Latest / Jeep Talk Show / The Fastest Setup Tent on the Market!

Transcript

The Fastest Setup Tent on the Market! · Jeep Talk Show

0:00
(upbeat music)
0:04
Hi, D.O. boys and girls,
0:05
it's time for another
0:06
G Talk Show interview.
0:07
We're gonna be talking with Rob.
0:08
Rob has been at Gazelle
0:10
Tents for the past seven years,
0:11
serving as brand manager
0:13
and director of marketing.
0:14
A key leader at Artisam,
0:16
the company behind Gazelle,
0:17
Rob has helped grow
0:18
the brand's reputation
0:20
for innovation, pre-assembled hub tents
0:23
and portable gazebos that
0:26
set up in under 90 seconds.
0:27
Rob, why do women like gazebos so bad?
0:30
So much, is it novels,
0:33
those romance novels?
0:34
I don't know.
0:36
You know what I'm
0:36
talking about though, right?
0:37
I know what you're talking about.
0:39
Yeah, I think it's just
0:40
getting out of the elements,
0:42
having a little bit of a
0:45
retreat from harsh winds
0:47
and blazing slimes.
0:50
They like that geometric shape though,
0:52
so it's confusing to me.
0:54
It's cool, I mean, I don't care,
0:55
I just find it interesting.
0:57
I tell you, it really lends itself to
0:59
conversations, right?
1:00
I mean, getting people together
1:01
and talking around the fire and stuff.
1:03
So yeah, that's a big part of it.
1:07
All right, so Gazelle's rugged designs,
1:09
especially the popular T3X
1:11
and the T4 Overland models
1:13
are favorites among Jeep
1:15
owners and Overlanders.
1:16
They offer spacious
1:18
interiors with standup headroom.
1:20
I think that's important too.
1:21
You never like to have to crouch down,
1:23
especially if you're six foot or over.
1:26
Pack down compact enough to
1:27
fit in the back of a Wrangler
1:29
and deliver fast, reliable shelter
1:31
for everything from weekend car camping
1:33
to serious off-road adventures.
1:36
You can learn more about Gazelle tents
1:37
just simply by going
1:38
over to gazelletents.com.
1:42
All right, Rob, you got a tent.
1:43
I think everybody wants a tent.
1:46
Some people like to have
1:47
it attached to their Jeep,
1:49
but that has a problem with storage
1:52
and you may want to use your like a
1:54
gladiator, for example,
1:56
you might actually want to use it to
1:57
carry something around
1:58
in the bed of the truck.
1:59
And this seems to be a way
2:00
of having a place to stay,
2:02
which how often do you
2:03
have to have a place to stay?
2:04
I mean, you get in trouble occasionally
2:06
and you have an option of
2:07
the couch or the tent, right?
2:09
Right, exactly.
2:10
Well, the big thing about it too is that,
2:12
you can set up your base
2:13
camp, leave for the day
2:15
and not have to pack up
2:16
your sleeping arrangements.
2:18
Kind of stake your spot and get off
2:20
to do what you went
2:21
for in the first place.
2:23
And the speed of
2:24
execution of assembling it,
2:26
that's the key to it all.
2:28
Because nobody goes out to set up a tent.
2:32
That's the least favorite part of it.
2:34
Especially if it's windy and rainy
2:36
and that can be quite cumbersome.
2:39
What do you guys recommend
2:40
if you are in a windy, rainy environment?
2:42
I mean, you can be really sleepy,
2:43
really tired from the
2:44
long trip to getting there.
2:46
Do you recommend not setting it up
2:48
until maybe the
2:48
weather gets a little better?
2:50
I tell you what, it's fine
2:52
if you have a couple of people do it
2:53
so one person can hold it
2:55
while the other one starts popping out
2:56
the walls and stuff.
2:57
But really the biggest thing is that
2:59
if you're setting up at
3:00
windy, rainy conditions,
3:02
check your location first, right?
3:03
You don't wanna set up in a low spot.
3:05
Yeah.
3:06
(laughs)
3:06
And then the second--
3:08
Are you feeling damp?
3:09
Did you pee yourself?
3:10
What's going on here?
3:12
(laughs) The second part of it is if you stake off
3:15
and tie off to the hubs,
3:17
that's gonna set your walls
3:19
against the strongest winds.
3:20
I mean, we've had them
3:21
out at some overland expos
3:23
where the winds have
3:24
reached excess of 55 miles an hour
3:26
and they've done just fine.
3:27
I was gonna ask you about
3:28
that high wind situation.
3:30
Yeah, this was
3:32
originally developed by RSM
3:35
in the hunting and ice fishing divisions.
3:39
And so they're meant to take
3:41
a lot of the elements, right?
3:43
So we saw people
3:44
actually camping and sleeping
3:46
in our ice fishing
3:47
shelters or in our hunting guides.
3:49
And we just said, that's a terrible idea.
3:51
So we developed a camping
3:52
line to kind of, you know,
3:55
get the features to match the product
3:58
that people are using it for.
4:00
Now I'm a Texan, I've
4:01
been in Texas all my life.
4:03
I've seen snow a few times
4:06
being down here in Southeast Texas, the
4:07
general Houston area.
4:09
And I gotta say, I am
4:11
fascinated about the ice hole
4:14
where you cut the hole in the ice and
4:16
you're camping on it.
4:17
And some of these people have houses
4:19
that they drag out there.
4:21
And I just think the
4:22
whole idea is so cool
4:23
where you got nothing to do.
4:25
Now with Starlink, you
4:26
could have internet now,
4:28
but maybe they wanna
4:29
get away from that too.
4:30
But I think that is so cool.
