New Saddle Hunting Gear From Tethrd

On this episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast, Dan talks with Greg Godfrey of Tethrd about new products they have introduced over the last year. This includes a new saddle and some other saddle hunting accessories. But the big news was a turkey hunting vest that they launched with the help of The Hunting Public crew. Greg talks about how that collaboration started and the variety of iterations they went through to get the vest to market. This includes a special fabric used in the manufacturing of the vest with another hunting company, Mossy Oak. This is a fun episode you will be sure to enjoy!

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[00:00:45] Dan Johnson: What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hunting Gear podcast. I'm your host, Dan Johnson, and we got a good episode today. First off, before I even get into today's episode, I do have to say this, it is bright and sun shiny, and the [00:01:00] temperatures here in Iowa are increasing and I'm pulling I don't even think they have school tomorrow because of Easter, but I am taking my daughter on her very, not her first hunt ever, but there's an opportunity for her to pull the trigger on a deer or on a Turkey this weekend.

And. I'm freaking excited. I know she's excited. I'm gonna have my stepdad with me. He's gonna be back behind us, basically calling for us so I can so I can focus on her and the gun and getting the shot lined up, and he'll be calling and I'll probably sing. Signal to him, Hey, call more, call less.

And I got a couple decoys that were gonna be out and man, it's, I'm just really looking forward to this. This is the stuff that I really like I like going out and helping other people get turkeys. I like to call for people. I like to help people, put people in position to be successful for turkeys, and I honestly don't [00:02:00] care.

Ever shoot another Turkey. I just love, being the guy who gets to watch it all unfold. I love that about Turkey humming and I'm really looking forward to sharing this experience with my daughter. She's jacked up about it. With that said we got a really good episode today.

We're gonna be talking with. Greg Godfrey of Tethered, and really what this episode is a update on all the new products that they've introduced over the last year. They've introduced some accessories. They've introduced a new saddle and the big one that they've. Done is they've worked in collaboration with the hunting public crew to introduce a new Turkey vest.

And he breaks all of that down for us as well. And so it's a really fun, exciting, entertaining informational. Episode that you guys are gonna be sure to enjoy, please go to iTunes, leave a five star review. Let everybody know that there's a lot of information here on the Hunting Gear Podcast, and then tag the nine Finger Chronicles when you share this online and I'll share it back.

I think that's all I have to really say [00:03:00] today. We do gotta do some commercials here real quick. What do we got going on? We got HuntStand. If you are looking to if you're looking on planning an out-of-state hunt, you gotta at some point find the ground that you wanna hunt on and you.

Can't be there every day. You might not even ever be able to scout it before you hunt it. And that's where a hunting app like HuntStand really comes into play. You mess around with access. You look for access, you look for edge, you can look for a whole bunch of d terrain features and whatnot.

And all of that's available on HuntStand. And you have the available, there's so much functionality along with HuntStand. Go to HuntStand dot. Check it out while you're there, read up on all the functionality and then check out the pro whitetail platform as well. That's that's just recently been introduced this past year.

And I think if you're a serious bow hunter or a serious whitetail guy, you're gonna find that interesting. Huntstand.com. Next on the list we have tethered of course. And so this whole episode is about tethered.[00:04:00] So I'm not gonna get too much in there, but I'm really looking forward to becoming more of an efficient saddle.

This year with, I'm gonna be doing less western hunts and more tree stand type hunts. If I do in fact draw Kansas this year, I'm gonna be, doing the whole the tree hunting, which means I'll be a, in a saddle and I'm looking forward to that. Go check out Tethers website and listen closely today about all the information that Greg spits.

And last but not least, we have. What's the last one here? I'm in the, I'm in like an organization mode, so I got stuff spread out all over and that's tcam if you are looking to document your hunts. I think for a hunter anyway, mounting a camera to your gun or your bow is one of the best options.

Every time I would bring a GoPro with me and put it over my should. I would forget to, I would forget to press the record button, and so I just basically brought a camera into the woods with me. Having a tica on your [00:05:00] bow. And on your gun, it's right in front of you. All you gotta do is reach and hit the button, start it up.

They have the new 6.0 version. The new 6.0 version has image stabilization, has an LCD screen, it can record in 4k. It's pretty badass. And that allows you to document your hunts and bring the footage home and show your kids, your wife, your dad or grandpa. And go check out tact. That's it for the, that's it for commercials.

