We don’t
chase trends.
Switchback Supply started in a Bend garage in 2014 with one rule: build gear that survives the route, then earns a place in the pack. Ten years on, it’s still the only rule.
If it can’t survive a season, it doesn’t ship.
Most outdoor gear is designed in a studio and validated in a lab. Ours is designed for the gully storm and validated on the gully storm. We spec abrasion, waterproofing, and hardware to numbers — then send a crew out to break it.
- Abrasion
- 210D ripstop
- Waterproof
- 20K mm / 20K g
- Seams
- Bar-tacked
- Hardware
- Anodized alloy
Bench to summit, every piece.
- 01
Spec for the worst day
We start every design with the worst forecast on the route — the gully storm, the scree field, the sub-zero dawn — and over-build for it.
- 02
Prototype in the workshop
Patterns are cut, sewn, and stress-tested by hand in our Bend, OR workshop. Hardware gets pull-tested to failure before it earns a place.
- 03
Trail-test to failure
Every product spends a full season with our field crew across the Cascades, Sierra, and Rockies. If it breaks, it goes back to the bench.
- 04
Build it to repair
Seams are bar-tacked, zippers are replaceable, and panels are modular — so a tear on day three of a thru-hike is a field fix, not a write-off.
Send it back.
We fix it. You keep going.
A blown zipper or a torn panel isn’t the end of a piece of gear — it’s a repair ticket. Mail it in or hit a field-repair partner, and we’ll get it back on the trail.
Gear that
earns its place.
See what a decade of building-to-spec looks like on the trail.
