:09:30] Tayson: very blessed. I'm very, very humble to see the company of, get to this position and really be the company that I hoped we could develop and build the entire time and Not a whole lot. I guess I feel like I'm looking for asking for in my life which is a pretty cool position to be in because it really just means that hole we're growing with the right intent and for the right
[00:09:53] Tayson: reasons and that really is to help more people. Prove their experience is,
[00:09:58] Tayson: it's why we put so much energy and effort into, you know, the podcast or our YouTube channel
[00:10:04] Tayson: or any content that we produce, it's really more. So about you guys just Disconnecting and and moving forward, it's actually been a really big question for me as I've looked at this of, you know, whether we continue on the same path with the chair to charitable donations that we have, you know, that we continue to donate to the same organization or or is really, I don't know more of my driving force
[00:10:28] Tayson: and maybe the company's driving force about getting people outdoors and almost more like the mental health side of things. The amount of Technology happening with the amount of You know, quick dopamine hits. You get when you're scrolling and, you know, it went from long-form videos to short form videos or getting more popular. Now, tiktok is blowing up. There's all these things that you know, are just just constantly grabbing our attention and
[00:10:54] Tayson: to me getting outdoor in nature and trying to have a loan Time, Quiet Time. Disconnected time is just. So, so important that it's really, honestly, has any questioning What we should be trying to advocate for with, with our 1% program of giving back. So, But anyway, yeah, that's it's really cool. I guess just going back to that just to see the growth and hope to see the we're trying to grow with
[00:11:21] Tayson: purpose, not trying to grow, just for money's sake. And I want to, I want to Circle back to that and talk about Venture capitalism. Because I think that's one of the number one things that we do and that we offer that others, don't that Really means a lot to use a consumer. It means a ton to use a consumer but you don't know it. You have no idea. You know, I mean
[00:11:46] Tayson: because you're not privy to the behind the scenes information of companies and venture capital and who owns what and how they're doing things. You have no idea how that affects the product that you get. And I do want to spend some time talking about that. Another thing that we've done this year, that's been super exciting is the, we've launched, the UL member 100 challenge that has been a beta group that we
[00:12:12] Tayson: launched to members only and we had a good amount of people enroll in it. Without a good attendance on the live streams that we've done for that program. And just the feedback, the post that we see inside of the Facebook group have been tremendous, That has brought a lot of happiness and joy to me, because there's a lot of people that it pushed to go and dial on their systems, pick a
[00:12:37] Tayson: trout, get out there on trail and go and try to, to accomplish something great and that's been huge, I've gotten a lot of value out of that personally. but I also just Like what I think other people are getting out of it is is incredible and I think you're gonna see us for sure lean more heavily into that next year. And if you have not participated in this beta group, I would
[00:13:00] Tayson: highly encourage you guys to watch for that next year, we're gonna give it a little bit longer of elite time. Give people a little bit more, more time to get the time off work and participate but also just the training and the framework behind it. It's like we do a lot of content. We do a lot of YouTube. Stuff like that. But this we see the results backwards meaning we gave them
[00:13:20] Tayson: a much more structured program and a much more specific set of accomplishments that do people and did it. And they've executed it. And it's been just phenomenal to see that. And so I think we're able to help. We're not able to help maybe more people with it, but we are able to help a little bit smaller
[00:13:37] Tayson: number of people more Hands-On.
