Back in July 2008 Ryan Powell set off to hitch-hike across America with the goal of creating a documentary of the people he met along the way. And nearly two years later, he’s still at it. The term ‘hitch-hike‘ is relative in this situation as he has only allowed himself to accept rides when drivers voluntarily stop to ask if he needs one. So, in turn, Ryan has seen most of America on foot. How does this story relate to Gregory?
Well, when you’re carrying everything you own on your back across amber waves of grain and purple mountains majesties, you better have a comfortable, yet functional pack. Ryan chose the Gregory Palisade 80 to accompany him on his journey and, unfortunately, Ryan had some initial difficulties with the hip-belt. While we’re very proud of our quality control in general here at Gregory, it’s difficult to achieve a perfect track record, and Ryan’s problem stemmed from an isolated batch of defective plastic material from one of our suppliers that caused the waist belt frame to crack. This was a problem for a limited number of other Gregory customers who unfortunately also got a pack with one of these defective hip belt frames.
In our mind, the measure of a company is not whether you have the occasional problem, but how you deal with that problem to keep the trust of a loyal customer. We proactively communicated with our customers concerning this topic, and we also tried to help customers directly, rather than having them go through a retailer. In this case, John Sears from Gregory’s R&D contacted Ryan to explain the problem and offered to send him the newest Whitney 95.
After much use, Ryan was extremely pleased with the quality and functionality of the pack. So last month, while he was ‘on the road,’ Ryan 
stopped by the Gregory headquarters in Sacramento to meet the crew and thank them for their help. During his visit he met with John Sears, Director of R&D and Nick Kelso, Sample Maker who beefed up his pack by replacing worn out and dirty parts on his pack as well as reinforcing seams. Here’s what he had to say about his visit:
‘The people at Gregory are awesome. I was there for five hours, talking pretty extensively to almost everyone in the building. The also fed me, an act that always wins major points with me, But mostly it was just cool meeting them and seeing a little bit of their operation. It’s clear that they spend a lot of time working to make their products the best they can be, largely listening to feedback from people like me.’ -Ryan Powell via his blog
It’s people like Ryan who really get to know our packs and without people like him, we wouldn’t have the quite the same insight about our packs as we do. So, we sincerely appreciate their feedback and always enjoy hearing their stories.
Thanks, Ryan and good luck with Aimless.
Last October, one of our owners, Robert Schiller, volunteered in Tunisia with a friend named Sam Amiel who works with the 
As if 
Here at Gregory, we definitely play harder than we work (shhhh, don’t tell the boss-man) and try to get out as much as possible. Molly from Customer Service and Dustin from the warehouse recently road tripped to the 
Phoenix and were super stoked to test out the new Gregory Fusion LTS packs for the first time. They are awesome by the way, launch in February, and were perfect for everything we did this weekend. Stay tuned for more info on those packs and my full review in the next couple of weeks. 
The next day, when the comps and clinics started in the Ice Park, we went out in search of the 
as Dustin, again, looked like a pro. We headed back to the Park just in time to see the finals and 
It was taken this past September on a three night, four day trip covering about 25 miles. After encountering rain, snow, sleet and hail, temperatures ranging from the 25 - 40 degrees, and wind gusts up to 25 mph, he and his wife made camp above tree line, falling asleep to the sounds of elk and snow falling on the tent.
weather broke long enough to get this great shot. Congrats on winning December’s uber-exclusive prize, a Day and a Half pack from our Classic Series, currently available only in Japan.
o him) to get him a fitting gift that would signify his commitment to Gregory the company and to building the best packs on the market (yeah this is our blog, but we believe that to be true). The gift also had to have some significance to Wayne, of course, and also be something that would mean something to others, especially outdoors folk.
At Gregory we’re getting into the holiday spirit by reaching out to our local community here in Sacramento and helping a family in need. About a month ago, our local bike cop (who keeps our hood safe and is often hanging around the office geeking out with us over new gear) told us about a program through the 
So the Gregory Gives Back group rallied employees, our landlord, friends and family and started collecting everything we could (big ups to craigslist and everyone in the office with large enough cars and muscles to help move furniture). In no time, an empty cube was filled up with tons of stuff to donate to this family, and we’ve been dropping it off as we obtain it for a couple of weeks now. We were even able to get management to donate some ca$h to buy some of the items we couldn’t find, like new bedding, new clothes, some backpacks for school (obviously) and a brand new bike and helmet for each child. Employees donated everything else you could think of - rugs, tables, lamps, beds, clothing, toys, groceries, kitchen items and even a stroller! I’m so proud of everyone here for coming together and helping to make this great donation to a family in need.
And the giving doesn’t stop there. We’re hoping that we can help this family out a few more times next year by allocating some of the funds we have in the Gregory Gives Back budget to them for any future items they may need. We hope you all have a great holiday season and if at all possible, consider donating to those less fortunate. Even the smallest item can go a long way to helping someone else out.