That's it for the intro. Hopefully you guys enjoy this episode. Feel free to share it wherever you on social or on, on wherever you message people, spread the word about the Hunting Gear Podcast. And enjoy, join. All right, on this episode of The Hunting Gear Podcast, I'm joined by Greg Godfrey of Tethered Greg.

Man, what. 

[00:05:46] Greg Godfrey: Man getting ready for Turkey season. My my season opens on Saturday here in Georgia and so later this week, just a few days away. Pretty excited about 

[00:05:55] Dan Johnson: it. Yeah, man, I tell you what I'm a little bit jealous of those guys who get a Turkey hunt [00:06:00] early in April and even in late March cuz I was seasoned.

Doesn't open until mid-April and I feel, I don't know about you, but I feel. It all, the Toms are hen up at that point and it just it's harder to get on a bird, especially with the low numbers we're experiencing. 

[00:06:19] Greg Godfrey: Georgia just did us dirty this year. They moved it back, 10, 12 days.

Really? So he used to open in March last year. It opened in March and this year it's opening they even switched it up a little bit more. So private land this year in Georgia opens up on April the first, which is Saturday. But then public land guys have to wait a full other. Till April the eighth, before they can go in.

Yeah, that's a problem. And agreed. Here I. I've got birds gobbling and strutton in February here. Yeah, so they start really early. Now the other thing is you, travel. So I travel down to Florida, not every year, but frequently to get that really early March opener in. I [00:07:00] went this year, I already shot an Osceola this year, so I'm rolling.

My Turkey season is moving. 

[00:07:05] Dan Johnson: So if you knock out an Eastern, then are you gonna head west and try to do the Grand Slam in a single. I'm 

[00:07:11] Greg Godfrey: doing it next year. I got the okay from my wife for next year. All right. To do the whole thing. E, e to include the one in Mexico, the 

[00:07:18] Dan Johnson: ghouls. Oh boy. So you're going for the North American one?

[00:07:21] Greg Godfrey: I'm doing it all. Bingo. And so I'm not too concerned with it this year, but next year for sure, I'll start early with an Osceola. The Eastern should be fairly easy and then head west to get the Rio and the Miriams, and then pop down into Mexico for the ghouls. Maybe I can do drop down, hit the ghouls in Mexico, and then just hop across the border and pick up a Rio in Texas.

Amen. So I'm lucky. I get to do this for a living. I get to travel and heck yeah. Have free time in the spring. 

[00:07:47] Dan Johnson: Man, I'll tell you what, you guys have been crazy busy. It sounds with Tether, not just from the growth and expansion of your brand, but just like a big move. You guys took a, you guys recently took a big [00:08:00] move as into Nashville, Tennessee, and that's where you've placed your headquarters these days.

I'm interested in why Nashville and why a. In a world today where you can really work from anywhere, why did you guys decide to plant a headquarters in N. 

[00:08:17] Greg Godfrey: There's really a couple of reasons. First of all, probably the main reason is I always mess up this stat, but it's something like 50% of the US population lives within a day's drive of Nashville, Tennessee As far as the, direct to consumer shipping business like we are.

Yeah, it just made a ton of sense for us to relocate to a really centralized area as opposed to, our warehouse used to be up in Michigan, or Minnesota rather just south of the twin city. So relocating down to Tennessee gets us way, it gets us a lot closer to the people that want to order.

So it saves money for the customer, it saves money for us. It's just a good move from a logistics perspective plus, [00:09:00] The corporate and government CLI climate in Tennessee is much more small business friendly than Minnesota. I, not to get into politics and stuff like that, but Minnesota's like a blue state and they tend to be more heavy into regulation and taxes.

Et cetera. And then Tennessee being, more of a red state, they're typically a little bit looser on that type of stuff. Yeah. So when we moved, we saved a lot of money in taxes and the stuff that you have to do being a small business. So those two reasons really made sense for the overall thing.

But then the third reason is, The plan is to get everybody there, so all of our people in one location. It was, that was a harder thing to sell. To get everybody to move to Minnesota. It's much easier to get everybody in Nashville. Plus you're and a half day's drive from, Man, all the really good whitetail.