[00:13:40] Tayson: And so, I've been getting a lot of value out of that. I'm sure you guys will see us do more of this next year, as we get into 2020 3. Sure will launch that same program. It's been really, really cool to see So be on the lookout for that. Okay. As far as other things that talked about some of these new products, we've launched a lot of new products for continuing to
[00:14:01] Tayson: improve products. We I think just just to be totally transparent. Again, people listening to this podcast are pretty pretty aware of this pretty aware of us. But I think the area that we lag, the most behind right now is with our sleeping pads. it's a very Troublesome product to design. It takes a lot of design resources. It takes a lot of money, and there's a lot of patents involved with it, which
[00:14:28] Tayson: make it extremely tough to come in for a smaller company, like Gus, and really compete and figure out ways around patents, and figure out ways to design something better. And so I think you'll see us maybe pull back a little bit on our pad development and Shelter existing inventory, and maybe take a little bit of a Hiatus for a while until we can grow the team and circle back around to it
[00:14:53] Tayson: with a little more resource. But in every other way, it's been really cool to see just the product lines dial out. even get a few options for certain product lines and just just continue to grow the entire Swatch of whatever's product is our catalog continues to get bigger and bigger and it's it's been. It's been really really cool to see seeing that I did, kind of say, we didn't have any launches,
[00:15:18] Tayson: we do have one launch just so you Near on the horizon, you know, fall. As you guys have definitely been asking for. So you will want to stay on the hunt for that. So The podcast has been interesting is well, I probably ought to talk about this. I took a bit of a Hiatus from hosting it to see how that would work to try to free up some of my time and
[00:15:39] Tayson: I like the podcast I enjoy doing it but also I think it's it's maybe just more value, the value proposition that we are offering with this is Maybe Some, you know, real world experiences, sharing those sharing trips, and I
[00:15:55] Tayson: probably am one if of the people in the office that do
[00:15:59] Tayson: the absolute most amount of trips. And so really been coming back on and
[00:16:03] Tayson: we'll continue to host the podcast from now, going forward for for, at least the time being. And so
[00:16:08] Tayson: if you enjoy me as a host, I guess make sure you start tuning in back into the podcast. The podcast has continued to grow regardless but we're hoping to continue to build upon that. So yeah, I'll be hosting the podcast, kind of going forward. We'll still have tons of members of the team. Joe will still be on here a lot who was who was helping to host it. But we'll also continue to
[00:16:31] Tayson: bring on people from the
[00:16:32] Tayson: office and Joe now is going to try to focus more on just getting, you know, interview easily lined up so that we can really break down. You know what what people are doing out there? What makes them tick how they're able to accomplish some of the things we have a handful of really exciting guests coming that I am definitely excited for. One, hopefully that we'll be able to interview shortly. That's just
[00:16:54] Tayson: I think set a few world records and it's just just really, really fun to see some of these interviewees coming to life. And so I think the evolution of the podcast itself is going to just improve and be a better value for our subscribers so that's all. So really, really exciting. So So, let's turn back around and let's talk business first thing, let's talk shop for a minute. I think this is
[00:17:20] Tayson: it may sound boring at first just like to talk about the internals of the company but I promise you it's not and it's important to you guys. And again, let me just explain why I'm going to not try to share names of companies. I don't want to put any company down. They've chosen to do the things that they've they've done and I don't have anything against that, everyone's trying to do their
[00:17:46] Tayson: best out there and everyone and, you know, really is doing their best, I believe and there's just different of opinions and differences of how that affects you guys as consumers. So, during this pandemic, there's definitely been a lot going on. We've seen some companies Thrive. We seem some companies, you know, fallen into Despair and because of the position that we have with the factories that we have and maybe some of the
[00:18:10] Tayson: connections we have and Friends ships that we have, we're maybe privy to a little bit more knowledge than other companies and The older model of retail is definitely evolving and there's companies that are evolving to it. There's companies that are dying to it, but it's kind of interesting because retail is in some ways struggling a little bit, maybe not as much as is, I would have predicted, but it's still struggling a
[00:18:37] Tayson: bit and while direct to Consumer and online cells are raising, right? I think everyone's pretty aware that. But another aspect behind the scenes is Venture Capital. Now, venture capital is basically pools of investors or funds of investors that have pulled together money, or sometimes just one massive very well. The individual that is taking money and investing it into a company buying an equity chunk a chunk of ownership in that company. Then
[00:19:05] Tayson: gets that money, is able to use it for Crow, or maybe takes a cash out,
[00:19:08] Tayson: or whatever. They choose to do with that money.
[00:19:13] Tayson: and and so during the covid time, we have seen companies try to go to sell and I think I've mentioned this on podcasts where I've literally been reached out to by people that work at other companies out looking for jobs because what happens when a company goes to sell Typically, that means that they've already got an equity pool of owners. So let's say, let's just say it's x y z Investment Group.
