New From Exodus Outdoor Gear

On this episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast, Dan talks with Chad Sylvester of Exodus Outdoor Gear about what's new in 2023. Chat kicks off the show by talking about their custom made arrow release from last year, and how it has become a popular choice for serious bowhunters. According to Chad there will be additional arrow options in 2023. Later in the episode, Dan has Chad break down their new cell camera offering. Chad talks about what is different about this camera and what is the same compared to their earlier model. It's awesome to see a company like Exodus come up from the bottom and claim their space in the hunting industry. Enjoy and share!

Hunting Gear Podcast - Exodus 2023

Dan Johnson: [00:00:00] Whether you're hunting the back 40 or chasing game deep in the back country, the all new razor guide pack from Outdoor Edge has it all coming in at only 12 ounces. And in a premium wax canvas roll pack for compact storage and travel, the razor guide pack is seven blades in total, including a five inch replaceable blade folding knife, a three-inch replaceable blade caping knife, and the flip and zip saw for wood or bone for more inform.

Visit outdoor edge.com. 

This episode is brought to you by Outdoor Class. Outdoor Class is an online video platform geared towards making you a better hunter. Watch instructional videos taught by hunting experts like Remy Warren, Randy Newberg and Corey Jacobson after the hunt. Learn how to prepare your harvest from world class wild game chefs like Hank Shaw and Jamie Tegan.

Whether it's your first year hunting or you grew up doing it, outdoor class will take your skills up a notch. Use Code Empire 20 at checkout to save 20% off. [00:01:00] Visit outdoor class.com to learn.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Hunting Gear podcast. I'm your host, Dan Johnson, and today we're gonna be joined by Chad Sylvester of Exodus Trail Cameras ex, excuse me, Exodus outdoor gear, and. They have been a very busy company in the last handful of years introducing a new lineup of arrows.

They've introduced some new some new cell cam, a new cell camera to their lineup, and we talk about all that today. But what I like about this company is at the very beginning when I talked to Chad the very beginning, all those years ago, it was like 2000 14, 15, 16, something like. The name of the company was Exodus Outdoor Gear, not Exodus Trail Cameras.

And they've predominantly been a trail [00:02:00] camera company for several years up until last year when they introduced their arrows. And so we talk about that. We talk about business growth in general. We talk about the marketplace. We talk. Cell cams specifically, and we also have that conversation.

That's a really hot topic right now. I wanted to hear Chad's opinion of what makes Fair Chase. Fair Chase, and if there's any type of crossover like I, is there a gray area with cell cams live? And the fair chase method of hunting. So it's a very good very good conversation. Love having Chad on. He's really know, knowledgeable about the hunting industry in general, specifically his little area that he lives in.

Huge shout out to Chad for taking time outta his day to hop on. If you're looking for a saddle, you guys gotta go check out. Tethered is one of the most popular, and they're popular for a reason. Not only do they. [00:03:00] A badass lineup of saddle hunting accessories, climbing sticks platforms.

But they also have, just like Exodus, you'll hear a community around their products that supports you. The end user, meaning what that means is you are gonna be able to become a better saddle hunter by buying their product, being part of their community, and just like consuming the content that they put out.

So if you're looking for a badass and just wanting to learn to saddle hunt in general. Go check out tethered HuntStand is one of those hunting apps that I feel every single hunter should have on their phones, especially if you're east of the Mississippi and you are a whitetail hunter. I'm telling you right now the functionality that comes with this app.

You download it for. And then you can upgrade you can upgrade to their, I guess they would call it a pro level or an elite level membership that is dirt cheap compared to [00:04:00] all the other brands, all the other hunting quote unquote hunting apps that are currently on the market. With that, then you get so much functionality, again, more than any product on the.

And then out outside of that they just have the best fun, they have the best functionality, period. And so what I'm gonna recommend is that you go to huntstand.com, read up on all the functionality that this mobile hunting app offers, and then I want you to check out their pro whitetail platform that's a bit of an upgrade from that yet.

And see all of the really cool and interesting things that they're doing there. Huntstand.com will check it out. Last but not least tact cam, right? If you're the kind of person who likes to document your time in the outdoors, specifically hunting, whether that's Turkey hunting, squirrel hunting, pheasant hunting they think they even got stuff for fishing, deer hunting, you can put on your bower gun.