I can be in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, I in half a day. Yeah. So it just makes a lot of [00:10:00] sense for us to be located there. I'm still in Georgia just because I haven't been able to make the move yet. But that's the plan is for me to get there and then everybody 

[00:10:09] Dan Johnson: eventually to get there.

Yeah. I didn't know if you guys were gonna be dropping an al a tethered album cuz you were gonna be moving to Nashville and I didn't know if that was. If that was on the plate. 

[00:10:19] Greg Godfrey: Yeah, we do, we plan to drop an album. I'll be the lead singer. It'll be the worst selling record 

[00:10:24] Dan Johnson: Of all time. Of all time.

Of all time. Oh, that would be funny. Making the move to Nashville and not just that, but man, it's been over a year, I think since I've talked to you and you guys have. Introduced what seems like a ton of new products. And this is one of my favorite questions to ask people in your position, and that is how do you guys determine what new products to bring to market every year?

[00:10:51] Greg Godfrey: Man, it's not easy. So we probably have, I don't know, 15 new products in various [00:11:00] levels. Launch. Some are ideas, some are prototypes, some are in manufacturing, some are finishing up. You have all these different stages you have to meet and it can be really difficult. A lot of what. What dictates when we launch a new product is manufacturing, right?

Because of our supply chains, we make some stuff overseas with partners. We make a lot of gear here domestically, and when you make it here in the US, you can typically go from idea to launch way faster because you don't have all these gigantic lead times from getting stuff on a boat and whatnot.

But then some products, they don't really make sense to make here in the States because you'd have to. Three times and people don't wanna spend $65 on a kind little pouch. That's right. That's us made. So it really depends on manufacturing a lot. And then it also depends on the other thing I would say that.

Kind of pushes a timeline out is our testing. We like to test everything, and a lot of times we'll go through multiple [00:12:00] iterations of gear before we finally nail it, and we think it's ready for, hunters. So real, I would say those two things, man, manufacturing and testing are the things that, that can slow us down.

But we like to move fast. There are times where we will have an. We will all get together and go back and forth in just a matter of days, or maybe a week or two. And then we have this product kind of fixed and it's ready to go. Then it just jumps into the manufacturing pipeline and it could be out very quickly, but that's the exception.

As opposed to the rule. 

[00:12:32] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Where are you guys getting your feedback from? Hey, it would be cool if tethered had this, or are you guys just reading the market and saying let's try this, as opposed to getting information from the end user. 

[00:12:46] Greg Godfrey: I'd say it's a mix. It's a healthy mix of both.

There's always talk on social media, on forums, on Facebook, on wherever that, you can listen to the feedback from customers and non-customers. You [00:13:00] hear feedback from haters, you get feedback from fanboys, you get feedback from just regular Joe's, you get feedback from everywhere.

And then, our network of guys inside of tethered. Pretty phenomenal. We've got some guys that work with us who are straight killers. You got guys like Andy May and Jared Schaffer and Garrett pr and the THP Boys and the Untamed guys. And there's just a lot of people that we work with that have really, that give us really good feedback.

On gear that we're prototyping or testing and then, tethered employees. I mean we got a lot of great guys that just work with Tethered cuz we essentially hired all of our friends. Yeah, all of our hunting buddies. And that's who runs tethered for the most part. We kinda lean heavily on our close network of people, but then, filter through what we see on social media and forums and stuff like that.

But you also have to take that stuff with a grain of salt, the stuff that you see on social media, because so many people just. They just talk. And they just don't know. A lot of times they don't have a [00:14:00] clue, you kinda have to take that stuff with the grain salt. 

[00:14:02] Dan Johnson: Yeah. And I'll tell you what whenever I talk, like we are partners you're, you guys are advertising partners on the Nine Finger Chronicles podcast and.

One thing that I always say when I do my ad reads is, the product is awesome, but it's the network that you guys have created in the community that you guys have created. Where people are really open to sharing ideas and sharing strategy and, DIY type, like guys like to tinker with things and things like that.

And I think Tethered has done a really good job of using that community to. Promote your product in a way that allows people to like really flatten a learning curve. And because, to be honest with you, one of my main hurdles before I made the jump into a saddle, and I'm not even in a saddle, I would say full-time yet, but there was some obstacles that I've mentally had to jump through [00:15:00] in order to, get on board with a saddle with get on board with saddle hunting and guys like Garrett and Andy and Parker, they all made it.

