Tayson: Hey everybody welcome back to the Live Ultralight podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals today we have an episode that I know many many of you are going to want to listen to because you want to know what's coming in 2023 well hang in there I'm gonna get to it you're gonna hear a little bit of some sneak peeks here on what to expect in 2023 but before we get there we need to cover a few things first off what the heck is the Live Ultralight podcast well the Live Ultralight podcast is simply here to help you line your backpack and build confidence to go and live a life full of Adventures uh why do we care well our purpose of existing here at Outdoor Vitals is to connect you to the vital outdoors and this is.
Tayson: A great way it's not just about gear it's about education it's about building confidence and just inspiring you to get out and right now everyone needs to get out it's critical it's important for life it's important for humans we believe that to the center of our core and so if that resonates with you go ahead and subscribe to this podcast because that's what it's all about um with that being said though it is time it's time to talk about what happened last year and time to look at what's going to happen in 2023 um yeah we'll talk a little bit about products up and coming we'll talk a little bit about um offense up and coming travel you know a handful of things right but before we get to that what I'd like to talk.
Tayson: About is where we've been okay so last year we released somewhere around 10 new products it was a big year we had a lot of launches we also had a lot of delays in 2021 which then made 2022 a great year for product launches um you know let me just run through the list of what we launched last year we launched the turn tees and hoodies we launched the Nova provest we launched the 40th Tense one or two person 40s tenths we refreshed the new Summits which recently had a price drop if you didn't know so if you if you're more of a sleeping bag person than a topical person go check those out um also keep in mind it's good a good time to to say this of course that might be on my.
Tayson: List for for this year is uh we did just um add in so the Summits have had it throughout the whole year but now that the new top quilts excuse me the top quilts not new top quilts now have a dry bag and a storage bag included like the Summits do so when you buy those you're also getting a premium um lightweight dry bag as well as a long-term storage bag so be aware of that we we shipped out the code of ul's and accessories and and launched those to the public um those that was our last Kickstarter probably our ever probably we'll probably never do another Kickstarter and we'll get to that here in a second on why um altitudes we launched the altitude hoodies we launched the toucher rain jacket and we launched.
Tayson: The vario jacket as well so lots of launches lots of new things going on um something in almost every category it was a great year we we grew I mean we we grew a lot we hit our goals for growth we hit our growth for for profitability our team grew um I think our content got better our podcast got bigger but also our YouTube you know it grew as well but I think the content that we're producing on YouTube is better than ever before um you know we're doing more documentary style uh films over there and they seem to to be um just more valuable right we're just trying to create more value there there's lots of YouTubers out there that are really good at catching and holding attention and that's that's for them um.
Tayson: You know it's it's getting crowded and for us we do a lot of r d we're out in the field a lot and so we've been migrating to to some of these bigger documentary style films which we really enjoy they're a lot of work uh Joe behind the camera puts a lot a lot of time into those um but we we think they're valuable and we think they align with our mission here at our vitals so that's been fun um get this get this this year we'll roll over nine years since after vitals was started um that's kind of an interesting Milestone you probably you probably don't even care but over here from this side of the table I'm sitting here just thinking how Wild that is um now if I mean if you haven't.
Tayson: Heard this story on a starting it was a very humble beginnings for sure um always always dreamed of building a company like we are today and and where we're headed in the future but in the beginning it wasn't like um how some other companies start off with this big bang you know what I mean um in fact it's nine years since we started um I've been working in the company you know since then but I actually wasn't full-time quote unquote you know full time in the company um until about a year and a half after the start even though I was working like until the time I got off of work to like midnight every night on the on it and then all the weekends and everything like it it was a full-time gig I.
Tayson: Was just working two full-time jobs essentially but um pretty wild that we're all over nine years this year um some other Milestones though just in in company history so 2018 we we released the loftec jacket which is our first ever apparel piece that pre-sold a million dollars in sales and kick-started it allowed us to do some amazing things over the next couple of years um you know we really upgraded manufacturing partners of ours fabric partners of ours brought on a designer and other key members of our team and it paved the way it was like we'd been working up to that point been learning working creating opportunities that was the Tipping Point that I was able to just go in and leverage so much of of of what happened there into building what we call.
