Code Of Silence Hunting Gear

On this episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast, Dan talks with Ev Tarrell of Code Of Silence about their lineup of hunting clothing. For 30 years Ev work for Cabela's in their hunting camo and clothing division where he was able to identify what he thought were holes in the camouflage market. Several years later, while talking to one of his hunting buddies about hunting gear who was preparing for an eastern whitetail hunt, Ev had a bit of a "ah ha" moment. It was right then and there he decided to start his new company.

Dan and Ev get in to the details about what type a materials are uses, how the garments were going to be designed, redesigns of the prototypes, and what kind of hunter will benefit from this hunting line. If you are a midwestern deer hunter and are looking for new camo for the next hunting season, this episode may give you another option.

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Yo. Yo. What's up everybody? Welcome to the Hunting Gear podcast. I'm your host Dan Johnson. And. We're gonna be talking with Ev Tarrell. Is it Terrell? God he meant he says it, but I mess it up every time. I think it's Terrell of code of Silence and half the company is based in Iowa [00:01:00] and half the company is based in Nebraska.

And if you haven't heard of Code of Silence, it is a brand new company for the most part. It's brand new. I think they've only been out a couple. And they are a camo apparel company. And fleece and wool and the demographic focus on this, I guess would be like your tree stand, a whitetail hunter your Midwestern whitetail hunter for conditions of cool to cold, that October to November timeframe, and I was walking down the halls of the ata.

And this product just caught my eye because there's a lot of stuff on the market right now, and this is just my opinion at this point that I'm just not a fan of. Whether it is from a dur durability standpoint, whether it is from a design and construction standpoint, or whether it is from a material standpoint.

Like obviously I'm a huge fan of wool and the [00:02:00] benefits of wool and. I was walking by their booth, I stopped. I took a look at it and I go, I can see myself wearing this type of of gear. And and there's a story behind the camel pattern. There's a story behind the apparel. There's a story about his experience and how he jumped from 30 years at Cabela's to this position.

And or to designing and creating this line at Code of Silence. And so it's a really cool story about a brand new company doing some really cool things. And I hope you guys enjoy it. Before we get into today's episode, though we gotta do the commercial block here. And first off, I just wanna say please don't skip through these , because I know a lot of guys can hit that, that fast forward 10 seconds button.

But what this allows me to do is say, hey, This many people are hearing this. That's how I make my money. And I know a lot of people probably don't care about that, but it's very important for me to be able to go [00:03:00] to, a potential partner or someone and go, Hey, this is how this is the analytics I have, this is how many people are listening to this.

And that just helps me out. Also, please go to iTunes, leave a five star review, let everybody know that you like the Hunting Gear podcast and that the information coming out of the Hunting Gear Podcast. Is beneficial. So if you are looking for a saddle, go check out. Tethered has a complete lineup of saddles, platforms, climbing sticks, saddle hunting, accessories, everything that you need to get started.

In the the saddle hunting game. But on top of that, and this is what I've been using recently is I've been watching a lot of content surrounding saddle hunting and the strategy and how to set up and how to tear down and how to position yourself properly and be comfortable while in the tree, not only on their website, but on YouTube as well.

So they have a whole bunch of content that's beneficial. So if you're looking for a saddle, go check out. If you are looking for a hunting app, whether [00:04:00] you, maybe you already have one, but if you want the best whitetail focused hunting app on the market you need to go check out HuntStand huntstand.com.

Read up on all the functionality, read up on the ability to interchange maps that allow you to see terrain or drainage. How water drains through the l. It allows you to find property owners, all that stuff is, it comes basic, but then if you really want to get into it, they offer a pro whitetail platform.

And what that is it shows things like historic rut rut dates and maps, and it tells you, where the rut kicks off certain times a year. And that allows you to plan your hunt and maybe even forecast some deer movement. They have a little bit of forecasting. They have a. Portion of all that.

And so it's just a really good way to be in. You can do your ESS scouting, you can journal, you can, [00:05:00] basically be in the mindset of deer hunting all year round just at, because you have an app on your phone. So it's a huge, any downtime is I pull up HuntStand, I start messing around with it.

