Designing a Better Bear Canister

OK, I just helped them design a better bear can. Maybe I can use the Amazon gift card I am (un)likely to win on the new can when it comes out. Someday!

Many have tried. Few succeeded. Usually it’s that pesky testing phase that gets them. Who remembers the one with multiple sections that disappeared completely? (Anything with too many joins aka weak points will fail. Bears are strong.)

I recommend that y’all try all the existing cans on the market and understand that they pass the tests not because they are strong enough to keep a bear out, but because the bear cannot get its jaws around the can well enough to break them. You can’t attach anything to the can or leave anything attached to it that a bear could use to carry it away, as too many people who have the “Garcia cozy” with the straps that allow you to attach the can to the outside of the pack learned – they’d leave the case on the can, and the bear just grabbed it and ran….

There’s some good competition out there. Renting a Bearikade is effortless, and those of us who practically live out there already have one.

Who is the “we” designing this new bear canister?

Your survey should ask what we consider the most important criteria, not to rate and rank the criteria you came up with, because my top two aren’t on your list. First for me is that it is approved for use in the places I go, that is a major dealbreaker. Second is that it has the volume for the trip I’m on.

Some of your criteria seem similar or equal for all bear canisters (doubles as a stool, packability).

The expandable idea is an interesting one, though I’m very skeptical — if you can add and remove segments of the wall to heighten and lower the canister then that’s a weak point that I don’t see standing up to a 600-lb grizzly bouncing on it. And you don’t specify how much weight this kind of design could save so it’s really hard to answer how important it is or how much I’d be willling to pay for it.

You ask which regions (plural) we hike in but allow only one answer.

If you want to understand the market you should have more older age categories and not lump them all together in “45+” — there are a ton of folks into backpacking in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who feel differently about a lot of things, including the weight they carry and what creature comforts they are willing to forego.

Keep in mind that this is coming from a Business School.  If it were coming from an Engineering school, the questions would be quite different.

They’d have to be backpacking engineers to ask the right questions, I think. This one seems to be better informed than many I’ve seen, at least. Still missing some critical pieces tho.

It is widely agreed that the Bearikade is the  most advanced canister on the market.  I have 3 canisters a BearVault Solo, Bearikade Weekander, and a Bearikade Expedition.  The BearVault is easy to pack due to its size but of course doesn’t hold enough food for most trips I do where canisters are required.  I use the Weekender the most as it’s about the right size for a weeks trip solo.  I have an Expedition for longer trips but it requires a big pack.

My biggest gripe about the Bearikade is the sharp edges on the top and bottom can  damage packs or other gear.

My recomendation is to get a Bearikade and BearVault and play around with them. Figure out how you can improve on them.  You can’t tell me that Wild Ideas isn’t making good money on the Bearikade.  The one redeeming quality to the high price is they hold thier value well.

The challange you face beyond design is approval.   Since it is up to the individual park there is no blanket approval, though many (but not all) parks just go by the IGBC list.

I can’t believe I’m lumped into their oldest age category. Ugh.

The sharp edges on the Bearikade – yes – I have caused some damage to packs with this as well.

But there’s not a lot to improve on this canister, I’m very happy with mine.

My favorite bear can is an Ursack, however.

So I’ll use either one depending on where I’m hiking and what’s approved.

Can any weight be shaved off the Bearikade and still meet approval? Probably not likely, it would have to come in the form of thinner carbon walls. I watched some of these tests at the Grizzly Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, those grizzlies have some strong jaws, it’s remarkable.

The Bearikade is expensive and light, and works great.
The BV is cheap and heavier, and works great.

Seems like the three options we have cover most of the market, so this “new” canister will have to have a pretty compelling reason to compete:

1. as light as a Bearikade but cheaper;
2. as cheap as a BV but lighter.
3. as light and compact as an Ursack but approved everywhere.

When we start talking about stool comfort, easier closures, or adhesion of your favorite stickers, seems like an uphill battle for a marketer and a market that may not exist for a designer if it doesn’t address one of #1 to #3 above.*

(* or have an Arc’teryx logo on it, maybe, which might open up a whole new lifestyle bear canister market)

Bears have learned to get the lid off of Bear Vaults. One in Kings Canyon kicks the can on its side and bounces on it to distort the body and pop off the lid. The bear in the Adirondaks that bit the tabs off is dead now, but I suspect she trained some of her cubs well. I have had to replace the BV lid because the ABS plastic did not fare well in cold and eventually, when I kept using a granite flake or knife on cold mornings to open the lid, it no longer caught on the stopper and spun off freely – but the BV guy sent me a free replacement.

I’m in sort of a small market group: canisters aren’t required most of the places that I hike in Alaska, but they’re a good idea.  So Ursack is an option, unlike for many, but I suspect the market is mostly driven by backpackers required to use an approved (therefore rigid) canister.

Another marketing model would be mail-order rental.  UPS Priority Mail them out, UPS / Priority Mail them back.  This would be especially attractive to AT / PCT thru hikers would could have them delivered at their last resupply prior to entering particular national parks.  Any manufacturer offering that would capture a certain market share from others.  A downside is that a locally-based rental would avoid shipping costs and could more quickly shuttle multiple canisters back south for additional rentals each season.

Ah, a little Googling reveals that OutdoorsGeek in Denver and LowerGear out of Phoenix rent out canisters, among other gear, and will ship anywhere in the USA, SEKI has an on-site rental program and when we were last in Denali, they had a free loaner program.

Wild Ideas (Bearikade) rents by mail.

The couple that runs it originally did not want to sell them, at all. They caved in to demand. They wanted to rent canisters, by mail. You can also rent them from the visitor centers in Sequoia/Kings Canyon NPs.

Yosemite rents Garcias only, but used to sell the Bare Boxer in the gear stores.

I read about the Bearikade many years ago in Backpacker magazine. They had just come out. I called the number to order one and no one returned my call. I did this several times and finally left a grouchy voice mail: “I’m just trying to buy one of your damn cans!” One of the owners called me back and confirmed that they really just wanted to rent the cans. We talked some more; I tried to be charming, and he finally agreed, reluctantly, to sell me one. Persistence paid off!

Since then I’ve added the Scout to my stash o’cans. They’re the best, by far.

I can’t believe I’m lumped into their oldest age category. Ugh.

I know. It’s like 46 to death, it’s all the same.

Being in the oldest category was a first for me too.

“It’s like 46 to death, it’s all the same.”

46 to death is all the same. Except for Ben C, he’s been reconstituted.

“Except for Ben C, he’s been reconstituted.”

You mean like a freeze dried dinner?

Exactly. Though I think someone used a touch too much water…

.

What constitutes over-constitution?

“What constitutes over-constitution?”

Ask Clarence Thomas…

46 to death / it’s all the same

band name / debut album

Guaranteed success!

Being old is new to me too.

here is to Yellow Yellow

may she continue to open canisters in bear heaven.

Since being old equals retirement–I’m all for being old. Now I just have to figure out how to open the human equivalent of a bear canister to make it happen.

“Now I just have to figure out how to open the human equivalent of a bear canister to make it happen.”

I’d say the first thing you have to do is move out of tax-happy California!

Doug, taxes are the least of my worries. And anyway, I’m a west coast boy.

Well, if somebody wants to offer me a cabin in Maine or thereabouts, I’m listening.