Go check out Tcam, document those memories. That way you can go show your kids, show your family members, [00:05:00] and you'll have those. The 6.0 version of the Tcam has an L C D screen image stabilization, and it comes in 4K recording capabilities. Just a badass piece of equipment. Go check it out.

And that's it. Also check out 2% for conservation@fishandwildlife.org. So we've done the commercials. Let's get into today's podcast with my man, Chad Sylvester. Enjoy it. Three, two. One. All right. Once again, we got my buddy Chad Sylvester from Exodus Outdoor Gear on the podcast today. Chad, what's up dude?

Chad Sylvester: Not too much, man. Just getting a day rolling here. Actually, there's a lot of stuff going on here in the office 23 is a, an exciting year for us with all the, the work we've done behind the scenes in 22. But yeah. Hanging out on Thursday, trying to get some work 

Dan Johnson: done.

Yeah. I feel ya. Let me ask you a question. This is we're just gonna we're getting right into the chase here today. As Exodus has been growing, do you [00:06:00] guys ever take time to, celebrate the victories or are you guys just , do you like, because for me, like I've grown this business, but I don't feel like I've ever.

And really just went woo-hoo or patted myself on the back because the longer I get into this, the more work that needs to be done and it almost becomes like celebration is not part of it. 

Chad Sylvester: Yeah, no, I, yeah. We have a similar thought to you, Dan, like I. Yesterday's successes or failures don't mean anything to us.

It's what is, what challenges, what problems, what issues what what goals do we have in front of us today? And that's what we're executing against. Yeah, I think at times it's good to congratulate our guys and pat 'em on the back, tell 'em they're doing a good job.

But from a leadership perspective, 30,000 foot view, it's okay, what have we gotta get 

Dan Johnson: done today? Yeah. It's really I look at it as it's really not, . Yeah, exactly. So another thing that I've noticed is with a newer company and a new mindset when I say newer, you guys have been around for a while, but I'm comparing you to the rest of [00:07:00] the industry.

All right? Sure. And so in, in retrospect, you guys are still somewhat young. because you're younger and because you don't have to jump through all the hoops of being owned by another company, it allows you to do a whole bunch of cool things. And one of them is with the products that you guys have been offering.

You're also a bit of a media company as well, putting out a podcast and putting out other like content on YouTube and things like that. In your opinion, why is that necessary this day? 

Chad Sylvester: I think being a small company, we have, there's eight or nine guys here, so not being owned by a conglomerate or a private equity group, we're capped on resources in a certain capacity, right?

So from a media perspective, tying into our marketing strategy, there's just more return there for us to handle that stuff. Yeah. Internally, but then I think on the bigger scope of things, building a community [00:08:00] inside, I don't wanna call it the industry because I think the industry and the hunting community are probably two separate things.

But it's very important to us that we're building a community where we're making an impact. For all hunters, not just people who are buying our products. And that's actually when you look at our mission statement and the kind of the three verticals that we offer within Exodus, it's, trail cameras, it's archery and then it's content.

So we're trying to not only educate people, but help them have more success in the field and better experiences with that content. So it's. It's a kind of all-encompassing thing. Yes, it's part of our marketing strategy, but we truly want to help people have better experiences by building a more rigid community.

Because man, it's just like in, in today's day and age, it's very hard to have an opinion on the internet and I guess everybody does have an opinion, but it's hard to have the correct opinion without. , keyboard warriors or haters and yeah. People just being criticized top to [00:09:00] bottom.

Yeah. So that's our approach with the me with the media stuff. It's ultra important in 

Dan Johnson: this day and age. Yeah, for sure. All right, next question. So last year you guys introduced the arrows. All right. How has that been going for you this year, and what kind of customer feedback have you been getting on those?

Chad Sylvester: So the launch when we launched the 2 46 shaft the Exodus mmt support was really overwhelming. We actually got bombarded with orders the first few months. Through the fall this kind of tapered, tapered out, which we of expected. I think that most serious archers probably, they have their stuff dow in well before November.

