Where Our Gear Is Born... Ep.1 - Zpacks

Description

A New Video Series about the Companies that make our Hiking Gear.

In this Episode, we drop in on Zpacks to talk Gear, History of the Company, Comunity, & take a Tour of their facility in West Melbourne, FL.

Check out Zpacks --- http://www.zpacks.com

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*** Gear Used to Shoot this Video! ***

- Camera -

Canon EOS 77D - http://amzn.to/2zf5OQ9

- Lense -

Canon EF 24mm IS USM - http://amzn.to/2zeJuWU

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Targus 360 Trigger Tripod - http://amzn.to/2kMsU5Y

------Intro & Animation By: BlackStrap Media------

https://blackstrapmedia.com

------- Music By: Mike Boren --------

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Tags: Zpacks,UL Hiking,UL Backpacking,UL Hiking Gear,Zpacks Arc Blast,Backpacking Gear,Hiking,AT,Appalachian Trail,AT Thru Hike,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT,PCT Thru Hike,Flordia Trail,Tour,Gear Companies,Zpacks Duplex

Video Transcription

hello guys it's Darwin as you know I am a huge gear geek I love all different types of backpacking gear from ultralight to regular to traditional backpacking gear taking out in the field reviewing it making modifications to it and even some DIY stuff but one thing that has never really talked about in the community is the gear companies where does our gear come from where's our gear born so today I'm here in West Melbourne Florida at one of my personal favorite gear companies z packs we're gonna go inside talk to one of the main guys here find out a little history of the company and show you a little behind the scenes of where our gear is born [Music]

all right so I am here inside of Z packs with mr. Matt Farah some guys say that right tell me a little bit about kind of history of Z packs how it started where it started look at why it started 2005 Joe started Z packs Joe Velasco or honor the company came about because he was going to hike the Appalachian Trail and he wasn't happy with the gear options that were available so basically he decided to start making his own gear prototyping testing things so he gotten a bus went on the Appalachian Trail started hiking got a few weeks in realized his gear wasn't that good went home built new gear went back out did that a couple times and he finished the trail but what was on the trail a bunch of people were like you should really make this and sell this a bunch of people would buy it there's nothing really like this out there you went home and at the time he was a computer programmer so after work he would go home it was start making gear and his is a living room and at night after working on the weekends and selling it on eBay and then a little web store and eventually that grew into Z packs which in 2010 became a full-time operation for him he was working out of his house with just him and his wife and that's when I met Joe and I became the Omegas his wife is typically the first employee but on the first non wife a relative employee and I started working with him out of his garage in his house we hired a few like my sister-in-law and a couple friends and then eventually we took over a another room in the house nice that eventually needed to move to a shop than a bigger shop and a bigger shop and a bigger shop and then into our current job so that's what seven and a half years ago for me of nnz banks in other words if you like ordered an original Z packs pack or a tent or something this man probably assembled it it was a either Joe myself or she'll definitely at the beginning there was a we touched everything for sure we made everything why do you think that Z packs is you know for me and then for a lot of other hikers you guys are gonna be like the top companies put through hikers you know for going ultralight the company was based on a need for the owners you know desired a thru-hike with light weight falling gear so we are that community itself like we're not just making here to sell to through hikers we are like long distance hikers ourselves who make gear and test the gear and you know we walk the walk we're out on the trail like plenty of people have seen us out on the trail you see our adventure videos we are hikers and we take that experience to develop the products to refine the products and to make sure we're carrying the stuff that we would want to carry so we're making the best gear that we can make and that translates into the community that we're serving because we're a part of that community they trust us they know that that we actually use it and put it to the test ourselves so I think that Trust really you know goes a long way in the community yeah so the facility here again we're in West Melbourne yes West Melbourne Florida apparently we're not too far from the beach I didn't know that

you said yeah so here in this facility this is a newer facility yeah we've been here about a year four months I believe yeah how many how many employees do you you guys now we're currently somewhere in the in the 80s right now we're still in the middle of hiring a bunch of people but right now we have a somewhere like eighty three or four people nice [Music]

if you want to give us kind of like a little walk walk through in like a tour of kind of a set up in the operation in here yeah

so basically we're a one-stop shop here everything is done from the website to customer service to shipping all manufacturing is done in the one facility so over here over here we have all the clothing being manufactured if you look over here this whole road of clothing and thanks to them we have some backpack accessories followed by the belts and straps or backpacks and then the backpacks himself we come over here to the other side we have the sleeping bag department then we have it's really dry bags and stuff sack and then the entire rest of these two rows here shelter in the back we have shipping

running off to the left behind all that where we keep keep inventory

[Music]

alright guys so there you have it a little peek behind the scenes of z packs their history and how they do things behind closed doors a big thanks to Z packs role and has come in peek our head around take a tour and find out where your gear is born [Music]