Hey, Swim Fans!

If you love the water just as much as the next summer camper, then this blog post is for you! Read on to learn all about one of the most recognized brands on the planet! Kicking for the last 85 years and now sold in more than 170 countries, Speedo has become the world’s top-selling brand for girls swim suits and general swim wear.

They use advanced materials and designs that they’ve developed themselves to allow their customers the freedom and speed that they need. It doesn’t matter if you’re just learning to swim or training for the Olympics, Speedo can help you.

All Speedo swimwear absolutely brims with purpose. They all look the way they do from every detail right down to each color used. It all has a purpose that goes along with the functionality of the piece. It all started way back in 1928 with the Racerback suit. It was the first non-wool suit the world had seen. It allowed greater freedom of motion.

In the 50’s, Speedo came out with the first water short and the 70’s brought the first swimwear made of nylon/elastane. In 1994, Speedo introduced Endurance, the first chlorine resistant fabric. In 2000 they made the LZR Racer®, worn by Michael Phelps.

Speedo’s continuous achievements in product development and advancements in technology have kept them at the top of swimwear for competitive swimming. Did you know that there have been more Olympic Gold Medals that were won while wearing Speedo over any other brand?

Speedo has been closely tied to the Olympics since as far back as 1932 when the Australian Claire Dennis won the gold while wearing Speedo in Los Angeles. A lot has changed since way back then, but only for the better. Speedo is still just as involved in the Olympics! In 2008, Michael Phelps showed the world the greatest swimming performance ever seen and made history.

Skill obviously had a lot to do with it. But Speedo certainly plays a part as well. Enjoy your swimming.

Hey there, Camp Enthusiasts!

It’s my absolute pleasure to tell you about one of the amazing companies with whom we here at Everything Summer Camp have the absolute pleasure of doing business. At twenty-six years old, some might consider Everything Summer Camp a young company. But that’s nothing compared to our friends over at bobble.

If we’re young, then bobble’s a baby. It was only three years ago that they got started. And since 2010, bobble’s retail network has grown with ferocity! You can find a bobble water bottle in more than 35,000 stores across each and every one of the United States. They’re in nearly thirty-five countries spanning five continents! In only three years, bobble has sold millions of water bottles the world over!

That’s quite a feat.

The good folks that work at bobble are like-minded, creative individuals with a love for design and the planet. Their reusable, filtered water bottles both change people’s drinking habits for the better and help to remove millions upon millions of discarded, single-serve, plastic water bottles from our planet.

bobble has given the world a sustainable, reusable, portable, filtered water bottle. bobble makes a good point that tap water, unfortunately of wavering quality, has become a second-rate source of water despite the fact that it’s free and widely available. The smart design of a portable, filtered bobble water bottle is you can still use tap as a source of water without concerning over the water’s purity!

Single-serve plastic water bottles all sell nothing but the concept of pure water. But you don’t know that bottled water is really any purer than the tap that comes out of your faucet! That’s why the filter is kind of ingenious! After achieving so much in their first three years, you might wonder to yourself, what else can they do?

To answer the question in their own words, “We’ve only begun. We’re peering around every corner, at each item in our everyday life, and asking ourselves, can we do better?…More often than not, the answer is yes.”

Thanks for reading, Camp Fans! Till next time.

- John

Hey, Summer Camp Fans!

Today I want to tell you about a great company whose products can be found right here at Everything Summer Camp. Red Ledge—a leading brand in outdoor apparel and rain gear  for the avid outdoorsy folk—provides its customers with attractive, comfortable, technical, and affordable products.

Red Ledge, a very charitable company that’s been developing their products and satisfying their customers for over fifteen years, seems to really enjoy thinking outside of the box and going above and beyond in order to help those who are in need.

The Red Ledge mission statement reads, “Rain doesn’t have to be such a bad thing, it does so much good for the world and WE can too.” Everything Summer Camp is more than honored to be working alongside such a charitable business that gives so much back to emerging countries and the people in the world who are truly in need.