It very simple to reach out to and just be like, Hey, what about this? What about this? And so that's pretty sweet that you guys have created that community. 

[00:15:18] Greg Godfrey: Thank you. We work hard at it and it's, it's easy for us in that regard because that's who we are. Yeah, that's where we came from.

For anyone listening that doesn't know the tethered story the elevator pitch of that is we were a bunch of dudes who met in a hunting forum, and so we were just, I didn't even know the people face-to-face that we started the company with and Right. So it was all about this kind of DIY mentality and ethos where we got a business going out that, and it's just carried on.

We, we hit our five year mark in June. Yeah. This June, 2023. Tethered has been a business for five years, so it. We're new, we're essentially a startup and we've [00:16:00] just kept that ethos since the beginning of Yeah, community driven, DIY focused it means a lot to us, and that's really who we are.

So it's not a stretch for us to foster that, that mentality in the company. 

[00:16:12] Dan Johnson: In that last five years since you guys kicked off what have been some of the biggest obstacles that you guys have had to overcome as a. 

[00:16:21] Greg Godfrey: For sure manufacturing. For sure.

We were a bunch of guys who, like I said, we're a bunch of DIY public land dudes who were just pounding the pavement hunting. Yeah. And none of us were manufacturing experts. So my partner Ernie, who handles the logistics side of Tethered, he has a little bit of a background in that stuff.

He's an engineer, but. When it comes to cut and sew we didn't know. We didn't know how to do that on a large scale. And then tethered blew up so fast that we had to learn very quickly. So for sure, manufacturing and supply chains have been I incredibly difficult to learn. And we have international supply chains and that's a whole [00:17:00] nother beast.

And then we. Fortunate and unfortunate in that when we were only two years old, covid hit. And that threw the entire logistics supply chain out the window. And so that was a nightmare. So I would definitely say, I would definitely say supply chain management logistics has been the biggest hurdle we've had to figure out.

It's not. It's a incredibly complex, it just takes a lot of time and you can really waste a lot of money. Me and Ernie call it our idiot tax. Anytime we make a really stupid decision or we're just ignorant about something. We've had to do it so many times, man I don't remember which product it was, but there was one where we messed up our timelines and we had to end up airlifting a whole bunch of stuff from overseas.

Yeah. And it ended up cost us like $65,000. Damn. And we just called it an idiot tax. It's just we're idiots. We learned, but that was our educational tax. And yeah, I paid a lot [00:18:00] of those over the last 

[00:18:01] Dan Johnson: five years. Yeah. But it sounds like you guys are getting more efficient as time goes on, and you learned from those mistakes.

Yeah, we're 

[00:18:08] Greg Godfrey: getting better. And then, co-locating all of those, all that logistics in one place, which is what we did in Tennessee, it helps reduce those mistakes and poor planning and educational points. Yeah. 

[00:18:20] Dan Johnson: That's awesome. Okay You guys, and I'm gonna, I'm probably gonna come back to the saddle hunting, but in just a moment.

But because it's Turkey season, I want to touch on this new product launch that you have, and it's a Turkey vest, and it sounds like you're rolling it out with the hunting public crew. And so my question to you is, how did that whole idea spark off to where a saddle hunting company is gonna put out a Turkey?

I don't remember who 

[00:18:50] Greg Godfrey: called who if I called war or if war called me. I can't remember cuz it started about two and a half years ago. We actually, the first time we met about it was in your neck of the [00:19:00] woods. We met at the Iowa Deer Classic in, in one of the rooms, I don't know, two years ago.

Three, two, yeah. Probably two year, two years ago. And that's when we had our initial, idea generation brainstorming session and. It really just came from those guys wanting a durable Turkey vest that was lightweight and simple. And then, Kind of us wanting to do the same thing.

We wanted to bring in some Turkey products to help reduce the seasonality of tethered, because, once whitetail season's over, it's it's really slow. Yeah. So we wanted to get some stuff happening in the spring and it just made sense the way that it worked out. But those guys are awesome.

They brought all the Turkey chops, we don't. We're all Turkey hunters that tethered, but not like those guys. They spend 60 days in the woods every year, just dirt bagging it for Turkey. So they knew exactly what they wanted. It took us a few iterations to get there and then, we worked a deal with.

