Last week I had the great pleasure of visiting Peak Design, an uber cool design and carry brand based in the heart of San Francisco, and a proud Conservation Alliance member. I showed up on a sunny Thursday morning to deliver a Public Lands 101 presentation and left completely blown away by the positive change these guys are making.
First of all the brand’s story is amazing.
Peak Design was catalyzed when a nice Midwestern guy named Peter Dering took his DLSR camera on a four month trip around the world. Peter returned home to San Francisco, quit his job, designed a revolutionary camera clip for 10 months, then put it on Kickstarter. It exploded, Peak Design was crowdfunded.
Six Kickstarter campaigns later, Peak Design has become the world’s most crowdfunded active company ($14M raised!). Peak Design has over 50 amazing products, 25 rad employees in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood and hundreds of manufacturers around the world.
While the growth story is impressive, the values that carry Peak Design and its family forward, blew me away. Their website states: the purpose of Peak Design is to create happy, meaningful lives for the people that work there. This purpose breeds an incredible culture. They often share breakfast together – like we did the morning I was there (from the delicious Neighbor Bakerhouse next door). Among other cool things, a small climbing wall and hang board duo offer productive work breaks.
I learned their mission from Peter, their founder. It has six parts:
- Make the best things.
- Succeed at the expense of nobody.
- Treat our customers as peers.
- Offset our environmental impact.
- Use our voice to inspire positive change.
- Prioritize happiness over growth.
Pretty cool.
At the Conservation Alliance, we are especially excited about and grateful for their Give A Shot platform – which connects photographers with nonprofit organizations in need of stunning photography. Many Conservation Alliance grantees have benefited from the platform. Check it out if your organization is in need of some lovely photography!
As an added bonus, my visit overlapped with their annual SUMM1T event – which was instigated by their 1% for the Planet partnership and has morphed into a night of celebration, inspiration, and collaboration between creatives, businesses, and environmentalists. This year served as an opportunity to highlight the formal launch Give A Shot.
A few hundred passionate folks filled a venue with an impressive gallery of photos. All were captivated by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez – the 17 year-old climate activist, hip hop artist, director of Earth Guardians, author and overall incredible human being. He prompted us to think of climate change as a people issue.
We couldn’t be more proud to have Peak Design in the family, or more inspired by their values.
