R2 Packs

This is a serious bummer. I had e-mailed them a few weeks ago inquiring about fabric options as I was just starting to design my dream pack. I never heard back and thought they were just very busy…they offered a fabulous service at an exceptional price…maybe too good of a price. :0
Best of luck Ron!

I'm sure Ron will post up here later but I know he's feeling the crush trying to get his education finished.

He's had a lot of conflicts lately with certain yet to be named business oppurtunities. Given his old system of making a complete pattern from scratch for every individual pack and dozens of hours of work in every potential purchase long before receiving cash he had a lot working against him. It's amazing how work intensive his packs are and after talking with him it's amazing how little per hour he actually would make on a $400-500 pack and the time he'd spend on people who would just be wasting his time specing out designs when they didn't really want to follow through.

Rest assured though, other projects are underway for him in addition to his expedition in Nepal that he is currently preparing for.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the good wishes… big things are coming soon, and I am excited… first more backcountry skiing, then more backpacking, a 3 week trek in Nepal this summer, finishing off this degree (Apparel Design and Production at Colorado State University), the list goes on…

The jist of what happened:

I returned to school as a full time student.
With the quantity of orders I was getting, I also had a full time job. Turns out that the business model I had laid out was not easily scalable. It proved to be very difficult to train people to accomplish the tasks that needed to happen for each pack. This led to me pulling more all-nighters than I care to admit to.

All of this combined and came to a head when I realized just how little backpacking I have done in the last year. I was missing the mountains.

Something had to give.

So I took a big deep breath, and I decided to close up shop.

see you around real soon

– Ron

best wishes to you ron – you had a good reputation the short time you were at it

i was hoping to eventually afford a nice custom pack

i'm sure if you ever decide to start back up, i'll be around to get that custom pack ;)