2019 Business Excellence Winner: Cam Brensinger of NEMO Equipment

Through innovation, technology and design, Cam and the team at NEMO Equipment are committed to creating a better outdoor experience.

Cam debuted the company’s first product line, a backpacking tent that utilizes low-pressure inflatable ribs or airbeams, in 2004. The concept was inspired by a NASA-funded project Cam worked on at MIT to help develop the next generation of spacesuits for human exploration of Mars.

Today, the brand offers a full range of tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, outdoor furniture and camp accessories.

And the staff of 30 employees and seven dogs live by NEMO’s motto, “Design like you give a damn.”

Take for instance, an experience in 2017, when only months into production of NEMO’s first piece of camp furniture, the team discovered a manufacturing defect that caused premature wear on the fabric components.

The defect was caused by an outside supplier, but Cam and NEMO’s team went to extraordinary lengths to track down customers and cover shipping to reclaim all suspect chairs.

For a small company, a product recall could have been devastating, but the goodwill NEMO accumulated with its retail partners and customers paid off.

Thanks to swift action, the chairs were back in the market in a couple of months and REI, the largest outdoor retailer in North America, bestowed NEMO with the Overall Vendor Partner of the Year recognition.