[00:19:39] Tayson: Now x y, z Investment, Group, might own 40% or something, or maybe it's 60% of a company. And when they do that, they want to make money off of that company. So they're going to buy in, they're going to spend three to five years, trying to improve the company improve. Us to improve its profitability, whatever it is. Grow its revenue is usually Target number one. Usually it's just push Revenue, push Revenue,
[00:20:03] Tayson: push revenue and as they push that Revenue. There's cost to that, right? Because they're not really growing organically. They're not letting the customers come to them and attracting customers. It's more. So they're trying to push themselves onto the customers and force Revenue up. And so when that happens, They do that for three to five years and then they look to sell out the company or their their Equity stake, take their money
[00:20:27] Tayson: and then roll it on the next item. And so we have a company fairly little company to ask that was basically going through this and they were firing. Think it was close to half of their staff. They were firing, you know, probably R&D was the first to go, right? We don't care about what products are coming out in one or two years because we should sell the business by then they were,
[00:20:49] Tayson: they were changing up a lot of their warehousing systems. They were, you know, letting go of key sales Personnel because they weren't so focused on next year sales, they're focused on dressing up the profitability for a cell today. and, It's really sad to see that type of a situation because the brand is a whole takes a massive step down. In the meantime, we saw companies. I, you know, we watched companies
[00:21:17] Tayson: that were That were really big on a certain core value. And as
[00:21:24] Tayson: their investors were not getting the returns that the owners were promised core values within the company had to change. You know, the amount of money that
[00:21:33] Tayson: you were getting back changed the amount of You know, a lot of the founders were leaving the company, you know, which obviously is going to have a massive impact on the company itself and what was originally founded, what was originally great about. The company, just starts to turn into gray. Mushes essentially, it's not a purposeful company anymore. We we've heard through. pliers and relations that there's been massive companies, massive companies that
[00:22:03] Tayson: Excuse me, a massive company. That's fairly local to us that has lost tons of senior staff in the last 18 months and have been you know quite unprofitable for a string of years now. And it just looks like this company is is headed towards a massive Crash and Burn. And the crazy thing is the company that everyone knows it's a, it's a very large company. It's very Well, liked company. Their brand
[00:22:34] Tayson: image is Very good, very, very good. But that's all on the exterior. So what does that mean on the interior? Well, when things are crashing and burning and you're unprofitable and everything's, you know, falling down, what do you have to do? Well, you have to, as a business owner, you're trying to stabilize that. So you're firing anything, you know, if I am firing any people that you can, they're not key to
[00:22:57] Tayson: getting profitable again. You're, you're letting go of things that maybe your customers like that, that you can no longer do and you're having to make big big swings. If you're even able to before you kind of get into a death spiral as a company and disappear. And typically, what that means is you're looking, I mean, one of the very first areas is that you look at cutting corners on product Come into
[00:23:20] Tayson: your factory and you say, hey, is there any way we can reduce the cost of produce this product by 15%? Well, 15% is a lot. 15% is is Like an entire over most of the profit margin that a factory even walks away from a product with when producing it. And so you'll see you know, them change Fabrics to lesser quality Fabrics, they'll see them change component tree. Maybe you'll see him go
[00:23:45] Tayson: from you know a top-notch Duraflex Buckle to an unnamed Buckle or YKK zipper to an
[00:23:51] Tayson: unbranded zipper. You'll see some of these things start to happen and really it just starts to look a whole lot like a death spiral because then consumers start to get those products. And over time consumers are very smart and they will determine that they don't want that product anymore. There's better options out there and things start to crumble. So because of all these experiences I've had in life through education, through friendships
[00:24:18] Tayson: and specially the last couple years. I feel like it's a good time to just talk about our values. So Myself and technically, my wife is are the sole owners of Outdoor Vitals. We don't I mean, I don't have I guess massive massive aspirations in life to grow this and sell this. I have a lot of friends who are always asking me, hey, when are you going to sell the business? When are
[00:24:43] Tayson: you going to, you know, liquidate, when are you going to do this? And the answer is always not. I if I sold the business, I'd wake up tomorrow and want to build the same business again. So, Why would I, why would I do that, right? It's just not appealing to me. I love the line of work that I'm in. I love the products that I get to help. Develop. I love the
[00:25:03] Tayson: marketing. I just love being in this category, right? And that sense I'm very thankful and very happy. It's really I just allows us to make these decisions for the future. And so let's talk for a second about what the future is here, at our vitals and what we are trying to build. so much of what we are trying to build here is Just well, let me let me back up. Let me
