About

1981 East Coast Roots

The Wild Things journey began in 1981, when our two founders Marie Meunier and John Bouchard, accomplished mountaineers, created their own line of lightweight, superior gear out of dissatisfaction with available products. Marie and John chose New Hampshire to set up shop. The rugged natural environment, big blizzards, and Mount Washington provided the perfect testing ground for new products, and there was no shortage of skilled climbers to test them. From these surroundings Wild Things pioneered several product firsts including the high-altitude one piece suit and haul bag. In 1983, Wild Things coined the now often used expression, "Light is right," which was introduced in the 1983 catalog. 

Success in the Mountains

Wild Things grew throughout the '80s with input from some of the world's most gifted climbers including Charlie Fowler, Mark Richey, Steve Larson, Dave Nettle, Anne Smith, Mugs Stump, Rick Sylevester, and Dean Potter. By 1990, with the help of these and other climbers, Wild Things had achieved a cult-like following amongst the world's climbing elite. Wild Things sewn slings, chalk bags, climbing packs, bivy sacks, and high altitude technical clothing were part of nearly every big climb from 1983 to 1990.

Military Validation

In the early 2000s, Wild Things' reputation for uncommon, lightweight, tough gear caught the attention of U.S. Special Forces, and we began making bespoke, made-to-order kits for individual units. For the first time, these elite units could come to New Hampshire and work with our designers to build gear tailored to their requirements. In 2004 Wild Things was awarded its first contract to produce cold weather clothing systems for the U.S. Military. Since then, Wild Things has earned a reputation for tough, lightweight technical outerwear, alpine-style backpacks, durable haul–bags, and innovative tactical and military clothing. Our products are currently in the field with every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces and often tailored for mission-specific goals.

 

Made in the United States of America (USA)

Wild Things factory in Gorham, NH

Wild Things benefits from a long tradition of technical clothing production in northern New England and over the past 35 years we have built a world-class facility – with the employees, equipment and processes necessary to make the best technical clothing made in the USA.

• Our factory manager was been with Wild Things for over 25 years. She can make every product in our catalog and uses her vast experience to make our product better – every day.
• Experienced team of stitchers are focused on quality.
• One of a handful of Gore certified factories in the US that are licensed to produce apparel using W. L. Gore fabrics and seam taping technology.
• Robust equipment list, including a sonic welding machine
• World class Gerber pattern and marker software allows us to rapidly adjust our products to meet the needs of our customers.
• All prototyping and sample making is done in house.
• Our product technical specifications (Tech Packs) are meticulously developed in our comprehensive software system. Wild Things Tech Packs are incredibly detailed to provide our factory partners all the information they need to meet our quality standards. One of our factories has told us “no one in the industry has Tech Packs as good as Wild Things”.
• Gorham, NH is literally in the shadow of MT Washington, home to some of the worst weather conditions on the planet. It is also a HUB zone.

 

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