4:31
So you actually have tents that people
4:33
can do the same thing,
4:34
which is a lot easier
4:35
than dragging a house.
4:38
Right, right.
4:38
You can go out on the ice
4:39
and ice fishing, you know,
4:41
camping the same tent
4:43
you're fishing out of.
4:46
So yeah, those are definitely
4:48
specifically designed
4:49
for ice fishing.
4:50
I wouldn't camp in the summer in them.
4:52
You might get a little warm and all.
4:54
And, you know, because they're insulated,
4:56
they tend to take on some water.
4:58
Well, that's cool that it's insulated.
5:00
So you can have, and I
5:01
would assume you can have a fire
5:03
or something that
5:04
would generate heat inside.
5:06
Generally what some people do,
5:07
because there's no
5:08
floor in the rice shelters,
5:09
they'll run a diesel heater,
5:12
some venting through to get some heat in.
5:15
But then, you know, up
5:16
here, they're pretty rugged.
5:17
So they kind of enjoy that cold.
5:19
Yep, yep.
5:21
So why the gazebo style?
5:24
Why the multiple angles?
5:26
Is that just to be a little different
5:27
than a standard tent?
5:28
Or was there another reason for that?
5:31
Well, I mean, even though
5:32
the pack size is larger,
5:33
by doing it in the
5:35
hexagonal or pentagonal shapes,
5:37
it gives much more space.
5:39
And like I said, people
5:40
like it because they like
5:42
to sit around in a circle and, you know,
5:45
share camp stories.
5:46
So that's been a big thing.
5:48
It also does a nice job as far as like,
5:51
in it for backyard use and stuff,
5:53
you can fit a full size
5:55
picnic table in there.
5:56
And, you know, four to eight people,
5:58
depending on which gazebo you go with.
6:00
What is it that I've heard?
6:01
Is it Michigan that the
6:02
state bird is a mosquito?
6:04
I would--
6:04
I think it's all up here on the bed.
6:07
I think that that
6:09
might be handy, you know,
6:10
if you wanted to, if it was nice outside
6:12
and you wanted to go have a picnic
6:13
and not have to worry
6:14
about the mosquitoes.
6:16
Right, exactly, exactly.
6:17
And we've got a
6:19
proprietary mesh that we use in ours.
6:21
It's called Tri-Tech.
6:22
So it's 25% more airflow,
6:25
which if anybody's using
6:27
one of our competitor gazebos
6:29
or one of our previous
6:30
models, you know that in the heat,
6:32
they retain heat.
6:33
So, but this one allows
6:35
the airflow to go through,
6:36
plus it's stronger and
6:38
it keeps out no seams.
6:39
So yeah, it's
6:41
definitely a nice, you know,
6:43
retreat from the bug
6:44
infestation we see here in summers.
6:47
Sometimes it's nicest to get outside,
6:49
especially if it's a nice day.
6:50
So how long does it take?
6:53
Did I read 90 seconds to--
6:55
Well, for the gazebo--
6:57
Yeah, for the gazebo it takes 60
6:58
because you don't have
6:59
a rain fly to install.
7:01
But for the tents, it's 90 seconds.
7:03
So this could be a whim.
7:05
This could be like that last minute idea
7:08
for a road trip.
7:09
You can say, "Hey, let's
7:11
take lunch outside today."
7:13
And 60 seconds or so,
7:15
even if you're clumsy,
7:17
it's not gonna take you
7:18
a long time to get that.
7:20
And I would assume it has
7:21
some sort of a container pack
7:24
or something that you keep it in.
7:28
Yeah, so all of our bags that we use,
7:30
whether it's the tents or
7:31
the gazebo, they're oversized.
7:33
So at the end of the day,
7:34
when you're packing it up,
7:35
you're not like-- Thank God.
7:37
It's not like stuffing sausage, right?
7:39
You can get it in as
7:40
easy as you took it out.
7:42
Yeah, it's like, "Okay,
7:43
let's take some pictures
7:44
so we can get it back
7:45
in the same shape it was
7:46
to get it back in as a bag."
7:48
Some of those, it seems
7:49
like they sell the bag
7:50
right around the tent.
7:51
So there's not a square inch to spare.
7:54
3D printer, it's a 3D printed tent bag.
7:58
So what kind of colors do you have?
8:00
I would assume if they
8:02
were designed initially
8:02
for hunting, you probably
8:04
have some nice matching colors
8:08
for the outdoors.
8:09
Yeah, so in the gazebo lines,
8:12
we stay pretty neutral
8:13
in the tans and browns.
8:14
So you've got a desert sand,
8:16
which is a nice
8:17
slight kind of beige color
8:19
in our opening price points.
8:20
And then we've got a cool top gazebo,
8:23
which is really unique.
8:25
It basically has a rain fly on it.
8:27
So the thing, again, this is a innovation
8:30
that other brands haven't done.
8:33
It's got a gap between
8:34
the roof, the screened roof
8:36
and the rain fly so that
8:37
air can, heat can escape
8:39
and air can come in.
8:40
So it really can increase the air flow.
8:42
Plus by doing a rain
8:44
fly, we can seal the seams
8:45
so it's waterproof.
8:47
The other thing is the rain
8:48
fly runs out past the base
8:49
of the gazebo, so it'll run
8:51
water away from the sides.
8:55
And then that one's in
8:57
what we call Badlands Brown.
8:59
It's kind of almost
9:00
like a Carhartt Brown.
9:02
And then we've got another
9:03
one, which is a tandem gazebo.
9:04
So it's a six-sided gazebo,
9:07
but it's two gazebo side by side.
9:10
Oh, that's nice.
9:11
And that one comes in agave green.
