By Devin Steele

 

Posted July 21, 2015

 

DURHAM, N.C. –Ryan Stolp probably never dreamed of being in the textile industry. But then again, while in middle school, he did take it upon himself to knit a few fleece caps for friends as Christmas gifts.

 

“My mom still laughs about that,” he said.

 

Indeed, after earning a college degree in ergonomics and usability, he finds himself enmeshed in textiles – or, as is often the case, enveloped in a high-tech hammock he designed, developed and delivered to fellow outdoors enthusiasts.

 

At 26, Stolp owns two companies that produce textile products. Alpine Hammock manufactures hammocks exclusively, while Deep South Mountaineering provides a myriad of outdoor gear, including hammocks, but lacks a “flagship” product. Both companies were launched about the same time in 2012, but have taken divergent paths and have different strategic goals.

 

We’ll focus here on Alpine Hammock, a company that has enjoyed great success through the new media realm of crowdfunding. Through two Kickstarter campaigns, the company has raised more than $67,000 to fund start-up efforts that include the manufacture of around 160 hammocks. Nearly 500 “backers,” as Kickstarter calls supporters, donated to the project and received in return a prototype hammock that they could test and provide feedback on.

 

And this isn’t just any ol’ hangable hammock. It’s a lightweight, weatherproof, bug-proof, breathable combination hammock, bivy sack and tent – all rolled into one. This unique product was developed, in part, through Stolp’s longtime love of the outdoors, dating back to his Boy Scouts days.

 

He and Alpine co-founder Mike Brown saw a need for something new and different for the outdoor market, and the idea blossomed.

 

“We asked ourselves, ‘why hasn’t anyone done this before?’ ” Stolp said. “Hammock camping is explosively popular now, and with these, you can set it up from the trees or on the ground, depending on the weather and the terrain or your preference. And, when it’s hanging, you can actually sit sideways on it to enjoy the view. You get a lot of versatility out of it.

 

“No one else sells a shelter that can do both well (be set up in trees or on the ground),” he added. “It was designed that way from the get go.”

 

The product was so unparalleled in the industry that the company was sued by a larger outdoor company for patent infringement on a particular part of the hammock, its spreader apparatus. That called for a redesign that led to another Kickstarter campaign and served to only improve the product, Stolp said.

 

The journey has been long and tedious for Stolp, much like the time he hiked the first quarter of the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Virginia – but he’s learned plenty about running a business and the textile industry, along with how to overcome the roadblocks along the way. And he’s beginning to see the seeds of success begin to bear fruit.

 

“One of the things about Ryan that impressed me was the comeback he’s made and the tenacity he has to get this thing to market,” said Dr. Trevor Little, professor of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management at N.C. State’s College of Textiles, who worked with Stolp on prototyping and sampling the product. “When someone throws a patent book (lawsuit) at you, it takes a bit of creativity to overcome that. He showed a lot of tenacity to do that by redesigning it and starting a new Kickstarter campaign. There’s a certain drive in Ryan. You don’t see that very often. A lot of people in that early stage just give up. He didn’t.”

 

‘Kickstarting’ the project

 

Stolp carried his love for all things outdoors to Tufts University in Boston. He took a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) course and a mountaineering course in college, which launched his interest in climbing and extreme outdoor activities, he said. His senior project was on the mountaineering backpack, which covered ergonomics and led him to buy a sewing machine and learn how to sew from YouTube in order to design the “perfect” backpack.

 

He and his fellow enthusiasts started a club for ice climbers that featured an annual event called VICEFEST (Vertical Ice Climbing Enthusiasts). That’s where he met Brown, who approached him with an idea.

 

“He said, ‘Ryan, I know you know how to sew,” Stolp recalled. “Can you help me with this idea I have to take to Kickstarter?”

