Intrepid Camp Gear: Adventure-Ready Rooftop Tents, Cargo Cases & Vintage Land Cruisers with Sloan Hiatt

00;00;01;28 – 00;00;23;09 Dave Today, we’re diving into the gear that’s redefining how anglers, campers and travelers explore the back roads from rooftop tents that set up in 30 seconds to aluminum cargo boxes built to haul everything from fly rods to skis. Today’s guest is the general manager of Intrepid Camp Gear, a company that’s breaking away from the cookie cutter white label gear you see everywhere and redesigning every piece from the ground up. 00;00;23;28 – 00;00;40;16 Dave This is the Fly Swing podcast, right? Showing the best places to travel to for fly fishing. How to find the best gear and resources to prepare for that big trip and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love. Sloane Hyatt is going to share the background on intrepid camp gear and all the good stuff they have going there today. 00;00;40;21 – 00;00;59;05 Dave You’re going to find out how they do it. You’re going to find out what separates these rooftop campers apart. And we’re going to get a few great stories, including a bear encounter with the bear jumping in the back of his pickup while the tent was set up on top of the car. This is a great story today. Great to have Sloane on here. 00;00;59;05 – 00;01;06;22 Dave Let’s get into it. You can find Sloane and Intrepid at intrepid camp gear dot com. How you doing, Sloane? 00;01;07;01 – 00;01;09;21 Sloan Dave. I’m doing great. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here. 00;01;09;26 – 00;01;30;18 Dave Yeah, Yeah. It’s great to have you on here where I’m really excited to talk today about something you’ve been working on for a decent amount of time and some amazing products out there. We’ve had one podcast we did with one of your ambassadors, somebody that uses your product, and they were talking about it’s kind of the half. It’s basically a car top or tent. 00;01;30;19 – 00;01;45;13 Dave Yeah, that basically is not a full size. And it’s really interesting because I didn’t know all the details. We talked about that. But today I want to get into more just on some of your other product lines, what you do at intrepid camp gear and all that. But before we get there, take us back. How are things going this time of year? 00;01;45;14 – 00;01;51;08 Dave It’s you know, we’re in the holiday season is right around the corner. Are you are you still working hard getting ready for Black Friday? 00;01;51;16 – 00;02;13;08 Sloan Yeah. Yeah. We usually hit a pretty big slow down right after Labor Day. This business is pretty seasonal and we’re trying to develop some products that make it a little bit less seasonal, but particularly during September and October. It’s a lot of prep for Black Friday. There’s a ton of work that goes into it and ultimately ends up being probably our biggest month of the year. 00;02;13;08 – 00;02;29;11 Sloan Close to it because of that. So a lot of prep and I always like to say that my job is the most difficult. Like during this season leading up to Black Friday and then the second it hits, that’s usually whenever I go on vacation because I don’t really have much to do for the next month and a half or so. 00;02;29;23 – 00;02;31;06 Sloan So it’s always pretty great. 00;02;31;11 – 00;02;44;07 Dave Yeah, exactly. Nice. Nice. And and maybe let’s just start a little bit on Intrepid, maybe talk about we mentioned that a little bit, but what is what is it you guys do there and how do you do things a little bit differently maybe than others in your in your space? 00;02;44;14 – 00;03;02;25 Sloan Sure. Yeah. I mean, I guess I had started the background of three of the founders that we have. I’m the general manager of Intrepid, but each of the founders of the company have a bit of a different background that play a pretty crucial role in the product that we have. One of them that’s located in Boulder with us. 00;03;02;26 – 00;03;28;02 Sloan He kind of has a background specializing in marketing, which kind of plays a lot into trying to have a little more of a unique brand, something that fits a bit differently than other rooftop companies into the industry. And then we’ve got two factors that are located in Vietnam. They’re from Korea and they’re at our manufacturing facility. So one of them, he’s been doing manufacturing for probably about 25 years now. 00;03;28;12 – 00;03;49;27 Sloan And so we have a couple sister companies as well that do a lot of manufacturing in the outdoor industry. So a lot of aluminum hardware, a lot of luggage, actually. So like hybrid luggage companies. But if you can think of an outdoor company, we probably make aluminum hardware for them in the factory. And then our other founder being an automotive engineer. 00;03;49;27 – 00;04;10;11 Sloan So he’s been doing automotive engineering for about 30 years now as well. So all these kind of came together and played a pretty critical role in the product itself. And the goal is honestly, as a company to we can get in a little bit later of what white labeling is and how that kind of affects products in the industry. 00;04;10;11 – 00;04;33;08 Sloan And really what we have access to and pricing ultimately and the quality of our products. But we’re really trying to keep anything that we launch in the industry is being pretty innovative and unique and no white labeling. We’re designing and manufacturing everything that we’re doing and something we were trying to hold pretty firm to. So we’re not sourcing products that another company is ultimately selling on their shelf. 00;04;33;20 – 00;04;43;27 Sloan And so it affects everything that we do day to day, all the time. It affects how we do customer service, how we approach future product and the product that we have now. So it’s a lot. 00;04;44;06 – 00;05;05;17 Dave Right? That is amazing though, and I think that’s the cool thing about that. As you mentioned, Korea and in the fly fishing space, a lot of great when you talk about overseas fly rods being manufactured in Korea is probably maybe the top place. Really? Is it? Yeah, they’re manufactured in China and there’s lots of countries. But Korea, a lot of the some of the best brands are out of Korea. 00;05;05;27 – 00;05;18;00 Sloan Yeah. And there’s a lot of like hand type flies that come out of Southeast Asia as well. I believe, too, they’ve got some people that have been doing it for like decades. That’s right. Just consistently doing it. 00;05;18;00 – 00;05;36;02 Dave So, yeah, definitely, Definitely. So Korea has something good and I understand it makes sense. You’ve got a couple of founders in Korea on that side, and then you also have somebody here in the States. Mm hmm. Well, so the rooftop tents, I mean, let’s start there with that one. What is your do you guys have a few different options? 00;05;36;02 – 00;05;47;03 Dave Talk about the main thing and who would be a potential customer for this, because these things are, you know, pretty amazing right there on their on top of the car, they pack down in almost nothing. Describe that a little bit. 00;05;47;16 – 00;06;08;23 Sloan Yeah. So I would say generally in a rooftop tents, it can be a bit difficult to be innovative in the space. Initially, when we had started the founders one of their biggest gripes with the current tents out there was really the lack of space. And them, it’s pretty tight, especially if you’re taller. I’m not that tall. About six one. 00;06;08;23 – 00;06;23;22 Sloan But even for myself, in a typical wedge style tent, which is kind of shaped like a doorstop or it’s pretty popular, may have seen them. A lot of companies make them your feet are pretty tied up in the corner. So a lot of times you have to lay in a bit of an angle or kind of diagonal in the tent. 00;06;23;22 – 00;06;41;00 Sloan It’s hard to cram two people in there. So we were really trying to design something that can increase the space inside the tent. It’s easier said than done at the end of the day, but we ultimately did a wedge with that kind of a break in the top lid. So it’s got a hinge style in it. It’s the only tent that has it. 00;06;41;07 – 00;07;01;11 Sloan It is our patented design, which has been a process of its own to get that properly painted. And it’s pretty expensive to do in all honesty, but the benefit of it is the amount of extra space that you get inside the tent is upward of about 40%. I think it’s about 36, 37% specifically. And inside of it, you can really feel it. 00;07;01;11 – 00;07;20;19 Sloan I’d say the difference maker is when somebody can get inside of an experience that if they have an inside of a tent, I can be sitting up on my knees fully in there in about the middle of the tent. We’ve had trade shows or camping or wherever. We can usually get like three or four guys in there and play a game of cards and be sitting in there pretty comfortably, which is pretty rare. 00;07;21;02 – 00;07;33;02 Sloan So that’s the main the main selling point and design around the tent is to increase space. We believe if you’re going to spend multiple thousand dollars on a product, you might as well be able to do more than just sleep in it, you know? 00;07;33;11 – 00;07;47;01 Dave Yeah, exactly. If it’s, you know, nasty out or something like that and you need to be hanging out, you know, that might be nice to be able to sit in. And it does it also add with the 37 40% does it add the sleeping is that length the same or is that change? 