Crazy Creek Story

Delighted to offer excellent products like the Original Crazy Creek Chair and the innovative, combination chair and mattress dubbed the Air Chair Plus, we poked and prodded the president of Crazy Creek Products, John, for some inside information about this crazy company. He shared his personal story with us, but the Crazy Creek story doesn’t actually begin with John. Here we find a touching story of friendship and endurance that starts with a man named Rob Hart and his band of Outward Bound campers on a stormy, Colorado night.

...the Outward Bound gang found themselves miserable, soaked, and wanting a vacation from their vacation...

Comfort can be hard to come by when you’re hiking a rough, woodsy trail. It’s even worse when it’s storming on you. And as Rob and the Outward Bound gang found themselves miserable, soaked, and wanting a vacation from their vacation that night, Rob sat down on a wet tree stump, wishing he had something better to sit on—something that would provide comfort in a time of need. There was no salvaging this camping trip, but what it had done was planted the seed that would lead to his patented, packable, and extremely portable Crazy Creek camping chair.

Based on the old, wooden canoe chair Rob’s grandfather would use on camping trips, Rob planned and prototyped until he had the perfected, portable product that is available to you now.
...This is where John enters the story.

“Rob started Crazy Creek in 1987,” John told us. “And I came to work for him in 1988 as his business manager and all around get-it-done guy.” John and Rob had befriended each other nearly ten years prior when they met as ski bums at the local Red Lodge Mountain. Their friendship only grew when John joined. And the company grew as well with John’s aid! After steering the company in a wildly successful direction for over a decade, John left the company.

He didn’t stay gone, however. He appropriately returned nine years later, after the unfortunate loss of Rob Hart in a tragic skiing accident on the same mountain where he first met John. “I came back to run the company for his family the following Monday and purchased the company from them in January 2010,” John told us. “He was a great friend who I still miss every day.” Fortunately for Rob’s family, Rob and John were able to build such a strong business that it continues to support the Harts now

John has remained at Crazy Creek and hasn’t ever looked back. A perfect figure for president of this awesome company, John embodies the outgoing attitude and spirit of adventure. Though neither John nor his kids ever got involved in the summer camp community, they would often go on backpacking trips, camping trips, and boating adventures extensively in their youth. “My kids probably experienced more outdoor opportunities than the vast majority of kids today. We were fortunate to live within minutes of the Beartooth Mountains and adjacent to Yellowstone Park.”

“One thing I consistently hear from Crazy Creek customers is that they had their first experience with Crazy Creek at camp,” says John. “It is safe to say that the ongoing success of Crazy Creek is its long association with summer camp.” With a claim like that, Crazy Creek chairs are an absolute must at Everything Summer Camp! We’re proud to offer such comfy, portable camp chairs to our customers so they can experience the Crazy Creek craze for themselves.