[00:00:00] Tayson: All right, everybody. Welcome back to the Live Ultralight podcast. Today we are doing kind of a state of the union podcast. We're going to be talking all about what's happened this last year, the best and worst of the last year going to be talking about 2022. What's to come? We're excited about. And also talk about just the outdoor industry as a whole, what's happened with it and where it's going to be
[00:00:19] Tayson: heading and some of our bold predictions. So today we've got bring them back on the podcast as well as Tyler. So be joining us in covering what what has happened, what they, what, they liked, what they have and liked and again looking forward.
[00:00:33] Tayson: So this is a little trip power podcast. It's powered by our vitals and the whole point of this podcast is just to get you. On trail, we're comfortably and more confidently. So thanks for joining us today. If you haven't already subscribed, make sure you get subscribed because you have a lot of awesome content coming. And hopefully, through this podcast today, we'll earn a subscribers as well. So Let's just Dive Right into
[00:00:57] Tayson: this. I'm looking back at 2021. It was quite a ride. I think that I kind of feel like my my thought on 2022 was exactly what I thought about 2020 2020. 2021 about 21 and that kind of made me nervous as I was thinking about it. I'm like, oh man, I thought 21 was going to be amazing after 20 being so hard with covid and the pandemic and it ended up being
[00:01:25] Tayson: not the case that actually got worse in a lot of ways for us. And so I'm looking at 2022 and I'm like, all right we made a bunch of adjustments, bunch of changes but who knows who really knows? So yeah, I need anything immediately, stand off to you guys of best and worst. I don't know. We can start with either one but No one,
[00:01:45] Brigham: one product that is both sides of the coin, our shadow light backpack. Okay.
[00:01:52] Brigham: That was an awesome launch. It was received really well. We've all loved it. We've put hundreds of miles on it, like each of us. And just really loved it. but, Stocked out. We couldn't get product. The product sat on the loading dock for months, while the government had shut down the town, you know? And so that was a low point for us was we had this awesome product that did great and
[00:02:20] Brigham: everybody wanted it and it was just stuck.
[00:02:25] Tayson: Yeah, I probably showcases a lot of this last year. In one product, honestly, I was actually looking back at all, the product, launches that we had planned for this year, Brigham, I think, in the last day of the Union podcast, I said there was going to be 14 product launches, and I don't think that included any updates that was just product, launch products. And I went back and looked at him and
[00:02:49] Tayson: counted them and we didn't we didn't hit that. There was a lot of a lot of delays. So maybe let's just start right there. When we say like delays, what does that really mean? I think inside of the USA we've we've curbed curved curved a lot of the growth of the pandemic and but over in Asia it's not really been the case. They've had it worse in 2021 versus 2020 and that
[00:03:15] Tayson: caused just more motive and then when that happens, And they're actually shutting down cutting, so shops and factories and things like that, when that happens. It just starts this this massive trickle effect where they pull people out of sample rooms and now we can't finish the sampling of the products that were working on and we can't, you know, then production gets slowed and then factories. Shut down with the shadow light. We
[00:03:43] Tayson: literally didn't know if it was either in middle of production when that factory shut down for three whole months or if it was Um, like finished and it turns out when they got back into the office and started working again, the backpacks were done the entire time, they just hadn't shipped out of the factory. So, I mean, that's how close we were to having a six-month stock out versus a two-month, or
[00:04:05] Tayson: less stock out, you know, like just massive massive Downstream effects, not only that. But there was also a cold war, essentially, going on with China and other people. And so, since a lot of the Fabrics of ours are still coming out of China, not only the cutting. So with the Fabrics, then they have to start looking at limiting capacity and production, and it's just been a, massive Downstream effect. And so many
[00:04:31] Tayson: ways everywhere, you can think of, and then it kind of all ends in the shipping. And I'm sure you've actually heard about this because it's been in the news at a time, but what you used to take us You know, a month to get and shipping is now taking us two to three months. If we're lucky and there's tons of uncertainty with that and that's just, that's a big deal. That's a
[00:04:52] Tayson: big deal for us. For sure. When you've been timing pose for certain way, you've timed your cash, you know certain way financially and it really starts to to just mess up the entire system. Not to mention shipping costs for us, have gone up. Five to six x. During the pandemic. So this year it's been hitting whole new heights and so shipping costs have just gone through the roof on top of providing
[00:05:17] Tayson: worse service and slower times. So it's it's been a lose-lose in that category for sure. But
[00:05:23] Tyler: yeah, I think we could like Get pretty transparent with what what we mean by delays. So like if I just break it down because I don't think most of America at least for The most part doesn't quite understand like what it looks like. So, So we so say the backpacks right there in a factory and in another country and the the Covenant affect got to them. More significantly later or after it
[00:05:58] Tyler: got to the United States and other parts of the world. Well, the government is has more say about what goes on in private business over there. So you get some an increase in level of covid cases. And so it like increases the level of caution for like all the Commerce in these foreign countries, right? So then the government starts looking at well, okay, how do we take precautions? So then they start,