9:14
And the nice thing
9:15
about that is the pack size
9:16
is about 18 inches shorter
9:18
than the six-sided gazebo.
9:20
The hex side shaped one.
9:23
So I would assume that
9:26
this is just your basic tent.
9:27
You can put whatever you want to in it.
9:29
The ones for ice fishing
9:31
and stuff don't have a floor.
9:33
But do the others come with a floor?
9:35
Yeah, our tents all
9:36
have a removable floor.
9:38
So the idea behind the removable floor
9:40
is it's easy cleanup.
9:42
The other thing is that's nice about it.
9:44
In most tents, that's the first thing
9:45
that's gonna go is the floor.
9:47
Because that gets the most wear and tear.
9:49
If you ever were to put a hole in it
9:51
and you're out of warranty,
9:51
you can get a replacement floor
9:54
and not have to scrap the tent.
9:56
What kind of warranty
9:57
are we talking about here?
9:59
We have a one-year warranty.
10:01
But we carry parts for 10
10:03
years past the service date
10:06
or past the selling date of the tents.
10:08
So if you had ever, I mean, we have tents
10:10
that have been out there
10:11
for seven, eight years now
10:13
after steady use weekend after weekend.
10:15
And they're just like
10:17
the day they put them out.
10:18
So they last a long time.
10:22
So cots, what the
10:26
hell, the sleeping bags.
10:28
And I would assume that
10:30
you guys don't have a line
10:31
of like inflatable furniture
10:33
or anything like that, right?
10:34
I will say we don't have one yet.
10:37
Ah, there we go.
10:39
We're constantly working on things.
10:40
Oh, I was gonna say,
10:41
maybe you're gonna give us
10:42
a little information,
10:43
something to come up.
10:44
Something that's coming out.
10:46
Yeah, we're constantly
10:47
working on that type of things.
10:49
We should see something here in the
10:50
relatively near future.
10:52
I think that's really handy too,
10:53
because if you can
10:54
pack it and it's small,
10:55
but it makes the in
10:57
there more comfortable.
10:59
I mean, you can get those
10:59
folding chairs and stuff,
11:01
but sometimes it's nice
11:02
to have a bit of a cushion.
11:04
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:05
So all of our tents
11:07
are a little bit over.
11:09
So people are always
11:10
saying, what do you mean?
11:12
Three person tent, four person tent.
11:14
You can't put four people in that tent.
11:17
Well, what we've done,
11:18
everybody bases it off
11:19
industry standard, which is,
11:21
most people don't fit within that.
11:23
So ours are actually slightly larger
11:25
than what industry standard is.
11:27
That's a safe way to go.
11:28
It's a good way to go.
11:28
Yeah.
11:31
Us men will order a
11:32
large and then find out
11:34
we need an extra large or a two X large.
11:37
So yeah, being a little bit bigger
11:40
saves you some time and expense
11:42
whenever you're buying things.
11:45
So I was looking at
11:46
some of the ones here,
11:47
the really big tents,
11:48
which I think are cool.
11:50
What would you say that
11:51
the big tents are best for?
11:53
I mean, you don't have
11:53
to have eight friends
11:54
or six friends to go camping with you,
11:56
but I would imagine if you're coming out
11:58
with a line of furniture type stuff,
12:00
that would make it very convenient.
12:01
Maybe a place where you
12:02
could set up a Coleman stove
12:04
or where you could actually
12:06
have room to set things up,
12:08
especially if you were staying there
12:09
for three days a week or two weeks.
12:12
Yeah, so when you're
12:13
looking at the tandem tents,
12:14
you've got a dedicated
12:15
sleeping area in the back
12:17
and then you've got a separation panel
12:20
that you can zip
12:21
closed from the front end
12:22
and that front end is convertible.
12:24
You can use it as another sleeping area
12:26
by putting down the privacy panels,
12:28
or you can leave them
12:29
open as like a screen tent
12:30
for a place to hang out in the afternoon.
12:33
So it's very versatile
12:34
from that standpoint.
12:35
And like I said, it works great
12:37
for just a couple of
12:38
people going out up to,
12:40
six to eight people going out,
12:41
depending on what you need it for.
12:44
It's very, like I said,
12:45
with that convertible screen room,
12:47
gives you a lot of options.
12:50
So have you done any
12:51
kind of testing and Jeeps
12:53
to see how much, if there's
12:55
enough room in a Wrangler?
12:57
I mean, Gladiator
12:57
probably is not a bad deal,
12:59
not hard because it's
13:00
got a five foot bed on it.
13:01
But do you have a limit
13:03
on some of these tents
13:04
as far as storing it successfully?
13:06
So these are long pack tents.
13:09
It's kind of the nature of the beast
13:12
when you're making something that's
13:13
already preassembled
13:14
where you can't break
13:15
poles down to assemble it.
13:18
So generally what we see people doing
13:20
is either putting them up on the roof,
13:22
or if they're just a
13:24
couple of people traveling,
13:25
they'll drop the back seat
13:26
down in an SUV or something
13:28
and slide them in that way.
13:30
And is that for all the
13:30
tents that you sell will fit?
13:33
Certainly they should fit on top,
13:35
but-- Yeah, for the most part,
13:37
yeah, I mean the gazebos
13:39
actually get a little longer
13:41
because it's based
13:41
off of the longest pole.
13:43
And that's the roof pole.
13:45
And when you're spreading
13:45
it over that large area,
13:47
it gets pretty long.
13:49
But like I said, we've
13:50
got some models that are out
13:54
or coming out that are
13:55
shorter pack lengths.
13:57
We launched last year the T4 EXP,
14:01
which will be back in
14:02
stock here at the end of May.
14:04
And that one is the size
14:06
of a T4 or four person tent.
