Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyler Axtell.
Hi Tyler, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I launched this brand, Bradley Mountain, out of a desire to make things with the highest quality materials I could find. It began with a small piece of poplar and a box cutter on the floor of my 1 bedroom apartment in San Diego. I would cut scrap of leather and stitch them together to make wallets. This craft began for me in 2012, and slowly grew into the full-scope brand that it is today. This business has been fully self-funded, and I’ve been behind the sewing machine making bags from day 1. Now we have a team of 15 people here in Tennessee who make bags, and serve our coffee at the bar.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The journey of starting a new business has been many things. More than anything it has been fun. I have the most fun getting to wake up every day and create new things that come from my sketch book. The challenges for a business like this (USA Manufacturing) is margins. We have lower margins than a lot of business models and very high material and labor costs. I would say that the biggest challenge for me as a creative was learning how to manage a business from a financial perspective, and keeping the books straight, and the credit cards paid off, while still aggressively growing my vision for the brand. There have been many times where we have run out of cash, and had to find our way through a sticky situation. We, still to this day have not taken on investors which is something we (my wife and I) are really proud of.
Another challenge of my career in Bradley Mountain has been learning to lead a team of people, all with different personalities, and bringing people into this vision to help them understand what I am trying to do. It is always rewarding, but can be hard and emotional to pull off well, while still honoring and respecting everyone’s perspectives.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Bradley Mountain is a fictitious place that we named the brand to get people excited about travel. The products all point towards this one goal. We want to give people the longest lasting goods, with a timeless style.
The product we are most well known for is the Wilder Backpack. It is a modular bag that holds everything you need for a 2 week trip. It is made from leather and waxed canvas and is built in a really cool, primitive way, that shows off the design of simplicity and durability. We are next most known for our Cabin Jacket which is made in the USA as well, and has wool lining and waxed canvas outer. It is a trucker style jacket that cuts in at the hip. In addition to these products we also make candles and roast our own coffee for our cafe. The brand does many things under one roof, but the unified goal is to get people inspired to live a life of adventure.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Covid was hard for us in the sense that we had to close down our San Diego location. We had a workshop that had been open for customers to shop in for a few years, and the crises forced me to look hard at every line-item on our expenses and question what was necessary to make it through. I am thankful for the process though, because it allowed us to consolidate debt, and save money to make the move to Tennessee and build out our workshop/retail/cafe space here in Columbia, TN.
Pricing:
- The Wilder Backpack $479
- The Cabin Jacket $375-425
- Candles $28-$36
- Coffee Beans $18-25
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bradleymountain.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/bradleymountain
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bradleymountainco