[00:06:30] Tyler: you know, having You know, requiring a factory to increase the spacing between workstations, well, that immediately. Reduces the production capacity of a factory because now you're, there's not as many people in the building physically in the building. So production capacity decreases and then you add the the workers the employees say a factory or 3,000 employees. Now, you get a percentage of those. Sick that are required to quarantine and then anybody around
[00:07:08] Tyler: them as required to quarantine. So now you've got a more significant percentage of the factory capacity. Decreasing And then some of these. The people to get sick, some of them are prolonged sickness, right? Like,
[00:07:24] Tyler: it's just Part of the, the covid virus. Right, so people snap right back after week or two and others it's prolonged. And so then again, that causes more production capacity reductions and so and then if they are able to hire anybody it's not just like a instant replacement. It's there's there's a train up if they're, you know, because they're not. That fortunate to be able to hire somebody with 15 years of
[00:07:52] Tyler: selling experience, like the person that got sick and had to leave, right? So it just it's a constant. Compilation of like decrease of production capacity and then at some point like taste and said the the case has got so bad in certain metropolitan areas or parts of the country, where the government just said, this is a radius. Everybody, every Factory in this radius is shut down for a minimum, 30 days. After
[00:08:20] Tyler: 30 days will come in and reassess the situation. Well, that happened, and that happened all over many different countries and unfortunately, for us to happen to some of the factories that we are partnered with. So, Capacity was already decreasing. And then capacity at the factory has got completely shut down and then government came in after 30 days and said, no good cases, still are bad. We're going to extend that to another
[00:08:47] Tyler: 30 days and it got extended another 30 days. So we had factories shut down for the amount of time that it takes as like a lead time from the time, a brand places a PO to the their orders finished you know three months. Like that's how long an entire Factory was shut down and think of how many Brands had purchase orders, you know, product that was supposed to be getting made so
[00:09:11] Tyler: we're like it's just exponential. Like, the amount of product across all industries that wasn't being that wasn't being made. And then, as they are allowed to open, they're allowed to open at 25% capacity, 30% capacity, 50% capacity. And then all the while, you know, the When Jason talks about the coal issue, that was like the Chinese government said all factories had to reduce their their emissions by a certain percentage. So they're
[00:09:40] Tyler: electricity, they work because they're primarily turn
[00:09:43] Tayson: off of coal burning electricity. then, they are saying we have TriCities so you Feel like electricity this much and but essentially everything you just said that only applied to the cut and sew shop. What you got to realize is the cut and sew shop is just doing that. What about who's making the Fabrics? Who's making the trims? Who's making all the other components? And so there's delays there as well. So they
[00:10:09] Tayson: can't get the materials. You know, it takes some twice as long to get the materials as they used to and then they've got this backlog of stuff, they're working through with lower production capabilities and it just becomes this massive issue which is why you know to skip ahead a little bit in 2022. Expect not just toilet paper to stock out. There's I really think there's going to be stocks in a lot
[00:10:33] Tayson: of areas and a lot of Industries because of this this effect.
[00:10:37] Tayson: So Man, I did I would probably hit that well enough, I feel the worst was
[00:10:44] Brigham: even even if a factory could get back up and running, they had to commuter mandates, the prevented people who lived farther away from coming in just because of their location. So they couldn't even commute anymore. They were. So
[00:10:58] Tayson: some of our Factory has got shut down completely that were in more metropolitan areas, the ones that were farther out of metropolitan areas. They had issues getting workers to them. Yeah, it's just a ongoing issue for sure. And it's not resolved right now by any means, but I will say that we've done everything we can to plan better and better and farther and farther out with with our own company. So again,
[00:11:24] Tayson: not to get into 2022. That's definitely the ugly ugly side of this last year. It meant that we couldn't launch products, we wanted to launch and then we had delays and other products. I mean, I don't want to hit a hot button or a store button but people have been wanting a new tent from us for a while. And I mean, just on the tenth front for instance, our old pole manufacturer
[00:11:48] Tayson: is 12 months out just on polls, that's not the cutting. So that's not anything else. Other than just getting the polls and shipped out. So you're talking, we're you know, for for tents, for poles, specifically included with that manufacturer. We'd have to be ordering about a year and a half in advance of when we would actually get the products to us. So just hold that probably paints a picture better than anything.
[00:12:13] Tayson: Now that's the extreme. That's the biggest extreme but it's definitely changed. All the ways that we're ordering and looking at things and planning ahead and it's just had to. So it's been a that's been definitely the most wild and bumpy part of last year.
[00:12:27] Tyler: Well and talk about those tents. It's that what really wasn't even just Covid, the whole covid supply chain issue. Like our our tent supplier disappeared off the face of the Earth, like literally Went black on communication and that's not even that's not related to covid at all.
[00:12:49] Tayson: Well, it wasn't a sense that their bigger clients Overtook all of their resources and they just said, sorry. We're going to cut the wheelchair. Sure. But I mean, still, I've never had that happen to me before and hopefully never have a happen again, you know? it was so we had to, we had to fight that for a long time and then totally start from scratch again with that, that product tent and
[00:13:14] Tayson: Which is been a while parts. So um, let's talk about some good things here for a minute. So, what's on the best things that happened in 2021?
