Genesis
It all started with an off hand, slightly pessimistic remark: “my dream job doesn’t exist”. This was right at the beginning of pandemic when the world seemed to be throwing us challenge after challenge with no respite in sight. My wife was three months pregnant at the time, and I had just gotten laid off as businesses across the country were forced to close their doors in an attempt to stifle this new foreign threat.
I was at a definitive crossroads in my life: I obviously needed a means to support our growing family, but at the time charging into a new job with limited knowledge of how the virus functioned seemed like a shaky prospect at best. I didn’t know what the right move was; I didn’t want to risk exposing myself and my family to a virus that we still had so little information on. So, as I’m sure many of us have done when faced with life hurdles or lacking direction, I escaped outside.
The outdoors has always served as a bastion of unwavering support in my life. As cliched as this statement is, it is still the truth. I know I am not alone in saying that when life get rough, there is rarely an instance when things can’t be at least partial absolved with a little time outside. In fact, it was during a solo mountain bike ride that I came up with a solution to my earlier nihilistic statement about the lack of meaningful employment.
My train of thought was this: “ My dream job doesn’t exist…YET”. Much like a knee bar or heel hook to solve a frustrating boulder problem, the answer isn’t always obvious at first. Once you have the beta however, the route seems clear as day. So what if a job didn't exist that was everything I wanted? I knew that I was determined and independent enough that I could strike out on my own. I knew that I thrived in environments where I only had my head and hands to support me. I knew that the outdoors were a cornerstone of my life, and that if I was going to succeed in business I would need to have a white hot burning passion for what I was doing. It was with this sentiment that the idea for Backcountry Performance took root.
Fast forward eight months to the present and here we stand at the official launch of the company. Backcountry Performance is my culminating tribute to both Mother Nature and her communities of fellow outdoor lovers. I stand here now, ready to embark on a new adventure and can only hope that you will join me.