Hey everyone, welcome to Episode 426 with Tom Dempsey, founder and CEO of SylvanSport and a highly regarded national leader in the outdoor industry for several decades. SylvanSport designs and manufactures innovative recreation vehicles and outdoor gear. In addition to SylvanSport, Dempsey has founded and led several other companies in the outdoor recreation industry and is the founding chairperson of the North Carolina Outdoor Recreation Coalition, a non-profit group that directs and supports the state's Outdoor Recreation Industry Office.
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
Sign up for my Newsletter HERE
I’d love to hear your feedback about the show!
You can contact me here: rick@theoutdoorbizpodcast.com
Show Notes
Questions we Discussed
- Tell us about your first outdoor experience?
- How many times do you get out to camp, hike, etc, these days?
- Where does your love for industrial design come from?
- And what was your job at Coleman? It was your first outdoor job, right?
- You got into the kayak space when it was still relatively new. Are you a kayaker?
- What was it about adventure sports that inspired SlyvanSport?
- Tell us about the early days of Sylvan, is your first product still in the line?
- How do you find time to run the company and maintain the role of chief product designer?
- Sylvan also has a great company culture, can you share some of the things you do to maintain that?
- What is the Sylvan distribution network like, how many RV dealers are you in?
- Are all your products sold in the US or are there any international distributors?
- Do you have a favorite place camp?
- How about a spot to get away for an hour or so and get some outdoor time during the week?
- Do you have any suggestions and/or advice for folks with a product idea to get it into production?
- What is your favorite outdoor gear purchase under $100? Sylvan Sport WayLight
- How about some of your favorite books? Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
- And Tom has a special offer for our listeners . . . 20% off on gear (excludes their trailers). The code is: outdoorbiz20
- Is there anything else you want to say or ask of our listeners?
- Where can people find you if they’d like to follow up (email, Twitter, Instagram, etc)? tom@sylvansport.com
Learn Mo
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.