00;07;47;13 – 00;08;14;17 Sloan So our tents are a little bit longer than most hands out. They’re generally there. I’ve seen them in about like the 78 to 80 inch mark and ours are about 88 inches. I’d say that’s a little bit longer than most people need. The perk to it is if you have a dog or if you’ve got like bags or anything, there’s plenty of room in there for dogs to be down at your feet or if you’ve got bags or anything, you can put those up by your head or down by your feet too. 00;08;14;17 – 00;08;22;04 Sloan So the extra space is valuable if you use it. If not, I’d say it’s like generally people are use about 80 inches in length. 00;08;22;14 – 00;08;28;13 Dave Oh yeah. Which is what is that 80 when the FT is. Yeah. That’s over six feet right. 00;08;28;19 – 00;08;30;27 Sloan Yeah. It’s about seven by seven feet. 00;08;31;05 – 00;08;46;20 Dave That’s heavy. Yes. There’s plenty of length for your, your average sized person. And so talk about that. What is the rooftop tent you know, on the roof. Is that better than being on the ground. Talk about how this is for somebody brand new to it that doesn’t know anything about a rooftop tent. Why would they want to have it on the roof? 00;08;46;20 – 00;08;49;21 Dave How is that different than just having a tent that pops out, you know, through on the ground? 00;08;49;29 – 00;09;12;26 Sloan Yeah, And I would say that this particular style of camping is not limited to, but it’s going to be for people that are mostly camping with their vehicles are what I like to describe it as is. And it’s also there’s some retailers out there that use the same terminology, but automotive supported adventure basically. So you’re not going to be backpacking or anything of that sort. 00;09;12;26 – 00;09;39;01 Sloan I mean, maybe it’s tied in or related to it, but you’re going to be camping with your vehicle whether you’ve got a kitchen set up of some sort based out of the vehicle or you’re using have to drive from point to point. But this is really a style of camping that kind of came out of places like Australia and South Africa where this is a little more it was a little more popular that say that’s really where rooftop tents kind of sprouted out of and then eventually make its way here. 00;09;39;02 – 00;10;01;27 Sloan Of course, the US and Canada is pretty well supported for doing the same thing. But yeah, these tents go on top of your car. They’re going to be heavier anywhere from £100 to some or £250. The perks to them being one. It’s a hard shelter, so they’re a little better supported. And the weather and wind, it keeps you off the ground, too. 00;10;02;08 – 00;10;29;21 Sloan With that, you have a mattress inside of the tent that comes with it. Some people kind of upgrade those and make them more plush, too. But you do get a little more of a comfortable way of camping. Lastly, I’d say the biggest benefit is really setup time. So if you are on the move, it really takes about 30 seconds to a minute to pack, pack up your tent and get going compared to a lot of the crowd tents, those in the past, which you can take a little bit longer. 00;10;30;02 – 00;10;39;00 Sloan And there are great ground tents out there that have gotten really good. A optimizing setup time, which is awesome. It’s just a different way of camping ultimately. 00;10;39;08 – 00;10;54;01 Dave Yeah, Yeah, definitely. No, and I’ve seen you know, I’ve done it all, you know, pretty much and I’m, you know, and I’m not as familiar, you know, with your tent. That’s one of the great things here. I think I’m going to get some opportunities to check them out more. But I know, I know the general, you know, concept. 00;10;54;01 – 00;11;09;05 Dave But for somebody, especially as they get older, you know, sometimes it’s nice to have that soft foam thing, you know, sleeping on the ground, you know, like is that can be good for some of the youngsters. But, you know, definitely it’s nice to have that pad. And then and like you said, just being up, I’ve done a lot of that. 00;11;09;05 – 00;11;24;14 Dave I just sleep in here. You know, it’s I guess you stay warm, right? You’re off the ground, you know, maybe not as much wind. And I think safety is also something I know I heard from people about that, that they feel like being up there is a little safer. Right. If you’re camping out somewhere, you know, what are your thoughts? 00;11;24;14 – 00;11;26;24 Dave There? Are those some of the other benefits that you hear about? 00;11;27;07 – 00;11;50;16 Sloan Yeah, I actually I have some pretty good personal experience with this. A couple of years ago, we were we were on a road trip. We were coming back from we’re coming back from a show in Flagstaff and went through we did some camping and mountain biking in Arizona and in Utah. And then when we came back in to Colorado, it was our first night back there and it was completely my mistake. 00;11;50;16 – 00;11;57;22 Sloan But I had really underestimated and forgotten that we were back in the Colorado and that bears are now a factor for us to get back in there. 00;11;57;22 – 00;11;58;25 Dave Oh, wow. Yeah, right. 00;11;58;26 – 00;12;18;25 Sloan I kept a cooler of food in the bed of the jeep. That was the gladiator that we were that I was camping and I had a a bear jump. It was a I mean, where we consider a brown bear, but I think that’s in dispute. What is actually a brown bear. But it crawled into the bed of the cheap holy cow and knocked a cooler out. 00;12;18;25 – 00;12;38;22 Sloan And for pretty much the entire night this thing was coming to and from the campsite. But at one point during the night, I had looked out the tent and it was maybe it about like a few feet below me in the bed of Fatu and the cooler, slightly startling because, you know, I can’t I can’t see anything till I show my light. 00;12;38;22 – 00;12;44;06 Sloan And we’re like, kind of like looking face to face, right? I honestly thought it was my friend’s dog. 00;12;44;19 – 00;12;46;02 Dave But oh, my God. 00;12;46;03 – 00;12;56;13 Sloan It completely my fault. But I was grateful in that moment that I was up off the ground. Yeah, I didn’t sleep great, but no, it was. It was a safe position to be in. 00;12;56;23 – 00;12;58;04 Dave Man. That’s nuts. 00;12;58;04 – 00;13;18;06 Sloan In for people that are in Colorado or wherever. They’ve had many experiences camping where you get bears just going through the campsite, just rummaging through things. It’s it’s very normal. It’s even normal. Growing up, we had bears in our trash cans just about every night. So it is kind of a normal part of being out in some states, I would say. 00;13;18;06 – 00;13;27;03 Sloan So you definitely do get a little bit of security that way. So I can say that I have felt safe, but it might not be someone whose first concern or solution. I would say. 00;13;27;06 – 00;13;38;05 Dave No. Right, right, right. Yeah. It’s just out of bed for that’s crazy. Yeah. The bear you were he was kind of rummaging around and then and then ripped out the cooler. And you realized eventually that it was a bear and not a dog during the night? 00;13;38;12 – 00;13;40;15 Sloan Yeah, once I shine the light on him and I saw. 00;13;40;16 – 00;13;42;15 Dave Oh, so you shine the light on the bear. 00;13;42;18 – 00;13;58;13 Sloan I did. I did. Because it was I was in a deep sleep. So I when I woke up and I shined a light, I thought it was a dog. And I also couldn’t really tell how close it was or if it was if it was just kind of like brushing up against a car. But it was the house directly below me in the bed of the truck. 00;13;58;13 – 00;14;02;10 Dave What did the bear what did it look like? What did it do it? You shed the light. Could you see it? Yeah. 00;14;02;13 – 00;14;27;29 Sloan You really underestimate how dark their eyes are. Really tall. Yeah, they’re. They’re super dark. And it was just. It was just looking at me and it was pretty calm. I was about. Yeah. And he kept coming back and digging through more of the cooler, but he. He ate all of our food, drank about a gallon of orange juice, and he even dug through the bottle of mayo that I had for sandwiches. 