New brand combines social mission with high-quality products to make Gear for Good.
April 11, 2014, Salt Lake City, UT – Cotopaxi is changing the face of outdoor gear brands. Instead of building great outdoor products and then donating proceeds to charity, Cotopaxi is a Benefit Corporation expressly created to support communities in need…by making great outdoor products.
The completely transparent vertically integrated e-commerce brand will donate at least 10% of profits to charity partners — each one associated with a different Cotopaxi product. Purchasing the India water bottle on cotopaxi.com provides six months of clean water to someone in India, and the sale of the Cusco backpack will help to educate a child in Peru. The company will sell direct-to-consumer only; by selling exclusively through their website, Cotopaxi.com. This allows them to eliminate the retail store mark-up so that they can invest that extra margin into higher-quality materials and into social projects that help those living in extreme poverty.
The brain-child of e-commerce entrepreneur Davis Smith, Cotopaxi was formed from Smith’s desire to make a difference for the one billion people living in extreme poverty worldwide. As a graduate of the prestigious Wharton School, Smith has dedicated his life to creating successful and sustainable e-commerce brands. He is the former CEO of Baby.com.br, Brazil’s leading e-commerce retailer in the infant space and “Startup of the Year 2012,” and co-founded PoolTables.com, America’s largest pool table retailer. Davis’ move into the outdoor gear space was spurred by his travels throughout the developing world and the recognition that corporations have a responsibility to the common good.
The company attracted an undisclosed round of financing from several luminaries in the venture capital world, including Forerunner Ventures, NEA and Lerer Ventures plus some of the tech industry’s elite e-commerce entrepreneurs including the founders of Warby Parker, Harry’s, Bonobos and The Honest Company.
Davis notes that, “Helping the less fortunate has always been my life’s passion, largely driven by the fifteen years I spent living in the developing world. What we intend to do is base our entire product line around helping specific groups in need, and we will tie that social mission into every aspect of our brand.”
By expanding from a purely product-based brand philosophy, Cotopaxi is redefining the way that consumers interact with gear brands and creating an intimate level of engagement between enterprise, consumer and community.
Cotopaxi will launch its brand through a socially engaging outdoor adventure in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Cotopaxi ‘Questival’ is part adventure race, part music festival, with a focus on telling Cotopaxi’s story through unique and brand-aligned challenges. Activities include camping, hiking, biking, scavenger hunting, helping others, and lots of surprises.The top scoring teams (one all-male team, one all-female team, and one co-ed team) will be sent onhumanitarian excursions to Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu and Angkor Watto visit areas where Cotopaxi has a hand in creating change.
The event begins at 4 p.m. on April 11 at several starting points throughout Utah and the finale will be held 24 hours later at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. The finale will conclude with a free music festival including performances by Mates of State, Joshua James, Fictionist and other bands at 6 p.m. on April 12.For more information, visit Cotopaxi.com/questival