14:09
The original T4 fit in a
14:11
bag that was 68 inches long.
14:13
We were able to
14:14
reconfigure how the poles work
14:16
and got it down to 58 inches in length.
14:18
So now that one is much more comparable
14:21
to what we see a lot of
14:22
Jeep owners using in the T3X.
14:24
So they're the same length,
14:26
but you get the 10
14:28
more inches in headroom
14:30
and you get another about 25
14:32
square feet in space there.
14:36
So it sounds like the pole isn't,
14:38
the main pole isn't collapsible.
14:39
So I would think that that would means
14:41
that it gives you a lot of strength.
14:43
Yeah, so that gives
14:45
you a lot of strength.
14:46
And also, like I said,
14:47
it just makes the
14:48
assembly that much easier.
14:49
When you're not fishing poles through,
14:51
you're just popping walls
14:52
and pushing up the rough hub
14:54
and you're ready to go.
14:55
And then the last thing you
14:56
do is stake out from the hubs
14:57
and you're ready to rock for the weekend.
15:00
Yeah, time to take a nap.
15:03
Well, it doesn't sound
15:05
like it's overly stressful
15:06
putting up these tents.
15:07
So you probably don't need a nap for
15:09
putting the tent up.
15:10
Although I can imagine
15:11
there's some tents out there.
15:12
I think even the pop-up
15:13
tents can be a little more,
15:17
require a little more effort than what
15:19
we're talking about here.
15:19
Because these tents
15:20
are pretty light, right?
15:22
Yeah, when we say 90 seconds assembly,
15:24
that's for one person.
15:25
So that's the biggest
15:27
difference from a lot of people
15:28
that say we got a quick setup.
15:30
So when you're talking
15:30
about easy ups and stuff,
15:32
it does go much easier if
15:33
you got a second person.
15:34
Yeah, so reading between the lines,
15:36
if that second person is your wife,
15:38
it could take double that amount of time.
15:41
Did you read the instructions?
15:43
What are you doing over there?
15:44
Are you sure about this?
15:46
We always try to guess how
15:47
many marriages we've saved.
15:49
Exactly.
15:51
From all the reduced
15:52
arguing that goes on.
15:54
Oh, and I was gonna ask,
15:55
so I would assume you use
15:56
some sort of tent stakes
15:57
or something to keep this thing down
15:59
and from blowing away.
16:00
So with the overland additions,
16:03
we use what's called an ultra rain stake.
16:06
We did research where we
16:08
grabbed a bunch of different stakes
16:10
and different geometries and stakes
16:12
and measured them in
16:13
all kinds of different,
16:14
all kinds of different base,
16:16
whether it be sand or wet, or hard pan.
16:20
And the stakes that we came up with
16:22
overall held the best
16:24
in all those conditions.
16:25
So you get a really good stake
16:27
with the overland addition tents.
16:28
So maybe you've taken this into account,
16:31
but what do you do
16:32
when you have the perfect,
16:34
beautiful camping area and it's all rock?
16:38
I mean, you really don't have,
16:40
I mean, you know what I'm saying?
16:41
It's not just a boulder,
16:43
but the four points or the six points
16:46
or whatever you wanna tie down to,
16:47
it's just mostly rock.
16:49
And I mean, you have like weighted things
16:51
that you could put on there?
16:53
What we've seen or
16:54
what I've done in the past
16:55
is what I'll do is
16:56
I'll take a five gallon,
16:57
a series of five gallon buckets with me,
16:59
just load them up with the
17:00
rocks and tie right off to that.
17:03
And it seems to do quite well.
17:05
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure
17:06
there's people out there
17:06
that have gone camping and
17:08
tenting and they figure it out.
17:09
I mean, you find a little
17:11
shrubs and maybe your vehicle
17:14
or anything you can do to tie it down
17:16
where you necessary.
17:17
Do you have to have, does the tent have
17:21
any rigidity by itself
17:23
or do you absolutely
17:24
have to have all the points
17:26
attached to the ground?
17:27
Yeah, I would say that, like I said,
17:30
if you tie off to the
17:31
four spots on the hubs,
17:33
that's really all you need.
17:34
It has some rigidity to it.
17:36
It's just that, you know, you never know
17:38
when that renegade
17:39
wind is gonna come through
17:40
and knock you off, you know, so.
17:41
Yeah, and of course,
17:42
that's what I'm asking about.
17:44
Best case scenario or
17:46
worst case scenario,
17:46
you wanna make sure all
17:48
the tie down points are tied.
17:50
Now you've mentioned
17:50
the hub a couple of times
17:51
and I forgot to ask you, you
17:54
know what the hell that is.
17:55
I mean, I know what a hub is.
17:56
But for our audience, what is the hub?
17:58
Is that like the
17:59
central point for the gazebo?
18:01
Yeah, that's the central point.
18:02
You have on a standard
18:04
T4, you have four wall hubs
18:06
and a roof hub.
18:08
Basically in each
18:09
wall, there's four poles
18:10
that are anchored in each corner.
18:12
And then they go into a central hub,
18:16
which is right in the center of the wall.
18:18
They all go in there.
18:19
When you push it in,
18:20
the whole thing folds up.
18:22
When you pop it out,
18:23
that's when it assembles.
18:24
So like I said, it's just
18:25
a matter of popping things.
18:26
It's not, like I said, you're not,
18:29
we've done this at Expos
18:31
where we get the smallest kid
18:35
that walks by and have
18:36
him set it up himself
18:37
just to show how easy the
18:39
whole assembly process is.
18:41
You know, the five and six year olds
18:42
that are popping the
18:43
walls and maybe a little help
18:45
with pushing the roof up,
18:46
they can usually do it really easily.