00;14;27;29 – 00;14;30;08 Sloan That was, that was really what he was coming back for. Was the mayo. 00;14;30;14 – 00;14;31;05 Dave The mayo? 00;14;31;15 – 00;14;33;04 Sloan Yeah. It’s pretty hard for him to get to. 00;14;33;10 – 00;14;45;18 Dave And that is that’s crazy. I’ve haven’t had any bear encounters like that, but that, that’s quite a story because in your tent so you’re there you’ve got a protected kind of a hard layer right between the bear and you on the bottom of your tent. 00;14;45;25 – 00;14;49;17 Sloan Yeah, it was comfortably about as close as like, I’ll get to a bear. 00;14;49;21 – 00;14;50;10 Dave Yeah. Ever. 00;14;50;10 – 00;14;56;05 Sloan So I felt fine. But at the same time, I was completely my fault that he was I was even in that position. 00;14;56;05 – 00;14;57;16 Dave So I ran. 00;14;57;16 – 00;15;14;04 Sloan But I was glad to be up in the tent rather than we had a guy at the site next to us. He was a college kid. He was just in a ground tent and the bear was going over to his side afterward and I felt bad for him if he wasn’t sleeping or if he was aware of it, because that would be a pretty tough spot to be in. 00;15;14;21 – 00;15;25;26 Dave Wow. Crazy. So that’s the grizzly bear. Sorry. Well, so we talked about here the tents. Talk about some of the other pros because you guys have some other stuff going there that’s I think probably pretty unique as well. Describe it a little bit. 00;15;26;12 – 00;15;51;07 Sloan Yeah. So the tents are our flagship product. We’ve got a few different sizes of them and more to come. We’re working on other styles of tents to against a lot easier said than done, but one of the easiest products for us to transition to too was where we wanted to do an aluminum cargo box. And the thought behind it was that the tent itself, the extrusion or the frame, is kind of split between two shells. 00;15;51;07 – 00;16;12;15 Sloan You have the lower shell and the upper shell. But if we just took out the hinge to it and we basically made the tent in a smaller box, we could make an aluminum cargo box, ended up being a bigger project. And that, of course, as it goes. But we saw mainly from one of the guys on our team is as of recently has stopped but was a professional cross-country skier. 00;16;12;23 – 00;16;34;02 Sloan And so we’ve got a couple other guys in the shop that have a lot of time spent skiing or working in ski shops as well. So they’re pretty well accustomed to it. But a lot of the ski boxes that are out there are actually they’re all composite in. They’re plastic. And it’s great because it’s more it’s lighter weight, they’re easier to install and they’re going to be probably a little more price friendly. 00;16;34;16 – 00;16;54;27 Sloan But the downside of it is the lifetime of the box is definitely much lower because it’s a composite. So we wanted to make an aluminum box. We felt like there was a good market for it. So we did that. We just made the tent in itself in a really small container, basically, and we wanted to launch with a couple of sizes. 00;16;54;27 – 00;17;12;12 Sloan There’s a couple different changes going to make to it, but we’ve got a 120 liter case in 190 liter case. The 120 is really great for, say, like hunters. We’ve even had actually a lot of fly fishers get the 126. It’s small enough that they can break the rods down and put them in the box with their other gear too. 00;17;13;00 – 00;17;32;08 Sloan We’ve been pretty surprised at how many of them have been kind of geared toward that industry. And then the 190 is great for skis, snowboards, what we thought was going to be fly rods, but actually that’s been more popular and the 120. But yeah, it’s been a product that we we just launched it about a year ago was really when we got our pilot order out there. 00;17;32;08 – 00;17;55;24 Sloan And so we up until recently hadn’t really done any marketing for them and they’ve definitely grown in popularity. We’ve had a lot of interest in them, which is really great. But yeah, it’s a unique box. There’s a lot of modularity to them and the inside is going to be modular as well. You’ve got tracks in the top and bottom, so if you need a mount or attach things on the inside, it’s quite easy to do stuff, strapping things down. 00;17;56;09 – 00;18;12;06 Sloan There’s tracks on the outside as well. There can be a little bit heavier than your typical composite box, but your gear room for modularity and working with them are doing unique stuff with your equipment is definitely going to be a lot better than a typical composite box. 00;18;12;06 – 00;18;18;01 Dave Yeah. So you’re saying you can strap stuff to the outside of them as well as the inside if you need extra. 00;18;18;09 – 00;18;39;24 Sloan Yes. So we’ve got the ability to do crossbars on the top of the box. So say you’ve got kids that you want to attach their skis or snowboards or something. You can put crossbars on top of the box and then to your ski mounts that way or say you wanted to keep your your flight gear inside of the box and then to like a fly right holder. 00;18;39;24 – 00;19;07;00 Sloan On top of that, it’s really easy to attach it on the crossbars on top too. And so it just makes it easier to have the rest of your roof space to be using for whatever you want. Maybe you’ve got kayaks or like small boats or whatever, or even a stroller, which is kind of why we designed it in the first place was we were like, All right, if we’re going to make a solo mountain and we’re making this claim so you can keep the rest of your roof space for your gear, we should probably have a solution for the rest of your gear. 00;19;07;20 – 00;19;28;15 Sloan So that was kind of the initial thought. I was like, All right, we should probably make a solution at the same time for this. So they do go hand in hand. And I believe Mackenzie, that was on your podcast. Yeah, she’s a great ambassador of ours. That’s a sub. She’s rowing with as a solo and it’s 190, which is the full length box and it’s a really, really great combo and it works really well for her. 00;19;28;25 – 00;19;38;19 Dave Yeah, definitely. It’s cool and there are. Yeah, definitely. That makes sense with the fly, right? So and there was the 120 liter. How long would that be in lake length. Why does it come in different lengths. 00;19;38;29 – 00;20;04;22 Sloan Yeah, good question. So right now we’ve just got the two, the two sizes, those are going to be just two specific products. So the 120 is going to be 55 inches in length in about 20, 21 inches in width. Interior space on those is going to be closer to like eight and a half inches. And then for the 190, it’s going to be the same with the same height, but it’s going to be 88 inches and length instead. 00;20;04;22 – 00;20;05;12 Dave So, yeah. 00;20;05;22 – 00;20;26;22 Sloan For the 120 who we designed to be the same width as our Geo 2.5 roof top ten, that’s our most popular selling ten. And so for a lot of trucks out there, a lot of them will do a tent over the bed and then they’ll typically do cargo boxes on the cab of the truck. So we wanted something that fit in the same width as the tent. 00;20;26;22 – 00;20;48;15 Sloan So it looks really great. And then the 190 is the same length as a solo because we wanted them if they were going to go side by side to look pretty cohesive and work together. So their sizes are there for a reason. We’re definitely kind of working on some other stuff. We’ve had some requests for sizes, but I’d say those two sizes cover most of our customer customer base and what they’re looking for. 00;20;48;24 – 00;21;06;25 Dave That makes sense. Yeah. And the smaller one, the 120 inches wide. Yeah, that would be perfect. Even an even a longer space rod or something really long in the you know if you divide those all break down now and you know most of our four piece rods that’s the cool thing about the fly rod so they break down easily would fit in the one tow even the longest rods which is which is great. 00;21;07;10 – 00;21;25;15 Sloan And we the guys at our were really generous and kind of helping us out and giving us some gear to kind of urbanize some gear to kind of try out in there and test out links and stuff. They’ve been really great partners for us during that time too, just helping us out marketing wise and getting in the industry. 00;21;25;27 – 00;21;37;07 Sloan It’s a tough industry to crack into. I would say. Yeah, so we’ve been really grateful to kind of just be working with them and our sister company is doing some product stuff for them too, so they’ve been really great to us. 00;21;37;15 – 00;21;55;16 Dave Yeah, I think there’s, there’s definitely plenty of overlap, you know, fly fishing, fly fishermen that are in the you mentioned hunting, skiing. We’ve talked on our other podcast series in the Bucket. I know Brian’s talked to he’s a big skier and he’s talked to a lot of skiers. And we’ve had had, you know, Reilly Lobo, who’s been on the podcast. 