Unless they have a bigger issue, a bigger problem at hand. So the first year. Pretty phenomenal feedback was I would say 95% positive, maybe even a little higher than that. I think anytime you have actual humans touching and building the product, there's always opportunity there for human error for us to build something wrong.

We do our best to eliminate that, but there's been a few cases where maybe we messed an odor up or the, we got tolerances wrong or something like that. But over. [00:10:00] People have been really impressed by 'em. And we're excited about that vertical cuz we have we have some other new things coming in 23 with inside that archery offering.

Dan Johnson: Yeah, and it was cool, like one of the very first times you guys were ever on the podcast or even when, just speaking with you years ago when we first met, Why not Exodus Trail cameras, Exodus outdoor gear. And so now we get to, we're starting to see the reasoning behind that name and the additional skews outside of the trail camera category being introduced into this.

And it's really it's really cool watching you guys grow and getting, having your own footprint in this, in. . Thank you, man. That's, 

Chad Sylvester: That, that's humbling to hear. 

Dan Johnson: Yeah. And and when you guys sit around and you start talking, and I ask this question a lot, almost in every episode that we do.

When you guys sit around and you start talking about, oh man, what markets do we want to compete in, right? Because now you're not just competing in the trail camera market, you're competing in [00:11:00] the arrow market, and I'm sure there's gonna be other things that you guys are gonna be competing in. When do you guys stick to what you're already doing, and how do you know when to jump into a new categor?

Chad Sylvester: That's a really good question. I think, the way that we tackle that may be different than what some other companies look at, but for us, we try to identify like what problems we have as consumers because yes, we're in the industry. Yes, we're business owners, but we're also using other products from other companies within the space.

And if at any point in time we get to a spot, , we have a problem that we've identified as consumers or end users, and we don't feel like there is a good solution for that issue or for that problem. I think that's when we go down that rabbit hole of exploring other product categories and other market opportunities.

So I think it comes of from self-inflicted pain, number one. Yeah. And then two, you have to identify, market acceptance. So is your idea of that solution to the problem. going to be accepted by the marketplace. And sometimes you already [00:12:00] have that answer. Through like on the arrow side, you've seen like vector custom arrows and all these other custom kind of build shops be accepted by the marketplace.

Yeah. So in cases like that, you already have your answer on market acceptance and in other cases, it could be something totally foreign or totally new where you , maybe dive into some analytics or dive into some consumer behavior to, to really identify the opportunity. Yeah.

Dan Johnson: And so when we sit here I wanna elaborate on what you just said, and that was solve a problem, right? . And so I want you to be more clear on this because solving a problem in my opinion. I'll just say this. I went to the ATA show this year and , you just noticed that everybody now is trying to get some kind of hold on the saddle market.

Okay. And they're not necessarily solving any type of problem, they're just introducing their own version. Of that product into the market to gain market share is it always about solving a [00:13:00] problem or is it at some point just about, Hey, we can do this. Let's see if we can do it.

I'm sure 

Chad Sylvester: that there's to your point, companies are doing that. , when they see growing marketplace, and I guess we could spin that into TRO cameras over the last four or five years that has been an emerging marketplace and you've seen. , all these companies go overseas and white label cameras and start selling on Amazon and trying to build a business.

And not really to your point, solve any problems. But for us, like for us to dive into a different marketplace, we need to be able to understand what people are looking for and from us, because we all hunt here and we're very passionate about that. Typically, when we're experiencing those problems firsthand before we get to a place.

Kind of identifying the market opportunities. So I think it goes to your point both ways. I think there's a place to solve problems. And then there's also companies that are looking at this as, how can we grow our valuation of the company? How can we grow revenue by offering their own [00:14:00] versions of products?

And again, there's nothing wrong with that because I think once you build a. A culture within the depth of your customer base. There are people that will buy X product from X brand regardless if it's the same as the same product as Y brand. So there's, it's multifaceted, I think.

Yeah. 

Dan Johnson: All right. So it sounds like everything's going good with the arrows. You mentioned a, you had, you mentioned a little teaser there about, new stuff coming out there. Are we gonna be seeing an expansion of SKUs available for your custom bill arrows in 2023? That's correct, yeah.

Okay. All right. Can you elaborate on that anymore? 