And last but not least, we have the tact Cam 6.0, brand new this. Go check out tact cam's website. Go pull up the 6.0 if you love to document your hunts whether you wanna screw it into your bow or you wanna mount it to your gun. The tact cam has the ability to have 4k, it has image stabilization, it has an L c D screen so you can, review what you've just, just recorded.

And so it's really, not only does it have the ability. Allow you to check your shot. Oh man, after the hunt, after I, I shot something, I wanna go recover it. Let's see where the shot was. And that'll tell me, Hey was it a good shot? Was it a bad shot? Do I need to wait? On top of that, you can go home.

You can show this footage to your kids and say, Hey, look what dad saw tonight. Or, go show some buddies. Hey, what do you think [00:06:00] of this buck? And and just share the memories and keep the memories. So those are the commercials. Please go check out 2% for conservation. It is a, it's a conservation organization that's lets you be in charge of where you put your time and your money.

Fish and wildlife.org, go check it out. Alright, so let's get over to today's episode with Eve Terrell. All right. On the phone with me today from Code of Silence of Terrell, how we. 

[00:06:33] Ev Tarrell: Hey, doing awesome. How are you, Dan? I'm doing 

[00:06:35] Dan Johnson: good, man. Doing good. And so this podcast started this this year at the ATA show.

And I'll be honest, I was walking down all of the aisles, looking at all of the products that are out and about and some of the new stuff. And I personally walked by your your booth of code of silence, and it caught my attention in a very positive bow hunter [00:07:00] friendly way.

And so I said, man, I gotta, and then I stopped in the booth. I had a little conversation with you and some of the other guys that were working the booth and here we are. 

[00:07:09] Ev Tarrell: Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate you stopping by. It was good chatting to ata. We had a great show and a lot of people had similar experiences, I think of.

Maybe not being familiar with the brand, but immediately being captivated and intrigued with, the relevancy of of what we're bringing to the table. Yeah. 

[00:07:27] Dan Johnson: And it's also cool you guys are an Iowa based company, correct? 

[00:07:31] Ev Tarrell: We're split a little bit there. Okay. Actually, Dan, so I'm actually in Nebraska.

My partner Darren Young, what is in Iowa. Okay. I, I. Selfishly, I wish I was in Iowa . I get to hunt Iowa about every four years and it would not be any, it would not be hard for me to want or to hunt there every season 

[00:07:48] Dan Johnson: if I got a chance. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a comment that every hunter would like to make.

[00:07:54] Ev Tarrell: Absolutely. 

[00:07:56] Dan Johnson: So what part of Nebraska are 

[00:07:58] Ev Tarrell: you? [00:08:00] So extreme western, kinda lower panhandle. Okay. If you're familiar with Nebraska, we're not that far from Wyoming. I'm only about it's exit 59, so we're just, just under 60 miles from the Wyoming border. Okay. Sit right above Colorado to the south.

So this is the home of Cabela's. Is what it's known for. And Sydnee. Yeah. I had a past history with Cabela. Some people are aware of. I spent 30 great years there and just for a variety of reasons, we're still here. And like the town, it's small town America. And there's a lot of good reasons to, to stay and.

And I'm happy and making the business work outta Sydney right now. 

[00:08:35] Dan Johnson: That's awesome. And you're also, you're not only in Whitetail world, but you're also in that crossover area where there's both whitetails, mule deer, and I'm assuming there's some antelope as well. 

[00:08:45] Ev Tarrell: Yeah, actually Nebraska some people are Probably cringe when I tell the story for selfish reasons, you know, but Nebraska's a little bit of a sleeper antelope state.

Yeah. It's a little bit harder now to draw as an out-of-state, but I've, it's probably my biggest passion, at least until [00:09:00] the end of October is chasing antelope. And we have some fantastic opportunities for antelope out here. Particularly archery. 

[00:09:06] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. And the tags, like you said, the tags are for Nebraska at this time, especially for archery, are easy to get, not only for whitetail mule deer, but for.

[00:09:17] Ev Tarrell: That's not actually accurate, Dan, so Oh, it's not. Okay. It has been that way, but now they've capped the animal archery out-of-state tags at 250. Oh, okay. They literally sold out in about 20 minutes. Okay. Which is a whole nother story. It was over the counter unlimited until I think 2020.

Okay. And then they had some challenges, so they've gone to this new rule, so it's They're obtain, you just have to be on the spot and on the online when that opening window hits and you can get a tag. But anybody that's sleeping at the wheel is probably gonna be 

[00:09:50] Dan Johnson: outta luck.