00;21;55;16 – 00;22;12;21 Dave He was it was a professional skier. And, you know, it’s nice. So there is a lot of overlap, you know, people because we’re all into all sorts of stuff, whether that’s running cross-country. Right. And and it’s a matter of, you know, the gear sounds like. Yeah, the rooftop tents is really interesting because, you know, I think some people that aren’t aware of why they would need them. 00;22;12;21 – 00;22;27;28 Dave Right. They think that’s kind of an interesting thing to explain. And for me, I get it because it’s like, you know, one of the things, too, you’re on a road trip being able to pop up the tent, you know, in a matter of seconds and just hop in and be sleeping without having to take out and throw all your stuff on the ground can be nice. 00;22;27;28 – 00;22;32;26 Dave Do you find people or I know Mackenzie talked about that. Is that something people are utilizing Quite a bit. 00;22;33;12 – 00;23;03;27 Sloan Yeah. It’s it’s growing. But one of our biggest directions is that we’ve tried to kind of push branding wise as being a little bit more like, I guess, expansive of the industry and who the target market is. The our direct industry is called over landing. And when we go to shows and whenever I see the companies that are either our competitors or we work with them because they make products that support ours as well, like racks, they’re generally pretty exclusive to people that are just modifying their vehicles. 00;23;04;10 – 00;23;26;06 Sloan And to me that really cuts off a lot of people out there that are maybe more so know direct market, maybe a bit harder to target because it’s a lot of different activities. But these are the people that are going to be using your product more than the people that are modifying their vehicles. I tend to look at that. 00;23;26;06 – 00;23;46;12 Sloan This is I think I’d be and people would be upset if I said this, but the guys out there that are typically modifying or ever landing rigs are pretty similar to like a Subaru guys or like guys that are like modifying their trucks. Ultimately, they might not be really using their vehicle to the fullest, but they are spending a lot of money on it. 00;23;46;24 – 00;24;17;27 Sloan And so we think we really want to try to reach out to the people that are going to be using our product a lot as well. And we really feel that activities are the way to do that. And so whether that’s winter sports, fly fishing or even mountain biking or whatever, there’s been a lot of interest because there’s people essentially outside of the gear that they’re spending their money on, are looking for ways to be a little bit more comfortable when they’re doing, especially if they’re really prioritizing it and they’re going up most weekends of the season. 00;24;18;20 – 00;24;41;09 Sloan So we’re trying to hit those people a little bit more and they value the gear that they’re using a lot. And I we feel like particularly for like winter sports and fly fishing, it is like a natural progression that eventually they’re kind of looking at like a camper set up or how or they can like how they can be a little more comfortable and better suited to go more in the year than they are. 00;24;41;17 – 00;25;03;17 Sloan So this is a product that we feel is and eventually down the pipeline for these people and we’re just trying to kind of cater to them a little bit more than a lot of our competitors are. Are other people in industry because we do feel like they’re really valuable customer and we get the most feedback from them honestly of the product and how it performs because they’re they’re going on the fringes of the season, which we really appreciate. 00;25;03;18 – 00;25;05;11 Sloan So we get a lot of good feedback from them. 00;25;05;13 – 00;25;28;12 Dave Yeah, that’s right. That is a good point. I think you’re you’re right on there in doing that because, you know, it just makes sense if you just take fly fishing, right? I mean, you you could have your your tents ready to go. You got your box all ready to go. I mean, you can have all your gear. So when you get off work or whatever it is or you know, or just, you know, you don’t have to pack up everything or spend a day packing, you know, kind of be ready to go and you’re out there, you know, And that goes for any of these things, right? 00;25;28;13 – 00;25;34;05 Dave Any of these outdoor sports. It’s nice to be ready to go. And is that that sounds like that’s kind of what you guys are thinking about. 00;25;34;14 – 00;26;00;05 Sloan Yeah. And this is how I am personally. I can imagine a lot of a lot of your listeners are too. But we’ve got customers that they really like to optimize their setups and how they’re packing so that when it comes like they have really diligent about making gear bags, sort of like your boxes are like they’re, they’re really well organized ized in for me like I, I do the same thing with my with my Land Cruiser like keep stuff really organized in there. 00;26;00;05 – 00;26;15;09 Sloan So it’s like I’m ready at all times. Like if I want to go somewhere, I’m not like, over packing, but I don’t have to really spend a lot of time organizing my stuff that I can really just get up and go in with a tent. That is really part of the beauty of it. So it’s on your vehicle. 00;26;15;16 – 00;26;34;03 Sloan If you’ve got your bedding inside of it, then like your sleeping situation is taken care of. So maybe you just need to like especially if you’ve got a car, a box, maybe you keep that stuff in your box, but you’re really just like packing food and some clothes and then you can bounce if you want and set up time as much more optimized to when you’re doing that. 00;26;34;14 – 00;26;43;20 Dave Yeah, definitely. In these tents, the rooftop, I mean, pretty much any vehicle, right? This is not just, you know, 30 cars. You guys see them on on everything out there. 00;26;44;03 – 00;27;16;05 Sloan Yeah, I’d say some shapes of tents are going to be a little bit better suited for some vehicles for us. Our tents are going to be a little bit longer. So they’re going to be great for SUVs and trucks. So we get a lot of foreigners on a cheap to come as tundras. We do have people with Subarus Subaru’s doing a pretty good job nowadays of making their bike, their wilderness, for example, from the factory is actually a really great setup for adding a weight to the roof. 00;27;16;05 – 00;27;35;11 Sloan So there are a lot of vehicles out there that we from the factory, the refracts don’t really have a great capacity. So you’re not thematically you’re spending more money if you want to put something on the roof of it. So smaller vehicles are starting to move in that direction because they’re seeing that people are trying to find a more family friendly way of camping. 00;27;35;11 – 00;27;49;15 Sloan So we’ve done quite a few Subarus in Rav4’S and in recent months and they’re great, great vehicles to be working with. So what we want to do is develop some products that fit a little bit better to their vehicle size too. But our tents do work quite well on them. 00;27;49;23 – 00;28;05;12 Dave Yeah, that’s it. Yeah. So I mean, really, that’s one of those great things that anybody, you know, can pretty much get one of these right. If, if they wanted to as opposed to say going to buy a pole behind camper. You know, there’s some cars that you’re not going to be caught probably most you’re not going to be pulling a camper or stuff like this. 00;28;05;12 – 00;28;17;29 Dave Right. And there’s all sorts of things, but this kind of fits everything. And then you’re saying it that even the bigger companies, the car companies, are actually they see this and they’re modifying their vehicles so they’re ready to go for roof, you know, rooftop tents and stuff like this. 00;28;18;05 – 00;28;36;16 Sloan Yeah, it’s growing in popularity a lot. And I think those companies are starting to see that their customer base is willing to spend the money on products that go with their vehicle. And people are buying vehicles with the intention of what they’re going to do with them maybe three or four years down the line. And which is really it’s really great. 00;28;36;16 – 00;28;57;17 Sloan It makes our jobs easier because up until this point, it’s been it is a really big research step for customers when they buy a vehicle to then be like, okay, what racks do I like? What rack do I need? How do I install it? How much is it going to cost? What can I hold with that rack? And then like really thinking five steps down the line for their ideal setup for their lifestyle. 