As a general update... I'm still not 'open'. My day job is fairly demanding and my production is limited. So I tend to lay pretty low and just take care of referrals and/or forum members who reach out.
In order to hopefully turn this into a better business I recently took some steps to further reduce our families expenses and consolidate some things. I moved to Indiana to reduce costs and we bought a small condo to live in, then I rented a storage shed and sewing shop. Rents gradually increased and it made more sense financially to simply give in and buy a house. To keep costs down I purchased a home in need of rehab in late december. I also closed down and moved out of my sewing shop and just completed that move at the end of January.
So... I am shopless for a bit. I have a few bridges on hand but once those are gone I will likely not be able to produce any more until early spring.
If all goes well- I'll have a rehabbed home for my family, a backyard to hang again, a good sized garage and a 1200 sf sewing shop back up and running around March.
I have also reached out some of the cottage vendors and I am farting along with them on doing some sewing work.
Overall- the Big Guy and Luxury bridges are doing fairly well. The happy medium (UL medium sized bridge) is coming in around 13-14 ounces and testing is slowly expanding on that model for backpackers. I'm up to roughly 100 bridge hammocks out in the wild and the feedback is good. So my goal this year is to attempt to stabilize production so I can get these out to folks who could use them.
The Big Guy (to the best of my knowledge) is the only bridge capable of holding over 250 pounds. It can hold up to 400lbs but the physical size of the occupant makes that roughly 350-375 as a practical size.
Several members are past one year of use, a few of them now full time sleepers in these bridges. It has been very rewarding helping these folks out and my primary concern was long term durability as bridges tend to do well out of the gate but run into problems down the line. Thus far there has not been a single return or repair from an issue with the design once we cleared the first round of prototypes. Most folks are picking these up as they have no other options and have tried everything else (something I encourage).
The Luxury Bridge is working well for folks looking for something larger or more comfortable than other bridges with a rating up to 250 pounds. It is the same dimensions of the Big Guy and really seems to find a home with those who really like the Ridge runner but find it a bit too restrictive. To be blunt... I've probably sold as many ridgerunners and my bridges, lol. Brandon has a nice product, it has a good, tested design and all the kinks worked out regarding the bug net, quilts, tarps, etc. So I still recommend to everyone- if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Picking up one of these is still an experiment and will need some willingness to tinker to get a viable set up going. It's not a 'trail ready' system at this time.
The 'Happy Medium' prototype is a blend of my medium and micro bridges intended for those who are looking for a backpacking bridge. It will come standard with Carbon Fiber poles. The exciting part is that it comes in around 13/14 ounces depending on the model. As of now it's looking like around 200lbs for a weight rating using hybrid 1.2 fabric. I will be doing a round of Hybrid 1.7 once the shop is up and running to expand that to 225 pounds or even 250. This should hopefully still come in around a pound. With some suspension systems in the 2 ounce range and the trekking pole this is a bridge that could rival a GE and find a nice place in a UL backpack or even provide a perfect solution for pad users on long distance hiking trails.
The Micro Bridge is the lightest bridge in the world (9.25-10.25 ounces), but with a limited audience I don't think I will focus on that this year, there are only a handful of these sent to friends mainly.
Tarps, UQ, and other accessories are on the list of things I hope to develop to help round out the Bridges overall. Though there are several tarps that work well for the bridge, and most customers seem to be sorting out the UQ well enough... so likely my focus will be the bridge itself for the near future.
I have been working with Ruta Locura to develop carbon poles and thus far the Luxury Bridge and Happy Medium are both doing well in testing in that regard.
I also have a third round prototype of a trekking pole that is specifically designed to be a quality bridge pole for the Happy Medium. If you are a trekking pole user this could prove to be a very light package overall. I am hoping to expand testing with that product too. I haven't released any info on it but will likely do so in the coming months once the house is finished and the shop up and running. Josh is able to produce these but we didn't get far enough to determine pricing for them. I'd like to get them into some people's hands though for testing before I go too far with them.
So... slowly but surely and not too bad for a part time gig. I'd really love to make this happen faster but with two small kiddos I need to be responsible in getting this going.
If you made it this far- thanks for checking in! The Big Guy in particular has been a bit of a happy accident and really helps out some folks who needed that hammock; so by far that keeps me going and pushing to get this going. A huge thanks to all the early adopters who fight through tarps, quilts, and an incomplete system to keep this bridge moving forward!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Mark8408
Retired US Navy, 10-year Stage IIIb colon cancer survivor. I believe my last words will be "Hold my beer..."
Bookmarks