Tayson: Outdoor Vitals 2.0 you know our origin story in a lot of ways started in 2018 is how I like to look at it now because it was finally enabled us to build and to do the things that that I wanted to all along and now fast forward to 2023 you guys are seeing the fruits of that uh the the quality of product that we can release now the innovations that we can release now um this customer support that we can release now just just from all aspects of the business um I feel like we're doing a great job and I'm really excited about that and our team here has is is the reason right I mean they're awesome guys um and gals I say guys probably too much but um we've got some awesome gals.
Tayson: On the team and I hope they know they're one of the guys with us so no that's probably the wrong way to say that but for real we've just got an amazing amazing team um it's really exciting it's it's it's just so exciting to be where we're at um we crossed off another year of still being 100 privately owned and profitable uh it's funny we had some fun experiences um I had some fun experiences talking with some business owners just just in the last couple months that you know they ask questions like this you know when did you become profitable I I can't help but just laugh when people ask me that because I just turn around and say since day one I didn't have no one you shouldn't have the option to not be.
Tayson: Profitable um but so many companies are they're buying attention they're buying um their way into the marketplace um for us it's not that way in fact for you this is a good thing because we spend a very small fraction of our revenues our money into marketing of the product um a lot of what gets put into it is is my time and other people's time but we spent a fraction a fraction of the amount of money that people just dump into advertising and promotions um which means that more of your money is going into the product itself so very very happy about that but also just wanted to say um or big Advocates of privately held companies non-equity you know funded companies non-vc backed companies I think that they taint the marketplace in so many.
Tayson: Ways they're not good for the employees they're not good for you because the focus isn't on the product the focus is on financials and profitability or growth that grow at all costs right because they're bringing in all this money now we need to grow we need to double in size by next year all these things that we need to buy all this attention and and a lot of times that can can be bad for consumers because guess what you think you're buying the best product when in reality you're buying the most well-marketed product um I think growth should be line online you know if your product is good people will talk about it you know you can talk about it but but it gets more traction in the marketplace when it's truly a great product.
Tayson: Instead of bolstering effect so another year we're private we love it we'll always be private um and and you guys are ones to thank for that as well just in your support of us those of you that are Live Ultralight members um you're continuing us to grow at a faster rate thanks to you without needing to taint any of our values and so um that's awesome so let's talk for a second just about some of our company values again we are going to get here very shortly into what 2023 looks like and I'm very excited for it but um this is a good opportunity to just share with you what makes Outdoor Vitals special and what we're going to be able to do in 2023 so let me take a drink here and we'll dive.
Tayson: Into that these solo episodes are I like them they're fun sure talk a lot and sometimes I don't pause it to take a drink or anything but um I hope that these are also valuable to you guys and and that's always our goal is to is to create value anywhere and everywhere we can so back into this if you guys are buying product from us I hope that you know the companies behind the products you're purchasing right when I first started Outdoor Vitals one of the reasons that we got on YouTube so early but but never like resonated with a cottage industry brand you know image that people tried to put on us was I never wanted to be necessarily a cottage brand in the sense of of what that meant to me and that.
Tayson: Was like you know we're like cutting and sewing our own stuff and we're you know just like a handful of guys in our garage doing this no like to me it was always to grow and and to and to be big but to provide the values excuse me the benefits of being able to operate like a corporation you know what I mean like like let's just say let's just say it's the North Face The North Face can do things with product that a cottage brand never can and maybe a cottage brand can do something with product that they can and that's kind of where we land I feel like is is we we value what we build but the way that we build it allows it to be accessible to more people so that's the.
Tayson: One side but let's say it's let's say it's dutch over at Dutch word gear Dutch is a an absolute stud and um you guys know him right if you're buying from him you you probably know who Dutch is and you get that personal experience you can know his values you know and it matters it really it does matter because your dollars are you voting and if you're giving money to Dutch you're voting and pushing forward that ideal versus giving it to the North Face and so to me we want a transparency to begin with at the company and so we started things like YouTube and this podcast and all sort of things so that you know who who we are behind the camera and behind the products um but then that we can turn that.