[00:13:25] Brigham: We did we still did get a few product. Launches we did. We
[00:13:30] Tyler: did we did get some things launched. And
[00:13:33] Tyler: good. Yeah. Good. Good stuff too.
[00:13:36] Tayson: Yeah, I mean I would say we talked about the shadow light, the Ventus has been phenomenal.
[00:13:45] Brigham: Booties in the late summer.
[00:13:48] Tayson: Those did really well the Nova's have done well and I feel like we're still not even doing those Justice with how amazing those are. Like I feel like right now. The Ventus are getting tons of Positive feedback from influencers from us from reviews, the novas are on the same level and they're just haven't haven't been as popular yet. So we're excited for those for sure. But I would say like across the
[00:14:13] Tayson: board. I just look at everything and from the quality, and the design perspective, all of our products just took this massive step forward. We did some redesigns. We did some launches at the top quilt, the top quilt has been amazing. But just in every step, whether it's in the design process or the quality. You know, with the newer Factory, where you've been utilizing and moving and migrating different things. Just overall, it's
[00:14:39] Tayson: been a massive step up and I think the coolest part for us internally is it's being seen, right? Whether it's been influencers that are suddenly, you know, talking about us that maybe didn't before whether it's some of the pr stuff. We've been doing magazines, showing interest in us articles that they want to ride or maybe feature. We've seen interest in that there's just been interest kind of coming in from different angles
[00:15:02] Tayson: the whole time which internally? We see that and it that builds a lot of fuel for the fire for me to keep going and just like, man, this stuff that we've been working on as specially when it comes to products and it's very, like, the stuff we've been working on. For the last two years is finally being noticed by The good pat on the back after that. There's some long drawn-out. You
[00:15:23] Tayson: gotta be patient I guess in the design side of the business and the product side of the business because you just don't get instant feedback, you get a lot of delays and time before you finally get that, those pats on the back. So we got a lot of those. I feel like especially this last quarter, four, and that was probably been one of the highlights for me of the year. And that's
[00:15:42] Tayson: just again just kind of across the whole board too. Yeah.
[00:15:47] Brigham: I think another big one is the team grew a lot. Yeah, we put a lot more resources in to our support team and our warehousing and, and all of that. And That has been a really good welcome. Upgrade. So yeah, I think growing a small business. If you've if you followed us for a while you probably would have seen at times. Our customer service, was good and a times, we were way
[00:16:15] Brigham: in our staffed, really struggling with things. But I would say most like pretty. I mean, pretty much just whole year, I would say but pretty close to You know.
[00:16:26] Tayson: Quarters two and on essentially, when Tyler kind of came on board, actually, I would say was a good turning point. We made a few awesome. Good hires, we've got staff appropriately, started making systems. And man, I the amount of positive feedback I've seen just on the customer service side has been amazing for sure, but overall I would say I probably should know salts on my head, but we probably grew the number
[00:16:48] Tayson: of personnel on our team by almost 40% this year. I would say, So that was that was big and that is also being seen the amount of comments. We see now that just are calling out our customer service and our just service in general has really, really increased. And yeah, the team in general is just clicking really well Communications up. Lots of lots of those little things that happen for this is
[00:17:16] Tayson: the business is super lean and getting off the ground have been fading, and that's been really cool. People have been able to take on more specific roles instead of doing multiple hats, more and more, and just overall, it's just been an awesome upgrade to The company's efficiency and service to our customers. So, We did get a couple awesome hikes in which we shared with you guys. Some bucket list hikes. I feel
[00:17:43] Tayson: like that those were were notable maybe not as notable for you guys or as much on your guys' list but we did some some pretty cool things as an entire company not just individuals this year. So that was really cool and fun to see that,
[00:17:55] Tayson: you know, the entire team come together and do some of those And I was a lot of fun and we documented it. So if you haven't seen that, go check out our YouTube or go backwards on the podcast and listen to those.
[00:18:07] Tyler: Yeah, a couple of those trips are pretty much. Well, they were definitely highlights for me on the year they were Good trips. Yeah
[00:18:16] Tayson: a lot of hard to go backwards from there. None of us want to go backwards from. Yeah.
[00:18:22] Tyler: I mean and I don't even know what backwards would would be but like yeah they were just they were good trips I think from From, you know, the location. The product testing the proofing of product that happened in on those just two trips. It was pretty awesome. Yeah.
