Show Notes
This podcast we talk with William from Thelte camo. We recap a bit of his 2022 deer season. We dive into some exciting new gear items for Thelte for 2023. We discuss the process of making better deer hunting gear. We also talk about future gear ideas. Some teases on Thelte expanding into some cool items. We wrap up with some grilling and BBQ talk.
Topics discussed
-Saddle hunting
-layering with mobile hunting
-better base layers
-can hunting gear be too warm
-hot gear items for 2023
-solid grilling tips
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Show Transcript
Byron Horton: All right. This is the Whitetail Experience Podcast. This is your host, Byron Horton. This is going out July 4th week, despite I'm recording this in Podcast Land A Touch Early and have been holding this podcast. This was the most DM talked about podcast I did last year. This is with William from Fleet, and if you're not familiar with Fleet, they make whitetail specific.
Generally elevated tree stand level is where the camouflage probably shines the most at. Hunting gear. And I like William because he is a dude that you could like, have a barbecue with and beer, and go to deer camp with no offense to the big name companies of the world, the first light, blah, blah, blah's.
Like I've heard their marketing directors talk on podcasts and like William, by far is the most like enjoyable dude to just chat with. He's funny, he's witty. There's an eighties action movie reference, so that should go well. But yeah, I just think it's a it's a good conversation. We do talk some of [00:01:00] his deer hunting in Canada.
Last year he shot a chocolate horn. I think it was a six or a seven point. It was a cool wide frame deer, but we talked that, and then obviously we do talk some gear and then we talked some grilling, some cooking very timely. So I am, I'm excited about that. I have the green light to get some cams out this coming weekend.
So I have prepped, I don't know, 13 or 14 soldiers. I have ordered a few more because I have a batch that I have not got to. And then I pulled on my cams at my small farm and I set them on the like trail going back to the truck. And when I went to leave that day, I definitely didn't take that trail home and.
Left probably, I don't know, four or five cams sitting there in the middle of a four wheel type path. They might have gotten lifted. Who knows. I haven't been out there in a good bit, but I'll hopefully get those back in the arsenal here. That being said, wanted to thank my Patreon guys.
Oh, big giveaway announcement. If you joined Patreon by Sunday, like the first weekend in July, I don't know, I'm gonna call that the 10th, 11th, 12th. Somewhere in there [00:02:00] you are entered to win an RL one. Site, and that is the top tier carbon framed, single pin slider from redline. I have an extra one, so I am giving that away on Patreon.
If you're interested in up upping your filming game, I have a like self filming increase your production value better. Oh, photos of recovery, some branding, some marketing. Like I, I put together a web course designed for the solo producer in mind. There's a handful of podcasts. There's some like video examples.
There's cool editing tips techniques that I use. Like I'll make a badass sizzle or short and I'll be like, this is how I did it. And yeah, that's available through Patreon is like my hosting website. And once you submit to the. Web course tier, you have access to all that and it's work at your own pace type thing.
All right, let's get to this with William. Enjoy. Okay.
William: Recording in
Byron Horton: progress. All right. [00:03:00] We are live. So on the podcast with me today is William from Fleet and I had him on, I think prior to last hunting season. So we're gonna catch up with him cuz he went everywhere and anywhere in and during his 2022 pursuits.
We got a buck that dies. We got some new gear items and we're gonna talk summer barbecue skills. So buckle up folks. William, welcome back to the
William: show, man. Super pumped to be here guys. This is awesome, and you just,
Byron Horton: Slay a bird. Last week.
William: I've shot two, now I'm tied down six. I'm done donezo, but I have, we have a big group, so we have a big veterans hunt coming this week, and so we have four, maybe five hunters coming to town on Wednesday, and yeah, it's gonna be Wednesday to Sunday, nonstop Turkey honey.
Okay.
Byron Horton: What are on the Turkey scale? Are you like all in or It's fun. Where are you at as far as Turkey hunting passion pursuit compared to your [00:04:00] whitetail? I know,
William: so I am all in on Turkey hunting, but on the spectrum I'm like a zero When it comes to like Turkey calling, man, I like, I need a box call.
I need a box call. My like, I dunno, my beard or something. I go back and forth, I just cannot get consistent calling with a mouth call. And so I need that box call, that's just my sound check out there in the woods. Am I sounding good? Oh, let me just get a little box call to re recalibrate where I'm at in the woods.
Byron Horton: I like it. I, that, that's the crowd I was in until I went elk hunting and then I decided, cuz I still hunt sometimes for turkeys in the big woods where I I don't like to sit still. I literally choose the still hunting method and I I can call then with the mouth call or whatever, but I gotta put it in the truck about a month before season.