Tayson: Around and give you the best possible products that we can um so maybe it was a little bit of a tangent but um that all being said that's our goal here right we want to be transparent and so we've we've done a little bit of putting words to paper um and just wanted to share some of those with you Outdoor Vitals our purpose is to connect people to the vital Outdoors um now more than ever we feel like everyone needs the outdoors um it's vital to us as humans it's vital to our mental health our physical health our emotional health to relationships um and so we are the facilitators we're here to bring you the best possible product so that you'll go outdoors and be comfortable and build confidence but we also are here to.
Tayson: Inspire you and just do everything we can to connect you to the vital Outdoors we do that obviously by developing industry-leading products High Performance Products ultralight products um but something you may not know is that we do donate one percent of our Revenue which historically we've been donating to third world countries well projects and Cambodia and Africa and these in these areas um we recently changed this up and I don't want to get too much in the weeds here um but really we wanted to pull our charitable fundings a little bit closer to home where we can feel personally like we're having a bigger impact you as customers feel like we're we're benefiting you um but that's not the biggest reason really the biggest reason is that our belief in connecting people to the outdoors.
Tayson: Is the most important thing okay um who's to say that us going and making someone's life better in a second world country a third world country is really going to make them more happy we are sitting in this this day and age of I call it a mental health pandemic um where you know it's almost arrogant for us to go in and go to a third world country and say hey we're going to make your life better and start giving him stuff I've lived there there they can be extremely happy people even though they have nothing an arrogance of of my own self I guess in the past has been to think that that I can make their life better than it is by you doing it my way well how do you know that.
Tayson: I'm happier than than you are right and so I still believe that manufacturing overseas providing jobs and and fair trade and all of these things is vital to our purpose here it really is I want to make their lives better but I want to do it in a way that they choose and they opt in for um so us putting money into these different countries it's absolutely changing people's lives there I promise you but it's done in a little bit more of a capitalistic way that change in heart and change in view a little bit allowed us though to take our donations and and change the Mantra which we do think so our Responsibility program is to donate one percent to the vital Outdoors to connecting people to the outdoors um and man I'm going.
Tayson: To lose the word here but but essentially what we're trying to do is put our money into conservation connecting and protecting um the outdoors so if we can get people into the outdoors if we can build new trail that helps people have have opportunities closer to home uh you know we've actually started to work a little bit with the American perimeter Trail group I had a podcast on with with um Rue over there you know he's looking to he's a big conservationist that's looking to build a massive Trail around the whole United States and that would put trout closer to potentially our customers and to more people to have opportunities to get out there um but also protecting the outdoors to me that is the biggest way that we can help right now um people.
Tayson: Need it people need to get Outdoors like I said like I was touching on with mental health pandemic um you know Tech is the biggest blessing and curse that's ever existed um you know I've been talking about this a little bit just recently with my wife of raising children in this day and age um I think it's harder than ever to be a kid it's just absolutely harder than ever there is already a year it might you know three and six-year-old kids ages you know technology is is huge um it's it's grabbing onto them because everyone's figured out how to give you these little dopamine hits and and bait you in to be connected to Tech at a level that you shouldn't you know naturally be um and that has some some negative consequences so.
Tayson: For us donating back into the outdoors into helping people helping to connect people to it and protecting the outdoors is our purpose and we are changing things up where we will now be focusing our funds to go directly back into the vital Outdoors um last thing here before we'll touch get into the sneak peek stuff okay we touch on these a lot but we rarely say exactly what these things are we call these internally our three uniques they're things that give us our identity as a brand what makes us different than any other brand out there and some Brands share one of these or two of these but no no one should ever share three of these and that's what makes Outdoor Vitals truly different so number one we have a philosophy of performance not.
