Welcome to episode 112 of the first 40 miles.

If you're new to backpacking, or if you're hopelessly in love with someone who wants you to love backpacking,

then this podcast is for you. We'll talk about the essentials, how to lighten your load, and how to make the most of your time on the trail. I'm your host Heather Legler. And I Josh Legler and this is the first 40 miles.

Today on the first 40 miles, Create the Outdoor innovators episode.

If you've ever had a great idea for a piece of outdoor gear,

we'll share some stories today that will help to inspire you

to take the next step. This episode will feature the creative minds behind some

up and coming outdoor gear companies. Then on our top five list you'll learn the

basic steps for how to coax more great ideas out of your

head and turn those ideas into the next big thing.

All this, and that's about it. Today on the first 40 miles.

For today's episode we are veering way off the trail and what we did was we had some really great

conversations with three outdoor innovators that we admire and we picked their brains and got some really great

information that we wanted to share with our first 40-milers about how to take an

idea in your head and turn it into something that you can start

testing out on the trail. So let's jump right in with our interviews. Our first

interview is with Shelly from Eglow, and I love the way that she talks about how she came up with her ideas.

Shelly, can you tell us a little bit about Echlow and what Echlow makes for outdoors.

So Echlow, our name is the acronym for our tagline, Escape Civilization, Live Outdoors. We just wanted to help ourselves and others

get back outdoors. So we make survival kits and high performance outdoor gear. I believe that in nature it shouldn't be like a fashion show. It shouldn't be something where you're having to log along a bunch of different things. It should be

simple yet sophisticated in that the simplest version can also create a way for you

to innovate in your own ways.

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