Venture Studio · Mamaroneck, NY
Built for
the field.
Proven in it.
We build ultralight upgrades for gear you already own — and back founders doing the same. Less weight. More miles. Longer life.
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“The gear we trusted mostly worked. It just failed in small ways when it mattered most. Wind where it shouldn’t be. Weight that adds up by mile eight.”
— Peter Formanek, Founder
Chapter 01 Where It Started
We got tired of replacing gear
that didn’t need replacing.
Outdoor Innovation started with a simple pattern. The gear we trusted mostly worked — it just failed in small ways when it mattered most.
Wind where it shouldn’t be. Weight that adds up by mile eight. Cold that crept in through seams designed for conditions lighter than the ones we were actually in.
These weren’t flaws in the gear itself. They were gaps between what great gear was designed to do and what real conditions actually demand. Problems that didn’t require a new product. Just a better solution.
So we built one.
Peter Formanek had spent thirty years advising companies on growth, financing, and strategic decisions. He’d also spent decades in the field — backpacking, fly fishing, testing gear at altitude and in weather that doesn’t negotiate. He knew the pattern well: buy new, find the gap, adapt, replace, repeat.
What if the loop stopped at adapt?
Field-tested · Outdoor enthusiast approved
Chapter 02 What We Build
Ultralight upgrades for
the gear you own.
Outdoor Innovation is a venture studio focused on ultralight upgrades and systems for the gear you already own. Instead of asking people to start over, we design ways to improve what is already working.
Less weight. Better performance. Longer life.
Everything starts in the field. Real conditions, real use, real constraints. Ideas are tested outside, then brought back to our workshop in Mamaroneck, New York, where we prototype and build in small runs alongside local manufacturing partners.
Our products are designed to work with some of the most widely used gear in the world. They solve specific problems without adding unnecessary complexity. The kind of improvements that should have existed already.
Apparel
Upcycled materials, locally made. Performance layers designed for the trail and the town.
Biking
Lightweight accessories and systems that add function without adding weight to your ride.
Camping
The Tent Cozy and beyond. Thermal upgrades that let you go lighter without going colder.
Trail Running
Purpose-built for distance. Gear that stays out of the way from mile one to the finish.
Water Sports
Durable, packable, and built for the water. Because the river doesn’t care what day it is.
Chapter 03 The Tent Cozy
Our first product.
The idea made real.
The Tent Cozy was the first idea Outdoor Innovation brought to market — and it captures everything the brand stands for.
Most four-season tents are engineered for structural integrity in extreme conditions. They’re excellent at keeping the elements out. What they’re not designed to do is hold heat. Climbers and backpackers have known this for decades. The workaround was always either a heavier sleeping bag or accepting the cold.
The Tent Cozy is a custom-fit thermal liner. It wraps the interior of your tent fly, trapping radiant heat and cutting condensation without a single gram of unnecessary material.
Made from upcycled materials. Assembled in the USA. Designed to work with the tent you already own and already trust.
The weight savings are real. The warmth difference is significant. And the best part: you don’t have to replace anything to get it.
Tent Cozy
System
Chapter 04 The Venture Studio
We don’t just build
our own products.
As a venture studio, Outdoor Innovation works with founders, designers, and builders to bring new outdoor ideas to life. From early concepts to market-ready products, we support development, manufacturing, and access to a real community of outdoor users.
We’re not an accelerator. We’re not an incubator. We’re a hands-on partner with deep outdoor expertise, a manufacturing network, and a direct channel to people who actually buy and use this stuff.
If you have an idea for the next evolution in outdoor gear — and you want to build it right, locally, with upcycled materials — we want to hear from you.
Discovery
We sit with your idea, stress-test the problem it solves, and define what success looks like before a prototype is touched.
Prototype
Small-run builds in our workshop. Iterating fast, testing in the field, and killing ideas that don’t hold up outside.
Manufacture
Local manufacturing partners mean no overseas minimums, faster cycles, and a product made the way it should be.
Launch
Access to a community of real outdoor users who test, review, and buy. Distribution built for the outdoor channel.
Chapter 05 Where We’re Headed
The future of outdoor gear
is not more of it.
We believe the future of outdoor gear is smarter use of what you already trust. Not a faster replacement cycle. Not more products competing for space in your pack. Better solutions for the gear that already works.
That means continuing to build the Outdoor Innovation product line — new systems, new categories, always upcycled, always made in the USA. And it means growing the venture studio side: more founders, more ideas, more gear that deserves to exist.
It also means staying rooted in Mamaroneck. In the Hudson Valley. In the specific creative energy of building things that start outside and come back to a workshop down the street.
“We don’t make more gear. We make the gear you already trust work better.”
— Peter Formanek, Founder, Outdoor Innovation
This is what we’re building toward. We’re glad you’re along for it.
Peter Formanek — Founder
The Founder
Peter Formanek
Co-Founder & Head of Product
Peter is the founder and CEO of Young America Capital, where he has spent more than 30 years advising startups on financing, growth, and strategic transactions. He brings that same rigor to Outdoor Innovation — the discipline to kill a bad idea early, and the conviction to build a good one right.
Outside the workshop, Peter is an avid backpacker and fly fisherman. He has tested gear in conditions that most product reviews never reach. That field experience shapes every decision Outdoor Innovation makes — from material selection to manufacturing partners to what problems are actually worth solving.
Outdoor Innovation was built because Peter got tired of the replacement cycle. It keeps going because there are still problems worth fixing.
Ready?
Gear up. Or partner
with us to build.
Explore the collection or reach out to talk about what we’re building next.