00;28;57;26 – 00;29;23;15 Sloan It’s a pretty long thought out process and it can really rack up a lot. So the more vehicles that are doing that from the factory, the easier it is for their customers to get their ideas set up really quickly, spend much less in. Some are much better at it than others, but we appreciate it makes our jobs a lot easier because our tents to a degree are and even cargo boxes are a bit dependent on racks and other products that support them. 00;29;23;27 – 00;29;27;19 Sloan So we really have to kind of work with customers to get their setup style. 00;29;27;25 – 00;29;36;16 Dave That’s right. Yeah. You guys, you got to have a rack. That’s the big thing. That’s something you guys don’t make. Actually the the Yakima to the all these racks is where. Yeah. Going on. 00;29;36;16 – 00;30;04;05 Sloan To. Yeah yeah. And it’s doing that and not dabbling in that portion of the industry has been really great for us making partnerships with companies and working with them. You kind of have to figure out whether if you want to go into a product line, if it’s worth kind of messing with some of like the dynamics because it is a really small industry in racks or one of those sections of the industry that we’ve got a lot of good friends and a lot of good companies that we work with. 00;30;04;07 – 00;30;10;21 Sloan And so developing those close partnerships because our product is so dependent on them is really important and valuable. 00;30;10;28 – 00;30;25;20 Dave Yeah, definitely. On the you mentioned it how quick it is to put the ten up, you know, literally seconds can you take these things off of the, you know, the top, the box or the tent or people just putting them up there and they’re up there and they stay up there. 00;30;26;01 – 00;30;57;01 Sloan Yeah. So their design to be on there year round if you choose, that is the beauty of having a hard shell aluminum tent. So these sides are going to be extruded aluminum and then the top and the base are going to be honeycomb aluminum. So the benefit of that is that through the elements you can leave them on there and they operate really well to be a little more durable even during the weather compared to a soft shell tent, which is going to be like a soft cover or just like fabric, basically. 00;30;57;01 – 00;31;13;17 Sloan So a lot of people do leave money around. We do have people that take them off during the winter months or for somebody like myself, I’ve got an older I’ve got an older car. So having weight on there year round is a lot harder to drive with. So it’s going to be a lot more seasonal that I have it on. 00;31;14;01 – 00;31;31;18 Sloan And I’d say that there are ways to make it easy to take on and off. There’s some great products out there. We work with a company called Van Alterra that makes them like quick release mounts basically so you can take the tent on and off pretty quickly. The mounts of getting it attached to the rack are really what’s going to take time. 00;31;31;18 – 00;31;40;21 Sloan So there’s some good products out there that I think are worth their value and worth investing in that are great for taking tents on and off and even cardboard boxes as well. 00;31;40;21 – 00;31;57;06 Dave So yeah, so so if you’re out there in one of these and you’re say, you know, live here in Colorado so you guys don’t get as much, you know, of the rain. But sure, I’m in a place where it rains a lot you know Yeah. And talk about that if you’re in a place where it’s raining first off you know I mean, obviously it’s a tent. 00;31;57;06 – 00;32;12;13 Dave You know, it’s waterproof, it’s bomber. You know, you got the aluminum sides and everything. But what happens when you put the tent away? What’s American? You know, if it’s literally rain, one of those really rainy days, what’s the recommendation when you get home with that thing? It’s sealed up down in your you know, in your box. 00;32;12;23 – 00;32;30;24 Sloan Yeah. So this has been a pretty big learning lesson for us because it’s one there’s a lot more moving parts on the tent. And from when we first started, the first product that we had made, we had to make so many adjustments on it to really get it to work in all climates, especially in places like the PNW. 00;32;31;04 – 00;32;54;01 Sloan Are we really experience this a lot in Japan or even some areas in Germany? So we had to do a lot of design changes in the first year to really make these suitable for for all climates. I’d say that for four areas that it’s really going to be humid is one. Just making sure like we always recommend, like making sure your tent is dry before you pack it up. 00;32;54;01 – 00;33;16;10 Sloan Service training when you’re packing up, maybe it’s that’s not the best time to do that. You have to wait till you get home. But trying to dry off your fabric before you pack it up is best for a person. Like preventing any sort of like mold or like mildew from building up inside, especially if you go longer times without using it for people that have their car parked. 00;33;16;22 – 00;33;42;19 Sloan We have a cover on some of our newer tents that people can put on there if they’re trying to prevent like any sort of like UV damage the way down the line that you can put the cover on there. Or if rain is a concern, you can put it on there as well. We’ve tried to make it that it’s it’s not dependent on somebody having to worry where they’re putting their vehicle or their tent storing it at granted. 00;33;42;19 – 00;34;00;22 Sloan Like the more precautions you take, the longer the product is going to last in general for just about anything. But we try to make it so that’s like, hey, during the expected lifetime of this product, if you leave it outside, it’s not going to be an issue. But there’s definitely things like putting a cover on or making sure that you’re taking care of the inside of your tent when you’re packing it up. 00;34;00;22 – 00;34;03;08 Sloan They’re really helpful for getting life out of it. 00;34;03;17 – 00;34;21;16 Dave Right? Yeah, there’s all sorts of things you can do with it. You can. And the same thing again about like other products, waders are a good example, right? Where you can, if you want to, you can not even dry them out, throw them in after you’re done off the river and in your truck and or like I did with my rods the other day, I forgot that I had. 00;34;22;02 – 00;34;35;24 Dave This is total, but not a terrible thing. But I, you know, my rods are in the boat. They they got wet in the cases and I forgot to pull them out of the cases. And then, you know, it was wasn’t even that long, but I pulled them out like, oh man, they already had some mold. Was starting to. 00;34;35;24 – 00;34;49;28 Dave Really. Yeah. Get on the cork. Yeah. And they’re fine now, but that’s something where I just, you know, again made a mistake. But here’s the same thing. If you’re going to throw your stuff away, it’ll be fine. Probably for a while. But you’re just not going to get as much use. And I think what you’re saying is, yeah, you take care of it. 00;34;49;28 – 00;35;02;27 Dave If you can dry it off as much as possible. And then what I would do is, you know, if it was me when I got home, if it was one of those trips, I’d make sure to pop it up, dry it out in the driveway, right sort of thing. Make sure if you had to. 00;35;03;06 – 00;35;14;19 Sloan Is that a pretty common battle that people have, especially with the waders? Because like just for danger, I’m off or put Mark store. I’m in the right spot where they just they can smelly pretty quick can cause some other issues. 00;35;14;19 – 00;35;30;10 Dave Yeah yeah well waders I think I mean I’m really hard I think a lot of people are really hard on the waiters and, you know, one of our other partners this year is Patagonia and they have a great waiter, the Swift Current Waders, which I’ve been wearing a ton. And actually we just talked to some of their folks there as well. 00;35;30;10 – 00;35;48;02 Dave And they were saying that, you know, they design them to be durable and to last, but you’re just going to get more life if you keep them dry. You know, even he even mentioned washing. He said, you know, you put them in the mild solution of, you know, just like Gore-Tex, Right. Yeah. Yeah. Same thing if you you got to take care of that stuff and then the last Yeah. 00;35;48;02 – 00;35;53;07 Dave So it’s probably the biggest thing, you know that and boots, and fly fishing that kind of wear out. 00;35;53;27 – 00;36;11;01 Sloan Would you say that it’s worth like right now it’s kind of two different systems that we have on the tents and the boxes. But on the boxes we have drain ports and I’m so it’s they’re pretty easy to spray or wash out one hole right. Dirt and stuff in them. And then for the tents, we have these ports on the bottom. 00;36;11;01 – 00;36;34;11 Sloan Some people use them for like wiring and such, but some people also use them if they’ve got rain or if they’ve got condensation. You just pop USB ports and then as you’re driving, you can get some airflow to the mattress and underneath. Is that something that you would say is a valuable solution for even boxes for like really airing out a lot of the gear that’s building up moisture in those boxes? 