William: Yeah, so that I do the same thing, like I'm in the carpool line, dropping kids off and I'm like calling the kids out the, in the carpool line and they're like, what the heck is going on? And then the teachers are looking at me all weird. And this guy's a little bit on the [00:05:00] spectrum, maybe
Byron Horton: classic.
So real quick for maybe any new members, give us the quick company profile of Fleet Outdoors. And then we gotta hear about this Canada buck.
William: So fleet outdoors, we make outdoor hunting clothes for whitetail hunters, but obviously hunting clothes spans the whole gamut. We're using it Turkey hunting. We're using it elk hunting, moose, anything and everything. But our niche is like we make gear for whitetail hunters, and that is what we live and breathe and die for all day, every day.
And Sell across the country, have customers in every state, and just like living our best lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Nice.
Byron Horton: Yeah. I'm a big fan of kind of that mission statement. That is a, oh, I saw you do a video one time and you're like, we're a niche. We're a niche within a niche, but we wanna own that space.
William: Exactly. I, so I went all the way to Canada to chase whitetail deer, it is unbelievable. Like I just love it. I love [00:06:00] deer hunting. I love getting after whitetail for some reason, like I started when I was four and I've been able to hunt a lot of different animals, but I always find myself go back to whitetail.
It is just, it's a year round pursuit in my mind. It's live and die, early season, late season, you name it. There's nothing more exciting than chasing after big white tail. Nothing. I'm sorry. There's nothing like it. Yeah.
Byron Horton: I love it, man. And so you had mentioned you went all the way to Canada, but you also went to four or five other states.
But like in Canada, you were there on a mission testing some gear, but also shot a beautiful chocolate horned buck. And so maybe let's tell our audience one, what gear you're testing or kind of some of the purpose there, and then give us some details on, on, on harvesting that
William: animal. Yeah, so we were up there in Alberta and we were down.
Kind of like east of Alberta, about two hours and we were chasing whitetail at elevation. I've never done this before. So like they were all the way up at [00:07:00] 6,000 feet all the way down at like river bottoms. And we were going up and down much like elk hunting. It was weird. Like we were. Running gun whitetail hunting.
Never done that before, but it was so awesome and it was rut time. And so go up to big glassing points and there's glass as far as the eye can see, and we would see whitetail and we were like, that looks like a giant deer. But all I can see is like this little spectrum, like through a spotting scope, 2000 yards away.
It was awesome, but it was freezing. Freezing so cold that I'm one day. We couldn't get our brakes unlocked, like the car was completely frozen shut. Wow. We dragged it like a mile with a tractor trying to just force the wheels to come unfrozen didn't happen. Wow. And so like that's how frozen it was.
And so we're dealing with 30, 40 kilometer winds, negative 30, 40 degrees Celsius. Like it was brutal, but. Deer, we're still moving. When it's the [00:08:00] rut, deer are gonna move. And that was insane. What
Byron Horton: what time of year on the calendar was it? Was it like late November to
William: get that cold up there? Yeah. Okay.
It was late November, but it was freakishly cold and we wanted to go up there and test gear, but It went from like testing, like what we were thinking, like we were testing our new fantom X series and all that, but it quickly dropped into so cold. Like you had to have you would've died if you didn't have the right gear.
Yeah. There's no que like it was brutal. And running up and down the hills, oh man, I sweated it out. It was awesome. And I was like, I learned a lot in terms of what our gear can and can't do. Which is important, like cuz we get the phone call all the time. Is this gonna keep me warm?
Yes, it's gonna keep you warm, but man, you're gonna sweat. Like you gotta learn to pack it in. There's with deer honey it's such a weird action. Like you're gonna go from high exertion to no exertion for superlong duration. So I'm gonna walk five miles in and then I'm gonna sit there for eight hours.
And [00:09:00] like all that moisture, all that energy you just built up is being absorbed in your clothes. Everyone knows that. Like you sweat it out, you're going to temperatures drop, get in the stand, you're gonna freeze to death. It's horrible. And so like you have to learn to ma balance those. Go for it, man.
Now
Byron Horton: let me ask this. So was there any like moment in that trip where you were out in the field and you were like, you know what? When we get back to the office, we are changing this because I needed to function like x.
William: So hit me. Our ice station is so dang warm. I've, and it's come across like unequivocally that we've gotten feedback from tons and tons of people that have been testing it.
