Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Support cottage gear makers!

I support cottage gear manufacturers. Now featured on my sidebar at right is a link to all of the cottage gear makers I could find.

What is a cottage gear maker? These are the one-person shops. The folks that do custom work. The places you can call up and speak to the owners by name. The people who push the limits of material, design and durability. Generally, you can't get their stuff in stores. You've got to online, or to their eBay stores. Or mail order, even. Those folks.

At its initial inception there are 60 manufacturers on this list. Each company is listed alphabetically by name, and where available, its owner(s), website, phone number(s) and e-mail address is listed. Also, a brief description is given as to what each company produces. Include them in your research for your next purchase. Please support these manufacturers with your inquiries and purchases.

If you see any thing I missed, left out or need to be corrected, please comment below and I'll promptly get it changed. The list is published through Google Docs, and is automatically updated after each edit.

5 comments:

kwpapke said...

I'd take Hennessy off the cottage gear makers. He dominates the hammock marketplace. I'd replace it with Warbonnet (http://www.warbonnetoutdoors.net/), which is truly a "garage shop" operation.

samh said...

Matt, a nice, definitive list. A couple suggestions:

Spelling error on: Littlebug Enterprises
Should be: Littlbug Enterprises at http://littlbug.com/

Additions to consider:

Appy Trails – Tarptents
Wilderness Solutions – Bear bags

Chris Wallace said...

Add Alpinlite Gear to the list.

http://alpinlite.com/

Anonymous said...

Packit Gourmet

mother/daughter shop making some great backpacking food

www.packitgourmet.com

Dan Durston said...

How about Katabatic Gear (quilts) and Hyperlight Mountain Gear (shelters, packs). These are two fairly new cottage gear makers.

- Dan