Yeah. I guess I. I was referring to 2014. That was the first time I ever went and hunted Nebraska out west over in the [00:10:00] Sandhills out there. And I ended up getting I got a deer tag, an archery deer tag, and then an archery antelope tag. And I was able to get both of 'em over the counter.

No issues. Lot, I guess a lot's changed since then. I have to remember how long that's been. . 

[00:10:15] Ev Tarrell: Yeah. The deer tags are still readily available. Yeah. But the antelope they had quite a change there. And we'll see if that changes long term. It's like I say, it's, they're still available.

And the hunting's fantastic. You just have to be in the front end and Yep. And get online right away to, to have a chance to have an antelope tag. 

[00:10:32] Dan Johnson: Yep. All right. So you mentioned that you spent 30 years working for Cabela's and we, we don't need to educate the listeners on what Cabela's is, but what was your job at Cabela's?

[00:10:45] Ev Tarrell: For the majority of those 30 years, I was in charge of the hunting clothing area corporately. I did some different things. I spent some time in Canada when we opened the Canada operations, and I worked in the brand management area, but for the most part, 22, 23, something like that, years [00:11:00] out of those 30 I spent running the hunting clothing area.

[00:11:03] Dan Johnson: Okay. And so there is the crossover, right? You have this knowledge base in a clothing and apparel, which I'm assuming helped crossover into this new path. Now 30 years for a company. Sounds to me like was this a, is this like a, did it start off as a pet project? Did it start off as, Hey, I wanna quit?

Or did you just. and say to yourself, Hey, I wanna keep going, doing something that I love. 

[00:11:30] Ev Tarrell: I think it's, sorry to be cliche, but it's in your blood. Yeah. When you spend that much time at a particular job or skill, putting a skill set together. left Cabela's, and just after 30 years you can imagine was, Lot of success.

And there was some transition in the ownership of Cabela's and just seemed like a good time to do something different and very well networked in the industry. Had some work I did with some variety of people I knew and, but it really wouldn't say it's a pet project, Anne, but [00:12:00] like anything, we did at Cabela's, it was always about need based.

It was, no matter what you did, you were trying to fill a, fill a. In the need side of the industry. And you would think that after 30 years, you'd think you'd have every need covered. But I really didn't feel that way, particularly from a technical end use. I don't wanna say bow hunting in use, even though I'm probably more passionate on that side.

Bow hunting clothing is, ambidextrous across rifle crossbo. You get it. It's archery clothing works everywhere. It's just, it takes a little bit special type product to, for really close range stuff. But anyway, as an archer, just really didn't think. , there was a system out there that, that made everything come together at the level it should.

Yeah. There was quiet stuff out there. There was warm stuff out there, there was well fitting stuff out there, good camouflage stuff out there, but really didn't think anyone was bringing it all together in a system that, as we say, is enabled [00:13:00] hunters to be more successful in the field. We just kept coming back to that, as, as much as could get by with what we had in, in our arsenals just said, you know what?

There's a, there's an opportunity and a need for 

[00:13:12] Dan Johnson: better. Yeah. And so did, when, were you still working for Cabela's when this idea popped into your head or was this something that happened after you left Cab? 

[00:13:26] Ev Tarrell: It happened quite a while after I left Cabela. Okay. I left Cabelas in 2016. Okay. And we really started putting this together in, in around 2020.

[00:13:34] Dan Johnson: Okay. All right. So that's when the company's, would you say that the concept and the birth of the business started in 2020? 

[00:13:42] Ev Tarrell: That's pretty accurate. Yeah. Okay. I think, in theory started earlier than that. It just, wishing it had better, wishing it had different, started you, I think, long before that.

And then I think by 2020 just said, you know what, we need to get serious about this. We're gonna do [00:14:00] something. And had a couple ideas and it, it took a while to make it come together. Yeah, it seems pretty simple now looking at it and it's like, how do we spend literally, more than two years to get to where we are?

But like anything, that's done right. It's not an overnight type process. Yeah. 

[00:14:15] Dan Johnson: And so when you are sitting there, and you're like, God I, you you've identified what you feel as a whole in the market and you said I know about this, I know about clothing and things like that.

