Since 2001, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce has recognized local companies launching innovative products, practices or processes with its annual Spirit of Innovation award. The award's announcement during the city's annual Startup Week moved online this year, highlighting three groundbreaking businesses that have found creative ways to thrive during a challenging time. Here is one of this year's finalists:
Six guys and six days of fly fishing and motorcycle riding in North Georgia.
That was the plan. A good plan it was.
Until the rain dropped in.
"It was essentially a monsoon," Chris Loizeaux says. "So what you ended up with is six dudes in a cabin with maybe an hour or two max every day to where it would calm down enough for us to go out and run on a mission like fish or ride."
Mainly, though, they sat inside, playing cards, tying a few fishing flies, drinking beer, "maybe a little guitar in the corner," he says.
Loizeaux and Nick Rader met on that not-so-fun-filled trip in May 2018 and found a common bond when the conversation turned to outdoor gear. Both have extensive experience out yonder, so they knew what they liked and what they didn't. They were especially unimpressed with the quality of the pants available for outdoor pursuits.
"Essentially, we had a bunch of gripes and then we changed it from complaints about our different gear to, 'Well, what's the solution?'" Loizeaux says.
The solution was their creation of Trekka Traveler Pants, which have the features Loizeaux and Rader want and ditches the stuff they don't.
Produced by their company, Trekka Designs, and officially launched last January, the pants are full of outdoor cred. They're made from sustainable materials, wick moisture away from the body and dry quickly, resist stains and odors, and even have bug repellent in them.
The fabric stretches, has useful pockets in useful places, and instead of a button to hold them closed, a magnet snaps them shut and, for more comfort, releases slightly when sitting down.
A mechanical engineer by trade, Rader came up with the magnet idea. In his career, he has designed bulldozers, tractors and other pieces of heavy equipment. Designing pants was a different challenge but, at its core, they're just another type of engineering, he says.
"It's the same process whether it's a bulldozer or a pair of pants: Identify which materials you need that have the properties you want. Go with the shape. Find the supplier. Talk to the supplier."
The former owner of Track Outfitters in Red Bank, Loizeaux's background is in graphic design, which fits snugly with Rader's skills.
Photography by Trekka Designs / Trekka co-founder Chris Loizeaux wears the company's crowd-funded Travelers Pants."I've been a graphic designer, product designer, in the outdoor industry for the last 20 years, so I brought, you know, the aesthetics and stuff," Loizeaux says. "I wanted something that looked classy enough to be out, but not being pants that look like they should be on a kid."
The knowledge of what's needed and what's not in the Travelers Pants springs from their own experiences in the wild, Loizeaux says.
"Weird adventures, you know?"
Rader's suggestions for the Traveling Pants came directly from his "weird adventure." In 2011, he and a friend climbed on motorcycles in South Africa and headed north on a six-month trip to Norway. He says he made his biggest mistake even before the cycles revved up.
"I spent a lot of time picking out the motorcycle gear and, after going on that trip I realized that the clothing I'd chosen was miserable," he says. "I geeked out on the motorcycle stuff and didn't geek out enough on the clothing."
With the success of Trekka Pants - 700 pairs sold in 38 countries to the tune of more than $100,000 - Loizeaux and Rader have completed designs for their next project: The Trekka Element Jacket. It has the same characteristics as Traveling Pants, plus a few tweaks, including the ability to prevent campfire sparks from burning a hole in the fabric.
Want the pants?
Travelers Pants are available on the Trekka Designs website at trekkadesigns.com and at The Hatch Outfitters at 3227 Brainerd Road.
The fundraising campaign for the jacket begins Nov. 10 on Kickstarter and Indiegogo and runs 45 days. Their campaign for the Travelers Pants were held on the same crowdfunding websites and they raised $76,396. They hope to hit six figures for the Element Jacket, Loizeaux says.
It's a daunting task to be a small business in an industry filled with name-brand bruisers such as Patagonia, North Face and L.L. Bean, but Loizeaux compares Trekka to the microbrewery industry that's erupted nationwide in the past decade.
"There's different flavor; there's different takes on things. There's a little bit more creativity involved. And that's a really exciting place to be. We feel like we're a small microbrewery for outdoor apparel."
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Photography by Trekka Designs / Trekka co-founder Nick Rader wears the company's prototype Traveler Shorts, coming Spring of 2021.