Tayson: Price being a direct-to-consumer brand we have the luxury of not having an extra retail markup on our products which means that let's say we are building a jacket okay let's use the tusha rain jacket because the technology we actually have in the touch of rain jacket is phenomenal it it allowed us to do things with a jacket that shouldn't be allowed to do at that weight category but it's very expensive to produce so much so that retail brands with very high reputations that you would know if I said their name on the air passed up on some of this technology because they couldn't make the price points work for store shelves that's the benefit for us we go into a factory we say this is what we want to design we go to our fabric.
Tayson: Mills we say this is what we want to design and they ask us what's the price point and we say we don't have one why because it's all about the infilled performance for us we focus on infield performance over everything else and because we're direct to Consumer brand that means that we can spend more money on producing the toucher rain jacket and still have it land at a competitive price compared to a retail brand would have to mark up that jacket another massive chunk and make it they'd price it out of the ball game right um and I'm not going to say that one you know there's not going to be times where we're going to have the same or higher price than a retail brand but what you can trust is that there is.
Tayson: More money going into production of that product the Fabrics used maybe the QC in it maybe it's maybe it's the extras that come with it like a dry bag and a storage bag you will get more from buying with us than anywhere else and we always are going to design for performance not price so that's number one to remember number two is we really focus on inspiring confidence through experience that works two ways the first way that we we do that is you guys we put ourselves on a billboard we we film like every trip we go on and we record podcasts about everything and so you can have confidence in the gear that you're using to know that we're out there testing it beating it up using it putting it in the field so.
Tayson: You can have confidence in that way but the but the bigger thing here really is we hope that we are inspiring you to get out there and to get into nature and connect with nature more often through the experiences that we're sharing we share our experiences um simply to inspire you guys to have confidence we're very transparent we're all about education we we hide almost nothing right in fact I say almost nothing but I don't know what we hide other than than just financials right like that's not something that we put out on the podcast but um but our our purpose really is to inspire you guys to get outside confidently through experience number three is Direct Customer connection there's a lot of advantages that we have being able to communicate directly to you guys.
Tayson: Our customers um obviously there's the direct to Consumer aspect of that which I guess I should hit that really quick what is direct to Consumer it simply means that we refuse to sell to retail stores why because it allows us to build better product it's better for our customers if we don't because we can put more money into producing the product using better materials using you know whatever it is and then getting a single markup instead of selling to a retail store and having it get double marked up um to you guys but the other side of that too is that we get to interact directly with you guys comments questions um if something is returned we speak directly with you guys about it we know why it got returned we can we can make.
Tayson: Adjustments there's benefits to um you know our design department Brigham meets with our warranty returns and exchange Department narissa every month to go through line by line what's been returned why has it been returned how can we improve things in the product itself and um there's there's so many benefits to us being directly connected with you we can do live so we can answer questions live um you know there's there's just a lot of things there and then again not to mention just the direct to Consumer aspect of it I'm not gonna lie when when there's been times recently that I was talking to other business owners and they are they kept asking why are you direct to Consumer why are you direct to Consumer and and finally says do you just not like money.
Tayson: Do you just do you just not like money like why would you why are you direct a consumer like because he was specifically over retail sales for another company and he said it's the most the the most profitable channel of theirs that it's the fastest growing Channel there's that he's done all these amazing things and and he's just like do you just not like money like why would you deny this and the truth of it is we deny it because we feel like we're building a better company for you guys and in the long run we can build better product because of it we can connect with our customers better because of it um and and yeah like I'm betting on the Long Haul personally as the owner of this company that in the Long.
Tayson: Haul um we will have built a better company in every shape of the word right we're not spending ludicrous amounts on ads we we can't have a retailer drop us and create massive fluctuations where we're laying people off and we're you know having having all of these issues no we we have our destiny and our control we're growing our followers consistently steadily at the rate that that we're very comfortable and happy with but the biggest thing is we do direct to Consumer because it's better for the consumer um you just get a better product at a very good price compared to what it would cost if it went through retail so remember those things performance not price inspiring confidence or experience Direct Customer connection you may hear me sneak those into things at times to.