00;36;34;18 – 00;36;39;23 Dave Yeah. So so to keep it if you did. Yeah I mean because if you don’t have something like that then it’s just all sealed up in there, right? 00;36;39;23 – 00;36;40;15 Sloan Sure. Yeah. 00;36;40;15 – 00;37;02;27 Dave And it Yeah. So that and that would be a problem. I mean yeah, I think the Pacific Northwest, I mean you’ve got all the places where you got coal and other stuff but the Pacific Northwest because it rains so much and you can 30 days or you can get one of those things where it’s just, you know, wind sideways, you know, on the coast and raining and, you know, it’s just everything’s getting shaken up and, you know, it’s pretty hard not to get water sometimes in a place. 00;37;02;27 – 00;37;13;02 Dave But yeah, you got to have it’s got to build air out whether that’s a you know, and I think like campers what they do well as they have the you know, the little thing up top that you can throw up the event. 00;37;13;10 – 00;37;13;16 Sloan You. 00;37;13;17 – 00;37;29;02 Dave Know event right so I think event that would be something you know but I I’m looking at your tent as I’m sitting here, I’m looking at a picture you probably know this one. There’s a gal in there with her dog. Everything’s pretty cool. It’s the whole site is open up completely. The back is open. You’ve got a it looks like a window up top, which is open. 00;37;29;02 – 00;37;37;13 Dave I mean, it’s that’s the other side of this is that this thing’s cool because when you’re out in the summer, you can just open this thing up and have a complete almost like you’re sleeping outside, but you have a cover. 00;37;37;23 – 00;37;59;01 Sloan Yeah. And this is maybe one of the more undervalued aspects from my position that I, I don’t think too much about it until customers tell me how much they appreciate it, but because of the height of it, how much space there is, and the doors are really big. And this is actually something that two of our founders like really were like really valuing it. 00;37;59;01 – 00;38;24;15 Sloan It was they saw this more from like a family perspective in Asian cultures that like they they really want to like, hang out and like have family time in a camping setting. It’s a little bit different from our camping. And so having really big windows like that, they felt was really, really valuable. So for people here, it might not be necessarily buying point or something that’s like kind of convince them, but when they are using it, they talk about it a lot. 00;38;24;15 – 00;38;33;28 Sloan Like, Oh man, I really appreciate how big the doors are in this. Exactly. There’s like no blocks or anything that really prevent me from seeing what’s going on, which is why they’re there. Yeah. 00;38;34;09 – 00;38;50;12 Dave Yeah. And that’s what we love. We love I mean, I’ve got a couple little kids and we love just, you know, sometimes we’ll sleep right on the ground. Like I said, you know, with the tarp, because you can kind of see the stars. It’s kind of nice. And same thing with this. You know, you’re sitting there, you can look out the side or up and be like, Oh, okay, I’m outside, I’m camping. 00;38;50;13 – 00;39;12;10 Dave You know, you’re it. Yeah, That’s cool thing about. Right? You’re camping outside, you’re seeing the stars, but you’re not looking at, you know, it’s open. So I get that. So there’s two, right? There’s, there’s that versus what we’re talking about with lots of rain and all of that. But, you know, to answer your question, I think that, yeah, I mean, having some sort of a a place, if it does get crazy, water gets in there, it can slip out is good And then and then how do you dry it out? 00;39;12;10 – 00;39;25;25 Dave But again, Pacific Northwest is so extreme that you just go with what you have, you know, if you can. And it’s one of those trips or it’s, you know, you can wait a little bit longer to dry it out or when you get home, you know, if you have a garage or or actually, I guess a garage would be one thing. 00;39;25;25 – 00;39;30;18 Dave Maybe it wouldn’t be tall enough. But you know, for me, I would just pop it up when I got home and made sure it was dry. 00;39;30;26 – 00;39;44;09 Sloan Yeah. And I tell a lot of people to bring, like on the issues that we deal with, I’m in Colorado, so it’s it’s significantly more dry. So we just actually different climates. So it’s it’s like listen you talk I said it’s just stuff I don’t expect you. 00;39;44;09 – 00;39;46;06 Dave Guys have the cold, right? You have the cold air. 00;39;46;12 – 00;40;07;21 Sloan Yeah. Yeah. And we do get seasons of rain, but it’s people really forget how dry it is here, actually just day to day. But we deal with condensation a lot because you’re inside of the tent, like it gets really cold at night. And then in the morning, the Colorado sun will really change the temperature by like ten, 15 degrees just from being in the shade or not. 00;40;07;21 – 00;40;31;09 Sloan So a lot of people, it’s like 40 degrees at night. They wake up in the morning, the sun’s beating on even a crown tent or a canopy or whatever it is that you’re in. And the condensation will just build up really quick. So you can’t eliminate it. You can only mitigate it. So we give people some pointers, but it only goes as far as they decide to use them. 00;40;31;10 – 00;40;46;10 Sloan But I always recommend people just bring a towel with them and you just keep that inside the tent. So when you pack it up, you just wipe out some of the conversation before you pack it up. So that way it’s like if you don’t open it up for six months, like there’s no surprises. Whenever you go to open it back up. 00;40;46;10 – 00;40;48;18 Sloan A few people are pretty good about that. I’m sorry. Yeah. 00;40;49;03 – 00;41;05;07 Dave Yeah. I think that, you know, it’s just a little bit of due diligence. I mean, that’s that’s I think the take home message. You’re right. You can’t you just got to be be aware of what you’re packing away and all that. But the cool thing is yeah, like I said, it packs out 30 seconds or, you know, not very long and you could just sit there and, you know, use it. 00;41;05;07 – 00;41;15;09 Dave So you know, just as we’re looking at this again, we talked about, you know, a couple products here. What else, you know, for somebody listening who isn’t familiar with these anything else or missing here you want to highlight? 00;41;15;19 – 00;41;34;28 Sloan Yeah I think it’s it’s valuable to talk about the nature of the industry and products in general. So I’ll talk a little bit like we try to educate people on what white labeling is and why. We get a lot of questions about the pricing of a lot of products that we see or why a lot of them look similar. 00;41;35;08 – 00;42;03;27 Sloan So think it’s pretty valuable. It’s a maybe one of the best pieces of knowledge people can take away, I guess. But the process of dentistry, which is just sourcing products from factories and then putting your brand or company on it as white labeling. So most of the products that we see and that’s also really is like evident in apparel in other companies or other industries as well, that you see three different companies with the same exact product with a different logo. 00;42;03;27 – 00;42;23;12 Sloan And you’re wondering why do these look same? Why do they seem like they’re the same? Is there a cheaper version of it out there that I can buy or like, why are some of them so expensive compared to others? And the reality is like for a lot of those companies, you’re paying for the brand of them and you actually are buying the same product that comes out of the same factory as them. 00;42;23;12 – 00;42;50;16 Sloan And this is just the nature of being in a global economy and the access to sourcing products from factories around the world and the ease of it up until really the last year has really inflated the market with products. And so it’s so hard to make buying decisions for consumers. So particularly you’ll see a lot of tents that look exactly the same and quite frankly are exactly the same. 00;42;51;01 – 00;43;10;17 Sloan They just have different logos and maybe some different colors on them and such. And this isn’t everybody. There are like a handful, a small handful of companies that are doing a good job of being innovative. And I have a lot of respect for those companies because they’ve really paved the way for people like like Intrepid to do the same as well because they’ve had a lot of success doing it. 00;43;11;06 – 00;43;36;08 Sloan So my advice to consumers is just doing doing your research on on your product. And if it if the company isn’t overtly like telling you what solution their product is solving and they’re not very transparent about it, it probably isn’t worth spending the money on it. So be driven toward companies that are giving you a solution to issues that they’re having or that consumers are typically having. 