OUR STORY

HOW IT ALL STARTED

We are a family-owned business based outside of Kansas City that designs and markets outdoor gear. Our journey began 2012, twenty feet in the air sitting in a tree stand. Constantly dealing with the frustration of having multiple lanyards getting tangled between binoculars, grunt call and range finder, along with the potential of dropping your phone; we thought, “we can solve this problem”.  This single thought kicked started months of on-line research and in our garage designing the original Stryker and Slingshot Gear Tether. The Real Gear journey began!

OUR FOCUS

Real Gear’s core is in whitetail hunting. Our team has years of whitetail hunting experience across the Midwest. We hunt hard and we are hard on our gear.  We know what works and as important, what doesn’t work.  We know what doesn’t work will not make the next trip out.  Our focus is quite simple, solve industry problems by delivering innovative and superior quality products that are the first things you grab on your next trip out.

BEYOND HUNTING

Our product designs originated in hunting and then the family also took up kayak fishing.  Who knew! The gear we designed for the ruggedness of hunting naturally crosses over to anything outdoors.   

OUR PRODUCT DESIGN CRITERIA
(Through the lens of whitetail hunting)
  • Concealment is key; our color scheme is black.
  • Stealth is an absolute; no metal-to-metal carabiners or a retractable spring making noise.
  • Modular as each hunt is not the same, clothes and gear change.
  • Functional and easy to work with.  Especially when wearing gloves.
  • Compact & lightweight so easy to store in a pocket or backpack.
  • No loose lanyards or cords to catch going up & down climbing sticks or grabbing your bow. Our initial test design incorporated mil spec shock (elastic) cord as the tether. It didn’t meet the compact or loose criteria. We then transitioned to our current strong coiled tether. 
  • Anchoring your phone and gear in various ways that enables physical separation, preventing lanyard tangle.
  • Accessibility, phone & gear must be easy to grab so no more than 30 inches of reach.
  • Needs to take a beating from being stepped on to closed in the truck door.
  • With the ever-changing phone sizes, needs to adapt.
  • Overarching theme:  OBSESSIVE OVER EVERY DETAIL!

Our original "wooden" iPhone for prototype testing. If this phone could talk, it would say "ouch". Through months of testing various materials, concepts and configurations, this phone hit the garage floor many times. We truly know what works from the testing in our garage back then, to now many years in the field.

 Wooden iPhone 4