Gossamer Gear Headquarters Grand Opening Brings the Austin Hiking Community Together
After 20 years of designing and distributing lightweight gear for backpacking out of a variety of garages and garage-like facilities, we decided to ring in March 2019 like a lion with the grand opening of the new Gossamer Gear headquarters!
An Overview of the Gossamer Gear Headquarters in Austin, Texas
The new Gossamer Gear headquarters is 3,150 square feet with spiffy features like roll-up doors, high pile storage, a sample room, testing machines, a pretty darn cool shower, and even a roast-grind-brew coffee machine. That may sound like a lot, but really, in true lightweight hiker fashion, we're simply playing on multi-functional tricks to maximize our space.
"The new Gossamer Gear headquarters and the grand opening event are a reflection of our company," shares Jon Schmid, Gossamer Gear's Head of Product & Marketing. "The new space is minimal, functional, fun, beautiful–a beautiful rainbow unicorn bouncy house! We are a tiny bit bigger, but still a garage brand at heart."
The new space also helps us further establish ourselves as a Texas-based company, which started with our launch of the Texas Collection earlier this year. This space will give us a chance to bring the Austin hiking community together, as well as welcome backpackers visiting the Lone Star State.
"In attendance at the grand opening event were folks from several local meetup groups, the local Americorps crew, our friends from Texas State Parks, and assorted local hikers and thru-hikers, past and present," Grant Sible, President of Gossamer Gear describes. "We plan to continue to host get-togethers for such groups, and offer them our space to use for meetings. We're also planning on 'showroom' hours for locals to check out the gear, and Ian is here as a resource for hikers with questions."
The Gossamer Gear Headquarters Grand Opening Event
We hosted our event on March 1, 2019, and were honored by the roughly 150 people who showed up to celebrate with us. We also received a ton of support from our fellow local business owners. Food and drinks were donated, including goodies from Last Stand Brewing, a keg of the ABGB's famous Rocket 100, and Buddha's Brew Kombucha.
To match the "beautiful rainbow unicorn bouncy house" ethos of the new Gossamer Gear headquarters, we also had an actual unicorn bouncy house for the kids. For the adults, we had a full line of packs on display, viewings of our brand video, and Big Bend 100 teasers. We also gave tours of the new space and warehouse, and closed out with a pretty sweet raffle that included prizes such as three of our packs, Heather Anderson's book, Thirst: 2,600 Miles from Home, David Smart's book, The Trail Provides, a 5-punch climbing pass to Crux Climbing Center, goodies from Packit Gourmet and Sawyer, and all sorts of swag.
"My favorite part of the event was just seeing the depth of diversity of those in attendance," Grant reflects. "Tops was seeing the pink rainbows and unicorns bouncy house sitting in the parking lot with all the kids and parents hanging around. Another sweet moment was pre-party when Jon face-planted into the bouncy house door, or when he tapped the keg and it blew up in his face."
Rumor is we have video of these events.
What's Next for the Gossamer Gear Headquarters
As Grant shared, we're looking forward to eventually using this space to host gatherings for the local hiking community, as well as providing hours that folks can stop by to check out the gear. For now, however, if you're interested in seeing the space or stopping by to try on a pack for size, shoot an email to support@gossamergear.com. We'd love to setup a time to meet you!
Thank you, again, to everyone who came out to celebrate with us and donate to make the event such a fun time. We look forward to hiking into these next 20 years with you all here in Austin!