Osprey Packs, a 47-year-old pack maker in Cortez, has sold to publicly traded consumer company Helen of Troy for $414 million. It’s the latest in a growing list of out-of-state, publicly traded companies buying Colorado outdoor businesses since last year. Compass Diversified spent $454 million to buy Denver-based Boa Technology last fall, marking one of […]
Boa Technology
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Economy, Housing, News, Outdoors
Big Agnes started by sketching plans on beer-stained napkins. 20 years later, the gear company is a local hero.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Bill Gamber, co-owner, co-founder and president of tent, sleeping bag—and now, pack—maker Big Agnes, stoops over and picks up an empty Diet Coke can from a willow bush next to the bike path, just a block away from the company’s new headquarters. It’s a small gesture, really, but one that’s symbolic of […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider
“Outdoor Business Town USA”: Steamboat Springs has become a proving ground for outdoor innovation
With more than 90 and counting, Steamboat Springs is well known as a breeding ground for Olympians. But it’s also just as fertile an environment for outdoor businesses, nurturing them with all the right ingredients to succeed. Forget its snappy “Ski Town USA” moniker. How about “Outdoor Business Town USA”? Somehow, a veritable Who’s Who […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider
After vanquishing the shoelace, Denver-based Boa Technology sells for $454 million
Gary Hammerslag remembers more than 20 years ago watching snowboarders and hockey players struggling with shoelaces. He was new to Colorado and snowboarding back then, a recent transplant from Southern California, where he had created and sold a company that made the hairlike wires doctors threaded through clogged veins during angioplasty procedures. As the athletes […]