18:50
So you mentioned the ability to open up
18:53
to allow the heat to
18:55
rise out of the tent.
18:56
Is that in the center
18:57
or on the sides or yes?
18:59
So when you pop the roof
19:01
up, you get a doming effect
19:03
and the rain fly domes over that.
19:06
So you've got a gap
19:07
between the screened roof
19:09
and the rain fly.
19:10
And that's where all the
19:11
air floor comes through.
19:14
Yeah, so there's no, oh,
19:15
hurry up and close that up.
19:17
It's the, this is the gap from the,
19:19
not, I want to call it a
19:21
tarp, but it's not a tarp,
19:22
but basically people would understand it.
19:24
It's like a tarp over the top.
19:26
Right, exactly. That makes the rain,
19:27
that flows the rain
19:28
off of the tent itself.
19:30
So you have an opening between that gap.
19:32
Yeah, and by having that gap in between,
19:34
especially on the tent,
19:35
it really helps to reduce condensation.
19:38
Oh yeah, that makes sense.
19:39
In the tent.
19:39
So yeah, I get it.
19:40
Like I said, it
19:41
provides a lot of air flow.
19:44
How does that work
19:46
whenever it's really cold outside?
19:47
Or should you be in another tent
19:50
if you're going to be
19:51
camping and very cold?
19:53
Yeah, that's kind of why
19:54
we launched the new EXP
19:55
last year is because that one there,
19:57
that one has an HVAC port,
19:59
so you can run diesel heat through it.
20:01
And it also has sealable roof panels.
20:03
So you can, a lot of people in the
20:06
summer, they'll take,
20:07
if it's not going to rain,
20:08
they'll take the rain fly off
20:09
so they can walk at the stars at night.
20:11
But when you're in the colder weather,
20:13
the EXP works up
20:14
because you can seal those,
20:16
seal those screen vent panels
20:17
in the roof to trap heat in.
20:19
Right.
20:21
What is the, if you
20:23
have this information,
20:24
what is the longest that
20:25
somebody's used the tent?
20:27
You know, like one outing
20:29
has been out there for 30 days
20:31
or a week.
20:32
I've had, yeah, we've had some people
20:35
that we've seen that have
20:37
taken it on month-long trips
20:39
up to Alaska or, you know,
20:42
and just used it every night.
20:44
And they're still using it today.
20:47
And that was, I started here,
20:49
I was going on eight years now,
20:50
and I correspond with somebody
20:53
who's still using the same tent.
20:56
Yeah, I was just-
20:57
He's using it, he's using it daily, so.
21:00
Yeah, so is he traveling around
21:03
and breaking down camp
21:06
and setting it back up?
21:07
Or is it set up and they
21:09
just kind of do the thing
21:10
in that general area?
21:11
How does that work with the 30 days?
21:13
He's actually leading people on tours
21:16
and he sleeps in the tent
21:17
while they sleep in his RV.
21:19
So he's setting it up and
21:20
taking it out every night.
21:22
So-
21:22
As they travel.
21:23
Yeah, so this has been
21:24
a grease-ly bear tested
21:26
up in Alaska, I'm assuming.
21:29
Yeah, yeah, I hope not, but-
21:31
It always scares the hell out of me
21:32
when you're thinking
21:33
about camping in a tent,
21:34
it's just a wrapper, you know,
21:36
for the goodies that are inside.
21:39
Yeah, we're up here in bear country,
21:41
so we know about that.
21:43
Yeah, and I think a
21:44
lot of people like me,
21:46
I mean, I think we have
21:47
some brown bears around here
21:48
close by, but certainly
21:49
not in the Houston area.
21:53
So I think it's the,
21:55
well, it's like everybody,
21:56
there's tornadoes down here quite a bit.
21:59
And people are always
22:00
talking about tornado this,
22:02
they're so scary and so on and so forth.
22:04
And I'll tell people,
22:05
I've been here all my life,
22:06
I've never seen a tornado.
22:09
I mean, I think I've heard them,
22:10
I think that they've been close by,
22:12
but they're such a local phenomenon
22:14
that it's kind of weird if you see one
22:18
or even get affected by one.
22:20
And as I always tell people,
22:22
unless you're living
22:22
in a mobile home park,
22:23
you're never gonna have
22:24
a problem with a tornado.
22:28
So anyway, I think that's the same thing
22:30
with bears and other animals,
22:31
that it's more of a concern based on,
22:34
and especially now with social media
22:36
and even more so with AI.
22:38
There's a lot more animal situations
22:41
than there really is altogether.
22:45
I still like the idea of
22:46
having a 50 caliber handgun
22:47
with me just to say hello.
22:52
(laughing) So there's, do you think it's better
22:57
to have a bright colored tint
23:00
or a neutral colored tint?
23:01
I like the neutral style up until the
23:05
helicopter's looking
23:05
for me for some reason.
23:07
Yeah, yeah, I guess, you know,
23:09
there's theories out
23:11
there about attracting pests
23:14
and stuff like that with
23:14
brighter colors and stuff,
23:16
but I think it comes down to preference
23:18
and what you're using it for.
23:20
There's some people
23:21
that like the bright colors
23:22
just so they don't lose their spot
23:24
and they can see their
23:25
campsite from a ways away.
23:27
And there's other ones that
23:27
like to blend in with nature
23:29
so we offer a little variety of colors
23:32
in the tints that we sell.
23:34
Yep, yep.
23:35
A friend of mine, I think it was Chris
23:38
that you had dealt with to get the
23:40
interview set up here.
23:41
Chris was telling me
23:42
that the Gazelle Tints
23:43
are very well known as quality tints
23:46
and if you want a good tint,
23:47
that's what you should get.