[00:18:45] Brigham: That rain jacket. Got
[00:18:50] Tayson: some time in the field. I think I think some other best parts just directly from that another trips. That we've taken though is hopefully, it's his set us up very well for 2022 launches. We just got a lot of really good R&D done. We got a lot of good work on the supply chain done. We got really far ahead on certain aspects of it, where we integrated deeper and better with our
[00:19:16] Tayson: suppliers. And We should we should have a much more like not just hopes and dreams. This is what's going to launch. But more like pencil to paper, these are products that are going to launch pose or submitted purchase orders or submitted. You know, there's definitely fine-tuning to do on the handful of these but way for a long and we've just got way better grasp on what it means to be. To actually
[00:19:40] Tayson: get those launched during these crazy times I would. Yeah, I would definitely second that and add that that's like that's like the good that came from the bad. Is it really pushed the like adaptability and progression like
[00:19:56] Tyler: Realizing we're having to, like, adapt and figure out a better way like on the run as we're trying to stay. Not just caught up. That's trying to stay ahead of the curve a little bit and and I do feel like that's been something that we've kind of learned and picked up and like really implement it all at the same time like what we're having to do to like stay ahead like over
[00:20:21] Tyler: the next 18 months? Honestly is. I think that's probably a huge advantage that we have is. being our size and being like the type of business that we are. I it's got to help like a tan. Yeah,
[00:20:39] Brigham: yeah. I feel like on the inventory side and Finance side and the forecasting side like
[00:20:48] Brigham: The. we've gone really fishing and really like
[00:20:55] Brigham: all of the planning and things that you've done. Mostly taste in today to work on that has really paid off and put us in a lot better position and most within a lot of the brands that well and elsewhere. Well
[00:21:09] Tayson: we probably learned. Is that the more I stuff I fire myself from the better at work so that's my goal for 2022 is Just you know involve more team members create more systems and then watch them like a hawk, you know? But yeah it's definitely been good. We've made some good progress and a lot of those areas and there's more efficiencies we can definitely that. I see that I want to keep,
[00:21:32] Tayson: you know, striving after for sure. But we're definitely adaptable and I think that's a great question to pose as well as like. All right, what's the best and worst? But like what other things have we learned and adapted to you know, from these Specific times and the difficulties that we've had with, with certain aspects. I feel like this is kind of turning into like, Doom and Gloom, but it's actually been a great year. We
[00:21:56] Tayson: have super positive outlook. I'm super stoked about a ton of things going on for sure. But yeah, I mean, that's a good. That's a good one. Like the Brigham brought up that's just like that extra pressure. That's put on US.
[00:22:07] Tyler: Forces us to improve.
[00:22:09] Tayson: Like you can't just stagnant and and hopefully by the time this is all said and done, like Outdoor Vitals is just going to be three steps forward you know, compared to just stagnant or moving backwards.
[00:22:21] Tyler: yeah, I kind of think of it as like Like a sports professional sports team or a college sports teams that like they really, sometimes you can't do it. you can't control like the quality of your opponent always, but like, You relish the opportunity to like for the challenges and so like a team that plays really like, a really pretty weak schedule. At the end of the season going into the next year,
[00:22:49] Tyler: they're really not much better than they were. But you know, the team that I feel like that's kind of like what we had is like maybe like a first half of a game where like Our opponent was way stronger than we were anticipating last year. We adapted it and and, and, and really Kind of shifted and improved. And that's kind of the why I do feel like it is a positive thing
[00:23:11] Tyler: because Had we not had some of those challenges, maybe it wouldn't put the pressure on us to like to really get into the nitty gritty and dig in and find the right way of doing things. That'll be better for the brand in the long run. Even had like This whole situation never even taken place, you know?
[00:23:32] Tayson: yeah, I'd say like in the inventory and warehousing side, we've we've improved a lot. We've also uncovered a lot that were realizing like that. That pressure that we've got now. To force us to be more efficient. We've got a lot of the outlet, really? Yeah, big thing.
[00:23:50] Brigham: Yeah, we we got really efficient with with product, that comes back to us for repairs or warranties or things like that. And now, the outlet is a Fantastic, get into backpacking or just despairs of things or you know save a little bit of money and not all kind of spawned after that. Well, there's two needs that force, it one was us trying to fight this General economic battle, but the other was,
[00:24:22] Brigham: we were just needing more warehouse space and needing to get a lot more efficient. So
[00:24:26] Tayson: yeah, that's something we didn't even touch on either was, was the best Aspects. I think was expanding some of the office space building out a conference room. Adding some more warehousing space and we're actually in the works of building a showroom where people can walk in and it'll be more like a showroom instead of walking in and Seeing like you got out of computer space.
[00:24:49] Tyler: We don't care about our customers employees, some of our employees left the word jackets all day, but we're getting a nice showroom. Hey, good job. Yes.
[00:25:04] Tayson: Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs Brigham.
[00:25:06] Tyler: Oh, not talking about anybody in particular.
[00:25:13] Tyler: So Brigham just needs the ability to grow his hair. This entire body hair longer in the winter like
[00:25:18] Tayson: animals, you know, like put his winter coat on because it basically what happens but in a different way. Hey, maybe that's gonna change this texture. If we get out of that specific unit, that's a nice box and move
[00:25:31] Tayson: into a different unit
[00:25:32] Brigham: heating, guys, a little bit.
[00:25:35] Tayson: Yeah, if we can never get people to work on.