How, what was the tipping point where you ended up pulling the trigger, so to speak, and saying, Hey, I'm gonna start up my own. 

[00:14:35] Ev Tarrell: Several things. I don't know if there was a, an aha moment necessarily. We had a, Darren, if Darren was sitting here, he'd tell you similar, more stories, but there was a couple, I guess just eye-opening type experiences.

Had a good buddy that was going back east and had a, literally a once in a lifetime opportunity to kill a world class, 200 plus inch deer. That was, [00:15:00] on camera. A guy had been watching it and somehow he networked in to get a chance to go hunt this deer. And he was saying, I don't, I gotta get this right.

What clothing would you take? And I was literally like this one would be really good, but, and this system is really good, but if you want something that's really warm, it's this. And just through that conversation, it was like a real, reality check on the fact that there wasn't, A go-to type clothing system that I was willing to endorse off the top of my head.

And that translated into saying, you know what, if after spending 30 years in the industry and all my exposure and all the name brands that are out there and the level of hunters that I hang out with, and I don't have, I don't have a go-to. It just, it made it real, Dan. Yeah. To. You know what there's something here.

Let's do it. And it was encouraged I think when, as soon as we started the conversation and said, we're gonna get [00:16:00] serious about this. We had a lot of people not jump on board, but say, totally agree with what you're saying. Totally agree with the theory, the need I, if you can, it's even on our, one of our kind of mini tag lines of the need for better is.

Is obvious. And so with that in mind we move forward. 

[00:16:21] Dan Johnson: All right. So you identified this gap or this hole you felt that you could fill based off of a conversation you had with a guy who was heading East Hunt, whitetails at that. There's a whole nother conversation, right? You have to be realistic.

Like I don't, you don't just go in and you just don't start a company, right? You have to write it all out. You have to make a plan. You gotta talk about material, you gotta talk about the distribution chain. You have to talk about, the construction of the product and what pieces you're gonna bring to market.

What did the next I. Once you pulled the trigger and said, I'm gonna start a business, what did all of that look [00:17:00] like before you actually had a a prototype to, to mess around with? 

[00:17:04] Ev Tarrell: You can imagine with my background, I'd been down that road a few times on, you identify a need in the marketplace and you say, how are we gonna.

In this case, looking at it saying, it was more technical archery gear that was needed. It was not just one thing though. It was really about quiet. It was really about warmth. It was really about fit. And it was really about camo as well. Yeah. And I know that sounds a little bit, interesting I guess.

you say Really after, Jim Crumley, I the grandfather of modern camouflage has started in 84, I wanna say. Yeah, 85. And so really after, that many years we, there's a need for camouflage. We really thought there was something different. Even some of the higher end brands that were, toying with the space that we're talking about in the market.

Really thought. One of the things they were leaving on the table was the concealment side. So yeah, it was about quiet. It was about [00:18:00] warmth, it was about fit. It was also about function, and not crazy function, but just having the right Storage. Accessory pockets, features in the garments or products, and then fit and then concealment. So those were our big five. And so there's not a one size fits all. Oh, it's this fabric, or it's it was a process to say, okay. What fabric fills this need. What? And went down that same path, check the box on all of those, which is part of the reason it took us, two full years to get ready.

Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:18:37] Dan Johnson: And so I want to, I wanna talk about this camo, right? Because when you started a clothing company, or a garment company, or a camo company, however you wanna say it, you have two options. I look at it this way, you can. A or what do they call that? License a camel pattern from like real tree or Moss.

Oak or somebody else. Or you can come up with your own. And the interesting, [00:19:00] the interest, you told me that there was like an interesting story behind the concept and the actual pattern that you guys have on your on your clothing. So I want to hear that. 

[00:19:11] Ev Tarrell: Okay. Yeah, it's, I think probably without too many exceptions, most camouflage designs out there are someone's baby.

They're someone's theory or most typically their artwork or someone has gone in and designed a pattern to their perception of what's gonna work, which is great. We really wanted this to be not our own pattern, but something that was scientifically based on. On a system that would, systematically blend in the woods as, as well as possible.

Went through a long process of, again, going back to the fact that this is a, primarily an archery type system, and most archery hunting is done, elevated from a tree. We went through a process of saying, okay, if guys are hunting in a. , what height are they at? And so we did a survey [00:20:00] with a number of hunters across the country, mostly in the Midwest, and said, what's the average tree stand height that you're sitting at?