23:49
Yeah, we've done a lot of work
23:51
and over the past few years,
23:53
we've loosened up our
23:55
return policies over,
23:57
well, it was pretty much
23:58
first when I started here,
24:00
we try to take care of
24:02
our customers best we can.
24:05
And the thing over the last few years,
24:07
what we've seen is that our
24:10
quality rates have gone up,
24:11
returns have gone down.
24:13
So I think we're in the sweet spot.
24:16
That's not to say
24:16
things weren't happening
24:17
because the size of these tints,
24:19
there's still a lot of
24:20
hand-sowing that goes on
24:21
and there's things that can happen,
24:22
but our customer service is right on
24:26
premise with us here.
24:27
So if you call in, there's somebody there
24:29
that's gonna answer and help you out
24:30
with any issues that you have.
24:32
This is a good time to
24:33
mention the website again,
24:35
gazelletints.com,
24:37
G-A-Z-E-L-L-E-T-E-N-T-S.com,
24:42
gazelletints.com.
24:44
So the, oh yeah, I was
24:46
gonna ask you earlier,
24:47
we were talking about putting
24:48
the tints on top of the Jeep
24:50
or the vehicle, whatever you're driving.
24:52
And obviously the bags are waterproof
24:54
and you don't have to
24:55
worry about anything,
24:57
the tint being damaged or
24:58
getting water in the bag
25:00
because they're made to survive weather.
25:03
Yeah, so our bags are seam
25:07
sealed on the Overline Edition.
25:08
Our bags are seam sealed.
25:09
They have a zipper
25:10
cover to stop any egress
25:12
into the, in through the zipper.
25:14
They also have an external stake pouch
25:16
so you're not putting dirty stakes in
25:18
with your clean tent. Oh, that's good.
25:19
So yeah, and like I said,
25:21
being oversized and stuff like that,
25:23
they tend to, if you
25:25
wanna stuff more in there,
25:26
you've got some room, so.
25:28
Now I would assume, and
25:30
not everybody assumes this,
25:32
especially people that haven't,
25:33
they like the idea of going outside.
25:35
They like the idea of having a tent.
25:36
But the tent is really
25:37
just the starting point
25:38
because you really need
25:39
a lot of support stuff.
25:41
We were talking about furniture, chairs,
25:44
the diesel heater if
25:46
you're in that environment,
25:47
but maybe a place to use the bathroom
25:50
because they make standup things.
25:52
You guys don't have any
25:53
facilities for that, do you?
25:56
We do have a privacy tent
25:58
that is coming out in June.
26:02
It's gonna be a premium model.
26:06
It's extra tall, so there's
26:09
plenty of headroom in there
26:10
when you're showering.
26:11
That's extra big, so room for the shower
26:15
and the bathroom in there.
26:16
And then the other thing is
26:18
it's got a rain fly on it,
26:19
which a lot of them don't.
26:21
And again, it's got that gap in there.
26:22
So I don't know how to say it.
26:25
It smells gonna--
26:26
Yeah, I think methane is a light gas.
26:29
So anything, I was gonna ask you
26:31
if it came with a
26:31
little pouch for matches.
26:35
(both laughing)
26:36
It comes with a lot of bags.
26:38
Whatever you put in
26:38
there, that's up to you.
26:39
Well, that's good.
26:40
I like that, because that
26:41
way you could have a washcloth,
26:43
soap, shampoo, that type of thing.
26:45
Yeah, exactly.
26:46
Yeah.
26:47
That's cool.
26:49
And I know you can buy
26:50
these things several places,
26:51
but if you're like me,
26:52
it's nice to go to one place.
26:55
Yeah.
26:55
One stop shop.
26:57
Yeah.
26:57
Yeah, and like I said,
27:00
we'll be sending out all the
27:02
details on it here very soon,
27:04
but it is really well built.
27:07
I'm very impressed with what our
27:09
engineers have come up with.
27:11
It's one of the feature for feature.
27:14
I don't think there's
27:15
many out there like it.
27:17
So are you gonna have a shower system
27:21
or just a place where
27:22
you could take the shower?
27:23
Right now, it's just that there's a lot
27:25
of systems out there
27:26
and a lot of really good ones.
27:27
So we're just
27:28
providing the shelter for it.
27:30
Right.
27:31
And again, this is a pop-up shelter.
27:34
So it's about a 90 second assembly.
27:37
So if you have the desire,
27:39
I think you've probably
27:39
seen the same things I've seen
27:41
where there's some house on a mountain
27:43
and the bathroom has
27:44
this top to bottom wall.
27:47
You can sit on the toilet, look out.
27:50
Your setup's not like that.
27:51
I mean, a nice gazebo
27:53
pop-up for your bathroom
27:54
would be nice.
27:55
Yeah, well, I don't know.
27:56
It depends on how comfortable you are.
27:58
You can probably leave
27:59
the door open and do.
28:00
There you go.
28:01
There you go.
28:02
I just was thinking
28:03
about the gazebo aspect
28:04
because this is kind of smaller
28:05
and you sit there and
28:07
have all the windows open
28:09
for the neighbors.
28:10
Right.
28:13
Okay, so as I was saying,
28:15
you start with a tent,
28:16
but then you have the other things
28:18
that you use to support that.
28:19
So now we've got a bathroom and shower.
28:22
Not that you can take the shower.
28:24
There's no shower accessories for that,
28:27
but something that you can hook one of
28:29
the showers up to it.
28:30
And yeah, so a place to
28:33
stay, a place to sleep,
28:34
a place to
28:35
(beep)
28:35
with other people.
28:37
And I would assume it would be great
28:39
to have company over.
