Marmot is an

outdoor recreation Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activitie ...

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

and sporting goods company founded in 1974 as "Marmot Mountain Works".Marmot (2006)
Marmot's History
URL accessed March 12, 2007. The company was founded in

Grand Junction, Colorado Grand Junction is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 65,560 at the 2020 United States Census, making Grand Junction the 17th mos ...

by local resident Tom Boyce and two

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

students, David Huntley and Eric Reynolds, who shared the common goal of making their own mountaineering equipment. Two years prior to the founding of Marmot, Boyce secured an order for the climbing apparel used in the film ''

The Eiger Sanction ''The Eiger Sanction'' is a 1972 thriller novel by Trevanian, the pen name of Rodney William Whitaker. The story is about a classical art professor and collector who doubles as a professional assassin, and who is coerced out of retirement to ave ...

'' starring

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

, and Huntley made the original prototype gear that Boyce was using on the Wolper Productions/National Geographic documentary ''

Journey to the Outer Limits ''Journey to the Outer Limits'' is a 1973 American documentary film directed by Alexander Grasshoff. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. See also * List of American films of 1973 References External links *'' ...

'', about the

Colorado Outward Bound School Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...

. It was during this documentary production that cameraman Mike Hoover, who later worked on ''Eiger Sanction'', saw the equipment that Boyce was using during the portion filmed in Peru. Just prior to Christmas 1973, Mike Hoover called Boyce and placed the order that led to the formation of the company in Grand Junction. After Jarden was acquired by

Newell Rubbermaid Newell Brands is an American manufacturer, marketer and distributor of consumer and commercial products. The company's brands and products include Rubbermaid storage and trash containers; home organization and reusable container products; Contig ...

in 2016, Marmot was spun off from K2 and K2 Sports was sold to Kohlberg & Company in 2017. Marmot stayed with Newell.

History

Marmot, OutDoor 2018, Friedrichshafen (1X7A0308)

In 1976, Marmot ventured on another new business opportunity when Eric Reynolds met Joe Tanner of W. L. Gore & Associates. Within a couple of weeks, Marmot had sewn prototype sleeping bags using the then-new

Gore-Tex Gore-Tex is a waterproof, breathable fabric membrane and registered trademark of W. L. Gore & Associates. Invented in 1969, Gore-Tex can repel liquid water while allowing water vapor to pass through and is designed to be a lightweight, waterpr ...

fabric for field testing. Reynolds and Huntley spent seven nights in a commercial frozen meat locker comparing bags with and without the Gore-Tex fabric, as well as testing the bags under fire sprinklers. They were impressed by what they saw and changed everything in the Marmot line to Gore-Tex fabrications. Now based in

Rohnert Park, California Rohnert Park is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located approximately north of San Francisco. The population at the 2020 United States Census was 44,390. It is an early planned city and is the sister city of Hashimoto in ...

, Marmot is globally distributed and part of the

Newell Brands Newell Brands is an American manufacturer, marketer and distributor of consumer and commercial products. The company's brands and products include Rubbermaid storage and trash containers; home organization and reusable container products; Contig ...

References

External links

* Newell Brands Sporting goods retailers of the United States Clothing retailers of the United States Camping equipment manufacturers Mountaineering equipment manufacturers

Marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, w ...

Manufacturing companies based in California Retail companies based in California Rohnert Park, California American companies established in 1974 Clothing companies established in 1974 Manufacturing companies established in 1974 Retail companies established in 1974 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993 Companies based in Sonoma County, California 1974 establishments in California {{Backpacking-stub