Camelbak Office (And Test Lab) Visit

After the Sea Otter, Chipps took the drive a couple of hours north to the small town of Petaluma. It’s a lovely little place on the edge of wine country and, remarkably, is the home for a whole host of bike industry types, including Soulcraft (and the original Salsa), White Industries, Chub/e*thirteen (and Mesa Boogie guitar amps and Lowe Pro camera bags!) and, in a big, but nondescript office block, Camelbak – the pioneers of drinking stuff while riding.

Camelbak is actually the only inhabitant in the building, which makes 'empty office critierium racing' a Friday afternoon possibility

As you sweep into the impressive entrance hall, there’s a little museum of older, and current, Camelbaks, with originals from way back in 1989, right up to modern day Better Bottles and military models. The company was famously founded by Michael Eidson, who wanted to drink more than a couple of bottles of water while doing long road rides in Texas. He came up with the novel idea of using an intravenous drip bag in a tube sock attached to a jersey. The idea caught on and those first commercial Camelbaks were nothing more than a padded sleeve with thin straps, holding a bag of water very similar to an IV bag. The important difference though, was Camelbak’s bite valve – which I still reckon has yet to be bettered. Bite and suck – let go and it seals. Simple.

Those first Camelbaks weren’t perfect – they turned sausage shaped when full, bounced around on your back (or fell off over your head when bending down to check something on your bike) but the initial idea was sound – and the sight of ejected water bottles on downhills started to become rarer events. In later years, Camelbak started adding tool pouches and then developed the housing from a basic sheath into a simple rucksack, so that you could carry a tube and tools and a jacket – with a chest and waist strap to keep it in place. The Camelbak as we know it was born.

Military issue 'bak on the left, then a couple of older reservoirs. Did anyone else have one of those blue Camelbaks?

My guide for the day was Seth Beiden, one of Camelbak’s marketing guys and a fine mountain biker. It seems that most people at Camelbak practice what they preach, with many staff heading out for a lunchtime run or ride in the countryside surrounding Petaluma. Seth can often be seen at mountain bike events, test-riding a lot of the new gear (so it’s always worth seeing what gear he’s using…)

Like marketing staff's desks everywhere. Always worth a poke around though, as there's usually something secret hiding there.

A couple of 'We just thought we'd try this cool metallic silver vinyl' bags that 'probably' won't make production.

That's a badge to be proud of - NASA uses Camelbak's bite valves in its space suits

The view out of the window (see? It's not always sunny in California) where many staff do a lap or two at lunchtimes

Matt Nyri, head of the army of sales staff. Matt used to work at Salsa Cycles when it was in Petaluma and was one of the founders of Soulcraft. These days he's a champion bass fisherman...

Now this is a colour we've not seen before - could it be a 2012 sneak peek? There are so many prototypes and samples floating around the building that it's hard to know what's real and what isn't.

Seth in action - say... is that another prototype bag, Seth?

When your bottles win World Championships, then you can have some too.

A few sales samples from the 'do not touch or take' part of the building.

One of Camelbak’s big markets is the military and security sector. It makes all sorts of products that you’ll never see in your local bike shop. There are pilot’s gloves, tactical rifle and sniper’s gloves as well as a whole range of military issue hydration packs. Even private security firms and the Secret Service shop at Camelbak…

Just in case anyone steps out of line in meetings.

After the tour of the office – which looks like most other offices, only with a few more bottles and bags on them, it was time to go through the security doors to the Secret Test Lab, where lab boffins Kevin and Chris lurk.

You need a special security pass to get through these doors, which is reassuringly special.

Head to the NEXT PAGE to see what goes on behind these doors….

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

Comments (5)

DoctorRadDoctorRad April 28, 2011 at 12:37 pm

Yep, I had one of those early light blue bladders, came with my mid-90s CamelBak KIMM Sac… was that the first rucksack with a hydration system? Wish I still had mine.

oxym0r0noxym0r0n April 28, 2011 at 3:16 pm

Wow – really in depth – thanks.

Interesting how lots of these companies are in really unassuming buildings. (e.g. Yeti)

And they all seem to have a big lunch break to go out and ride the local trails! (yeti again).

captain_bastardcaptain_bastard April 28, 2011 at 8:17 pm

i was part of the original camelbak R&D… well – i had the first type available here, and had my mum sew on some straps and bungies to attach pumps, tubes etc, guess the camelbak teams mums did the same, as they soon started to bring out baks just like it ;o)

iomnigeliomnigel April 28, 2011 at 10:32 pm

Have my original KIMM SAC somewhere, and have one the later KIMM Sa’s that I use on every ride !!

molgripsmolgrips April 29, 2011 at 2:32 pm

I had one of the original rectangular ones and must’ve got through a bladder every few months. As soon as the blue ones came out I never had a leak until a few months back when one got stabbed in transit by something sharp.

I had to buy a new one and could only find Deuter, which in all fairness is nowhere near as good.

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