Hi everybody. I'm Sam Shaheen and you're listening to Gear 30 on the Blister Podcast Network.

We've seen a huge surge in the prevalence of lightweight gear in the past decade, but Mystery Ranch remains one of the few

holdouts, refusing to sacrifice durability for weight. Perhaps this is because of their long history

of working with the U.S. military, fire departments, and law enforcement. Or perhaps it's because

of the unique culture at Mystery Ranch. For example, every product designer on their staff started on the

sewing floor. One of those product designers is Alex Rich. I sat down with Alex to discuss what it's

like to design packs for U.S. Special Forces, how their military designs trickle down to outdoor packs,

and vice versa, how their design ethos reflects their sustainability culture,

and much more. So here it is, my conversation with Alex Rich.

So today we are talking with Alex Rich from Mystery Ranch. How are you doing today, Alex? Doing all right. How's quarantine treating

you? You know, it hasn't been too bad this far, thanks to some of our DOD contracts and some of the

stuff we've been doing for the medical community here locally in Bozeman. It's allowed Mr. Ranch to stay open and kind of

function on a skeleton crew, so I've still been going in at least part of the day every day. So

quarantine hasn't been too terrible yet. Wow, I am so jealous. I've been in my house for

almost three weeks straight now. And I'm running out of food. So tomorrow I think is a grocery

store day, which I'm so excited for, but it's the little things.

Reset the clock, man. Yeah, I've been kind of doing occasional calls to our sales team and some

of our marketing staff that's just been primarily working from home. Just check it in to make

sure they're still sane and still with us.

So to start off, can you tell us a little bit about your background in the outdoor industry

and how you ended up with your current role at Mystery Ranch and what your current role at Mystery Ranch is?

Yeah, sure.

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