And we came up with an average of 14.8 feet. You put a 17, I'm sorry, you put a six foot person in that 14.8 foot stand, mid height. They're at 17.8. And then we went into a variety of trees. We used a hundred trees. We wanted to. We didn't wanna go crazy. We wanted to keep it practical, but we went into a hundred trees in five different varieties and looked at that.

I'm gonna round it up to 18 now. At that 18 foot mark, what is the size of the branches and what is the density of the number of branches and that drove the element composition in the pattern. So it's called S 18, which is short for stand 18. , but, and I'll be honest, which I don't know any other way.

Some of the trees we looked at have zero branches. They're straight trunk, and some of them look like a, literally a, an apple tree with branches going everywhere. And [00:21:00] so this pattern is still a, an average of those, of the breadth between those two. , at least there's some science behind it to create, what is gonna be the most probable type design to fit in the surroundings that hunters are finding themselves in a tree.

Gotcha. 

[00:21:17] Dan Johnson: And so there, there's a little bit of a method to the madness. It's not just you sat down with some colors and said, Hey, I'm gonna create a camo pattern. 

[00:21:25] Ev Tarrell: Exactly. Okay. I could have done that, and I've done that before in my career. And it's just, just really wanted this to be objective.

Yeah. And then at the same time, objective to the science of where people are sitting and. I sit pretty high in a tree dam. Yeah. I find myself, which is another part of this story too of why we did the camel. But I'm sitting 25 foot, sometimes higher for a variety of reasons, but it's not about me.

It's about, where hunters are at and I have very few stands that are probably at 14.8 feet, but [00:22:00] it just made sense to do this random. On where hunters are sitting, not wherever, where Darren are sitting. Yeah. 

[00:22:05] Dan Johnson: Yeah. All right. So that takes care of the camo pattern, P portion of it. But when you guys started to come up with the material and then the material composition of how you were gonna take, I don't know, multiple different types of fabrics and intertwine 'em and get your layering and things like that, what did that conversation look like?

[00:22:29] Ev Tarrell: That's a great question. I'll try to be as simple and concise here as I can. There's a lot of things that went into this again, if, remember me saying I was trying to solve the quietness side, right? Trying to solve the warmth side and then still Camel is great, but we really wanted a different approach to camouflage, aside from the design.

Yeah. And the good news there, if I bring those three pieces together, is. in creating a quiet fabric or choosing a quiet fabric like we have in our two main shell [00:23:00] fabrics, you end up with a very high loft, and that high loft gives you great light absorption versus a flat fabric which is, if you ever go touch a, a pet your dog, when they're laying in the sun, feel how warm they are that their texture of.

Of their hide, of their hair absorbs light, which does two things. It warms them, but it also absorbs light from a camouflage perspective, which everything in the wood does as well. Trying to be concise here again. But so in finding a fabric that was very high textured, it fed into the fact that the fabric was gonna be, The high loft was gonna make it quiet, but it was going to feed into the different level of concealment that we wanted as well.

And shifting gears here slightly, but I would tell you that the high texture of our fabrics, not just the camo, is a huge part [00:24:00] of why it conceals the hunter so well and why, in fact, why hunters are not getting the results outta camouflage that. are probably entitled to, in my opinion. So again, really had a trifecta there of, hey, you got a great new quiet fabric or fabrics.

They're also very light absorption. That is going to help you on the warmth side. , but more importantly, they're gonna, it is going to dramatically help you on the concealment side. Okay. 

[00:24:31] Dan Johnson: And does make sense? Yeah, it does. And so the other is fleece and you guys do some wool.

Was that for me now, this is just personal. I've been bow hunting for a lot of years and I've been through a lot of hunting gear and I've found that. Has an absolute awesome benefit to any type of hunter, period. Whether you're out west or whether you're sitting in a tree stand was wool and fleece and integrating those [00:25:00] always a, were you always going to do that or did it start off as something else?