Mossy Oak for [00:20:00] using the bottom land pattern, and we actually created a proprietary fabric with Mossy Oak. Their engineers laminated a two piece fabric together that we call Whisper Tough, and it's really quiet. It's got a really quiet exterior, but then the back is made the backing is made with a really durable, you get really strong and really quiet.

It's boring, but we put a lot of thought into it. And it's an expensive vest. It's 300 bucks, but it's made in America and it's infinitely modular. And I think we were really the first made in America Turkey vest. There. There are some other companies like Marsupial makes an upland vest that's similar.

It's made in the USA and I think there's maybe one or two others that kind of make like a modular. More upland focused vests, they're really similar. I mean they Modular pockets. It's not a new concept. I wore what we call the L B V, which is the load-bearing vest when I was on active duty, wore that for years.

And that's really similar to our M two Turkey vests. It's a load-bearing yolk and waist belt, and then [00:21:00] you have modular pockets. Not like a crazy new idea. We just. Put it in camo and made it work for Turkey hunters. Yeah, and as far as I know, think we were the first ones to do that and make it in America.

There's trade-offs, right? You can have it made in America and support American workers and have super high quality materials and the price goes up. Or you can make it overseas like every other Turkey vest company does, and make it way cheaper. But then you're gonna sacrifice durability, and maybe you're not gonna get it exactly like you want it with maybe not quite as high of components.

It's just a trade off. It's not for everyone that, that vest is definitely not for everyone. You don't need to spend $300 on a Turkey vest to kill turkeys. You just don't. You can go out there with a couple calls in your pocket and kill turkeys, but this one is really made for the guy that is serious about it, and he wants the 

[00:21:49] Dan Johnson: best.

Man. I keep having these conversations with people about. Like I, I don't, I think people's mind frame on an [00:22:00] expensive made in Amer America product is so short term that they don't think of the long term benefits of having a very high quality, expensive product. Like I'm looking right now at a Western mountaineering sleeping bag.

I paid 680 bucks for it or something like that. Made in America. It's, if I take care of it, it's gonna last me 20. Okay. And you divide six 50 out by 20 years, like whatever that math is, that's very affordable. And I hear made in America, high quality Turkey vest. I've, I instantly think, and because I know your brand, I feel like.

That's gonna last me 15 Turkey seasons. So you take three 50 divided by, or whatever your cost is 300 divided by 15. That's that's really affordable. And I just get I get fired up when people s you know, it's oh, it's just too expensive. It's too expensive.

Everything's too expensive these days. Everything is, and so why not put that money into something that you actually love? [00:23:00] 

[00:23:00] Greg Godfrey: Yeah. And it's all relative, right? So 300, $300 Yeah. For a Turkey vest is really expensive to some guys, and it's not so expensive to others, right? There's a range of people and finances and jobs and all that stuff.

So again, it's not for everyone. You don't have to spend $300 on a Turkey vest. We know that. We're not saying you have to kill turkeys. That's not what it's about. But to your. If you want one that's gonna last you a really long time that you can really customize for the way you hunt and you can add or remove stuff, add pockets, take away pockets, make it super minimalist, make it super lightweight, make it super bulky and carry everything you can.

Do that. Yeah, and there's not a lot of options out there for people that want to have that kind of flexibility, if you want the best spend the money, we like to say buy once, cry once. And it'll last you forever. As opposed to spending a hundred bucks every Turkey season or every few Turkey seasons on a new 

[00:23:58] Dan Johnson: vest.

Elaborate a little bit [00:24:00] more in the customization of this bag and how it can fit a person's individual needs. 

[00:24:06] Greg Godfrey: So the cool thing about it is we made it. We made it on. With a Molly compatible load-bearing vest or load-bearing belt, I should say. Again, this is not a new concept. The US military and the Army has been using this, they call it the L B V A load-bearing vest.

And it's just a really well-made heavy duty. Structural vest that carries a lot of weight. So we just took that concept, trimmed it down, and turned it into a yolk system instead of a full vest, and then put that load bearing belt on it. And it's all Molly on the side and with, if you're familiar at all with Molly, it's just a series of webbing straps that you can attach and detach gear as you see fit.

So we've. We've got horizontal pockets. We've got all pockets. We've got a hydration pack, we've got bird bags. We've got working on [00:25:00] Bino adapters to go on the front so you can really mix and match. Think of it almost like as Legos. Yeah. Where you just get the pieces you want and then you just stick it together for the way you hunt.

