Look out glampers, the Martha Stewart of Camping is setting up her stylish camping kiosks at a town near you. Grasshaven Outdoor, a Boulder, Colorado start up company that believes “sophistication, comfort and homey living do have a place in the great outdoors” is expanding across North America.
Grasshaven is luring weekend camping families into the great outdoors by building 250 kiosks inside RV dealerships from coast-to-coast, then ultimately growing into Canada, according to BusinessDen.com, a Denver business news website. Founded by Dawn Bitz in 2013 with $300,000 in funding, the outdoor gear retailer for modern families has more than exceeded forecasts for sales of stylishly functional camping gear including vintage kitchen enamelware, LED candle lanterns and rustic picnic sets with coordinating wine glasses, plates and napkins.
“We are born to embrace nature. Grasshaven Outdoor is built to help you do it comfort and in style. With tools and know how on your side, it’s never been easier to bring home of-site and take your family out, out and away from it all.”
The company strives to provide a stylish selection of camping gear while trying to strike a balance between extraordinarily “frilly glamping” and practicality, reports Bitz. Targeting her contemporaries — busy moms with young children — Grasshaven selections include an outdoor kitchen that folds up into a suitcase and nature games to keep young ones occupied and enthralled with the outdoors.
A former medical device sales representative, Bitz had a brainstorm about the Grasshaven concept when she was shopping for a weekend camping excursion with her family. After discovering that Bass Pro and Cabella’s selections were “A little too Duck Dynasty for me,” and frustrating trips to REI that turned up nothing for the working mom going on an occasional camping trip, she told the Colorado SBDC that her fruitless attempts to find “outdoor gear with a little style and functionality” are what led her to quit her job and research the need for this type of gear.
Bitz had a hunch that if she was looking for outdoor gear that was somewhere between rugged and lavish, she figured other working moms with outdoorsy husbands probably wanted the same. Upon researching the feasibility of meeting this need inside the U.S.’ multi-billion dollar camping and RV housewares industry, Bitz worked with the Colorado SBDC to form a blossoming online and in-store retail business that now expects to exceed multimillion dollars sales revenues in 2015.
Grasshaven began as an online retailer but with new kiosks being installed inside RV dealerships across North America, an entirely new national audience will embrace the company’s goal of “getting the entire family outdoors to enjoy experiences that create lasting memories together.”
Visit http://grasshavenoutdoor.com/ to shop online or find a location near you.
Often called “The O.G. of full-time RVing,” Rene Agredano and her husband Jim Nelson hit the road in a fifth wheel trailer in 2007, after their dog Jerry lost a leg to terminal cancer. Sixteen years later they are still traveling and sharing their nomadic adventures at LiveWorkDream. As a self-employed wordsmith, Rene shares her expertise for many RV industry videos, publications such as the Escapees RV Club Magazine, and has authored numerous books, including the Essential RVing Guide to National Parks, and Income Anywhere, a guide to earning money on the road. She has been featured in global media outlets including the PBS documentary “NATURE: Why We Love Cats and Dogs,” The Guardian Sunday Edition, and the Dan Pink book Free Agent Nation.
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