Our friends at Outdoor Research recently released their film, Essential.
Essential shows the incredible teamwork and commitment of the Outdoor Research factory team, and teaches us about the power behind U.S. manufacturing. Outdoor Research has been a leader in U.S. made outdoor apparel and accessories for 40 years. Four floors of its 7-story headquarters building in Seattle, WA are dedicated to factory production space.
A 40-year history of rapidly developing cutting-edge Outdoor, Military and Tactical products provided Outdoor Research the ability to quickly shift to supporting the personal protective needs of the medical community.
The entire company is fully committed to ensuring that doctors, nurses, health-care workers and first responders have the personal protective equipment they require to effectively care for their patients.
Highly respected in the outdoor industry for developing functional solutions for extreme environments, Outdoor Research has a history of successfully leveraging the best commercial market technologies to serve the needs of the armed services and first responders. Over the past two years the company has conducted a comprehensive review of the U.S. supply chain and is in active development with textile mills and materials providers to expand and elevate the capabilities of products that are 100-percent American-made.
Over the last two years Outdoor Research has made significant capital investments designed to improve and modernize its Seattle factory. In May of 2019 the company opened an additional new, wholly-owned factory in El Monte, California. These investments allow Outdoor Research to take advantage of the company’s global knowledge of design, materials, and innovative manufacturing techniques while producing the next generation of outdoor and tactical products at its facilities. OR has continued to accelerate its product-development cycle, allowing the latest innovations to be rapidly fielded to the end user, helping increase the mobility and protection of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, first responders, outdoor enthusiasts, and now the medical community.
Watch Essential to see how OR pivoted their business in March of 2020 to serve the needs of frontline healthcare workers and essential hospital staff.
This film is dedicated to Outdoor Research production staff and essential workers around the world. We encourage you to share this film, and the story of the OR factory team, as you are able.