Chad Sylvester: Yeah, I think so. We have a 2 0 4 shaft. The kind of the timeline on that is, is April, we just actually next week we have our production samples, our first production samples coming in of that shaft. So that will be released in April, and then later towards summer, there'll be a third, there'll be a third offering there.

Yeah. It's probably a little too early to mention anything on [00:15:00] that 

Dan Johnson: front. Gotcha. Okay. All right. Let's get to this new cell cam. All right. The the rival, right? Yes, sir. So you guys have the render already, , and so let me ask you this. When you already have a render the render out, why are you introducing another cell?

And it, there's a lot of differences there, but why a different version of something that you already have? 

Chad Sylvester: So I think the biggest reason is to hit a different price point in the marketplace. Through our content, some of the, we get a lot of feedback on our product offerings, the way that they work.

And every, there's so many people bought into bought into exo. and bought into our mission. They believe in our brand. They believe in us as people but they can't quite afford to run, a $300 cell camera at volume. And we're seeing consumer behavior kind of follow that trend of people wanting to run cell cameras in volume.[00:16:00] 

So we looked at that and then we went back several years with what we did with our first and second camera that we. Being a flagship model standard SD card camera retailing for over $200. And then the product offering that we came to market with, I think it was in the 18 or 19, I can't quite remember, but the Exodus track, which was just a very simplified version of or a variant of an SD card camera.

So when we looked at that model, that meant a certain demand in the market. And we're starting to see consumer behavior follow that trend of guys wanting to buy less expensive cameras, less expensive cell cameras to run 'em at volume. We know, we knew, like we knew we needed to fill that void in our product offering cuz we didn't have it.

Dan Johnson: Yeah. And so I look at something like what you've just said, and I've noticed that we're starting to, like when cell cams first came. , right? They were, number one, they were expensive, and number two, the technology [00:17:00] behind them was also ex expensive in order, in order to get a picture to send to your phone.

It was more expensive then than it was now. So all the, all this technology is becoming cheaper to not only manufacture, but to purchase. Correct. What I see now, and correct me if I'm wrong, is because, We are starting to, that price is coming down on that technology. It means that companies are able to offer a cheaper or more affordable cell cam that does almost the same thing as.

Let's just compare $150 trail cam cell cam to a 300 or, more. So people are starting to see that, and then it, it becomes a no-brainer, obviously. So are you starting to see that gap shrink between the, I guess you wanna say the $300 trail camera versus the a hundred to $150 trail camera?

Chad Sylvester: Yeah. That's, you're a hundred per, you're a hundred percent correct. I, there's a lot that goes into. , the cell camera side is [00:18:00] so much more complicated than a standard SD card camera. Yes. You have the physical product side, which in this space, the entire industry is really the trail camera marketplace is relatively small compared to.

Other marketplaces globally, right? Yeah. So all the technology and things, hardware that is, that are used on the physical product side is all overflow from other industries. There's no one out there specifically developing chip sets or cellular modules for a trail camera. It just doesn't happen.

So I think the overflow from other spaces. , that technology is being used more, it's becoming more cost effective. And then also with, m tom communication, the iot solutions are also becoming more affordable To your point, where what's iott and just internet of things. Okay. So when you talk about connected devices, and m is like machine to machine.

Gotcha. So when you have machine to. Communication the backend solutions there are becoming much more wide scale. [00:19:00] And because they're becoming more wide scale, you have more competitors in that place. And ultimately competition in the marketplace is one of the things that brings pricing down.

So as a th pricing structure starts to decrease on the iot side, on the connectivity side of the backend, that's where you're seeing the cell camera market. Start to be more competitive with those $150 cameras versus, the 300 plus dollar 

Dan Johnson: cell cameras. Yeah. Another thing that I've noticed, and I'm gonna, I wanna get your opinion on this, is Yeah, why?

Okay. I'm just gonna say some of your competitors let's see, mul. All right. . And then just one more, one more example would be the man. They have the action cams too. I don't know why I'm blanking on this. Tact cam. Tact cam, yeah. Tact cam. All right, so there's two cameras, and I'm sure there's others that also have a supporting app.

