Area Businessman Gets Into Gear

Climbing, mountain biking and backpacking can be rugged sports. Selling gear for these high-tech-oriented sports is an even riskier business.

Success formulas in the industry are as tough to follow as game trails through the devil’s club.

Recreational Equipment, Inc., found its way nearly 60 years ago after six climbers pooled a few bucks to buy climbing gear.

In Spokane, Paul Fish began with a sewing machine as a pack maker, building his Mountain Gear business a stitch at time from a back room to a landmark on Division Street. More recently, Fish has pursued the competitive catalog market with even more impressive results.

Now there’s Brian Abrams, who has cashed in on blending mountaineering experience with combat requirements.

“I’m certainly not a designer,” said Abrams, 38, founder of the Spokane-based company Adventure Tech. “I’m an outdoors guy who’s logged a lot of mountain miles, and I know what gear works and what doesn’t.”

But instead of catering to the recreation market when he founded his company four years ago, Abrams zeroed in on the government.

“We are now the largest distributor of mountaineering equipment in the country for the U.S. Government,” he said.

A decade ago, America’s military forces were confronting the enemy with equipment that was grossly inferior to the gear college kids were wearing in the North Cascades.

Thanks in part to Abrams, U.S. special forces go into the field nowadays with stateof-the-art rain gear, packs, clothing, tents, sleeping bags and bivy sacks.

His secret: “I recognized that tech manuals are the bible to the military,” Abrams said. Instead of scoffing at the bureaucracy, he embraced the concept.

“Integral Designs is a household name for the Navy Seals,” he said. “Our SF Elite expedition pack is standard issue for them. They wear our one-piece fleece body suits and sleep in our Gore-Tex bivy bags.”

Don’t be confused. Abrams owns two companies.

Adventure Tech is a three-person operation that fills several million dollars worth of government orders for high-tech gear. The gear comes from top-of-the-line manufacturers, such as Mountain Safety Research, Black Diamond, Camp High, Cascade Designs and Feathered Friends, and goes to agencies ranging from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Air Force paratroopers.

Shortly after starting Adventure Tech, Abrams huddled out a storm with a backpacker in British Columbia who suggested he take more control of his manufacturing. That backpacker happened to own a tiny Canadian company called Integral Designs, which had a cult following and a reputation for quality sleeping bags and tents.

Within a year, Abrams owned the Integral’s Calgary manufacturing plant. Then he opened another in Spokane.

Abrams now can tap his own company to fill some of the orders, including the recent request for fleece jackets from the Israeli military. He’s currently integrating performance design into chemical warfare suits for the British.

Integral Designs, with 30 employees in Spokane, also caters to recreation markets. Mail-order giant L.L. Bean recently ordered 6,000 custom designed sleeping bags, Abrams said.

“It’s amazing, the scope of what we do - we make 30,000 Gore-Tex jackets alone in Spokane - and nobody knows we’re here.”

But that’s about to change.

Saturday at 9 a.m., Abrams will open a tiny retail outlet in his factory at 4124 N. Burns Road in the Spokane Valley.

“This won’t be the place to come if you want something immediately,” he said. “You can choose from our showroom and request custom sizing. But delivery won’t be for one to four weeks.”

Judging from Abrams’ other business dealings, a tiny retail outlet will be little more than a pimple on his bottom line.

So why bother with the additional hassle?

“Because I want to be a pseudo philanthropist in this area,” he said. “I’m going to sell the high-end gear we manufacture cheaper than any other major manufacturer.”

Abrams said Integral Designs has stayed with American labor rather than following most outdoor gear manufacturers overseas, where labor rates are cheap.

“The company make less money,” he said. “That’s all.”

The outlet will give Spokane the first look at the factory’s innovative performance gear, such as a cycling jersey so new it hasn’t been named, and what Abrams calls “the lightest Gore-Tex rain suit on the planet.

“I want a cult following,” he said. “I don’t want to be obscure anymore. That’s why I’m opening this store.”

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Rich Landers by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5508.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review