[00:25:06] Ev Tarrell: Oh, I would say that, Again, going back to the bigger picture here slightly, Dan, I was more focused on an organic type shell. So wool bean, organic cotton bean organic polyester bean synthetic. So really wanted a organic based type shell in, in my opinion, from a camouflage standpoint or a natural standpoint.

and again, sorry to be cliche, natural is natural. So if you're trying to look like the woods, the more polyester you use, the harder that's gonna be. The more ink you use, the harder that's gonna be. And so when you think of conventional camouflages that are typically high content, poly.

Probably Hightech Tech high Content Inc. It's just the job of concealing you gets [00:26:00] harder. So I was more focused on organics, which wool would be, and wool's my favorite as well. There's a lot of attributes of wool that are beneficial. And yeah, I think if we had a coach's kid in on the organic side, it was definitely wool and we started out with very high compositions of.

But at the same time, and everything you'll see us do, Dan is practical. If I'd had, if we'd have done a hundred percent wool, the durability of it would be suspect, the washability dry ability of it would be suspect. And so we really found a balance that we thought was between the concealment side, the affordability side, durability side, and the.

The care o of the product would work. And so that's where we landed. I would probably would have a little higher content of wool if I had my choice. But I think you'd find the downside of that. Would be, problematic over time. Yeah. Okay, 

[00:26:56] Dan Johnson: so now here we are. You got the idea for the materials, you got [00:27:00] the idea really for the entire concept.

And then you have to think about what. Garments specifically, you're going to bring to market first or to test out. And I notice right now you guys what have three, almost three different systems, which to me looks like a warm, cold, cool, coldest warmer, there's three different levels, all having to do with temperature.

How did you guys decide how to break that down? And then also what garments to introduce into those 

[00:27:33] Ev Tarrell: specific. , that's a great question. It's white whitetail hunting in the Midwest, which is really our focus right now. Tree stand scenarios, in, in stationary scenarios. It, it can vary, so much by time of year, obviously.

And then temperature in, in those times of the year, those particular times of the year, I think everybody can relate. Sitting on November 6th, I've sat in everything from 80 degrees to 10 below, and in the same state, in the same tree stand. [00:28:00] And it varies that much. And so it's not about just, oh, we're gonna target this.

We're gonna target the rut. What's that mean? And further it varies between Oklahoma and Northern Minnesota obviously. So we really had, four series, four series to start with. We only introduced three of 'em, Dan, that you pointed out, but it was really a, a cool weather.

Colder weather, really cold weather and extreme cold. We opted to leave one on the side for some time and thought that the lower two, the cool and the colder and then the extreme cold kind of had it covered. So we'll see what happens with the Force Series. . But anyway, so you have those three different, systems to match a variety of conditions and hunting styles to some degree.

Even though I said it's all about tree stand there's active tree stand hunting too, where you're, maybe you're covering more ground like a saddle hunter is walking in farther. So our lower end or our lower, our most our lightest series is also more breathable. So anyway, I just think about those three, three [00:29:00] series.

It was really about designing the features and the function of those garments to match each of those basic temperature and climate scenarios. Gotcha. 

[00:29:09] Dan Johnson: Okay. And so you what were those first products that did that you brought to put p. . 

[00:29:16] Ev Tarrell: Yep. So we have a, our, our our most active series, our lightest weight series is called the Vertere Series.

was about creating some mobility in the garment. So we've left out I hate to say it's not windproof. We have a very Great performing wind product we call a wind seal that we use in our, in the other two series. We left it out of of the Verree series just because we, again, we wanted it to be more mobile.

It was temperature ranges getting into the forties and fifties, but even though it doesn't have that formal wind seal in it, go try to blow through it. In, unless it's, blowing 30 out, you, you're gonna say that stuff's highly wind. . Okay. Uh, Our fabrics our two main fabrics are just, the [00:30:00] 300 gram fabrics.

They're tightly woven. They're wool based, they have a lot of just natural thermal properties to them without, the adding other technologies. So anyway, we had the Verree series, which is the more mobile series, which is not windproof in our middle series. We really wanted to hit.

we thought the core hunter, whitetail hunter in the Midwest was finding themselves in, and some people say that's, it's our core rut wear or our core, late October, November series and that's probably fair. It's called our Zone seven Versa Series. Versa being a key word because it's built to layer under or where by itself from a fit and function standpoint and literal.

That series it, this series does have a windproof layer in it. But I've hunted in everything from five degrees to probably 50 degrees in that series. And then I'm layering under it or not layering it under it based on those conditions. Yeah. 

