While most people have hobbies, only a few can truly make a living off of them. Brian Vargo is one of the lucky few. From humble beginnings, Vargo Outdoors has become one of the more well-known brands in the backpacking, hiking, and ultralight community.
Their secret: simplicity and titanium.
How It All Started
One can say that Vargo’s founder, Brian Vargo’s, journey as a successful business person mirrors that of a thru-hike in that it started with a thru-hike. And like a thru-hike, it took patience and relentlessness before they reached success.
It all started with the Appalachian Trail. Vargo wanted to try finishing that long hike, inspired by the stories he had read.
Of course, as someone who had just discovered it, he let curiosity drive him and devoted himself to learning everything about what it takes to go on such a long journey.
After some time, he went from owning no gear for backpacking to someone ready to go.
Like all long journeys, the hike changed him. Along the way, he was asking questions, both philosophical and mundane. These questions and the experiences he gained along the way became the building blocks of his next venture.
Sometime after finishing the trail, Vargo founded a website called hike-advice.com. There, the student became the teacher.
It became a website where people offered and received advice about hiking and backpacking. The result was an outlet to answer some of the questions he had back on the Appalachian Trail, as well as to ask more questions.
After a few years, the website gained considerable traffic, and he started dabbling in e-commerce.
Vargo Outdoors
When Vargo started selling camping gear, they did not go with just selling any other camping gear. Instead, they took stock of the gear market and, from there, found a good approach.
The hiking and backpacking community has always had an obsession with keeping things light. It is a necessity, after all; walking through miles and miles is already hard work for the body, and any means to ease the burden is always welcome.
This became Vargo’s focus, looking for lighter and more portable products that are also durable. This is where titanium comes in.
Vargo wasn’t the first one to use titanium for camping gear. Back in the late 90s, two Japanese brands, Evernew and Snowpeak, already sold simple cookpots made of titanium. With their aforementioned qualities, these became widely popular….
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