Just like you guys have scout tech, right? . And so now what I'm seeing is I'm starting to see these. [00:20:00] These apps that come along with it be the point of interest to where the cell camera's just doing its job of sending pictures. But now the app has all of this mapping being able to categorize, being able to have AI identify whether it's a buck or a dough or a hog or an elk or whatever it is.

And There's just way more functionality than just cell cams being sent to an app. What do you think of that? And then do you guys see yourself yourself expanding on that in the future? Yeah, 

Chad Sylvester: I think to your point, the physical product is one thing, and the idea behind buying a reliable cell camera is just setting the thing up in the field with proper power and letting it do its job.

And the. Product offering. The real value is within the app. Harnessing and being able to have that data and control remote management at your fingertips. That is the product, that is the actual experience that the consumer [00:21:00] end user ultimately is having, in my opinion, the app is a bigger deal than the physical product.

Yeah, because you're using the app daily. Whether you're, managing cameras, swiping through photos or whatever the case is, you're interacting with that app a hundred times more than you are the physical product. All right. So to your point there are apps out there that are, there's some really good apps.

And you mentioned Moultrie. In my opinion, Multry is probably doing the best job on I'll call it backend data analysis and presenting that or giving that information to the end user. Yeah, I would say Multry is light years ahead of everyone else at this point. But that is something we've already identified and planned to pull the trigger on up that type of project here 

Dan Johnson: very shortly.

Gotcha. Okay. , is the trek still available? That's your, that was your more affordable camera. Is it? Are you gonna be making any more of those? Di Discontinued. Discontinued. Okay. All right. And so why [00:22:00] did you guys decide to discontinue this trail camera? 

Chad Sylvester: I think we discontinued both of our SD card cameras last year.

So the lift is also. , the lift one or the lift two is also gone? Yes. Okay. Both those cameras are now discontinued. After we sold through our inventory in 2022, we have already had these 23 releases in the works so when we go into product development from a certain standpoint we only wanna be able to carry maybe four or five SKUs at the most on the camera side.

At the most, typically it's three or four. And for us product needs to serve a purpose or fill a void in our offerings for us to carry it. So we're never gonna offer redundant products. I think that in, at times, we've seen, I guess this is my opinion, from the outside looking in, we've seen companies I'll just say Hawk for example.

In the early years when they were independent, you've seen them drastically grow their skew. . And then all of a sudden [00:23:00] they get into a financial bad spot, and then they sell out to a a conglomerate. Yeah. So we never wanna get our, never wanna get to a place like that. F from one standpoint, I guess you could say, it's a financial balancing act of where we're putting our resources and what inventory we're carrying, but also at the same point in time.

It was time for kind of a facelift on, on, on some of some of our cameras. So we've gone back and reinvested in a couple different pieces of tooling. So a lot of the offerings moving forward from 2023 and beyond, or are going to have a different look. Yeah. And then, when you develop on the camera side, when you start developing these products, three or four years is a pretty long lifes.

For digital product without kind of revamping it. When you start to spec out different chip sets and different pieces of hardware, like they may not always be available. And we ran into some of that stuff with and the supply chain stuff with Covid, which has, long past now things have really become stabilized.

But all of those kind of things play a factor into discontinuing [00:24:00] that product. 

Dan Johnson: Gotcha. And so right now you guys are only offer. Two cell cameras, right? That's correct. Okay. So do you see the market shifting to all, all trail cameras, having the ability, like as the price comes down all cell cams having the ability to be cellular and, be done with just the strictly SD card?

Chad Sylvester: I think the majority of the marketplace, they wanna be in cell cameras. Yeah. Because they're, because of the obvious benefits. The standard SD card cameras, in my opinion, will never go away. There's guys that hunt, state forests, national forests, they're in hill country, they're in places where you don't have cell service and cell cameras aren't going to work.

So the most expensive part about building a cell camera is the cellular module. And for someone to go out and buy a cell camera and not use that function or feature, you're you're overpaying for something that, isn't providing any benefit to you. Gotcha. 

Dan Johnson: All right. [00:25:00] So let's just get into the comparison now.

What is, we're gonna, we're gonna start with what is the same, all right. And then we'll get into what is different, right? And so just keep in mind to the listener that I'm on your website. And it looks like you can pick a render up for, that's your older model for 2 74, 2 74 99, and the new rival is $179.

