BEGINNINGS
Towards the end of 2021, our founder Ryan had the sudden goal to tackle one of Sydney's most popular multi day trips, the Great North Walk.
While shopping for gear for this undertaking, he discovered the realm of Ultralight backpacking and the freedom and minimal weight offered by hiking quilts.
Disappointed by the lack of options in Australia, Undercling Mike stopping production, Tier Gear having limited choices and long lead times, and the astronomical duties and shipping from the United States, Ryan decided to start making his own quilts and began by brainstorming a unique design. He sewed his first quilt in January of 2022. This ultimately led to the creation of our flagship product: the Waratah Quilt.
AFFORDABILITY
Affordability is one of our core principles. We know how expensive outdoor gear (especially premium ultralight equipment) can be, and we believe more people should have access to high-quality gear without paying excessive markups.
Our goal isn’t to maximize profits, but to follow a more thoughtful and ethical pricing approach. That said, affordability never comes at the expense of quality. We design every product to meet the highest standards first, and only then do we determine how to price it as fairly as possible.
In fact, our down products are manufactured by one of the world’s leading down factories, the same trusted partners used by brands like Sea to Summit, Columbia, and Mammut.
So how do we keep our prices accessible?
Direct-to-consumer model
By cutting out the "middleman," we bypass the traditional retail supply chain that typically inflates prices. Most outdoor brands sell to wholesalers, who then sell to big-box retailers (a process where every hand the product touches adds another layer of markup). By shipping directly from our door to yours, we eliminate these retail margins. This allows us to offer premium materials and high-end construction at a fraction of the market rate. We do stock our products at a few retailers, but we do limit this so that we can make sure pricing stays affordable to you.
Overseas production
We partner with world-class manufacturing facilities that specialise specifically in technical down insulation. These are the same industry-leading factories used by global brands like Sea to Summit and Mammut, offering a level of precision and expertise that is difficult to find elsewhere. Producing overseas allows us to leverage these highly efficient, specialised production lines and advanced sourcing networks. By streamlining the manufacturing process in a region with deep expertise in technical apparel, we significantly reduce production costs without compromising a single stitch of performance. We then pass those direct savings straight back to you.
Lean operations
We’ve chosen to keep our team small, local, and highly specialized. By maintaining an agile operation, we avoid the heavy overhead and complex layers of management often found in larger organizations. This "lean" structure allows us to move quickly and stay deeply connected to our products. We prefer to spend our time in the design studio or out in the field testing prototypes, keeping our focus exactly where it belongs: on building the best possible equipment for you.
In-house marketing
We also keep our marketing internally. In fact, our photos we've taken for marketing are by our lead product designer on one of his weekend trips. And our very photogenic models are all close friends of ours!
WHERE TO NEXT?
We pride ourselves on running a small, but strong design team. This has allowed us to still be in control of our design process, and ultimately our products. In turn, this has allowed us, and will continue to allow us to create products we are immensely proud of, both creatively and technically.
We plan on introducing a range of ultralight products over the near future, many of which we believe will be "best of its class".
Have an opinion or feel like something could be done better? Send us an email: ryan@nevegear.com.au