During a childhood spent in Alaska, Tae Kim was always fascinated with the outdoors. He credits much of the exposure to his uncle, Gene, who he admits had a bit of crazy in him. “He taught me how to camp and would really just show us a great time,” he recalled. With the idea in mind of how his love for the outdoors first began, Kim was inspired to create a line of products that provided the same kind of guidance his uncle did. By offering basic equipment and lessons, removing the confusion that often comes along with technical brands, Kim was set on developing a company that could welcome more people into the outdoors.

But before this realization, Kim had a different job—one that he looks back on as a “pretty good gig.”

“I was the design director for The North Face for about seven years, and I saw them grow from a bankrupt company into a really big company. But it got too big for me,” he said. “I felt like I was a quarter of the way there as far as who I wanted to be as a designer, and I wanted to venture off on my own.”

It was after leaving the job that Kim was allotted enough time to hike and bike around his home of San Francisco, which is how he began to learn what was missing in the outdoor industry. At this time, he was also reconnecting with old friends who worked in similar fields. Kim said the group would get together at bars, drink, and have endless brainstorming sessions about developing creative companies that would fill current holes in the market. Of the five concepts that were planned, all became companies, one of which was his.

Kim’s brand that was born from these discussions with inspirational friends was Alite Designs, a casual camping company based in San Francisco. Kim applied his knowledge gathered from studying in the Standford Design Program, which was focused on creating only those products that were not already relevant and successful in the industry. He said effective design is all need-based, determining what people will actually buy. What led to Alite’s success was this exact idea. By promoting itself to the beginners in camping, the company began to attract a big following, especially from those who wanted to get outside but were easily intimidated by the massive amount of technical gear that dominates the market.

“Alite, that’s my baby,” Kim said. “I had a lot of friends who helped start it. As we launched it, we made a lot of mistakes. No one had ever started their own company before, but it really started to thrive as a small business.”

Alite designs everything from patterned tents to folding chairs to slingshots to backpacks. Probably the most unique of its products are sleeping bags designed specifically for people to have sex in. And Alite is not shy when it comes to providing details about the SH (Sexy Hotness) Sleeping Bag. The description reads, “Easily our most notorious product, the Sexy Hotness sleeping bag was designed to keep you warm in the spring, summer, and early fall months. Well…actually…it was designed for you to have sex in while camping in the woods. (There, we said it.) Zip two or more Sexy Hotness sleeping bags together to make double or triple [the] room.”

Kim laughed about the product, but said it’s something necessary that companies never considered creating before. “Most technical sleeping bags are made for Mount Everest. No one makes sleeping bags that you can zip together. When on a simple camping trip, sometimes people just want to snuggle up next to their girlfriend or boyfriend. It was a need-based product.”

After the success of Alite Designs became apparent, Kim decided to take on another challenge and break into the adventure backpack and gear category, founding San Francisco-based Boreas Gear in 2010. “I was traveling a lot at the same time, running into all these people who were [balancing] travel, outdoor activities, cultural activities, and working at non-profits,” Kim recalled. “A lot of brands were just making the same stuff with all of these crazy, unnecessary pockets. It was a nice opportunity to make some refreshingly new, simple product designs centered around adventure travel.”

While at The North Face, he said design was typically done on computers only. With the creation of the two new companies, Kim and his team were adamant about everyone in each company being able to constantly test the products to determine ideal functionality, style, durability, and attention to detail. Rather than taking on the approach that large-scale companies do, designing hundreds of new items each year, Kim said perfecting four to five per year for each company is the goal.

As for the future of Boreas Gear, Kim said the company is beginning to link up with a number of non-profit organizations around the world, partnering to help share their stories while promoting the products. “Expect a lot of great look books and photos stories,” he said. With Alite, the team will be launching Outside 101, which is a reference manual built into the website. “It’s about three key elements: Make great, fun, simple designs; inspire people to get outside by showing them amazing ways to do things; and educate them,” Kim explained. Outside 101 will be a resource for people who are new to camping and are looking to get more comfortable with the outdoors. With an expected launch date in June, it will feature artists and a history of camping. “A lot of beginning camping information comes from very military-style guys with blogs that show people how to do a lot of technical stuff. For the beginners, there’s not really a good place to turn to,” he said.

Kim is so pleased with the success of Alite and Boreas Gear that’s he already developing ideas for more companies. When asked whether or not his schedule was overwhelming because of the two brands, he said not especially, mainly because both teams are focused on growing the brands slowly.

“We’ve had a lot of people come in and give bad advice about how to grow our company,” he said. “We’ve been asked at both brands about selling to larger companies. There’s 20 of us working here at both, and it’s our dream job. We’d love to do it for a long time and we know our role as employers and what we’re doing as a community. We actually try to grow very slow. I have some amazing young designers working with me. Making rich products that last a lifetime is a key thing.”

With the goal of getting more people outside, Alite has taken a unique approach. “We have a lending library, which is a free rental service for those beginner campers. If a bunch of friends are going camping and you don’t have the gear or money to buy gear, you can pick up a free, kick-ass beginner’s kit from us that includes a tent, sleeping bag, and all the basics. Designing that experience has been really rewarding for me. It’s one of our most popular and you get to keep it for one week.”

Kim said the number one question people ask about the free rental is, “What’s the catch?” He responded, “A lot of people, when they check it out, they think there’s a trick. No, our whole goal is to get more people outside. That’s all were trying to do.”

He said the future possibilities seem almost endless, but he’s pleased with the track both companies are on so far. “We’re all pretty young,” Kim said. “We love going through and learning how to create a company, figuring out who are we in the infrastructure of the outdoor world. A lot of times we have more questions than answers, but that’s ok.”

Image courtesy of Tae Kim/Boreas Gear