Tayson: Let you guys know what makes us unique but now you know and now let's talk about 2023 so I've I've drugged you guys on for a little over 20 minutes here listening let's give you what you actually wanted out of this episode right um first off what new products are coming this year um number one that you'll probably see this year is a new pad um I won't say a lot about it but you've probably seen it in various videos for a while um it is warmer and more comfortable hands down um I used it all year long really enjoyed it had some of my best nights of sleep ever on it the solid solid pad Weight Wise it's not as light as a as a Nemo tensor or Neo air just to be totally.
Tayson: Up front with you guys but it is thick it is comfortable um and that's something that that I personally value pads are tough space though I'm just going to say we probably will struggle more in pads to have a competitive Advantage than anywhere else due to patents and and things of that nature so as we grow as you guys continue to support us we will get better and better at pads um I am excited for this pad it's a much needed improvement over our last pad it's like an ultra Comfort pad um that's still very packable right I mean I'm packing it I'm I'm getting you know 10 pound base weights and whatnot so um it's still a very light compactable Pad but it is very comfortable um we have a windbreaker coming this is.
Tayson: Called the Nebo windbreaker in fact if I could flip that camera around you could see some getting photographed right over here um windbreakers have have become some of our favorite pieces and if you were to go back and look at our 10 piece adaptive layering system they are in there for their weight they offer a massive advantage in warmth and versatility especially in high output activity so you will see a windbreaker coming this year we will release not one but two backpacks I don't have the dates locked in yet but we do have um the design is is basically finalized and the factories are preparing uh fabrics and things already they're starting to prepare on this so this year later this year we will be releasing not one but two backpacks now you guys have.
Tayson: Seen us doing r d on the fast pack for quite some time the skyline fast pack that is one of them the other one I'm not going to tell you anything about it one because I think marketing would get mad at us too because customer support would get a million questions about it and be upset at me um but but really um you can find some sneak peeks out there we're about to release a film probably won't be released yet by the time this goes out but the Highline documentary film from our trip this this last uh August yeah August I think I think it was August um you'll see some sneak peeks of some packs in there that did 100 miles with us on The High Line and um that's that's about all I'm.
Tayson: Going to say but it I think this this pack is exceptional it does things that other packs just can't it is a premium backpack in the sense of we did not hold back on on fabrics and Frames right so be excited be excited for that um likely well well yeah that's all I'll say for now um you guys if you watch the Tushar uh ultramarathon I did you saw some shorts in there you'll likely see shorts again this year um we will be releasing very soon carbon fiber um polls for the 40th trekking pole tents and that's going to be soon those those like could be out before this podcast like it's going to be real soon so if you're someone who doesn't like trekking poles or likes to keep your trekking poles and leave.
Tayson: Your tent behind set up during a daytime you can you'll be able to get carbon fiber poles to go into your 40us um what else we got here we're gonna release some more women's sizing on a few things ventises will get a tall version um if that's not out already it's it's very soon um and there's a few others that I'm Gonna Keep top secret but I will say this if you love sneak peeks and you want to know what's going on here we don't hold back on YouTube meaning if you see something in a YouTube video we're likely testing it um we may not comment on it we may not respond back and there's some there's some solid reasons for that you know the 40s tent took us so many years that was the.
Tayson: That was the covid uh horrendous debacle there of of production and all sorts of things went wrong with with getting that out the door and then fine-tuning that last you know 10 20 of that tint but that's part of why we don't we don't talk too in depth on some of these things but um you can find sneak peeks on things like The High Line like I just mentioned um but yeah just run back through it got some packs coming this year we got a new pad coming this year we got windbreakers um and and a handful of other apparel pieces uh that that you'll want to stay tuned for so those are some sneak peeks some other things we've got going on right now in January we're going to open up registration again for.
Tayson: The UL 100 Mile Challenge and that is going to be really exciting this year one because it's January and if you're like me you'd probably put on a little bit of weight over the holidays look I'm a fat kid at heart I really am I have to work hard to stay fit and in a good spot with that so I am actively cutting weight right now I hate to say but that program is a great program to get in to do training maybe drop weight dial in your gear you're going to get uh what zoom we're changing it from Facebook live uh two-week check-ins to zoom uh check-ins where you'll be able to ask questions and interact with us at a much better level we're upping our we're going to change the time so it's.
