Dan Durston didn’t move to Golden to start a company. He moved for the mountains — and the company followed.
In 2017, Dan and his wife T completed a 2,300-kilometre hike through the Canadian Rockies. They fell hard for the landscape and decided that whatever came next, it had to be rooted here. They settled in Golden in 2018. The business came next — not by plan, but by inevitability.
What started as a hobby project out of a garage is now one of the most respected names in ultralight backcountry gear. Durston’s X-Mid tent is among the best-selling ultralight tents on the planet. Their Iceline trekking poles are the world’s lightest three-piece adjustable poles at 134 grams. Their Kakwa packs have built a following among serious backcountry travellers across North America, Europe, and Asia. They sell direct-to-consumer through their own website — no retail middlemen — and have 15 employees in Golden.
For a gear company, location is product strategy. Golden delivers on both.
“We’re able to test the gear right in the real environment. We go out into the mountains and we actually use the prototypes. And when we’re doing product photos, I can drive 15 minutes down the road to the Blaeberry — that’s where all our photos are done.”
— Dan Durston, President, Durston Gear
The access to terrain shapes more than photography. It shapes design culture. Every iteration of every product gets tested in the actual conditions it’s built for. That’s not something you can manufacture from a city studio — it has to live in the mountains.
In 2025, Durston brought prototyping in-house, building out a design studio with laser cutters, sewing machines, and heat presses. The goal: compress the gap from idea to field test to days.
Chris Stone joined Durston as lead Product Designer moving from Denver to Golden. Stone’s move is itself a story worth telling. When one of the outdoor industry’s most credentialed designers – with stints at The North Face, Arc’teryx, and Burton Snowboards – chooses to uproot and relocate to a mountain town of 7,000, it says something. Stone has called it the best decision he’s ever made. For investors, talent risk in small markets is a real concern. Stone’s move addresses it directly — when someone leaves a global brand to relocate to Golden, the town’s appeal stops being a question.
He’s not the only one. Two other staff members have relocated to Golden for the company, plus their partners – a pattern that speaks to something beyond a job offer.
One of the less obvious advantages of Golden is who lives here. For Durston, it’s decisive.
“Everybody in Golden is really passionate about the outdoors. When we hire somebody about backpacking gear, and they already go backpacking and know that thing — they’re already so much more equipped to provide our customers with that high level of expertise. There’s just such a density of that expertise in Golden.”
— Dan Durston
In sectors where product knowledge and customer trust go hand-in-hand, that density is a competitive asset.
Golden’s distance from major centres looked like a risk on paper. In practice, it hasn’t been. Freight costs are manageable. Semi-trucks deliver directly to their facility. And Durston’s shipping volume was a significant factor in FedEx expanding native service to Golden — faster, more reliable, without the delays of a third-party handoff. That’s better for Durston, and better for every other business in town.
Local gear repairs are handled by Golden residents — three different community members hired for that work over the past two years. Professional services (accounting, legal) are sourced locally. The business is woven into the community, and the community has been woven back.
Commercial real estate has also supported growth in ways that sharper markets wouldn’t allow. Durston started with one-sixth of their current building, expanded to the full space, then purchased the property next door. A world-class design headquarters is now under development — something Dan acknowledges would be far harder to execute in markets where real estate costs make growth capital-intensive at every step.
Durston sells almost entirely direct, with no advertising budget to speak of. Growth has come through community, credibility, and authentic relationships built within the region. The result is a brand with global reach and a grassroots feel, built from a small mountain town.
Durston is also one of the founding members of KORE Outdoors, a Kootenay-based industry alliance for gear makers, designers, and repair technicians – a growing signal that the region is becoming a serious hub for outdoor innovation, not just recreation.
“We would definitely always be in the Canadian Rockies. And Golden is, for us, the obvious spot.”
— Dan Durston