How does Red Ledge help others who need it? Well, this year they’ve funded their first water project completely through charity. Water, Red Ledge’s non-profit organization helps brings clean drinking water that’s actually safe to consume to the people in developing nations who don’t always have clean, safe drinking water readily available like we do in America.

And so, Red Ledge painstakingly designs an attractive rain-jacket along with other rain gear, producing performance-driven fabrics with technical features to provide their avid outdoorsy customers with suitable clothing that can stand up to the elements only to selflessly dish their profits out toward funding projects that help the needy.

They did it this year and they aim to continue funding future water projects in the coming year. In doing so, Red Ledge hopes to cut down the stereotypes and typical behavior of successful companies. Showing the world some class and initiative about issues in our modern world is a great way to start! When you buy a Red Ledge rain jacket, you are vicariously helping those who can use fresh and safe drinking water.

The gang here at Everything Summer Camp salutes you, Red Ledge. Thank you for showing the world the compassionate side of a company.

- John

Hey, Camp Aficionados!

Today I want to give you a little glimpse behind the scenes of a company that Everything Summer Camp is delighted to be working with: Columbia Sportswear. Columbia is a family-run company that, in its seventy years of business, has gone global.

After seventy years of continually satisfying their customers and beating their competition, Columbia likes to think that they know what it takes to make exceptional outdoor gear. How are they so good at improving their products and evolving as a company? Because they love the outdoors—just like you.

Columbia is more than aware of the gear you’re going to need in order to enjoy your summer camp experience to its full capacity; and with recent advancements in technology, Columbia’s high-quality performance apparel is able to protect you from harmful UV rays as well as buggy locations! From Columbia jackets to a sleeping bag, they’ve got a wide range of products.

Columbia is a company whose history is centered around one, great woman—Gert Boyle. Gert is the Chairman of Columbia. The company’s story begins in 1938, when two German nationals (Gert’s parents) fled Nazi Germany and bought a small hat company once they arrived in Portland.

When they came upon the Columbia River they knew they could make this new place their home and they named their new hat company after the body of water that helped encourage their stay. With the freedom of their fresh start, the company supported the Boyle family. Gert grew up, got married and eventually her husband took over the company.

When Gert’s husband died, she took over. She stepped right up and transformed herself from a housewife one day to an executive the next! Still a family-run business as it’s always been. Columbia is now run by Tim Boyle, Gert’s son. Tim has now been the company’s longtime president and CEO.

Columbia has continued to see great success because it is a company that truly believes in its products. They have a knack for trying different things to develop their technologies. As they say at Columbia, “Trying stuff made us what we are.”

Thanks for reading. Till next time, Camp Fans!

Hey, Camp Fans!

Today I want to tell you about another outstanding company with whom everyone here at Everything Summer Camp is very proud to be doing business. And that company is JanSport. This extremely well-known name is the Original Outdoor Gear Brand that we all know and love.

A division of VF Outdoor, Inc., by 1967 JanSport was founded in Seattle, Washington thanks to three innovators of the outdoor industry. Manufacturing and marketing topnotch outdoor backpacks has always been JanSport’s calling though they do now offer other outdoor gear, travel gear, daypacks, as well as collegiate decorated apparel.

You can find JanSport backpacks and products all over the world in sporting goods stores, college bookstores, department stores, as well as specialty and boutique retail stores. The entire idea of JanSport is based on helping people get from point A to point B—whether that means going to school or going across the world, JanSport is there to help you do it.

It doesn’t matter whether your destination is the longest of distances or just a couple blocks down at your friend’s house—it’s typical to have essentials that you need to bring along. That’s where JanSport comes in. They help you get to point B with utter convenience and functionality.

That’s what they mean by their Brand tagline: Discover Freedom. It means, get out there and discover who and where you are in the world. JanSport can help you with everything you’ll need. It’s all in your backpack. Now go have an adventure.

As basic as they may be, JanSport puts a good effort forward to make their backpacks versatile. The same backpack that you load up with books to take home from school may be what you bring with you to hike the trails at camp. Keeping this concept forefront in the minds of the designers, each backpack design is made to be useful on multiple levels—flexible.

Safe travels, campers! Wherever you’re going, go with JanSport.

- John