BearVault sets up shop in outdoor mecca

LOUISVILLE — BearVault co-owner Tracy Twist first had the idea a couple of years ago during Outdoor Retailer, an annual industry trade show held in Denver.

“What if we moved to Colorado?” she thought.

Twist, who took over the California-born maker of bear-resistant food canisters for backpackers in 2017 when its founders retired, took the final day of OR to explore the area around Denver, including Boulder County.

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“It planted the idea in our head, so we came back to look a little bit more closely at what it would be living here and moving our company here,” she said. “We’re a small, family business, and we decided to move out to Colorado for family and lifestyle reasons, but also because this area seems like such a great concentration of outdoor companies and outdoor interests. We thought it would be a good fit in the long run to be based here.”

Eventually Twist landed on Louisville, where the firm hopes to soon secure office and warehousing space in the Colorado Technology Center business park. This week, BearVault won approval for a modest tax incentive package from the city to help offset some of the cost of opening up shop.

The firm is eyeing two CTC office condos totalling about 6,000 square feet on Cherry Street.

“It’s still not a closed deal by any means, [but] everything looks good, and I think we’re going to move forward,” Twist said. The company hopes to be moved in by early 2021.

Working with city officials was ““fantastic,” Twist said. “They were very professional, very helpful and very welcoming.”

Twist said Louisville is the perfect place to be able to tap into the outdoor industry energy and  talent base of Boulder and Denver without the extra expense that often comes with being headquartered in those cities. 

“There’s a really definite discrepancy between the cost of being in Boulder [city limits] versus in the greater Boulder area.”

BearVault’s leaders decided to make the move to Colorado last fall, before the COVID-19 outbreak. 

“It’s a strange period to move but we’re glad to be out here,” Twist said. 

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