So yeah. You might be a really minimalist guy, and really all you want is those pockets on the side for your calls. And you might like, like the guys at t h P are a perfect example of this. Ted at the hunting public, he basically set his up as minimalist as possible, and then Greg. Who carries a lot of cameras and he does all the self filming stuff.

He maxed his out so he can carry tripods and deco and all that stuff that he takes. So I think that's the cool part about it. That's what those guys like so much about it is that it's mid, it's made for the mobile hunter and the guy who likes modularity. That's where the name comes from. So it's the M two Turkey vest for mobile and modular.

So you can change it however you want it and then it, but it's really made for the guy that you know is. Covering a lot of ground. If you're hunting in a blind pretty [00:26:00] much all the time, you probably don't need this thing, yeah. It's probably not for you, but if you're covering a lot of ground, maybe hunting a lot of public land, maybe you hunt a lot of, even private land, but you bounce around to a lot of different farms or acres, acreage, then this would probably be a really good product for you.

[00:26:15] Dan Johnson: Gotcha. Why do you think really serious hunters gravitate towards tether? 

[00:26:25] Greg Godfrey: I think it's because of the thought we put into things. I mean our crew man, I could name names, but all the guys that kind of started with tethered and then like our partners that we've started to expand our network with. We just put a lot of thought into stuff and.

We, we really use our gear. There are a lot of, there are a lot of gear manufacturers that are owned by big corporations and they're owned by people who don't really hunt and they don't use their gear. They don't believe in it. They don't stand behind it. It's just a product that they offer to fill a niche [00:27:00] in the market.

Right? Absolutely. That's not who we are. We are guys that sleep in our trucks and travel outta state and hunt all over the country. That's how we do it. Yeah. So we build the gear selfishly for us. And I think that hunters out there see that, and they believe that we truly stand behind our gear and that we're actually using it.

I think that makes a big difference. Yeah, we're constantly looking for ways to make things lighter, better, faster, stronger, and we constantly iterate on our products. So a lot of the stuff that you might have. Two seasons ago, let's say the phantom saddle, that's our best selling saddle of all time.

That thing has gone through multiple iterations. And we will update the materials. We'll update the bridge, we'll update the storage, we'll update the comfort, whatever. We iterate our products. And that's just because we use it. We'll be in Illinois hunting during the rut and we'll figure out.

This webbing started making noise when it got really cold. Let's change that webbing to something that's [00:28:00] quieter and softer. So yeah, we're constantly doing stuff like that and I think that hunters respect that. 

[00:28:05] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Give me another example of a time in one of those iterations that you were talking about where you got feedback from maybe a real serious guy, serious bow hunter, and you're like, oh my God, you're right.

And you made the. 

[00:28:23] Greg Godfrey: Yeah. So the, his strap is a perfect example of that. And the his strap is the h y s strap. It's the hang your stuff strap. And what that is when you're up in a tree, you put this strap around the tree and that's how you hang your pack. You hang your bow, you hang your grun call.

It's just a little daisy chain strap. We started out with a really heavy duty. It was really overbuilt webbing. So it was bulky. It was really long. We made it like 10 foot long, and that was our first generation, I think it was Andy May, that was using it. And he said, man, I like it, but it's just bulky because for what I needed to do, I think the webbing was [00:29:00] rated to a thousand pounds or something.

And it was totally overbuilt. And he's man, I get it. Like it's super strong. I don't need it to tow my Jeep. I just need it to hang my bow and put my pack on it. And we were like, man, you're right. So what we did is we went back to the drawing board and we reduced the size of the webbing and the strength rating.

We reduced the length of it, we added a little extra length to all of the little loops, so it's easier to get your stuff in and out. And then that went into production. I could probably give you three or four more examples if I thought about it for a minute. Yeah. But that's the first one that came to mind is that we do that stuff all the time.

Gotcha. 

[00:29:35] Dan Johnson: Gotcha. Okay. So I've noticed that based off of the first saddle that you guys put out. Then you had the, I call it the fat boy the one that I have the extra large, saddle for the bigger dudes. And then you went to this might be new this year. It almost a it has suspenders almost, or a shoulder straps that connect to it.

