NEMO Equipment Founder
Cam Brensinger
In 2012, Cam Brensinger, a graduate student, founded Dover-based NEMO Equipment, a company whose mission is to design and sustainably manufacture highquality, easy-to-use camping gear. (Courtesy photo)
The award-winning outdoor gear design and manufacturing company NEMO Equipment will celebrate its 20th anniversary in April. For founder and CEO Cam Brensinger, the journey began when he took a spring hike up Mt. Washington days before he was to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design.
“I didn’t check the weather,” he said. “It turned bad with high winds and blowing snow, and I dug myself into the side of the mountain.” He spent a miserable night wrapped up in a poorly designed bivvy, or bivouac sack.
The night was pivotal for Brensinger. Within days of his return, he was inspired to start Dover-based NEMO Equipment (New England Mountain Equipment, inspired by his love of the outdoors with a nod to the science fiction writer Jules Verne) to experiment, design and manufacture high-quality, easy-touse camping gear. The company’s unofficial motto is “Design like you give a damn,” and in the process of growing sales, products, brand awareness and staff — there are 45 NEMO employees — Brensinger admits, “We are a design and manufacturing company that happens to have a brand.”
NEMO has won scores of international and regional honors for its innovative designs and focus on sustainability. Last year, NEMO won three awards for its 100k Polybag Elimination Project — from NH Businesses for Social Responsibility, the GOOD Green Design Award from the Chicago Anthenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Popular Science magazine named its OSMO fabric as one of the greatest innovations of 2021. The composite weave is made from 100 percent recycled fabric without the use of harmful flame-retardant chemicals or fluorinated water repellents, like PFAS.
Q. What was the genesis of NEMO?
A. At Middlebury, I had a wide range of interests, including physics, creative writing and design. My father suggested product design, and when I arrived at RSDI it was manifest destiny for me. I was honored to be on the team for a joint project between RSDI and MIT to design biosuits for the Man Vehicle Laboratory (renamed the Human Systems Laboratory in 2018). I wanted to combine my passion for mountain and rock climbing with the best of innovative, cutting-edge designs for outdoor gear.
Q. Who buys your products?
A. That’s easy — outdoor enthusiasts who want the best equipment to give them the best adventure possible. We don’t sell into the mainstream, because that was never our goal. Our gear is found in more than 500 retailers in North America with companies like REI and Backcountry.com.
Q. How did the pandemic impact your business?
A. We’ve had challenges like every company, but we’ve been tremendously lucky in the sense that many have turned to outdoor adventures. The pandemic has brought 10 million more into the outdoors during the past two years. There was a Pew Research study that showed that outdoor activities were second only to television watching in popularity, and it seemed there was a fervor to find some peace of mind.
We are not alone, but the difficulty with supply chain issues were unlike any I’ve seen in my lifetime. It has transformed us to be even more flexible in a demanding environment. We source materials from around the world, and most of our sewing is done in the Pacific Rim. There were huge increases in shipping costs and the volatility that goes with it. An ocean ship container of gear cost us roughly $2,500 to move before the pandemic and $20,000 later.
Q. How have your sustainability efforts developed?
A. For many of us worried about climate change, we redoubled our efforts because the pandemic showed all the problems up and down the production system. It’s in the DNA of the company to make a difference.
There used to be no market for spending the extra money to take even small steps in packaging or materials in the supply chain. But that has changed in the last few years. We believe there is a growing interest in sustainability and a demand for accountability. We have a goal to cut our carbon footprint by half by 2030. We are constantly rethinking our designs and materials and seeking out lower carbon energy sources. The 100k Polybag Project came about due to the sheer volume of disposable virgin polybags in our packaging. We didn’t think as hard about it as we should have because everyone was doing it.