It's too warm. It's too warm. And I didn't, I never thought that to be the case, but like we were, we had people testing North Dakota like predator hunting, late December, a hundred mile per hour winds across the planes like. There. Devil's Lake, you got Thai humidity, tons of snow, tons of ice, [00:10:00] and they were too warm.
That's how warm, but so perspective like prim lock, which is the core insulation that we're running in this item has, they have their, like their flavors. You have like your mid cheap grade, I shouldn't say cheap, they're low grade performance. And then you have your high end fibers and we're running the high end fibers.
One wrong below. They're like the top or the top. In theory, it's meant for climbing Everest. That's like they, that's what you're, they're building that item for in that category. So we're like one step below that. And I always thought to myself like, I wanted to go all the way. Like I wanted to be able to have a product and say you could go climb Everest.
That's just an awesome ad right there. Go from my saddle to the top of Everest. Why not? It sounds awesome, but Oh my gosh. It was so warm so warm. And you just sweat and you, there's no way, like you can't even layer your way out of it. Okay. And so like we, we immediately came back to the shop and we're like the whole concept of you [00:11:00] can't be too warm.
Yes. You can be too warm. It's just like we had to go find scenarios that even see if we could find a cold point. We couldn't find it. It was always too warm. And so like we came back and immediately are low in the installation just because we have to like, okay, nice. The other thing that we came back with was, and I still go back and forth on this we've shouted out to social media safety port harnesses in those cold environments, is the safety port harness.
Really necessary. Maybe, I don't know. I go back and forth. I don't wanna negate safety. I love the safety aspect. I love the people that use it. I'm a saddle hunter and so I'm not using it. And a lot of our customers are saddle hunters. They're not using it. They want something that's like more functioning for saddle hunting, not tree stand safety harness hunting.
But more and more I talk to people. I actually haven't met someone that's used the safety port harness in the last year or two. They're just throwing it over [00:12:00] and that's just what they're doing. Like they don't want to feed that cord through that, all those little holes. So that's something that may be on the chopping block for us.
Cause if one, it adds to the cost of the garment, so you end up paying for it. Two, if you're not using it, so like you're paying for it, not using it, I'd rather deliver one, a more affordable product that cuts that out. But then two, ultimately, It's a weak point in the garment. Like we've done thermal testing, lots of warmth leads through that hole.
I don't care how many flaps you put over that thing, you think you're fine. Heat is dumping outta that hole drastically.
Byron Horton: Yeah. Yeah. I will say I went for one hunt where I used a safety port port out of the back. And so I go to get dressed at the base of the tree cuz I, it was a packing hunt and like here I am trying to reach over my shoulder and get the final four or five inches of the tether out.
I just can't imagine. And my core audience is like the mobile running and gun. Regardless of tree stand. So in a rut when most guys are taking their vacation, generally ha they might have two to three layers on. Why would I want to thread it through three layers? [00:13:00] Yeah. That's just an extra step.
I already got a jack around with X, Y, and Z no. So I left a comment full, send punt on on. No, no port harnesses in the back. Save a little money, better performance. I'm
William: all about it. And I get like anxiety when I get to the base of the tree. I like, have anxiety that like my Boer bucket is like six, six feet away from me.
I just need to get in that tree as quickly as possible. Like I'm like, my pants are around my ankles exposure type thing. When I'm at the base of that tree, I need to get up as quickly as possible.
Byron Horton: Yeah, I would agree. I think I have less anxiety setting up for a mobile hunt in the dark cuz I'm like, even though I'm in the dark headlamp blah, blah, blah, it's like I, I legally can't shoot him.
So even if he is standing there watching me it's not like I'm costing myself an opportunity. I might be, but I can't legally shoot him.
William: I gotta get
Byron Horton: up there. Yeah. Let me ask this. So why don't you break down like the, because you were successful on this ca Can Canadian trip. Let's hear a little bit about the buck.
William: Yeah we spotted this book, [00:14:00] day two, day three, and he was super unique for us He was like, he ended up scoring 149 inches as a seven pointer, like just a giant seven pointer. So he stood out super unique chocolate andler, but he was like six and a half, seven and a half. Like when I, that's a million dollar question, like Agent Deere with like jawbones and everything.
Like at certain point like it, it becomes impossible. Like mature jawbone. Super old deer. We spotted him. Oh my gosh. We walked. Our tails off. I think over the course of this entire trip, we walked over 60 miles. So perspective walking through three feet of snow, 60 miles. But anyway, spotted this deer day three or day two, day three, and just started like literally hitting this whole valley everywhere we could to get back on him.