[00:25:39] Brigham: Work for us. So I have another pretty cool positive that we haven't talked about. They came from 2021 and that's we really dialed in our core values as a brand, and as a company and it drives a lot of our culture. And a lot of the decisions that we make on the back, end of like, is this a product that fits or is this a decision that it's a core values. So
[00:26:04] Brigham: I don't know if we've actually talked about the specific core values on the podcast, but we came up with five things that we feel are like Really what makes us different and what drives us and and what we look for in every employee and what we look for in every kind of Crossroads that we come for decision-making. So, I'll just run through them real quick so you guys know like what what
[00:26:34] Brigham: we're all about and and what's driving us? And the first one is Live Ultralight and so that's been our kind of taglines for a while and it's driven our product design quite a bit but we look at it on all aspects of the business. So it even comes down to like, Just trying to simplify our lives or our processes or, you know, things outside of backpacking. But we definitely look at live ultra light, as
[00:27:04] Brigham: kind of the gateway to renewing ourselves, we can do in our relationships and just being more healthy by being outdoors and so, so that's our first core value. We will try. The second one is beat to natius. We feel like it's just really important to not let obstacles. Stand in your way or keep you from getting done the things you need to get done. And part of that being tenacious is just
[00:27:33] Brigham: like being really passionate about being about continually improving and so you'll definitely see that in us and and it's cool that we identified that in it. The next one is ask. Why. So, that's core value. Number three, and Ask why is it interesting one? But really it comes down to us just never being content with the answer that people give of. Well, that's the way, it's always been done. like we we
[00:28:05] Brigham: really like have come up with some Cool processes. And you guys have come up with awesome products just by asking why like, why does this have to be this way or, you know, so we've made that a core value. The next one is act responsibly so, we we build that into our core values because we want to take responsibility for our Company, our community and our environment. And we also just feel
[00:28:39] Brigham: like it's important for for the company or our team members to look outwardly and take responsibility for what we're putting out there but then all so be responsible for each other. So that's a big one and then the last one, the last core value that we defined this year was hiking their shoes. and that just really means that we, we look at Someone else's circumstances and we take time to try to
[00:29:09] Brigham: understand that circumstance fully before we start. Start making our decisions or pressing our opinions on someone or something along those lines. So that works. In and how we approach customer support. Helps in how we design products and who we design products for. But it also just helps internally in the company. So we've made a lot of internal cultural and and like structural improvements this year. But the core values to me are
[00:29:41] Brigham: like the most notable in the sense that that's something that I hope are listeners will resonate with and and help them to see like why we do what we do. so, Yeah,
[00:29:55] Tayson: I don't even know what to add to that. I mean just It has been a massive part of this year as the guy, you know, that started it. I feel like those have always been there in a lot of census for me but it was more so getting them out on paper. So announced could
[00:30:13] Tayson: You know dance to the same Rhythm and understand it and realize you know, all those aspects. So that's been really, really helpful. And I think it is something that customers can look at and understand more of who we are and what we are trying to do for for sure. So that's really good. Okay. Anything to add before you, maybe just start looking at 2022. Thanks so
[00:30:41] Tayson: okay. All right 2022. Let's just started with start with things that we're excited about. So Exciting things for 2022. All the backpacking trips. We are going to do the the Grand Canyon.
[00:30:59] Tyler: We'll do the rims of rim. Fastpack fastpack. So that'll be. That'll be. I'm really looking for that. Yeah, kind of on that note. It's kind of don't want to spend too much time on that subject but it is worth the note that it's kind of like a new It's like a new. thing for us, not
[00:31:23] Tayson: I'd say it's a new thing for the outdoor space. In general, a SAS hacking. It's been around a while but it's like finally, gaining more popularity. I feel like And and it's gained a lot of favor
[00:31:35] Tyler: with us. Yeah. It's just because it's like, I hesitate to say, it's like a new thing. It's like a new style almost. Like, I don't know what the parallel word would be. It's like it is a nice style of doing the same thing, you know, a little bit different method and I think yeah, lines a ton with us too
[00:31:53] Tayson: because we all really love to get out there and challenge ourselves. And we love that aspect to things, but we also just don't have infinite amounts of time and so fast. Packing just allows us to do things that used to not be options to do a really cool trip in a short amount of time, because that's what you've got.
[00:32:11] Tayson: Ya, two-day weekend and or three-day weekend and like wow, this all sudden became an option now because of the mileage that you're now able to cover and it just for me it's really inspired me to continue to get better and better shape too. So that's gonna say
[00:32:27] Brigham: it's like a fire under you to get out there and and trail run or hike to get conditioned for some of these trips because when you're looking at a trip that's 25 or 30 miles a day, like it's it's serious enough to have to prepare and when we're all going on it, it's It's a fun way to prepare and exercise and it's on top of it
[00:32:50] Tayson: any. And we're definitely still Backpackers don't get us wrong like, the fast packing we did. This year, set us up really well to do really, really well at the backpacking. We did where we were doing bigger days bigger miles. So they go hand-in-hand to us for sure but it's definitely something that I feel like is getting more Fame within the industry. But also for us we we kind of Caught the bug
[00:33:14] Tayson: and hasn't left any of us. So I mean, for Pete's sake, Brigham is still running. Every week. I mean, holy cow. That's
[00:33:22] Tyler: excited to share what we come up with and you know, from the product side and the Journey, you know like all the Grand Canyon and whatever else we do, you know. Yeah. Be fun for people to take part in all along. Yeah,
[00:33:40] Tayson: I don't want to tell people like what products were launching. I want to keep them kind of guessing and reading between the lines, but I will say, I did tally it up of the things that are launching and we have like, All of these I would say are like 99% likely to launch except for one. And so we've got 10 new products that we think are going to launch. And nine of
[00:34:08] Tayson: them are like CEOs are submitted. 200 years are submitted?
