As more businesses look for success in Colorado’s Grand Valley, Wiggy’s remains one of the mainstays of the region’s growing outdoor recreation industry
manufacturing
What’s Working: When the CHIPS Act, education and jobs come together in Colorado
The CHIPS Act rewards chipmakers that bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Colorado’s 2.8% unemployment rate, starter homes and more!
This trio of Colorado innovators is transforming the way we camp
Flated Air-Topper, Radica MoonLander and Tune M1 offer new designs for camper toppers on trucks
Young Jamin Wright could make anything from wood. It was harps that hit just the right note.
GRAND JUNCTION — Harps have a reputation that has a whole lot to do with chubby cupids and highbrow-hotel lobbies. Harp music is the Pearly Gates’ soundtrack. But inside a metal building tucked between a supply business and a laboratory in an industrial section of Grand Junction, it is quickly obvious that harps are also […]
What’s Working: Colorado’s blood-plasma industry grew by 170,000 square feet this week
A decline in global plasma donations during the pandemic has one Colorado company hoping to reverse the trend in order to help people with rare and chronic diseases. Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies opened a new manufacturing plant this week and plans to hire several hundred workers. But first, in economic news, two Colorado counties […]
Modular housing is getting a second look as Colorado confronts a lack of affordable homes
BUENA VISTA — Charlie Chupp deflects the perceived perfection of his timing. As housing and construction costs skyrocket in Colorado, creating a labor crisis that threatens tourism and building industries in mountain communities, Chupp is six months from opening a modular housing production facility capable of churning out two fully-built, ready-to-assemble homes a day. The […]
New function for Phunkshun masks weaves connections through Colorado’s cut-and-sew community
When the pandemic shutdown hit, Jason Badgley sent his 16 employees home and locked the doors at his newly expanded Phunkshun Wear manufacturing shop. Two weeks later on April 3, Gov. Jared Polis asked Coloradans to start wearing masks and slipped a custom-made covering over his face. The Phunkshun label was just below his right […]
Virtual happy hour, barbell rentals, DIY craft kits: Colorado businesses share their coronavirus survival strategies
At Project Rise Fitness in Denver this week, the gym began loaning out equipment in exchange for a cash deposit to keep members exercising at home — and cash flowing for the business. Over in Carbondale, Marble Distilling Co. is making hand sanitizer with its liquor and including a bottle with booze purchases, which is […]
Pueblo saw hemp as an economic opportunity, so it pounced with taxpayer dollars and hopes of growing big business
PUEBLO — In 2016, Steve Turetsky was looking to get into hemp, scouting around Colorado for the right place to build the farm he would use to feed the growing market for CBD. He needed cheap land, plenty of water and infrastructure for distribution. Pueblo had all of those things — and wanted his business. […]
China tariffs are translating into higher prices, strategic shifts for the outdoor industry. But “it’s not something you can do overnight.”
The ongoing tariff war is riling the outdoor industry, with gear makers and brands deploying a variety of strategies to handle the Trump administration’s plan to raise tariffs on more than $200 billion worth of Chinese-made products to 25% from 10%. The additional tariffs on things like backpacks, sports bags, ski gloves, kayaks, bikes, camp […]