REI

“So I worked second jobs. I was waiting tables up until I had two employees. I got a job at REI and I was selling backpacks and skis and sleeping bags when I had five employees.”

“For example, REI was approaching us every year to pick up our product, and we always had to say, no, we can't meet that demand, and they were baffled. They, you know, they were almost angry about that because they, there was a demand growing for Osprey within …”

“It was just one email, very brief email saying that he wanted to carry all of our products and we just replied back. Like there was no meeting. There was no testing. It just went straight into their stores.”

“Brought together the small climbing industry of America, our competitors in the United States, and our largest retailer, REI at the time, held a series of meetings, found insurance experts, and realized that if we as an industry got together and decided that l…”

“Unfortunately, what happened was he said that we were not going to be able to get into REI within a year, and I knew that we probably could, and he was adamant that he wasn't even going to try, and so we had to let him go and replace him with a larger firm, bu…”