This month we chatted with fellow OBA member Timber Ninja Outdoors. Timber Ninja Outdoors designs and manufactures innovative products for the mobile hunter, but their passions are getting folks outdoors and conserving wildlife, and providing them with the habitat they need in order to flourish. Their gear is proudly made in the USA.
1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how Timber Ninja Outdoors came to be?
My name is Jason Redd and I’m the founder of Timber Ninja Outdoors. I’ve been a lifetime outdoorsman, starting hunting at the age of 7 with my grandfather. Later in my teens I got into endurance sports starting with running, then progressing into triathlons, and finally settling into road bike racing where I spent numerous years racing around the US.
When I moved to Asheville 15 years ago, I got back into whitetail hunting in the mountains which essentially is a grand adventure of pursuing deer for food and sport. I enjoyed hunting mountains because you can go on deep adventures and push yourself mentally and physically. I mainly pursue game in the mountains with a traditional bow because I feel like I want to harvest animals in the most ethical and complicated way.
While carrying my gear in the mountains I realized a need for light weight equipment because most products were made out of aluminum. I essentially made a set of climbing sticks for myself without any desire to start another company because at the time I was running two businesses. However, two of my buddies were interested in taking the products to market, so we launched Timber Ninja Outdoors in May of 2020 with the goal of being the most innovative manufacturer of hunting and outdoors products, while making those products here in the USA. Fast forward to today, we’ve had exceptional growth and our line has expanded from climbing sticks to tree saddles and saddle platforms.
2. Can you describe the range of products or services Timber Ninja Outdoors offers?
Our product range started with the C1 carbon fiber climbing sticks, but we’ve evolved into tree saddles, platforms, ropes, and accessories.
This year we’ll be launching our soft goods which will include backpacks, waist belts, and other items that not only will work for hunters, but are also targeted for fishing, mountain biking, hiking, and trail running. I always felt the need for products that I could use for hunting and my other hobbies. We’re not making these products in full camo, instead featuring them in natural earth tones with camo accents which you see that trend happening in the mountain biking and snow sports channels.
We’ve found a lot of our customers are not just hunters, but 365 days a year outdoorsmen and women, so we wanted them to have the ability to use their gear across multiple sports.
3. Could you share any significant collaborations or partnerships your company has undertaken with fellow Outdoor Business Alliance members?
We’ve discussed projects with multiple OBA members, which in 2022 we partnered with Tsuga to manufacture some of our tree saddles and we’ve also partnered with them on our soft goods products. Jimi Combs and his team at Tsuga have been a valuable asset for our product growth.Their background in technical materials and quality craftsmanship has really made an impact on the items we’ve launched with them. We really look forward to seeing this partnership grow and hopefully we can partner with other OBA members in the future.
4. How do you envision Timber Ninja Outdoors evolving in the coming years?
Its really humbling to see the growth we’ve had since our inception. We’ve had to really step up and take this business seriously and bring in other resources to help with our growth in the DTC market. We’re currently partnering with other outdoor businesses to collaborate on projects with the latest one being Origin which is a company manufacturing Jiu Jitsu Gis, workout clothes, jeans, boots, and hunting equipment in North Carolina. We’ll continue to manufacture innovative hunting equipment, but we’re putting a strong focus on balancing our products to have a 365 sales cycle.
Our goal is to keep manufacturing USA made products here in NC because its part of our mission statement to provide more jobs in our local community. As we all know, our manufacturing jobs have mainly been sent overseas which isn’t good for our country. We’ll also continue our strong focus on educating the public on ethical game harvest and how that balances out the herd dynamics and we also put a lot of attention and dollars to Conservation Groups that are working to make our forest a healthy place for the animal population. In addition, we’re going to spend more time recruiting and educating new hunters, so that our children and others can continue to enjoy the outdoors in a responsible way.