[00:34:12] Tayson: Yeah, well, some of them were a few over there. I want to, you know, a few of them.
[00:34:18] Brigham: those are more likely because they've been in The works for longer.
[00:34:22] Tayson: Yeah. But like nine of them we literally have purchase orders in on them. And then we've got a couple updated products that all. So, we have got purchase orders in on and then maybe one last one, that's that's, We've got prototypes but it's not, there's no PO in on it. So lots of new products and much more likely to actually hit and launch those products, which is really, really exciting. Some of
[00:34:45] Tayson: those products are going to be launching maybe as soon as January, and then it's going to be Fairly consistent mostly like late spring early summer, there's going to be some, there's going to be some, you know, January February time frame, or maybe March kind of depending on when they all Landing
[00:35:08] Brigham: in, what not? But yeah, that's gonna give any
[00:35:11] Tayson: He needs any, I think people can read through the lines on something, a lot of things like if anybody yeah
[00:35:17] Tayson: or like you know, we all had white things on on your hike in The High Line. So like If they're watching that, they're gonna have some ideas. And you already talked about some rain R&D that we Tested heavily and lots of people know about some certain tent that is been under development for quite a while. So there's probably a lot and honestly, if you watch our videos, You Gonna See Me, Brigham
[00:35:46] Tayson: or the rest of the entire team wearing using certain things. And you can, you can read between them.
[00:35:52] Tyler: I would just say pretty much every category we're already in. We'll have something new
[00:35:57] Brigham: or like substantial upgrades.
[00:36:00] Tayson: Yeah. Yeah, which is, which is really, really exciting. I'm definitely stoked about that, so and I, and again, I just think that we've made a lot of Headway in not just hopes and dreams launches like these are I mean, it's, it's happening. So Other things from 2022. I would say, if I'm really excited about just the Outlook of the brand and some of the like PR, you know, like basically magazines or
[00:36:32] Tayson: other things that might come into play, we're doing bigger pushes their, it's really the right time for us to do these pushes. And so you'll probably see our Vital start to become just in different Publications. You know, many of you probably found us through YouTube or an ad or something like that, but we're gonna be doing some work there to to become a little bit more mainstream. And it's really the right
[00:36:53] Tayson: time the products of got to the right place where we're sending them out and people are you know emailing us back and just thoroughly impressed and so we'll keep pushing on that until we get the the Publications and stuff to start right about us. So we're I'm definitely excited to see what happens because we've already seen so much good happen. And it's kind of a long game, but I thoroughly see that
[00:37:15] Tayson: happening in the next year. That'll be fun. I think that'll be fun for followers to follow the brand for a long time. You kind of like, man, I need this brand. From the beginning. And it'll be fun for us. That have worked here for a long time, and followed it for a long time. So, Looking forward to that in 2022.
[00:37:30] Brigham: It might be like, hopefully we keep our fingers crossed a little more. Travel. That we can do and 2020? Well, Dakota UL like we should be shipping that like for the kickstarter campaign who those who backed that we said it would ship in June, right? And we've got a few other products that will complement that very well. And so that will be a cool new thing to see how people use that
[00:38:03] Brigham: travel slash backpacking. Go and do their Adventure travel and, and just kind of really break
[00:38:10] Brigham: into that. So, It'll be cool.
[00:38:12] Tyler: That agree that reminds me as a company. Probably traveling. I do look forward to hopefully being at the PCT Trail days this year. That's definitely something. We're Trying to do. And we'll definitely make it as long as they're holding it, and there's no conflict. So, Looking forward to doing that for sure.
[00:38:38] Tayson: Yeah, I'd be a fun one. It'd be really fun to meet a lot of you guys or just get out of the office to do some of that and meet people and Um, I definitely look forward to that.
[00:38:51] Brigham: We've got some good things in the work for the Live Ultralight membership as well. We're kind of always refining how that works and bringing new offerings in there. And there's there's a few that are slated for that. So for those who are Live Ultralight members, that, that will just get better.
[00:39:10] Tayson: Yeah, that'll that'll get better. They'll be things that will pre-sell inside of there exclusively. They'll be other things we'll have. Basically, we're going to try to push to do some type of a I don't know something for the members almost every month. So if you're already a member you'll be Auto, you know, added into that. It's not like just for you sign ups or anything like that. It's more of just something
[00:39:33] Tayson: kind of exciting inside that membership all the time. You guys are definitely are most some of our most loyal customers and we want to, we want to keep you guys excited and share appreciation. I think with that, too. Maybe that's a good segue into, you know, people by asking why do we do it? We give them store credit and the full amount. So it's not like we Saw like a revenue stream
[00:39:55] Tayson: as much as like. Now you can say prepaid inventory almost which is part of why we've done things like kickstarters. This is going to be an interesting year because as of today, we actually don't have a planned Kickstarter for the next year and might be a turning point for us where we don't use Kickstarter anymore. We, you know, do the membership thing and maybe we do some additional presells on the side.