[00:25:30] Tayson: say this slightly differently. We have some, some marketing uniques. So this is what things that we feel like make us unique as a company. And we try to make sure that these unique are something that no brand shares. All of these, they might share one of them but they're not gonna share all three of these items. So number one is performance, not price. Number two
[00:25:55] Tayson: is inspiring confidence to experience and number three is Direct Customer connection. So, yes, there are going to be companies out there that have a direct customer connection, they're a direct-to-consumer business. They share some of that aspect and they also have a very good falling. That they connect with consistently, they get feedback on the products. They Able to iterate fast. And that's something that we do try to do. We try to connect
[00:26:22] Tayson: with our customers, we try to get the
[00:26:23] Tayson: feedback we try to, you know, alter things. That's why we've put a lot of energy and effort into the fit of our products and continue
[00:26:29] Tayson: to work harder and harder on getting the fit of all of our apparel pieces better and better. Now
[00:26:35] Tayson: I'm not saying we're gonna like completely alter our products and I know there's some people out there that think that we need to do some massive changes, but but we are trying to dial that in to where it appeases most of our audience. Going back to number two here, inspiring confidence through experience. Now, this is something also that I would say is pretty unique to us. What this means is, it's got
[00:27:00] Tayson: a double meaning. Here, we try to inspire our followers, through our
[00:27:05] Tayson: experiences meaning. Well, we go and what we do on trail and what we share, we hope inspires people, we help it shows them
[00:27:13] Tayson: experience as we help it teaches them. We hope that eliminates unknowns that they have and by eliminating those unknowns, there's more likely that they will go and experience things for themselves. And so we want this category here to be, you know, transparency, we want it to be you guys having a ton of confidence in the products that we sell that. You know, we've thoroughly tested
[00:27:37] Tayson: and vetted and made an amazing product that you've got experience through watching us going and doing this. And
[00:27:43] Tayson: then obviously we're trying to inspire you to have confidence that the education that we give is eliminating
[00:27:49] Tayson: those unknowns, inspiring confidence in yourself and your abilities and then going out there and doing.
[00:27:55] Tayson: So that's number two of what we feel like makes us unique. Number three here is performance, not price. Now this is a very interesting one and one that gets talked about probably more than anything else. And that is that there is a time in the company that we, you know, looked more heavily at price points I guess and part of that was
[00:28:17] Tayson: because of where I was coming from, you know, starting the company right out of college with You know, 500 dollars, very limited funds. You can't just go out there and design, amazing product. When you've got that start in that background, two is the more time we've gone on. We've learned What premium and performance really means,
[00:28:36] Tayson: but three were in a position just to be able to do that, right? We're in a position to design. Solely on the performance of a product. Now, it happens all the time, we go to a
[00:28:47] Tayson: factory, we say we're going to be designing, this type of a product in the first thing that they ask us is what's your Target price
[00:28:53] Tayson: point? To which we turn around and say we don't have a Target price point and they are quite confused by that and we have to explain that for us. And the way that we do business, we don't do Target price points. We base the product that we're trying to develop on fixing the solution
[00:29:11] Tayson: and making a better solution than what's out there and the infilled performance of that product. So
[00:29:17] Tayson: let's talk about the satellite for instance, When we look around at other ultralight packs out there, none of
[00:29:23] Tayson: them have weight distributing frames, or I'll say none
[00:29:29] Tayson: because it's pretty much none. But there are some options, but none. None. None actually do it somehow frames but they're not tall enough. Some notes and they're a little bit taller but they don't even have load lifters to lift the weight off of your shoulders and distribute down your hips. And so for us, you know, that's an example of us going in and saying we're not trying to make a shorter frame,
[00:29:49] Tayson: you know, for price point, we're not trying to make a short-term for I'll fill in the break for ease of manufacturing. We wanted to make a taller frame. A more usable frame, a weight distributing frame. So that in the fill you get the relief and the performance that you need out of a backpack, especially out here. We're about to go start Highline and a couple of days and you know we started
[00:30:16] Tayson: with five days worth of food and there's some longer water carries on that trail and you can easily get a pack, even if you're an ultra light, packer, you know, where you're starting with a base weight of 10 to 12 pounds but between water and food, you could easily be carrying a 25 plus pound backpack. And having a frame is very helpful in those scenarios. Or I take my kid out and
[00:30:38] Tayson: I'm packing for two people now and because of that, I now have a frame that can pack, you know, 30 plus pounds comfortably. While I'm trying to carry everything for my son so that he can
[00:30:49] Tayson: have the most enjoyable time possible. But really, again, coming back to it. We know we've we've got a product worth launching when it is performing at the level. That we feel like we need. And the interesting thing about that is we don't ignore price, we just don't prioritize price. You know, we more so prioritize based off of performance.