So there's a roughly a hundred dollars difference in, in trail camera there. So let's start off with what is the same, what are you going to continue to get with the new one verse? The. 

Chad Sylvester: The warranty's the same. The warranty and the service policies will never change with what we do on the trail camera side.

The five year warranty is still applicable for the rival. It's operated the same on the back end through, through a scout tech. So the mobile app is the same. The data plans are the same. That's one question we've gotten a lot over the last week since we've launched this product.

We offered these, we offer shared plans, and there was some confusion on whether [00:26:00] people could run multiple different SKUs on the same app and on the same data plan. Because I guess, I don't know, some other companies do it a little bit different where you have to have different plans or different different app for kind of each model of camera.

So that stuff is the same. What is different there is, there's a lot different. , some of the specifications are similar, right? So you still have, look continue with what is the same, the overall function of the camera is the same. You still have the ability to, re control the camera remotely.

You still have the ability to all the live action calls. So the on-demand feature that w that's our term for the live stuff. I know a lot of people use the word live, but there's always some kind of latency. Delay or buffering period there. So we don't use the term live, but the on-demand feature is still applicable in this camera, where you can change settings in just a second or two update the firmware, over the air.

Do all of that stuff, trigger speed detection. All of that stuff is really similar to what we have in the render. But when we look at the render, when we [00:27:00] identified we wanted to bring a camera, a cell. to market to compete with these $150 cameras. We looked at it like from a cellular standpoint.

We, we ha we have to be able to meet all of those things that we hit with the render. So all the OTA stuff the live stuff, we had to have all that. But what absolutely was not necessary to cut. Of this product to get our manufacturing costs down. Because regardless of what people say, when you're looking, if you look at a price point, we've been in the business for eight years, we know what margins we need to carry to have a healthy business.

To lower our price point, we had to lower our manufacturing costs. So when we looked at that, we stripped out anything that was not needed. We took out the LCD screen because it's not needed for this device to connect to the network. It. It's a nice feature to have, but it's not necessary.

Yeah. The key pads aren't necessary. So we looked at those things. It eliminated those, so that lowers the hardware cost a little bit. It cuts out some redundant [00:28:00] circuitry and PCB boards. 

Dan Johnson: And so all of that is then, like the settings then, for the most part, are done through the app. A hundred 

Chad Sylvester: percent.

Okay. So this camera is very, Simplified, stripped down. It has a single on off switch on, on, like the onboard controls. You have a single on off switch and then you have a few like l e d status indicators. You have one for battery life, one for one for connectivity, and then one for signal.

And depending on what those lights are doing, it's telling you what the camera's 

Dan Johnson: doing essentially. Gotcha. Okay. All right. So then on this new one, and you mentioned it briefly but I wanna know why I look at your guys' previous lineup, the render, the lift, the Exodus, it had a signature look that was only like, I could look at that camera and say, that is an exodus.

There's no other cameras that look. . All right. And now we are moving [00:29:00] over to this rival, completely different look to it. , why? 

Chad Sylvester: One of the, one of the things we looked at again, to get a, to get our price point down was, when you invest in that first housing design, it had seven pieces of tooling, which is probably a little bit overkill.

So we looked at. An all-encompassing perspective of how to lower our development cost because again, regardless of what companies tell are telling you if you spend $200,000 in development on a product, you ha that is baked into the retail price. Like you're, you have to be able to recoup that money to do the next project, right?

So if we could lower our development costs, essentially we could help lower. that s msrp and target that $150 price point. So when we looked at the tooling design we knew if we could change and go to more of a traditional housing where we're using three pieces of tooling instead of seven we'd be able to save some money on a manufacturing side and the development side.

So we went back and again, we, a couple of the [00:30:00] other cameras were released and have a similar look, but a. housing, there's different tooling involved, but on, on the rival itself, on the back side and some of the internal the one internal mold was an open source mold. Yeah. So there's other companies using that mold, and what we essentially did was just invest in that one piece of tooling that change the overall look of the actual camera.

Gotcha. It's still rated on IP 66 dust and resistant rating. So it's still weatherproof, it's, it still has all that functionality 

Dan Johnson: to it. Gotcha. Cool. will say this, it does look cool. The it does look cool on the outside. It's got some texture to it and it, it is it's cool and I'll be honest.