[00:40:18] Tayson: So that'll be, that'll be an interesting thing if that does hold and we don't plan any kickstarters and for those of you that don't understand, you know, why we're doing any of this, maybe just a quick touch point on here. At revital, we're, we're a family owned, you know, business. We don't go outside to get additional funding from Venture, capitalists or other investment Avenues. And what that allows us to do is
[00:40:41] Tayson: just keep the company focus on you. The customers, as our primary stakeholder once outside money starts getting involved, you've got to make them happy, you've got to make your customers happy and that
[00:40:53] Tayson: can oftentimes pull companies apart and just do things that we don't. Like I've talked about this probably a lot. There's actually specific podcast for talked about this touch on this a lot, but essentially, to us, VC money or investment, money is kind of the worst thing that can happen to us. And so we're know, we're never going to take that. And so we have to do other things to fund our growth.
[00:41:17] Tayson: This type of business just Every product launch. We do is a lot of money out of pocket and so We we have to take it very seriously and and some of these things really, really helped us. So if you are a little tribe memory, you know, thank you. If you've pre-ordered products from us. Thank you. We hope that we just over deliver on everything that we're promising with those and that You
[00:41:42] Tayson: know, we're giving you a slightly better deals and things like that to help us out but we, we do appreciate it. So I'm gonna touch on that a little bit more. When we switch to just looking at the outdoor industry as a whole because there's some, you know, one particular company that is made some changes but that is worth noting. Any other things I guess internally Works excited about I mean obviously
[00:42:03] Tayson: the team that the company the systems all just running cleaner and more efficiently. Less Stakes. I think our customer satisfaction is just going to continue to increase and get better and better. I just think as a as a mechanism of a business, we'll just get better and better, which equates to you guys that are listening to this, to just be better service. Better products more things on time,
[00:42:26] Brigham: Etc. So yeah, I think like to go in a little more depth on the children. We've always enjoyed having customers show up here and want to see what's going on. But we felt like we haven't provided very good experience for him because they show up and and they're like, is this Outdoor Vitals? Like, is this where all the product comes from? And all they see is boxes and people working on computers
[00:42:55] Brigham: and us like, moving product around. So now that we'll have the showroom We want, we want you guys to stop by if you come out here. To visit, Zion or Bryce, Canyon or arches or whatever. You can come stop by and try stuff on yes. Sign our Bragg wall and try things out and see what's new. We might even have like samples of things that are Coming out, like going the launch
[00:43:24] Brigham: soon that you can check out and get your hands on prior to them coming out and
[00:43:28] Tayson: Cody. You all backpack would be a great example, like around the office for quite a while and people have stopped in can and see him.
[00:43:35] Brigham: Yeah. So I think, I think that will be a cool way for us to connect on a different level than we've been able to previously and so stay tuned for that. It it's the space that we're doing. Has mostly been remodeled right now and we just need to catch a breather after these holidays of January. Yeah,
[00:43:58] Tayson: we'll have that up and running for people to be in here. It's like we get an on flux of traffic around March timeframe, so we'll for sure be ready for you
[00:44:07] Brigham: then. So, yeah. So that'll be cool. And then, we'll just be expanding our office and warehouse space more this year. So
[00:44:15] Tayson: maybe on that note, too. If you do come into the office, you'll get to meet some of the team. Don't be offended. If I'm not able to meet with you. I would love to meet with everyone. Brigham. He's a recluse so you're definitely not gonna meet him, but that's actually what
[00:44:35] Tayson: I'm talking to you
[00:44:36] Tyler: really get inside. And like, I really like the opportunity to meet with people, he just
[00:44:47] Tyler: I mean. In fairness, I am fairly reclusive. So I'm not going to like,
[00:44:53] Tayson: Dispute that part but I do like me. You don't want to talk, right?
[00:45:00] Tayson: I remember one of the first trips we took McLean on. We were like at a Trailhead. We're getting all of our gear on to go on this hike and there's people around the Clinton starts talking to everyone and we're just all kind of like looking at McLean. Like, all right, let's go on and let's go I remember if it was like once we started hiking or something, if he asked the question
[00:45:20] Tayson: or someone asked him, he's like, do you guys like not talk to people, we're not supposed to talk to people.
[00:45:25] Tyler: That was not supposed to talk to people about what we're doing in our gear and for just like,
[00:45:34] Tayson: no, you it's fine. If you want to talk to people, we just I don't know. We do our thing. Yeah, I'm happy to talk to people a lot, but I'm probably a little bit more on Brigham side of the fence of. Like, if you ask me a question, I'll talk to your ear off but like, I'm probably not the starter of conversations with strangers hardly ever.