So it's almost like a safety harness type [00:30:00] deal. And you guys now have that. Do you guys ever see your. Going even smaller and going into our, because I've, I feel like I've seen the trend go to bigger, more comfortable. Do you guys ever see yourself going the opposite way now, which is very minimal very small.

[00:30:20] Greg Godfrey: Probably not. Yeah. When we started tethered, our first saddle was called the Mantis, and that one. That was supposed to be exactly what you're talking about. That was ultra minimalist. It doesn't have a lot of the features that we, that, some of our other saddles have had. And the whole point of that thing was to make it 15 ounces.

Yeah. Right under a pound, which was bananas in the industry. Nothing had ever even been close to that. So that's where we started and the feedback that we got was yeah, we care from hunters. We heard Hunter saying, yeah, we really care about weight because we're getting away from a tree stand to reduce our weight.

Cuz when we're walking [00:31:00] a long way or we're walking up hills and stuff, we don't want to carry big, heavy metal tree stands, right? So weight is important. But it's also okay, this is, again, it's from the hunters. It's also okay if we are a little bit more than a pound. Yeah. So what we heard was, you don't have to be so minimalist where you sacrifice a lot of features.

So our next couple of saddles, the The Phantom and the Menace, they were a little bit heavier, not much, you're talking six, eight ounces in the grand scheme thing. But we built in extra features, a little bit more user-friendly option. And then the saddle that you just referenced, that we just released at the ata that goes on sale this June, is called the lockdown.

And that one is like a completely opposite way of how we started. So we went with super ultra lightweight in the beginning, and you. Like that's the Ferrari, right? Super fast, super lights y, that kind of thing. And now this new one is more like a Cadillac. It's more focused on comfort.

More [00:32:00] focused on user friendliness, and that one I think is gonna be a home run. People really seem to like it. It's heavier, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not that much heavier, yeah. If the mantis was 15 ounces, I don't remem, I don't have the number off the top of my head, but this one's probably gonna be just under two pounds, so Gotcha.

Double the weight. But when you go from one pound to two pounds, is it that much of a difference? I don't know. We'll see. The market will tell us. Yeah. If it's too, if too heavy. 

[00:32:28] Dan Johnson: There you go. There you go. What else? Is there anything else that, or any other category, you broke into the Turkey hunting category.

Is there any other product line or category that you guys see yourself dabbling in the future? 

[00:32:41] Greg Godfrey: Definitely gonna expand Turkey stuff. Yeah. We're all Turkey hunters and again, the seasonality of the whitetail business, it just makes sense to get into more Turkey stuff. So we already have three or four, three or three or four ideas in the hopper for what we can do for Turkey stuff next year.

So we are you're definitely [00:33:00] gonna see more Turkey stuff. As far as, I get asked all the time if we're, if we would consider making a tree stand. I'm not opposed to it, but it would I'm not interested in doing a me too product. I'm not interested in, hey, this, pound and a half lone wolf custom gear tree stand exists.

I'm not interested in saying, oh yeah, I have one too. Yeah. So we did it. It would have to be something that was really cool and really new and would actually help hunters more than what's available. Because when you think about like how tethered. Literally that did not exist. There was one other saddle hunting company on the planet that you could buy from, and their stuff was really well made, but it was overbuilt.

Like their saddle was, I think four pounds. Yeah. And we came in at one pound and we had all the pouches and the better ropes and all that stuff. So it was, we really felt like we hit a niche that wasn't available on the market. So if we were to do like a tree stand or something, it would have to.[00:34:00] 

Something pretty groundbreaking and we don't have anything in the works for that right now, but yeah, I definitely don't want to take it off the table that we would not break into any other punting adjacent markets. We launched a pack this past year. Yeah. Called The Fast Pack for all Saddle Hunters.

And there's definitely more in the works in that. We've got a Fast Pack XL in the works that'll hopefully get launched this season. We've got some other cool stuff in the pack arena that's gonna be coming out in 2023 and 2024. I'm excited about that and people are gonna really like what we've got to work, 

[00:34:35] Dan Johnson: Awesome. Awesome. As always, man, I really appreciate you taking time outta your day to hop on and update us on tethered direction and products and things like that. So thanks for your time today and good luck with the the release of the new saddle in the Turkey vest. 

[00:34:50] Greg Godfrey: Thanks, man.

Hopefully once the Iowa season. Hopefully you get them birds quick. Thank you.[00:35:00] 

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