[00:30:59] Dan Johnson: Okay. [00:31:00] And and then the last one that you have is the what.

Cold fall. It's 

[00:31:04] Ev Tarrell: called the cold fall series and spelled f j a l on fall. I that was a name I always was intrigued with. actually Scandinavian for Mountain, so it's technically, it says Cold Mountain. It was a cool name and it's the big dog. It's a workhorse of cold weather clothing.

I'm very proud of that series. It. To me it's the heaviest clothing that you can still successfully bow hunt in. And I just smile when it's zero out because I think I, I froze so much in my early hunting career in those conditions and still toughed it out anyway, and I put that series on and now when it's, I've hunted down to 16 blow in it, and I'm talking about air temperature, not one chill.

Of course I'm layered up when it's that, when it's that cold, but I really feel like I'm cheating a little bit. Yeah. It's that good. 

[00:31:54] Dan Johnson: Yeah. And so in these three series, as of right now, it seems to be [00:32:00] a a top, a bottom, so a pant, a jacket, or a three quarter zip or a, and then a a stocking cap or gloves or something like that.

when it comes to br coming out brand new. You have to, you can't launch everything at one time. So my next question that I have for you is, as you guys progress, are you guys going to be introducing a base layer so you become more of a one stop shop instead of having, people want to use your stuff, but then also rely on another brand for their base layers or socks?

[00:32:39] Ev Tarrell: Absolutely. We're very system oriented, I think just by nature and I think whitetail hunters as they mature in, in their sport, start to put everything together in a lineup and a system. And that's a, that's, that goes into packs, that goes into accessories. It goes into the way they carry their gear, the way they store their gear, the way they haul their.[00:33:00] 

Where they control their san and, having a complete system from, next to skin to the outer shell is definitely a, an obvious need. And where we want to head, same time, we can't do it all. Yeah. Right now. And we're very we're very committed to staying true to a few of our core, performance values.

The camouflage side, which I touched on earlier on, on the white absor. Absorption side is key. It would be really easy to do base layer for us, for example, right now in a synthetic and use a heat transfer print method, but you, it's not gonna be where we want it. And so as we can develop products that deliver on our court performance values absolutely will be all over them.

We're not gonna do it just to do it without having a point of difference. That's true to what we stand for in the grand scheme of things. 

[00:33:51] Dan Johnson: Yeah. And so as you guys start to, test out. Test out some of this stuff. Did you guys ever have to go back to the drawing board and say, Hey, listen [00:34:00] I don't like this prototype.

I wanna scrap it and start over, or make some, make some adjustments to get it to where it was ready for market.

[00:34:12] Ev Tarrell: Yeah. Only about 300 times to the point of, I have. I could, not patting myself in the back. I've arguably built more hunting clothing than anyone else ever has, and I've known a little bit for making changes and adjustments. I don't, I think I took it to a whole new level with this series.

The point of some manufacturers I've known for 30 years writing me emails, middle of the night saying, I'm about done with you. . Yeah. And I say that laughingly, they weren't serious, but it was. You can't change this a hundred times of and so I think we were very anal about, having it perfect.

And I still tell you it's not exactly as, as perfect as I want it, but it's really close and it's really functional and but we're animal about, [00:35:00] it's the little things that matter. I think you, and I hope your listeners can relate to that. It. It's always little things that, that, that blow the, shot of a lifetime or things like that.

And we're really trying to take all those issues off the table and enable the hunter to be successful. And liabilities have no place in our system. 

[00:35:21] Dan Johnson: Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. All right. Now when you're creating these garments, when you take it to market the thought of who's going to buy this, right?

Who is your demographic? So elaborate on who your demographic is and what kind of hunting that you feel that they'll be doing. 

[00:35:41] Ev Tarrell: Okay, that's a great question. We look at the Midwest primarily in a stationary. Environment, sitting in a tree stand. So it's, it's easy to talk about whitetails.

That's our core focus. I think Darren and I are both highly passionate in that arena. Spend an awful lot of time doing that. But I [00:36:00] Sure not drawing any lines either and saying, and at the same time, there's no geographic or sport limitations.

Species limitations on warm, quiet cons, well-fitting, great concealment and actually great value too. So core you still have to deliver on a core market in the core consumer. So it's a guy sitting in a tree stand trying to shoot a deer in the Midwest. That's what we know the most and that's where we're focused.

