Kifaru moving to WY

fngTony

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Most of them per the podcasts but not quite all. As you can imagine it is harder for some to move away from Colorado. Kids and family the biggest:


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It would be extremely hard for me all things considered. Now I’m sure some of their older employees are sitting on a a huge amount of equity in their home in Colorado. They could very realistically clear 200k+ profit from selling here then buy in Wyoming at almost no mortgage and assuming they keep their pay rate it’s a huge increase in how far their checks go.
 
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I’m sure they have good reasons. Even if they aren’t good reasons, it’s their choice . I have a bit a kifaru gear and have gone through all of their packs several times over…… and it’s was cool meeting / hiking with them before they got famous/big. That duplex frame was my first high end frame and it’s saved my back! It is cool that you can just go over and check things out. I still remember my first stop over at their shop/warehouse and having Patrick smith come down to say hi. I hope they keep some kind of foot print down here but it’s cool that they are to the point of needing the extra space.


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307

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307

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I was very surprised by this:

"Kifaru relies “heavily” on home sewers who can craft military-grade backpacks, shelters and other equipment, she explained, though in the future, the company would like to develop its own “cut and sew” operation so all of the work can be done in-house."

I guess I had just assumed that Kifaru made their own stuff in house rather than "home sewers".

I was also surprised at the $80k incentive. I thought it would be many multiples of that to get Kifaru into Fremont county.

Sounds like July is when things will be open at least in some capacity in Riverton.
 
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It’s a bummer I don’t drive through Riverton for work anymore. Whenever I drove up to Cody I’d make a stop in Rocky Mountain Discount Sports. Kifaru might have added a second place to stop 😉

I’ll have to take the bike for a spin over south pass this summer to check them out. Gotta see the Maven store too.
 

HOT ROD

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I am clad kifaru are moving to Wyoming now Ill have a excuse to drive to Riverton and from what I am here Maven is building a bigger facility in Lander...
 
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Of all the reasons to leave Colorado I guess real estate cost is a decent one, but I hate to see a good company leave - especially one that is long established in the state. At least there are several other good Colorado based businesses like HPG and Seek Outside, including some that even do their manufacturing in state like SO.
 

conley417

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“Other Kifaru fans might come to town for wilderness survival lessons from company president Aron Snyder, who “has his own following,” Roberts said.”

Is Aron starting a cult?? I might be interested
 

IdahoElk

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Another reason to chuckle when the Wyo residents talk about "I pay taxes here".
Huh?
No state income tax
No sales tax on groceries
No sales tax on prescriptions
No tax on retirement income
Property tax is one of the 10 lowest in the country.

I guess they mean the beer tax.

Things might have to change when the door is slammed on the last coal mine unless they can hit those wind farms but Wyoming is one of the most tax friendly states in the country.
Your post alone will have people flooding the state from Cali
 

SWOHTR

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I was very surprised by this:

"Kifaru relies “heavily” on home sewers who can craft military-grade backpacks, shelters and other equipment, she explained, though in the future, the company would like to develop its own “cut and sew” operation so all of the work can be done in-house."

I guess I had just assumed that Kifaru made their own stuff in house rather than "home sewers".

I was also surprised at the $80k incentive. I thought it would be many multiples of that to get Kifaru into Fremont county.

Sounds like July is when things will be open at least in some capacity in Riverton.
A lot of businesses use contract seamsters/seamstresses/sewers/whatever the term is.
 

307

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A lot of businesses use contract seamsters/seamstresses/sewers/whatever the term is.
That sounds reasonable, but for some reason I had just assumed that Kifaru made their stuff in house.

I'm sure it's a very different scenario but I don't expect that Swaro has a bunch of home based binocular builders, or Weatherby has their production subcontracted, or whatever other luxury/high end company I can think of subcontracts their production to off site, home based entities.

In my mind, Kifaru HQ was some sort of Snyder's Workshop that smells of Copenhagen and Peanut Butter Whiskey where bald headed cult members, er, "employees" produced magical backpacks from American unobtanium between breaks to read from the Book of Snyderism's.

Turns out I was wrong...
 

SWOHTR

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That sounds reasonable, but for some reason I had just assumed that Kifaru made their stuff in house.

I'm sure it's a very different scenario but I don't expect that Swaro has a bunch of home based binocular builders, or Weatherby has their production subcontracted, or whatever other luxury/high end company I can think of subcontracts their production to off site, home based entities.

In my mind, Kifaru HQ was some sort of Snyder's Workshop that smells of Copenhagen and Peanut Butter Whiskey where bald headed cult members, er, "employees" produced magical backpacks from American unobtanium between breaks to read from the Book of Snyderism's.

Turns out I was wrong...

That’s funny right there.
 
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