00;43;36;18 – 00;43;55;23 Sloan And just the eye test is a good way to do it. If you feel like you’re you’re looking at a T-shirt and it’s the same as another T-shirt with a different logo on it, they might be the same T-shirt. So it is a really helpful when making buying decisions. And creative branding plays a big role in that too, that people might be more drawn toward a particular brand. 00;43;56;03 – 00;44;19;02 Sloan But the price at the end of the day is not usually a reflection of the product that you’re buying, unfortunately. Right. And sourcing has really changing that today because it’s getting harder and harder to source. But thus far, the barriers to entry into a lot of industries have been really low, so people can source products from anywhere very easily and start a company. 00;44;19;17 – 00;44;24;22 Sloan And so yeah, it gets really hard to make buying decisions and to decipher what it is that you’re buying. Yeah. 00;44;25;01 – 00;44;44;04 Dave Right. To know what’s the cheap, the crap versus the good stuff. Right. And that’s, that’s a big thing what we’re talking about here. And, and I think that what goes along with that is service, right? I mean, I think services and we talked about this with Patagonia and some of the other great companies out there is that, you know, service is so huge, you know, because stuff could happen to any product. 00;44;44;04 – 00;44;58;01 Dave Right. It doesn’t matter, you know, who you are. And so but the key is if you have good service, you know, you can take care of the customers and they feel like they’ve got your back. And total and I’m sure there are some struggles with some companies on that. But talk about that. What is the service or service side of it? 00;44;58;01 – 00;45;02;17 Dave How do you think a service and how would somebody if there was an issue, how would you guys take care of that? 00;45;02;21 – 00;45;21;18 Sloan Yeah. So in the issues that we have had, which is just kind of a guarantee when you’re really starting something in a product from the ground up, the benefit of is because we’re we’re making it and designing ourselves. It’s really easy for us to know that in and like ins and outs of the product and find solutions really quickly. 00;45;22;01 – 00;45;49;09 Sloan So a lot of times if we do discover an issue, it’s to the point or if the customer discovers it like it’s the point where it’s actually already been resolved and it’s really easy. I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but it’s really doable for us to maintain our warranty that we have. So we have a three year warranty on the tents and if it’s something that we can fix easily, then that might just be replacing a part or sending something for the customer to be able do it, or it means us replacing the tent itself. 00;45;49;21 – 00;46;15;20 Sloan So because we’re making these and they’re evolving pretty quickly, for a typical factory that’s selling to ten companies, their quantities are massive. So if there’s an issue that they’re experiencing, it’s really hard to just create like a lapse in a new product and just change production really quickly to a new design because there’s already thousands of them already out there. 00;46;15;28 – 00;46;37;10 Sloan But for us, like we have our manufacturing cycles. So when we’re changing designs or making a new tent for next year with some minor changes, we can really update things. So a lot of times if a customer experiences something, it is pretty easy for us to replace it or or replace the part ultimately. And we try to hold a really firm to that. 00;46;37;10 – 00;47;02;28 Sloan In some ways it’s easier said than done. In some areas, it’s ends up being a really expensive for us to replace product, but it’s just the nature of the game and ultimately customers just want a solution and just to know that they’re going to be taken care of. At the end of the day, we find that, like customers are less upset with the inconvenience of something and more excited that they’re being taken care of and that somebody is like holding to their word ultimately. 00;47;02;28 – 00;47;18;09 Sloan So that’s really all we can do at the end of the day is just hold to our word that we believe in our product, we believe in what we’re doing. And when rubber hits the road, it’s like we’ll just we’ll make sure that the customer satisfied and that they’re getting what they paid for. Ultimately, even if it ends up being expensive on our end. 00;47;18;18 – 00;47;36;01 Dave Right. You know, that makes sense in the fact that you guys are yeah, this is not white label so you guys are the designer. You mentioned earlier your founders who have the design background and all that stuff. It’s like you can yeah, you can take care of people, you know. Exactly. If you hear something, something comes up, you guys can probably quickly know and and fix it. 00;47;36;01 – 00;47;46;19 Dave And like you said, that’s the same thing. We talked to Patagonia. They’re big on fixing things if they need to, you know, instead of throwing it away, you know, let’s fix this and repair it and keep on strong. So that’s good. Okay. 00;47;46;19 – 00;47;47;25 Sloan Yeah, they do a great job with that. 00;47;48;15 – 00;48;11;03 Dave Awesome. Well, I think what we’ll do is give a quick shout out to our Phase three pro community and then we’ll we’ll take it out here with a couple of maybe random questions for you here. But so today I just want to give a shout out to Mark Ro. He’s in our community. He’s he’s been traveling around. I ran into him up in Alaska on a trip, another destination, which I’m sure some people have been taking your, you know, your tents and gear up there. 00;48;11;03 – 00;48;25;00 Dave But, you know, that’s a big place where people it’s like a destination, you know, the bucket list destination. Where do you want to go if you haven’t been to Alaska, that’s a place. Talk about bears, right? Has that been now let’s just start with that for you. So first shout out to Fly, Swing Pro and Mark out there in our group. 00;48;25;29 – 00;48;35;18 Dave What do you have on your ticket? Are you are you happy being in Colorado? No. And you’re in this amazing place are used to you trying to get out to Alaska and some of these other places around the country? Anything on your bucket list? 00;48;35;26 – 00;48;54;03 Sloan Yeah, I am very happy to be in Colorado. There’s been a few opportunities of the potential of moving elsewhere. And me and my wife, who she’s not generally fond of the cold, it’s even hard for her to be able to leave. And it just you get all four seasons here and there are two seasons, which is pretty, pretty awesome. 00;48;54;11 – 00;49;19;12 Sloan But I also do get the log cabin or travel a lot for work. And so when we’re doing shows across the country, we’re driving, we’re driving a ton. And then I’m also doing some international shows too, and expos. So next month or actually this month, sorry, I’ll be in Vietnam in a couple of weeks and then I’ll be in Indonesia the following week for a little vacation during Thanksgiving as well. 00;49;19;12 – 00;49;36;04 Sloan But I’ve been fortunate to drive a lot of places in the country, but there’s still so much that we have yet to even even touch. So Alaska’s definitely out there one of these days it’s been kind of a dream of mine to do. I’m a big Land Cruiser guy. I do a lot of, Oh, yeah, Land Cruiser belts. 00;49;36;17 – 00;49;42;03 Sloan There’s just kind of a personal, personal hobby in mind, but doing a build and then driving up to Alaska, I. 00;49;42;03 – 00;49;42;19 Dave Mean, amazing would. 00;49;42;19 – 00;49;44;25 Sloan Be Yeah. Would be a really awesome thing to do. 00;49;45;06 – 00;49;46;02 Dave That’s really cool. 00;49;46;13 – 00;49;46;24 Sloan Yeah. 00;49;46;29 – 00;50;03;17 Dave The land Cruiser is interesting. We actually had an episode we did a while back with a guy who actually built a boat. He had a boat. He talked about that, but he was a big Land Cruiser guy too. And I was a little misguided because I always thought Land Cruiser, I had heard some things about Land Cruisers, maybe in, you know, problems and stuff like that. 00;50;03;17 – 00;50;11;19 Dave But he was like, no, I mean, Land Cruisers are great. Talk about that with your with your Land Cruiser. What do you do? What’s your current vehicle and what’s your specialty or what do you do out there? 00;50;11;27 – 00;50;32;28 Sloan Yeah, Yeah. So I drive in 86, 1986, after 60, and I’ve done a motor swap on it and a lot of hours grinding and fixing it and restoring it. And so I daily drive it now it’s a lot of fun and it breaks and then you fix it and it breaks. But I know every pride touched every night and bolt on the car at this point. 