Cam Brensinger: NEMO’s Road from a Bivy Bag on Mount Washington to Recyclable Gear

Cam Brensinger sewed a prototype from a bicycle inner tube after a bivy bag failed him on Mount Washington: this conversation explores what a gear maker owes the ground its products are used on. Brensinger explains why NEMO only brings products to market that improve the outdoor experience, how a bicycle inner tube and an inflatable kite shaped the company's first designs, and how a REI buyer's blunt criticism taught him to put the customer in the room. He talks about fifteen years of lobbying through the Outdoor Industry Association, the industry's 2017 withdrawal of its trade show from Utah over Bears Ears, and how business can connect jobs and economic impact to the conservation case.

The episode also covers NEMO's sustainability commitments, a roughly forty percent cut in carbon intensity and fully recyclable products, and the challenge of selling those stories in 2026 after years of greenwashing fatigue. Brensinger argues that climbers, backpackers, hunters, and anglers share far more than their differences, and that showing up together in Washington represents the vast majority of the outdoor constituency.

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Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.