 

So, as a recent college graduate who was working the summer as a wilderness ranger in the Pisgah National Forest in Western North Carolina, Stolp designed and sewed the first hammock prototypes using bed sheets and old tent parts. Meanwhile, Brown worked on the business development and marketing side of the business, which included putting the product on Kickstarter. During the “First Tier” phase, in which larger donors could pay for the right to get one of the first hammocks, beta test and provide feedback, they made 15 different samples.

 

“That was an awesome phase of our project because we got feedback from users who were excited about it, knowing that it’s a new product and wanted to be a part of it,” he said. “And that feedback totally changed our product. We realized we needed a lot more ventilation. So we went back to the drawing board and completely redid all the patterns. We added vents above the face and on either end because the First Tier users said condensation was a big problem.

 

“From a manufacturing perspective, it allowed me to understand the pain points in production and to document the construction more accurately before jumping into the full 60 (hammocks),” he added.

 

Kickstarter allowed the pair to get the necessary funding for product development and to create economies of scale, Stolp said. The goal of Kickstarter campaigns is to get some financial leverage up front and move an idea into a sustainable business, Stolp said.

 

During the one-month campaign, 362 backers pledged $42,915 for the project, surpassing its goal of $40,000.

 

After the campaign, Brown, who lives in Boston, took on a lesser role in the business but remains a minority stakeholder. He has since started another outdoor gear company and stays in touch with Stolp on regular basis to talk strategy.

 

The manufacturing learning curve

 

Stolp’s first potential manufacturer backed out of the project a week before he was to leave for a five-week mountain climbing foray in Kyrgyzstan. So he went to the Internet and found Maker’s Row, a factory sourcing company. From there, he sent about a dozen emails and heard back from a handful. And one was only an hour away from his Durham home, in Sanford, N.C.

 

Stolp met Terry Earle of Hawk Distributors in a park in Raleigh, N.C. for a demonstration of the product and a discussion. And Earle agreed to sample some of the products from a prototype in time for the Outdoor Retailer Show in Utah.

 

Earle founded his company in 2012 after having worked with a furniture manufacturer for nearly 10 years after a military career. Hawk Distributors specializes in product development and cut and sew for many soft goods. One of his big goals is to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., Earle said.

 

When Stolp returned to the States, he drove to Sanford to see the first samples and help guide production of additional hammocks in the early stages. With a background in illustration, Stolp was able to draw designs and instructions quickly to assist the sewers/assemblers.

“On these hammocks, the design pieces have to fit together just right,” Earle said. “Ryan worked with my sewers to make sure they understand every piece of it. We had to make a few changes on the fly because of the difference in his machine and an industrial-type machine. There was a little bit of a learning curve.”

 

Also, because the nylon fabrics are coated in order to have waterproof properties, sewing the pieces was another challenge, Stolp said.

 

“Our product is so different than the fabrics you typically use,” he said. “It takes a lot of know-how to cut it right and get the sewing machines to feed it well because it will stretch and pull sometimes, and it’s really slippery on itself. Some of the larger outdoor companies have set really high standards for quality, so we have to have those same standards. Sewing it is difficult and, if you get off your stitch, you can’t just cut the seam out and sew it again because then it has punctures and won’t be rainproof.”

 

Earle used his connections at N.C. State to help work through some of those production issues. He contacted Little, who brought in fabrics to sample on Lectra software and cutting equipment.

 

“It also was very interesting working on a product that is very precise,” Little said. “Because these fabrics were coated, all the things had to go together very well. The material demanded accuracy.”

 

On its industrial equipment, N.C. State helped fine-tune some of the designs so they would fit together and, through several iterations, developed patterns that were scanned digitally and sent to Hawk Distributors to use for production.

 

Another challenge for Stolp has been finding materials with certain high-tech properties, he said. He gets much of the waterproof, breathable fabrics through DIY supply sites that serve cottage industries, but also buys some from large companies with factory overruns of that type of fabric. For that reason, he can’t always use the same color on each hammock, he said.

 

“We’d love to lock in with a consistent supply but it’s really hard,” he said.

