Real Talk with Cam Brensinger
TFK Kid Reporter Disha Rai interviewed Cam Brensinger, the founder and CEO of outdoor brand NEMO Equipment. Brensinger launched NEMO in 2002, when he was 26. Since then, he has turned NEMO into an award-winning brand known for its focus on sustainability. NEMO’s new Endless Promise collection, which includes sleeping bags and backpacks, was featured on TIME’s 2024 Best Inventions list.
Read the transcript below, which has been edited for length and clarity, to learn about Brensinger’s career in his own words.
NEMO is focused on sustainability. Has it been hard to stick to your values as the company has gotten bigger?
There has been no challenge in maintaining our integrity. In fact, it’s really the opposite. In the 23 years I’ve been in our industry, it’s matured in a lot of ways. Forty years ago, the outdoor industry was mostly very small companies run by founders who were really passionate about rock climbing and mountaineering and kayaking—all the outdoor sports. In the last 20 years, a lot of those founders have gotten to retirement age and have sold their businesses. These days, there are a lot more large corporations or investor-owned companies. Because of that—since NEMO is still a family-owned business, and still operates like a small, founder-led company—our retail partners really appreciate us. The fact that we try to treat people well and focus on making innovative products, focus on sustainability—we get a lot of credit for [these]. It has really paid off to have strong values and to stick to our integrity.
What’s a product you’re especially proud of?
Our Stargaze chair. It’s a chair designed to be the ultimate chair for a campfire. It actually was, as best [as] we can tell, the first chair ever made that is portable, swings, and automatically reclines when you lean back. It’s a lot of fun to sit in it, because you can kind of swing like you’re in a hammock.
Making a unique chair is a pretty big challenge for a designer, because humans have been thinking about chairs for a very long time. In fact, when we started that project, we gave ourselves a little history lesson. We did a bunch of research into chair design all the way back to ancient Egypt, and found some really wonderful and innovative designs thousands of years old.
How do you recharge—as a leader and as a team?
It’s important for mental health to keep some balance in life, and to spend time outdoors and have adventures. But it’s also really important [in] our business, because it’s impossible to design great products without experiencing that product like a consumer would. So we make it a priority to have a lot of outdoor adventures. Our product and marketing teams [recently] did a three-day backpacking trip.
What changes do you hope to see in the outdoor industry?
I hope that our industry can be successful in creating demand for sustainability. Our industry ultimately depends on having healthy people and a healthy planet. It’s a challenge, in many cases, to get consumers to invest in a product that is significantly better for the planet. Usually, [sustainability] comes with additional costs. I’m hoping that’s something we’ll achieve: getting the customer to really value sustainability the way I believe all humans should.
If you could go back and give your 26-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?
When I started NEMO, there was so much I didn't know. My first business plan for NEMO said that we would be profitable in six months. In reality, it took about a decade. I started the company with very few dollars, and in the end, we had to raise investment a number of times in order to grow the company.
It’s tempting to say that I’d love to go back in time and know then what I know now. But on the other hand, it wouldn’t have been an adventure if that were true. I think a mistake that a lot of people make is trying to plan out every detail of a trip before they undertake the journey.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
