The Rise of Big Agnes: How a Small-Town Brand Revolutionized Backcountry Slumber
Photo courtesy of Big Agnes
A little over 20 years ago in the sleepy ski town of Steamboat Springs, a couple of avid outdoorsmen were riffing on ways to make backpacking better. Tired of having their nylon sleeping bags slip off of their sleeping pads in the middle of the night, they started toying with ways to innovate. One idea: a sleeping bag with a built-in sleeve for the sleeping pad.
“We just wanted to make a more comfortable sleeping system,” says Big Agnes founder and president, Bill Gamber. Turns out, they’d hit on something huge. “I wasn’t trying to make some big company. I just wanted to have a fun life in the mountains so we could ski and climb and ride and fish.”
But their revolutionary sleep system was too big to ignore. Within a couple years of its introduction, Big Agnes earned accolades from Outside magazine as a “killer value” item. In 2004, their Insulated Air Core sleeping pad earned an Editor’s Choice Award from Backpacker magazine. The literary recognition spring-boarded the brand into the national spotlight, and put Big Agnes on the proverbial map.
“We were this weird, funky company out of Steamboat, but we made gear we wanted to use. People who were getting out and doing the same stuff we were doing were like, ‘Oh, wow these guys are talking to us,’” Gamber explains. “That shot us over the moon.”
Not that Gamber was totally green going into Big Agnes. He’d gotten his feet wet back as a college student on the East Coast when he founded BAP, another mountain apparel and gear company. He brought the brand with him when he moved to Steamboat, and you can still shop in the BAP storefront housed in a little red cottage just off Main Street. Notably, their merchandise has changed a little, with shelves now full of Big Agnes gear and Honey Stinger snacks (another company native to Steamboat).
Though Big Agnes gained fame for their backpacking sleeping bags, sleeping pads and tents, in 2013 they introduced a line of puffy jackets and vests. Why enter the super-saturated puffy market? Gamber and his team stumbled upon a vertical baffling system different from what was available at the time and knew they could bring something innovative to the world.
That “what if” spirit has always driven the Big Agnes team to push the outdoor industry’s limits. Another example: they’ve consistently broken weight records in the lightweight tent category, especially with their free-standing, two-person models.
“When we’ve introduced things, we’ve always had these barriers that we were challenged to break, and it wasn’t that we were trying to beat another company,” Gamber says. “We were just trying to beat ourselves.”
At its root, Big Agnes is just a bunch of grown-ups with a hankering for adventure. They happen to make gear — and frankly, they’re damn good at it — but the brand has always been tied to what fancies are tickling the team at the time. Just look at their product line, which started with one-person backpacking tents (when the team was made up of single men and women) and has expanded to four- and six-person “bunkhouses.”
“We started making family camping tents because we all started having families,” Gamber laughs. “The whole evolution of Big Agnes was just an extension of the people making the gear.”
Those people have stayed true to their passions and the town they call home. Though with real estate prices through the roof and limited land for warehousing, remaining in Ski Town U.S.A. isn’t without its challenges. But it’s worth it, Gamber says.
“Big Agnes is a part of Steamboat, and Steamboat is a part of us,” he adds. The brand itself is named after a 12,080-foot peak in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness just outside of town. “If we were to ever go anywhere, so much of that would be lost.”
As far as what’s on the horizon for this Western Colorado brand making world-changing gear, Gamber just grins and plays his cards close to his chest.
“We’ve got the foot on the gas, and we are definitely excited about pushing the limits on product development and expanding the distribution of Big Agnes,” he says. “We are more excited now than ever before.”
Originally published in the Summer 2021 issue