Okay. So let me ask you this. Is the render at some point going to fade away then that old body style? , 

Chad Sylvester: that old body style will eventually fade 

Dan Johnson: away, okay? Correct. All right, so I will say this, the lift , that camo pattern, that lighter, wider camo pattern [00:31:00] stuck out like a sore thumb in the woods.

And so when I would, when you would go looking for a trail camera? Like it was noticeable. And so I felt that sometimes whenever I had a trail camera stolen, that might have had something to do with it. Now, with the newer, the same pattern, but the darker imagery that you have for the render I I hadn't had that as much, but I'm really excited about this rival because it's a solid color that matches. really well, and I feel like that's right. It like it's gonna go unnoticed to people. To people. Not necessarily deer, but people. 

Chad Sylvester: Yeah. Yeah. You hit the nail on the head there. I think again, with the water transfer patterns you have you could put UV protectant or UV coatings on them, but eventually when you're running these things outside Yeah, they're going to end up fading.

Yeah. And that was one of the, one of the things that we've ran into over whatever the last eight years. That water transfer pattern not holding up [00:32:00] to UV exposure, weather exposure. Yeah. And also, again, like that's an extra dollar or dollar 50 on the manufacturing side, we just basically said if we can get to an earth tone color build in some texture into that front mold and that housing where it has some type of dimensional breakup.

In reality, that's better than having a water transfer pattern on the camera. Yeah. And that was feedback from consumers. You've seen some other companies to it too. Stealth cam does a really good job of kind of the same, tackling that issue in the same manner. Yeah. 

Dan Johnson: Cool man. That's awesome.

New product, new price point. I think obviously the people. Like you guys have a loyal following, and it's because you guys continue to be industry leaders and do some really cool things and have the, like you said, have built a community. And when you build a community, people are going to stick by you and be loyal.

Kudos to you guys on that now. . The next topic here is something that is a there's a lot of buzzwords right now. You go to the a t a show. Oh [00:33:00] yeah. And we have the, these live feeds, the ability to basically security camera, your property through live feeds. Is Exodus heading in that direction?

Chad Sylvester: We've already, it depends on what people mean by live feeds, right? We try to stay away from like the marketing buzzwords. that draw people. Draw people in. Yeah. We've had liability for multiple years I know a lot of people are using the word stream. Yeah. In certain cases, there's latency there's a buffer period there.

You're technically not live stream. from that device, but a again, like that's not, it's just not the way that we present our marking material. Yeah. We've had that 

Dan Johnson: ability for Yeah. I'm talking about, I could pull my phone up right now and I could FaceTime you. We could have a conversation. We're doing it right now on the computer, but we can do it from our phones.

There's apps available that you can hit a button and it's going to FaceTime Basical. , [00:34:00] whatever it is out there. So yes, there may be a delay, but it's minuscule compared to having a triggered picture sent to your app. Okay. Are you guys going in that direction or have, yeah, we already have.

We already have that. Okay. All right, cool. And that's in video format or just picture? . Either one. Either one. Okay. All right. Yep. So now, yep. Here we go. The, and that's, this is the transition into this. I want to hear your thoughts on this. As a owner of a company that makes cell cams, where does the term fair chase?

And, You guys have heard it. Oh yeah. Yep. I want you to explain to me your opinion on if this type of technology crosses over the fair chase line at all. 

Chad Sylvester: I can say this is it certainly is a buzz topic right now. Yeah. And it is a very complicated, very intricate discussion.

Yeah. And there is no black and white on this at all. And. I want people to know, just because I own a [00:35:00] trail camera company and we produce cellular trail cameras, that's a giant part of our business. I am not close minded to think that I'm not open to hearing, other point of views on this.

Yeah. Because it's not just about, again, it's not just about selling products and making money. It is about building a community in the right way because I have young kids and I want my kids. I, I don't want them to be necessarily dependent on technology, and I think that's where this conversation is probably going.

Yeah. But at the end of the day, I think number one the fair chase thing is it's not really defined. What, yeah. What is fair chase. And I think that's different in everybody's eyes. If you go to, to b and c or pop and. they have, I mean they have very probably the best clear cut points, action points on what fair chase actually is.

