Backpack brand could expand in metro Denver

DENVER — The Colorado Economic Development Commission on Thursday approved an offer of tax incentives to a backpack company that is eyeing the Denver metropolitan area — which includes Broomfield and Boulder counties — for possible expansion. 

The company behind the potential expansion effort, referred to in Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade documents as Project Skyline2025, “is a designer of resilient backpacks and bags for outdoor recreation, military and firefighting applications,” according to OEDIT. “The company is expanding its business due to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. In addition to Colorado, the company is considering Montana for this expansion.”

It is the commission’s practice not to identify companies that OEDIT is recruiting until incentives are accepted.

As part of its decision regarding where it will expand, the unnamed backpack company, which has 1,340 employees, 18 of whom are in Colorado, is considering “cultural fit, incentives and access to talent,” according to an OEDIT memo.

The EDC approved a tax-incentive package worth as much as $678,732 over eight years. To receive the full tax credit, the company would have to create 50 new jobs at an average annual wage of $117,059. Those new jobs would include research and development and support staff, according to OEDIT.

Other incentives offered Thursday by the EDC for projects in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado included $631,508 for Project Dragon, a clean-energy plant in Weld County that could create 35 new jobs; and more than $4.3 million for Project Q-Chips, an expansion of a quantum company in Broomfield that could create 195 jobs.

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