[00:31:09] Tayson: Weight is a big part of performance. Its ability to do the, the object or thing at hand and
[00:31:16] Tayson: price comes in down the road. Yeah, if we have two options and there's little to no advantage to
[00:31:21] Tayson: use, you know, this fabric versus that fabric, or this Frame, there's versus that framework. This, you know, whatever it is this Buckle versus
[00:31:27] Tayson: that Buckle, we will, we will address that. You know, we don't want to make expensive products just for the sake of making
[00:31:33] Tayson: expensive products. But we are heavily focused on the
[00:31:37] Tayson: infilled performance. Yes, we could take the shadow light. We could easily make it with a different fabric and we could easily double the amount of sale price you know we could go from a
[00:31:47] Tayson: low 200 dollar pack to
[00:31:49] Tayson: a 400 dollar pack with just the click of one button and having a different fabric on it, but the Danfield performance might not be enough to Warrant that. So We do pay attention to it but we're just not designing the entire pack based off of hitting any kind of price points. And that's been something that's been really fun to focus on over the last three years, maybe four years really since a
[00:32:13] Tayson: little bit before, Brigham came on the team that was something that we started to put more and more focus and energy on. And so that's that really is what makes us unique. I would add though, like going back to some of these, we spend a lot of time as a company out in the field like a lot of time. I will, I'll have to track it at the end of this year,
[00:32:35] Tayson: but I'm sure I will spend more than 30 days
[00:32:38] Tayson: 30 nights in the field.
[00:32:40] Tayson: And that's not including all of the days that I'm spending out there. We spend a lot of time we spend a lot of time as a team as individuals, and I think that is a big Advantage for us. There's a lot of people that design. You know, a lot of products I actually was interviewing a guy for Brigham's position, three years ago and he ended up taking a position at this other
[00:33:04] Tayson: company because they were able to pay him more. and but the thing was, he was designing like 20 products at a time and they're like all the same type of category and they wanted those rule out by this date. And there's no way that he was getting going to be able to design them and thoroughly test them
[00:33:23] Tayson: before they were rolled out.
[00:33:26] Tayson: Specially like where the company was located at made, it even harder to get out there and test product. Even if you had
[00:33:31] Tayson: a week-long design trip, you know, you have to be rotating into a new pack every single day and trying a new thing and
[00:33:37] Tayson: and it's just not really a thorough test and a thorough R&D cycle. And so, I think that is something that has been phenomenal with the culture that we've built here, at our vitals of really getting out and thoroughly testing our product. So again, pulling it back to the consumers, by not being a venture capital owned company, we're able to focus on long-term
[00:34:00] Tayson: results and long-term plans or able to design better and better product because that is the sole Focus for us. And cutting Corners.
[00:34:09] Tayson: Anywhere is just not an our best interest because we may save a dollar today but it'll cost us five dollars to tomorrow like cutting any corners and that's not in our best interest. So we're constantly pushing and evolving. Pushing in a better factories constantly. We're constantly pushing our Fabrics. We're constantly pushing any way that we can to improve.
[00:34:30] Tayson: And that's what you guys can expect from from us and expect from us. Going forward, you can expect it from us right now. And we've really made so many improvements to everything that we do that. It's a lot of fun to see Okay, so we've covered a lot here. Let me just kind of glance through my notes and see if there's anything else. I was really hoping to cover here. I don't
[00:34:57] Tayson: think there is, I think just overall. It's exciting to be where
[00:35:01] Tayson: we're at. It's exciting to be designing what we're designing and focused on what we're focused on. It's exciting to see the customers
[00:35:07] Tayson: coming in organically to see the the word of mouth per se advertising that we're receiving at the level that we're at now. And it's just all around good. The company is
[00:35:19] Tayson: streamlining more and more. We're getting bigger and bigger growth is continuing to
[00:35:24] Tayson: come. We're controlling our growth meaning, we're not trying to grow too fast, we'll actually slow down
[00:35:31] Tayson: growth. If we start growing too fast but we're also pushing to grow at a very stable number. We're pushing to keep profits in a very good spot so that you know, if we've got to recession on the horizon here that we are going to be in a great position for
[00:35:43] Tayson: that, you know, we're not interested in over leveraging. Anything and we'll say this for for those of you that have been long-time followers or maybe our members of our little slight membership, I'm not going to say that we'll never raise money, but I will say this, we will never raise money from
[00:35:58] Tayson: people who are not