Yeah. But I think we get in discussion about cell cameras and live feeds. People are considering that like an unfair advantage. And to me, , [00:36:00] like it's a product, it's a tool. It is up to the end user to determine what is fair, chase, what is, morally correct. What can they live with? What can't they live with?

Yeah. So I don't think it's a, I don't think it's a tool thing. And I know that the discussion wants to go to technology and they want to target the tool, but in my opinion, it's. It's in the hunter's hands, it's in the end user's hands. Yeah. Because if you get down the technology road and hear me out on this, Dan, and I'm, I don't wanna call any, I'm like, I'm not calling anybody out.

I'm just explaining my opinion and my thoughts on this. Yeah. When you start talking about technology giving hunters an unfair advantage, what is you start talking about black powder seasons, the muzzle litter seasons, right? Where those legislation that the regulat. were written years and years ago, and now you have guys going out, buying gun work, muzzle loaders and shooting up.

They have a 500 yard black powder gun. Yeah. Was that, was that regulation written for folks to be able to use that that type of weapon in that type of season. [00:37:00] And then you look at long-range rifles and the speed of crossbows and you have all these things that, technology has given us an edge in a whitetail woods.

I think it's, yeah. It's just, it's complicated man. Yeah. And it's super muddy. 

Dan Johnson: Yeah. I agree 100% with what you just said. Especially fair chase. Cuz o Ohio is a baiting state, right? Correct. Correct. Their neighbors, one, might, the neighboring state might not. So fair Chase, I isn't the same everywhere.

So we have, that's right. Not only from an ethics standpoint, but from a rules and regulations standpoint as well. And I think there's, there are some states that have put some kind of restrictions. I, God, I just had this conversation with somebody yesterday on. How you can use cell cams.

, but there's no regulation on how far you can shoot a deer during a gun season. You know what I mean? And so here that, like you said, that's where it gets [00:38:00] muddy. And it's gonna be I feel like, as over the next 10 years, and this is just my opinion, I think we're gonna see a lot more focus.

on rules and regulations and technology. I, whether that's a positive thing or whether that's a negative thing, I just feel like the people who make our rules and regulations are going to start taking into consideration this new technology. Because ultimately, I feel like just like people are going to become more efficient, not necessarily with cell.

Oh, absolutely. Not necessarily with cell cams, but. , any type of technology that goes into a hunt period, and so that affects harvest data. And so I, I just feel like there's gonna be more focus by the people, by the state, the states that are gonna focus on this. And so maybe I'm gonna be wrong, maybe I'll be right, I don't know, but I just have a gut feeling we're gonna see more rules and regs adapt to this type [00:39:00] of te.

And 

Chad Sylvester: I would agree with you and I hope that is the case. Because I think from a hunter standpoint, like a guy that goes to multiple different states or tries to go to multiple different states in a year, everyone has different rules and regulations as you said, and a lot of times, illegal to locate.

Or use like two-way communication. So there's states like where you can't use two-way radios on a deer drive. Yeah. Because you're transmitting information electronically about the where on the whereabouts of gang. But yet you could have two guys. And I know this happens.

I've done it and this is and it's illegal in some states, but you could be sitting on the same farm. Maybe, you and a buddy are hunting it during the rut. One guy sees a buck come through and it's headed towards the other guy and immediately the guy's on his phone texting. Yeah.

There's no difference. It's the same. Yeah, exactly. There is no difference. So I think the again, it's a very complicated, intricate discussions, but I think some state intervention on making some of these [00:40:00] regulations less. Is it's needed and I think it's gonna be beneficial for everyone 

Dan Johnson: Moving forward.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Hey, Chad, man I really appreciate you taking time outta your day to hop on and school us to the new happenings over there at Exodus man. Exodus outdoor gear.com. Go check out their cameras. Go check out some of the content that they're putting out on YouTube and their podcast.

Anything else that we need to know about Exodus before I cut? 

Chad Sylvester: No. Every, anything that anybody needs to know, they could find us. Just find us on internet, exodus outdoor 

Dan Johnson: gear.com. Perfect man. Chad man. Appreciate your time. 

Chad Sylvester: Thanks Dan.

‍