[00:45:51] Brigham: Well, I think McLean was seeing those people. Look at all of us. Put the exact same backpack on and same colors of gear and shirts and all that stuff. And he's probably thinking like, okay, those guys either think we're we're like a scout troop or a Wilderness Therapy Program or isn't just or something
[00:46:08] Tayson: else? Where we look full on. Like a scout troop about Pasta Pasta handkerchiefs and
[00:46:18] Brigham: he'd be sweet. Some long socks that have our address number or something on it
[00:46:26] Tayson: to the design nails, all wear them. Oh,
[00:46:33] Tyler: one other thing. I'm
[00:46:35] Brigham: excited for our cross country ski back. Trip plan that we have for. These out. So
[00:46:42] Tayson: I'll be fine. We've got finished. Highline gotta make that happen. Looking at some trips maybe in Colorado or I was watching some stuff on like Wind River, High route today at the gym and so there's we'll have some fun ones for sure. But definitely looking forward to the ones that are for sure, plan like Grand Canyon and cross-country
[00:47:03] Tayson: ski one, those would be good. Well, let's just take a quick second. Now, maybe as we're getting closer to the end, I just talked about the outdoor space in general. Seen things to expect. And maybe just kind of get people an inside scoop on how to handle 2022. So I would say for starters absolutely expect inflation. And the reason I say that is when when we're charged five times more for shipping
[00:47:37] Tayson: like as a company, we can't just eat that out of profit. You know, and most companies if they have that happen that would literally put them negative so they can't eat it out of profit either. And so just with shipping alone, there's going to be inflation. Two on the supply side, we're getting, we're getting higher and higher prices essentially. Um, because capacity is limited and they've got the fixed, you know amount
[00:48:04] Tayson: of overhead at every step of it, you know Fabrics are going to go up a little bit and trims are going to go up a little bit and Hardware's going to go up a little bit and then cut and sell is going to go up a little bit and when everyone adds you know five to 10% to their stuff, then we pay that and then we bring it over and then have
[00:48:20] Tayson: to also pay the extra shipping and all this. It's just gonna equate to inflation which is which is tough like but that's just gonna be the reality the government printed a lot of money and then on top of that, there's all these other factors and and it's it's just going to be something you see in the space, for sure. And that's if you haven't seen it already, I think that you will
[00:48:45] Tayson: for sure seed in 2020, too. I don't know the intricacies of like the retail side of things because they might be have been what price locked on certain things throughout the year. So it'll be really interesting to see if there's like massive jumps at the start of 2022. Like when 2022 stuff is rolling out. If there's really big jumps and continual big jumps with Seasons, you know, because in retail, I think
[00:49:07] Tayson: they're just so much more based off of Seasons. So that'll be something to watch for fully expect it to what extent. I I couldn't tell you But significant. I mean enough that you will you will notice it. For sure
[00:49:22] Brigham: ours won't be as bad as a lot of the brands, though, because of our direct-to-consumer model. Like we're definitely able to give a lot more Performance per dollar than a lot of these other brands. And we're going to try to keep that under control as best as we can, as far as the inflation. Yeah,
[00:49:40] Tyler: I mean, it's the, the raw Goods cost us just as much as they cost anybody else. So it's not that one more. I mean, we're able to generally have More expensive materials. Like just whatever the materials are, that's just the freedom that we have as a As a direct consumer brand. But like, you know, to the point that like yeah, in this in the outdoor industry, I mean, just A cost of
[00:50:10] Tyler: everything. Every component it's all gone up and that that affects us that affects retail Brands. But like you're saying the fortunate thing is the The value proportion, still stays the same, you know, for, for our customers. At least.
[00:50:29] Brigham: Yeah. So if we if we raise a price it's one price raise, but if a company, Distributed through Distributors and retailers raises their price. Then that price raised is compounded by the distributor, and by the retailers and Everything. So that could potentially be more inflation than you. That's,
[00:50:52] Tyler: that's significant. When you consider that basically every Every retail brand out there. I mean and for a fact in the outdoor industry they design their product line on price point, that's one of their first identifying factors is what's the price point on this jacket? What's the price point on this pair of pants? What's the price point on this shoe? What's price point on this pack and then they go to the design
[00:51:19] Tyler: board that's just fact. That's that's just nothing. It's just the Just how it is when you're owned by dozens of other people. So that is, you know, that's one of the great things about. So, I mean, what's the takeaway from that
[00:51:38] Tayson: that they're going to either skimp out on quality or prices are going to go up? Yeah,
[00:51:43] Tyler: I mean, do you remember like 2008? So the, the big recession in 2008? And the one of the most noticeable places you saw, this was a restaurant even Chili's, like you go to Chili's. And all of a sudden half the menus gone and the proportions are or the portion sizes down 30%, and it doesn't look like the same dish. Well, it's because I had to go to a different supplier for the
[00:52:05] Tyler: raw Goods for the sauce for the pasta noodles. They altered all their supply chain for cheaper, lower quality food and the dining experience as a whole went down like across the the like the hospitality industry like all restaurants were doing that, they're cutting Corners to stay alive, really? And so that yeah, that's kind of what that translates to in terms of like Outdoor Products is there's, a very wide window for that
[00:52:35] Tyler: to happen when when you have this massive inflation, So,
[00:52:39] Tayson: it's Chili's quality stay low because Atlas loves eating each other but
[00:52:49] Tyler: it has gotten better. 2008, that's good.
[00:52:53] Tayson: Yeah, I make note of it, you're gonna see companies will have to adapt. I think that's the name of the game for 2022. And this whole pandemic is companies are going to have to adapt. They're gonna have to choose whether they can lean into big price increases and the inflation of the market or lean away from it and try to pull back on something, like quality or cut a few corners. Directly