[00:35:59] Tayson: our stakeholders. And so what that means to me is Employees are current stakeholders, they have a lot of interest and what's happening here at upper vitals. Giving them the opportunity for to buy stock or different things. Like that is something that is interesting to me. To create more buy-in and but also give them opportunities for retirement. The other one is you guys you guys that are listening right now? You there's there's
[00:36:27] Tayson: a possibility that in the future, you will have an opportunity to buy Outdoor Vitals stock. Not in massive quantities, not millions of dollars at a time but at small quantities of
[00:36:38] Tayson: hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars. You may
[00:36:42] Tayson: be able to buy Stock in Outdoor Vitals. The reason that I would be willing to do that. There's one, we're selling off tiny amounts at a time. You know, percent, maybe at a time so it doesn't change the way that we need to run our business because you guys are the users
[00:37:00] Tayson: of the product. Your primary interest is the product that we're developing. If we brought in an outside Venture, capitalists their primary interest, is what the financials look like at all times, how fast we're growing. What is the five year? Outlook? Look like we have to hit our performance markers for revenue, or they're going to have problems. Whereas you guys,
[00:37:19] Tayson: we would only sell this off in small portions to people. That would be more interested in what's going on without revivals in five years, 10 years,
[00:37:28] Tayson: 20 years. What's what products are they releasing? You know, I would want people who might be investing in us to know every single product that we're releasing in detail. That would be really important to me because that's important to you guys and our consumers. And and So just know, there may be an opportunity like that in the future it would not be something anything like a venture capital situation. It would be
[00:37:53] Tayson: much more like a Kickstarter situation where we're crowdfunding, our Equity.
[00:37:59] Tayson: Yes. You'd be getting Equity, you could be getting stocks, but we're selling it to 2000 of people in small quantities, not one person in a mass quantity that could change any of the values or any of our
[00:38:10] Tayson: principles here. So there's kind of a nugget if you have any interest in that. You know, stay tuned. It's something that is on the horizon. It is something that I've considered for a handful of years and you know maybe in another two years something like that maybe longer we would be in a position where it would make sense to do something like that. And I think it would be really overall smart
[00:38:36] Tayson: strategy for us both for company, internal company growth. But also for you know, things like employees to be able to purchase and get a hold of some of that for their long-term retirement. We do also have a lot of product in the pipeline, right now. A lot of products that we're taking our time developing spending a lot of time in the development process, which is a good thing. It's a great thing.
[00:39:02] Tayson: It's really a powerful position to be in as a brand where we can spend a lot of time developing a lot of different products and getting a lot of field time with them. So I know I kind of said there's not a lot of product Launches on the horizon. We do have some more in 2022. 2023 should be a lot of fun. You will hear a lot more about product launches in
[00:39:21] Tayson: 2023. Probably pretty early on. We may put a couple on presale but very excited for you guys. To have been getting the 40 Aces right now. I'm so excited for you guys to put that in to use.
[00:39:32] Tayson: That's a piece that I know. The more time you spend with it, the more you will like it.
[00:39:36] Tayson: We spent a ton of time. Obviously, with that piece. You guys are gonna absolutely love it. As well. That's pretty much all of our
[00:39:43] Tayson: products seems like the
[00:39:44] Tayson: more time you spend at the more, you'll come to appreciate those premium fabrics. And the way that we're
[00:39:50] Tayson: doing everything with it because I can promise you, we spend the time in the field to prove it out and to prove that
[00:39:56] Tayson: the performance is there and that is better. So take it, take us up on our word, go spend time be very conscious of how things are done, why they might be
[00:40:05] Tayson: done and I think it'll be more and more and more happy with any of the products that we have to offer. So
[00:40:11] Tayson: There you go, guys. It's kind of a state of the company about her vitals for the 100th episode on the Live Ultralight podcast. On this podcast, isn't a lot of fun. If you guys enjoy this podcast, please, please, please, please rate and review it. Tell us what you like, tell us what you don't like. I want to make this better. I constantly want to make everything better around here from product to
[00:40:30] Tayson: systems, to how we treat customers to how we treat employees constantly looking to improve. And
[00:40:35] Tayson: we're constantly looking to improve that's built into our DNA as a whole. And so we'd love to know what you guys like
[00:40:41] Tayson: or even dislike about the podcast. So please go review the podcast. I'm begging you guys. But thanks for tuning in. Thanks for being here for our 100th episode. It's a very exciting time. We have so much
[00:40:54] Tayson: more to come. So make sure you're subscribed and with that guys, we will see you guys or you'll hear us on the next episode