 

Stolp continues to use Hawk Distributors for prototyping, shipping and handling some runs, and has also contracted some cutting production to Fox Apparel in Asheboro, N.C.

 

“Terry has been a great partner,” Stolp said. “He’s been very transparent and, as a small businessman, he’s very eager to have involvement from the client if that makes things more efficient or just a better end product.”

 

Likewise, Earle said Stolp “has great ideas and is very easy to work with.”

 

Back to the drawing board

 

With things proceeding nicely as pre-orders rolled in and almost reaching at a point of sustainability, Alpine Hammock was sued in February 2014 for patent infringement on the “dynamic hammock spreader apparatus,” a bendable pole that holds up the hammock/bivy sack.

 

“That was super frustrating because we really felt like we had gotten to the end of the race and we had to go running again,” he said.

 

So Stolp was forced to completely redesign the mechanism. He went back to Kickstarter to fund the project to overhaul the new support system. In the redesign, he changed from a pole on a single arc to a tri-pole – which, as it turns out, works better, he said.

 

“The three-way pole allows it to set up on the ground completely freestanding because it has three points of contact now,” he said. “The redesign allowed us to revise our patterns and cut out places where it was pulling or wrinkling. It’s pretty three-dimensional and is pretty taut. These little tweaks worked great and offered an opportunity to create a better product. And, it’s easier to put together.”

 

Indeed, being sued ended up being a blessing in disguise, Stolp said.

 

“There was a silver lining in it,” he said. “I’m a little flattered that I got sued because I’m just a dude who makes this little hammock for Kickstarter and this big company was threatened by our product, which weighs less than theirs, is more useful than theirs, has more usable features and is an authentic story that supports what people want to do outside.”

 

Stolp also leveraged the redesign as an opportunity to expand its sourcing, particularly for bulk items, he said. He buys some items not readily available in the U.S. from other countries, but more than 95 percent of the product’s components are made in America, he said.

 

Last fall, Alpine Hammock’s second month-long campaign was launched with the goal of raising $20,000 – and it generated $24,264 from 135 backers. During the first week of the campaign, the project was named a “Top Tech Pick,” meaning it was getting a lot of traffic and early donations. He is currently fulfilling orders from the campaign.

 

One of the things Stolp likes about Kickstarter is the connectivity it brings to likeminded people.

 

“It’s a very personal process,” he said. “I get emails all the time from people, and I keep them informed through updates on the (Kickstarter) website. We’ve had backers from all over the world and from people with all different backgrounds. Some people had never hammock camped. We’ve had Navy SEALS, we’ve had some first-time campers and outdoors people interested in it and people who see it as an opportunity to not commit to one type of shelter or one kind of activity.”

 

What’s next?

 

With the last Kickstarter orders being shipped, Stolp has been working on a large marketing campaign to try to expand the business. Without the benefit of additional Kickstarter funds going forward, a potential big hurdle is getting financial resources for a big production order, he said.

 

“The goal is getting enough buzz, energy and pre-orders that will allow us to get that line of credit from a bank,” he said.

 

Creating “buzz” is often serendipitous, he has learned. For instance, two Alpine Hammocks are currently being used by participants in the Mongol Rally, a 10,000-mile motoring trek that takes participants from England to Mongolia through mountains, desert and steppe.

 

“We’re really trying to tell our story and sell people on the outdoor adventure,” Stolp said.

 

Since our interview, Stolp moved to Wyoming to help friends with a start-up company – and, he admitted, to explore more of the great outdoors.

 

“I’m moving there so I can hike and climb a lot, too, but that can help my business,” he said. “My experience in the mountains totally affects the business and, when it comes down to manufacturing, as a designer and a person teaching sewers and a person delivering product, I find there are little things that I think about inherently from my outdoor adventures. Like, say, ‘I need a zipper pole that I can use with gloves.’ The sewers are putting things together, but they’re not thinking about it the way I am. That’s a big part of why I’m involved and that’s a big part of why I think it’s important to be using my product and doing things.”