But huge halo. I think outside of that, I do a lot with a lot of arm at calling, for example. The camouflage aspect of what I'm talking about is just a phenomenal asset when you're trying to get a educated coyote. Stand there on the hill and hold still at 200 yards. I know that. Yeah. 

[00:36:45] Dan Johnson: All right. And so as you as this demographic, or as code of silence, gets bigger and starts to grow, and you make Hopefully you guys make some money and you're able to start putting money back into the, into the business and expanding your lines.[00:37:00] 

What do you feel is gonna be like the first products that you're going to address, maybe here in 2023 or even leading into 2024? 

[00:37:12] Ev Tarrell: I appreciate the question, and Give you a little bit of a more elaborate answer than you'd probably expect, but code of silence. I think it's easy to talk about the audible side.

Everybody wants silence is, what you hear. For us, silence is about zero pressure, lack of pressure. So that's audible. Silence has visual silence. That's about just being going unnoticed and unheard and keeping. Your hunting scenario as pristine and unpressured as you can.

And systems that deliver on that, whether it be, scent systems. We have backpack system we're introducing this year. I don't know if you saw that show or not, that's it's highly quiet, but it's very effective in carrying gear, rattling horns, climbing sticks.

Your, even your bow closed combination thereof into the woods in an [00:38:00] effective, discrete manner. And so has our product lines have a lot to do with overall stealth. And so we're looking at packs now, we're looking at accessories. We're actually talking. about other geographic markets too. I do an awful lot of stuff on the ground out here west, and some of the visual advantages that we have in the line are probably more relevant when you get at eye level with a mule deer or an elk or an antelope.

And so we have some room to take the technologies into other geographics and other , types, type of scenarios. 

[00:38:33] Dan Johnson: Gotcha. Awesome. Now, in regards to what you're currently offering, okay. If there's a guy out there who has been listening to this podcast he's in, he's intrigued about, or maybe he's looking for a new camo setup or some new clothing for this upcoming deer season here in 2023, why should he consider a code of silence?

[00:38:55] Ev Tarrell: That's a great question. , un unplanned, unrehearsed answer, which is the way we [00:39:00] roll. It's about quiet, it's about warmth, it's about fit, it's about overall function and gear storage the concealment piece, even though it's cool. We got a lot of people that go, man, that's a cool camel.

It looks really good in this. , I would tell you that, and I, I'm trying to advertise this because everything I just mentioned about the gear is true. It's a great reason to buy it and it's really where we started. The concealment side is off the charts. I am spent ridiculous number of hours in this number of years in a tree stand.

And the concealment aspect is we outkicked our coverage on it. We really. We're actually patenting some of the processes we go through on the light reflectance side right now and understanding that why that works better. And I think longer term we're gonna put a third leg on the stool of concealment, the two original legs really being color and [00:40:00] pattern.

But when you think about light abs absorbance, I think it's a really big deal. Again I tell anybody buy this stuff cuz it's awesome. It fits good, it's well priced. It's super quiet, super warm, et cetera. But I'm like, wait till you get out in the woods and you don't get seen in it and you'll shake your head and go, what's going on here?

And it's a huge attribute to what we have and what we're delivering on. Yeah. 

[00:40:25] Dan Johnson: Awesome. Awesome. Eve, man good luck. Hopefully 2023 is a huge su huge success for you guys and you get the opportunity to get all that, get the new product line up and running for 24. And if people wanna find out more about Code of Silence and your line of camo, where should we send them?

Yeah, 

[00:40:44] Ev Tarrell: it's code of silence.com. Just like it sounds just like it. We have, awful lot of information about everything I've talked about today on there. And the 22 lines available on the site right now, the 23 line, which we've more than doubled. It got into a lot of tall sizes added an awful lot of new products, [00:41:00] packs I mentioned.

Will be on the site, late spring or so, Dan. Yeah. But I think there's an awful lot of good information. Expand on what we've talked about today. 

[00:41:08] Dan Johnson: Awesome. All right, Eve. Appreciate your time and good luck in the future, man. Absolutely. It's been a lot 

[00:41:13] Ev Tarrell: of fun. I appreciate you taking the time, Dan.

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