00;50;32;28 – 00;50;50;06 Sloan Wow. So I could fix that pretty quickly and get it back up and driving. But yeah, it’s a it’s a big passion of mine. And they are quite reliable. They are old, though. So it’s like the reality is that there’s a good amount of wear and tear and stuff based on it and you got to, you got to be pretty savvy with it. 00;50;50;06 – 00;51;07;12 Sloan There’s a really great support network for Land Cruisers. The community is massive, so anytime I’ve broken down in the middle of nowhere and not known what I was going to do and then just kind of hopped on a forum and able to figure it out pretty quick and find a solution or is like, That’s not always the case for most cars. 00;51;07;12 – 00;51;11;19 Sloan So I think where you might be thinking of is Land Rovers the. 00;51;11;23 – 00;51;27;24 Dave Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m thinking of Land Rover. That’s right. Yeah, yeah. So? So there you go. So this is the car. This is my because I is the Toyota. I drive a Toyota as well. But yeah, Toyota Land Cruiser in the Land Rover. Now I’m trying to think the guy we had on I’m trying to think that he was he talking Land Rover? 00;51;27;24 – 00;51;31;20 Dave I’ll have to check that out, but I can’t remember. Yeah, So go ahead. This is Lake Cruiser. 00;51;31;24 – 00;52;05;17 Sloan And I will say this is not coming from a Land Rover hater. I actually really like all the defenders. It’s in my opinion, it’s the it’s one of the only vehicles out there that can break as much as it does. And people will love it. The same. They’re really awesome cars. But yeah, I my my first like restoration vehicle was my my FHA 60 and since then I’ve got it I’ve had a few other ones eighties 80 series Land Cruiser I’ve got a 40 series sitting out in the driveway right now that’s kind of waiting for some love That was the 1965. 00;52;05;28 – 00;52;09;20 Dave Oh, wow. So there’s a there’s another. Do you have an older one? That one out there? 00;52;09;23 – 00;52;28;05 Sloan Yeah. Yeah. It’s not running and driving but it’s got it’s got a motor and drive line waiting for it one of these days now. So that will be that kind of upcoming project making my car my FHA 60 fully tribal because I did the motor swap on it too. I pulled it out of an 80 serious Land Cruiser. 00;52;28;05 – 00;52;44;26 Sloan I said, there’s a Diesel 80 series. So I pulled it out. I got it from a guy that brought it from England. And it’s been a couple of years of kind of like working through all the small things on it to make sure it’s like fully functioning as a daily driver. I mean, driving it daily for a little over a year now. 00;52;45;06 – 00;52;48;18 Sloan But it’s always a work in progress and it’s a labor of love, that’s for sure. 00;52;48;26 – 00;52;52;19 Dave And that’s the 1965 Land Cruiser. 00;52;53;00 – 00;53;01;24 Sloan That was the that was the 86. And then the 65 will not be able to be a daily driver. It might be, but it’s a pretty it’s a pretty archaic one. 00;53;01;29 – 00;53;04;03 Dave What’s that one called? What’s that? What’s the name of that one. 00;53;04;12 – 00;53;07;29 Sloan So that one’s an FHA 40. The 65 is a 40. 00;53;08;07 – 00;53;16;03 Dave Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. So that’s more it looks like a That’s right. Because you have these similarities. Right. That looks kind of like in a jeep, right. Yeah. 00;53;16;05 – 00;53;37;17 Sloan Yeah. And the, the story behind those is the, the FHA 40 and the Willys cheap were kind of these like to like a World War two kind of competitor basically they were designed to do pretty close the same thing. Oh right and so that’s why they look pretty similar and as time went on, they kind of evolved differently. 00;53;37;19 – 00;53;45;28 Dave Well, that’s interesting, right? Because 19 for the 65, I mean, this is all after World War Two, but that was Toyota, right? Had their own vehicles back then. Yeah, right. 00;53;45;28 – 00;54;08;06 Sloan And so there are some there are some models as you go closer to closer to World War Two, they’re really hard to find. I actually, if I remember, I don’t think they’re considered FHA forties. They’re called maybe like an F 220 or something. I flew. Okay, I’d have to look it up. But yeah, they, they look very similar and it’s modeled kind of in the same time in use cases the cheap basically. 00;54;08;07 – 00;54;25;07 Dave Oh yeah. I’m looking at I mean f j 20 I’m seeing some of them here now I think. But yeah, it’s really interesting because I love the cars. There’s something about that style of, you know, you’re talking forties, but even the sixties. I know my dad had a while. The first cars we had was a Jeep Wagoneer back. 00;54;25;07 – 00;54;25;23 Sloan Oh yeah. 00;54;25;29 – 00;54;34;14 Dave Like the seventies, right. And it looks a little bit like the Toyota Land Cruiser. Similar right there on the first SUVs. Right. The real like what we think of as SUVs. These are some of the first ones. 00;54;34;22 – 00;54;39;06 Sloan Yeah. And I mean, a Wagoneer is definitely on my list to build. 00;54;39;28 – 00;54;42;11 Dave It is So you’re thinking yeah, Wagoneer to do it. 00;54;42;14 – 00;54;59;01 Sloan Yeah. There’s a company called Casey Highlights. They make they make like pods and other lights. It’s kind of like the the classic lights that you see that have a smiley face on them. That’s their. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don’t know if it’s the owner who it is, but he has an old wagoneer that is absolutely mint. 00;54;59;01 – 00;55;13;15 Sloan And I remember the first time I saw it, I was like, Man, I got to build one of these, right? It’s either like a Wagoneer or like an old Suburban. Oh, yeah. Or a travel like an international. Oh, yeah. All kind of like the bigger sized wagons that I. I’m pretty fond of. 00;55;13;23 – 00;55;19;26 Dave What is that? I’m just curious. I draw, I tell you. Land Cruiser, the sixth out of the 86. What does it get for gas mileage? 00;55;19;26 – 00;55;22;11 Sloan I should get. I get about 21 and half. 00;55;22;11 – 00;55;23;03 Dave 21. There you. 00;55;23;03 – 00;55;42;01 Sloan Go. Yes, because it’s a diesel. The gasser that I had in it before, I was getting 12 to 14. And it was reliable, but it was slow. I have fond memories of doing like 35 miles an hour going up mountain passes, and I’m just like holding up a line of cars, right? Like over. They know they’re down the dice. 00;55;43;00 – 00;55;44;12 Dave I remember those days. 00;55;45;01 – 00;55;55;17 Sloan It was brutal. Yeah, but that was the reason for doing the swap, was to get get a little more drivability out of it. So I’m it’s loud, but I’m getting about 2021 right now. It’s just pretty. 00;55;55;17 – 00;55;57;01 Dave And you got more power with the diesel. 00;55;57;08 – 00;56;01;17 Sloan Yeah, much more much calmer. It’s a much more rowdy car to drive now, that’s for sure. 00;56;01;27 – 00;56;24;06 Dave That’s awesome. Wow, this is great. Well, I think we’ll have to follow up with you and talk more about some of your builds there as we go. That’s awesome. But yeah, I think alone will send everybody out like you said, intrepid camp gear dot com. If they want to check in on check out anything we talked about today rooftop tents, the cargo boxes, anything you have going and yeah I just want to thank you for all your time and look forward to keeping in touch until the next one. 00;56;24;17 – 00;56;27;04 Sloan Likewise. Thanks Dave. 00;56;27;11 – 00;56;44;16 Dave All right. We mentioned you can find more of the work Sloane is doing over there at Intrepid Camp Gear icon that intrepid intrepid camp gear dot com. Check them out if you’re interested in seeing some of the best rooftop tents and cargo boxes out there, Do that right now. If you want to connect with me, you can do that with I Swing Pro. 00;56;45;07 – 00;57;07;02 Dave We’re going strong over there. Check in so many mail Dave I will fly suning.com. If you’re not already a member, I’ll get you connected. Just want to give you a shout out. Our next trip is launching next week and we are launching the Pike School. Haven’t done this yet, so this is a big one. Next week, if you’re interested in hearing about this trip up north, check in on that and follow this show and you’ll get notified when the next episode goes in your inbox. 00;57;07;14 – 00;57;25;08 Dave And I just want to thank you for stopping in today. Hope you’re having a great morning, great afternoon or evening, wherever in the world you are, and look forward to seeing you and talking to you on that next episode. Thanks for listening to the wet fly Swing fly fishing show for notes and links from this episode. Visit Wet Fly, Swing, Dotcom.