28:41
I think the most fun,
28:43
and this is certainly true,
28:44
when you go off road in a Jeep,
28:46
if you don't want to
28:46
have other Jeepers with you,
28:48
it's a safety thing.
28:49
And also too, it's just
28:50
fun to share that experience
28:52
with other people.
28:53
So yeah, I could see
28:55
that it would be neat.
28:56
And also too, and I'll just mention this,
28:59
everybody's aware of this,
29:00
but I'll just mention this.
29:01
The cool thing is
29:02
talking about your equipment
29:04
because somebody's gonna have something
29:06
and they're gonna notice
29:07
something that you have,
29:08
like a Zelle tent and go,
29:10
who made this tent?
29:12
You know, where'd you
29:13
get this thing from?
29:14
So then you have that thing,
29:15
that little bit of pride
29:16
that you made a good decision.
29:18
For sure, yeah.
29:20
It really is a community.
29:21
We see people out
29:23
there traveling in packs,
29:25
they'll have 10 T4 set
29:27
up in their campsite.
29:30
So yeah, it really has
29:32
become a community out there
29:33
of gazelles.
29:35
So just to recap a little bit,
29:38
you have tents that are
29:39
really good for general weather,
29:41
hot weather and stuff,
29:42
but if you're gonna
29:43
go really cold weather
29:45
and what do, oh, I
29:46
didn't discuss that earlier,
29:47
for the cold weather tents,
29:49
what is the coldest
29:51
that you guys recommend?
29:53
And I know it depends, but...
29:54
Yeah, we just launched a
29:56
line called the Backcountry.
29:57
And this one did take some cues
30:00
from what we do with
30:01
our ice fishing shelters.
30:03
And so it's got the
30:04
normal screen windows in it,
30:06
but those can be either replaced
30:08
or just covered with vinyl windows,
30:10
again, to up the R factor.
30:13
Plus you have the ability to,
30:14
we've got a stove jack that you can get
30:17
if you wanna do a wood
30:19
burning stove inside.
30:19
And that's like the
30:20
hole, the insulated hole
30:22
that you can run the stove exhaust.
30:24
Yeah, so this one
30:25
actually runs out the window.
30:28
So you angle it just under the rain fly
30:32
and yeah, you can burn
30:35
wood in there and keep it.
30:36
It gets really toasty.
30:37
We've tested that out here.
30:39
And the weather we get up here,
30:41
sometimes 20 below or worse,
30:44
and we've had it out
30:45
there and it warms up nicely.
30:47
The other big thing
30:48
that we do, like I said,
30:49
and I hate to keep going
30:51
back to our rain fly design,
30:52
but the way it works
30:53
on a cold weather tent,
30:55
if you get snow or a lot of snow,
30:57
that gap between the
30:59
roof and the rain fly
31:01
doesn't let the rain fly get warm.
31:03
So it's not gonna melt the snow
31:04
and cause ice dams on your roof.
31:06
It allows the snow just to run off
31:08
because it's cooler
31:10
than the roof below it.
31:13
So it's a Friday afternoon,
31:15
maybe around one or two
31:17
o'clock in the afternoon.
31:18
There's a major snow storm coming in
31:21
and the boss, the CEO sends out an email,
31:24
"Okay, we need somebody to go out
31:26
"and test the tent this weekend."
31:30
(laughs) He would have a ton of on.
31:34
I was just gonna say that probably
31:35
wouldn't be too bad.
31:36
It's not like having
31:37
that 10 PS report in.
31:38
No, it is.
31:40
Yeah, when you look at the crew
31:42
that we have assembled here,
31:43
they're all outdoorsmen all year long,
31:47
whatever the season,
31:49
whatever the occasion,
31:50
they're out there in the wild.
31:53
We're up here in Northern Wisconsin.
31:54
It's just absolutely
31:55
beautiful up there in the North woods.
31:57
So we got a lot of good sites
31:59
and a lot of good
32:00
areas to go and explore.
32:03
So let me ask you this.
32:06
You're in Wisconsin,
32:08
you gotta definitely,
32:09
the guys definitely get cold up there.
32:13
When you're using the
32:14
tent in the wintertime,
32:17
I would assume, damn it,
32:20
I forgot exactly where I
32:21
was going with this now.
32:23
I'm thinking about being in Wisconsin out
32:25
and actually I'm thinking about,
32:27
everybody goes on and on about cheese,
32:30
cheese curds and stuff in Wisconsin.
32:32
Oh yeah.
32:34
We're probably about 30 miles
32:36
from the biggest cheese curd
32:38
manufacturer in the country.
32:41
Ellsworth and we were
32:42
actually in Flagstaff
32:43
and some guy goes, I got
32:45
a delicacy from Wisconsin.
32:47
He goes, Ellsworth cheese curds,
32:49
I bet you've never heard of them.
32:50
I go, yeah, they're
32:51
just down the road from us.
32:54
(laughing)
32:55
All right, well, I've lost that one.
32:58
It was probably the best
32:59
question I would have ever asked
33:01
if I could just remember.
33:02
Probably.
33:02
This is the problem
33:03
with paying attention.
33:04
If you don't pay attention,
33:05
you can remember what the questions are
33:06
that you're gonna ask.
33:08
All right, and I'll
33:09
remember this before we get done.
33:11
You know how the kids
33:12
love the social media.
33:14
How can people follow you
33:15
guys along on the social media?
33:17
Yeah, we've got a
33:19
Gazelle tents Facebook page.
33:20
We were on Instagram.
33:22
And if anybody ever has any questions,
33:25
we're up all hours of
33:27
the night answering people.
33:29
So just feel free to reach out there
33:32
contact us through our
33:33
customer service chain
33:34
at info at gazelle tents.com.