Tayson: More convenient for people of when we do those we're upping our production quality on that um but mainly the biggest thing is now you can do the UL 100 Mile Challenge with us either Non-Stop or stacked and what that means is non-stop is that you do the 100 miles without stopping just like we did you went to Highline Trail or the Appalachian Trail or anything you're just you're just going you're not going home at any point the Stacked version is a new option that we released this year for those that are not wanting to do a full 100 miles in one shot you'll be able to break it up within the trip window and and and cumulatively get the 100 miles in now there's some different things to know about those two different programs but.
Tayson: It does help us accomplish the goal of just getting more people involved with this and helping them get Outdoors there is a ton of value in that you get a swag bag or Swag Box that's going to have more than enough value in there to cover what we're doing as the registration fee we are opening it up to the public not just members um so I'm really I'm really really excited about this so watch for that in January this month that registration will open um we're gonna have big trips obviously I've got to do we've got to do 100 mile trip as a group um here at the office to to do the 100 Mile Challenge um I'm likely gonna to attempt two Ultras this year I'm gonna go back to the touchers and I.
Tayson: May um get signed up for another one here so I've got some some signing up of some events to do here in January but I am excited to to do that and to push and to share some of those along the way um and I our team I'm sure is going to continue to grow we we added a person to almost every Department um last year and we're going to do the same again we're growing you guys are helping us grow providing value I hope at a very high level and I think that shows I mean you look at like our membership if you don't know what the level chart membership is go look at that that's truly just a scenario where we were able to create a win-win you know and it shows it.
Tayson: Shows in the growth of it it shows in the feedback from it um and just again wanted to thank you guys that are part of that that to just let you know that you're aiding us as well in in our growth and being able to say private and being able to stay completely focused on the performance of our products um so thank you so much um it's been a phenomenal year it's crazy to think that we are going to cross nine years next year will be our 10th year in business and I don't know if I'm ready for that one that one's kind of wild but um this year's this year is going to be awesome we've we've just we've got a lot coming now I mean we did Pro we will have more product.
Tayson: Releases uh in 2022 over 2023 um but a lot of those are because of those those delays and Supply chains that we had in 2021 but this year is going to be consistent um it's gonna be fun we're gonna release some products that'll shake things up for sure and that you're going to want to pay attention to um but more than anything else I'm excited to connect with you guys in the in this 100 Mile Challenge to continue to produce content and hopefully just meet more and more of you excuse me we're going to go to the try to go to some more shows you know we've been trying to get into the Appalachian Trail Trail days trying to get into the PCT Trail days we will be at the big gear show we're signed.
Tayson: Up for that which is going to be in Colorado in June so in Denver you could you can come see us there if you're in that area but we're going to continue to look for ways to to interact with with everyone and create some some awesome content um but 2023 is exciting I hope you guys have some big goals I hope you've set some big goals for yourself um and you get out there and you crush them and you enjoy the journey of doing those I know personally in my life setting and achieving goals is one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done it's pushed me to be a better human better husband better father better business owner a better leader of this team better employer um it's pushed me physically to improve my.
Tayson: Life I could easily be I don't know I feel like I could easily be 100 pounds heavier than I am right now and just hating life right um but I think goals are important I hope you guys are taking time this January to set goals I'm I'm excited for you if you need some help along the way or just want to join us join the 100 Mile Challenge it's going to be a great time watch your emails for those if it's not actively open when this goes out which I think this will be a little bit ahead of it but um thanks thanks from the from the bottom of my heart I I thank you guys for following along you guys again if you're here at the end of this podcast are likely some of.
Tayson: Our most loyal and raging fans and uh you guys because of you guys your dollars your attention is voting on better product Better Business for the future and I just really appreciate you guys so with that um let's go ahead and wrap this up if you've not left us a review you know what to do go leave us a review it helps us out helps us get more exposure and build better product for you guys um make sure you're subscribed we've got some awesome interviews coming I have a month full of interviews so that's going to be a lot of fun and there'll be more sneak peeks and deep Dives on products here shortly as well so make sure you are subscribed and we'll see you guys on the next one.