33:37
And we'd be happy to answer
33:39
any questions we might have.
33:40
All right, so we've got viewers
33:41
that are absolutely
33:42
in love with the tent,
33:44
but they'd like to see it and touch it
33:46
and get a good feel for it before buying.
33:50
Is there a way?
33:51
What's the best way for
33:52
them to look at the tent?
33:54
Yeah, well, we attend
33:56
all the Overland Expos.
33:58
We just got back from
33:59
SoCal here in March.
34:00
We're gonna be in Flagstaff in May,
34:04
Portland in Redmond, Oregon, and June.
34:10
I think I'm trying to
34:11
remember all of them.
34:12
Loveland, Colorado in August.
34:14
Well, they can probably go to your site
34:15
and see where you're gonna be, right?
34:17
Yeah, Harrington, Virginia in October.
34:21
And but if you, REI carries our tents.
34:23
So if you're near an REI,
34:25
just pop in there and take a look.
34:27
And we're gathering more
34:29
retailers all the time.
34:32
Excellent, yeah, it's fun.
34:33
Do you guys ever go to EJS or SEMA?
34:37
We haven't, we haven't.
34:39
We've looked into it,
34:39
but I run six other divisions
34:43
in the hunting and camping area.
34:45
So it, you know, beyond the hunting shows
34:48
and all that stuff, time
34:49
is kind of a premium, so.
34:52
Oh yeah, I can well imagine.
34:55
So do you guys have other divisions
34:58
that do other things besides tents
34:59
or is it just tents for the hunting?
35:01
Yeah, we've got, we
35:02
actually have 15 brands
35:04
in our portfolio. Wow.
35:07
And anything you can do up here
35:08
in the North woods of Wisconsin,
35:11
we pretty much do all the
35:14
way down to Chicken Pluckers.
35:15
So you got your hands
35:16
on all this stuff then.
35:17
That's gonna be a really interesting job.
35:19
Oh, it is, it is, yeah, for sure.
35:21
How many wonderful ideas do you get?
35:25
And then you have to kind of act like,
35:27
yeah, yeah, that sounds good.
35:29
Well, you get into that,
35:29
kind of like whenever the kid wants
35:30
something at the store
35:31
and then you say, yeah, yeah, let's,
35:33
we'll see, we'll see.
35:35
To be honest, the way
35:37
Gizelle really took off
35:39
was actually just that,
35:40
listening to what the
35:42
customers are saying.
35:43
And we incorporate a lot of
35:45
those ideas into the products.
35:47
Now, unfortunately it
35:48
doesn't happen overnight
35:49
because we, our engineering group,
35:51
they try and try everything, test it out,
35:54
make sure it's perfectly
35:57
good before it's launched.
35:58
But a lot of our best
36:01
ideas come from the people
36:03
that are actually using it out there.
36:04
Yeah, absolutely, that's wonderful.
36:07
All right, well, I think that we've had
36:09
a really good conversation here.
36:10
I think a tent is
36:11
something, a good tent is something
36:13
that you really wanna start with.
36:15
And it doesn't sound like
36:16
this would be a bad tent
36:18
to start with.
36:19
And you may stay with the brand
36:22
and get bigger tents and bigger tents,
36:23
depending on how much
36:24
fun you have doing it.
36:25
The great thing is, is
36:27
that it doesn't cost you
36:28
a lot of money, like
36:29
getting an RV or a pop-up tent
36:33
that you get a bolt onto your vehicle
36:34
and you have to take
36:35
it off for some things
36:36
and put it back on for other things.
36:38
So I think everybody
36:39
ought to have a good tent.
36:41
You never know when
36:42
you're gonna have to bug out.
36:43
(laughs)
36:44
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah.
36:47
Oh, was COVID a big help for you guys?
36:49
Because of being cooped
36:51
up, I could well imagine
36:52
that getting out and
36:53
away from the stresses
36:57
being under lockdown
36:58
would be a good thing.
37:00
Yeah, it was very good.
37:02
It got us well-known in the
37:04
industry and stuff like that.
37:05
And the other thing is that our gazebos
37:08
that we talked about earlier
37:09
make a great outdoor office.
37:11
We see people with their
37:13
whole desk and computers set up
37:15
in there and just hanging out outside.
37:17
Do you guys encourage the customers
37:20
to send in pictures like
37:21
that, put it up on Instagram?
37:23
Did you mention Instagram release?
37:25
Yeah, we always use
37:26
our customer pictures.
37:28
In fact, the person who
37:29
does our content for us,
37:32
that's how she started out
37:33
was she sent in a few pictures
37:35
and I said, "You ever thought about doing
37:37
this professionally?"
37:38
And she's just
37:39
knocked it out of the park.
37:40
That's neat, that's really cool.
37:42
Yeah, you never know.
37:43
Just get out there, share things,
37:44
and some people might really enjoy it.
37:46
And you may go from the comfortable life
37:49
to working the nine to five,
37:50
but I think working
37:51
at home on social media
37:52
is pretty fun.
37:54
All right, Rob, thank
37:55
you so much for being here
37:56
and we'll have to get you back on
37:58
when you get new products out
37:59
so we can update
38:00
everybody on what you got.
38:02
So what do you guys think
38:04
about the Gazelle Tents?
38:05
Have you been over there to
38:06
gazelletents.com and had a look?
38:08
Maybe you've gone to, what
38:09
was it, REI that you said
38:10
that have these tents?
38:13
So go have a look and
38:14
let us know what you think.
38:17
Thanks again, Rob.
38:19
Oh, thank you, I appreciate the time.
38:21
You're my friend, you're my new friend.