Cuz again, we're doing spot and stock. We spot him at about 3000 yards with spotting scope and he's chasing it's rud and so The concept of oh, he is gonna be there. He is gonna be, no, he is [00:15:00] chasing whitetail, chasing do everywhere. And so we're like alright, he is going to this side. So we hike all the way up in like you're bush whacking it through three feet of snowman.
Like it was not easy going up 2000 feet vertical. Not an easy hunt. I'm not in the best shape. I'm a dad bod. I have four kids, I still work out. But man, I was smoked and I was sweating. I was dropping layers. But man, we saw him like three or four times, hike all the way up on day end of day four, all the way up to the top of this area.
And we looked down and there he is in the river bottom. We didn't need to walk up this giant mountain to get see. And then once he down the river bottom, we got all the way down there and made a game plan, got right up on, ended up shooting him at 15 yards. It was unbelievable. Yeah, it was right there and we didn't have to do anything. I remember was like, why do we walk up that hill? He was right there the whole time, but minute. It's just a testament to how tough these animals are because like he [00:16:00] weighed 365 pounds. Oh, word. And not an ounce of fat on him, not an ounce of fat. Like he was just a sheer tank, Ronnie Coleman to at his peak man, like not an ounce of fat on him, running around like crazy, up and down these hills doing circles around us.
And yeah, it was an awesome, I'll never forget that. Oh my gosh, it was awesome.
Byron Horton: That is so cool. And being that big I have heard that taxidermists, they have to buy a special Canadian mound. Be because they're just so much bigger through like the chest, shoulder, neck
William: area. It was a, it was like a cow man.
Like I like walking up to this animal. So like you have like ground shrinkage. Like you go to Texas and like you shoot a deer and looks massive. You walk up to this and then the body side just it like it's a Labrador with antlers. Yeah, but like you just don't get it. And so like you see these animals and they look small, but then you walk up to this deer and oh my gosh, like I've never seen a 365 pound deer before.[00:17:00]
Like I had no concept, but like you hold his ambler. So I'm like, this is a giant deer. And then you stand next to this body and it's like a cow. And like I was, when we started field dressing, I fully expected to be covered in fat, not in a iron man. Like it is just it's a different animal, man. It's a different creature.
Oh man. Yeah. So yeah, we dragged that thing, got it cleaned up and Oh yeah. It was so awesome. And when I brought it to the states down here for the taxidermy, the guy like pulled out the measurements on the tan, the hide and everything is I'm gonna have to go get this special. I didn't know that.
I didn't know like you had to get a different, like mold and everything. He is I gotta get the bigger mold. He's people say they need it. He is no one ever needs it. He's this is, I'm gonna have to do this. And so it was an extra, I had to charge more. I was expecting it to cost like X for the amount.
No man, it was like 25% more, but totally worth it. Yeah. That
Byron Horton: is so cool, man. That is so cool. So I wanted to shift to some of the, oh, YouTube video I saw, [00:18:00] I think now, two, three weeks ago, where you guys walked through some of the new gear items loud on the table it looks like. What did you feel before we get into some of the garments that are coming?
Like you were like, man, late needs x going into 2023. What did you feel was the hole in the bucket that you felt was the biggest priority?
William: Probably, so our best sell was the phantom jacket. Phantom jacket and pants. We're running low on inventory, but I've been working, we've been working on developing a new fabric, so we partnered with a new mill that basically, like their niche is cammo, but I'm like all awesome man.
Like color matching is great, but I like the fabrics. Like I want and I have specs that I want in fabrics that like this style fabric, interlock, knits, interlock, woven, like I have like certain. Things that I'm looking for out of fabric. I was like, I love that you do the camo, but can we do the custom?
I want to take this fabric, let's make it two, 2% heavier, 20%, 200% heavier. Like I'm looking for custom. And so [00:19:00] I've been working on this one fabric for two years now, and we finally, so got the fabric developed, but then the fa the challenge was then getting the colors right. I think we spent a solid year.
Getting the colors identified
really match, like our camos really difficult because the high contrast, so like, When you like, just think to shear, like dropping a pen on a color, like getting how the colors all come together and interact. It becomes really difficult to like, not have it be too dark, too light to have the high contrast colors and a custom developed fabric that like they've never made before, they've never printed on it before.
And so like it's custom amount, custom. It's I've been working on this for two years, man, and we finally got it all. Perfect. Nice.
Byron Horton: Okay, so again, what was like, you're like, man, I want to fill this gap. What's the biggest opportunity?
William: So it is dead quiet. Dead, quiet fabric, fully waterproof, fully windproof.
It's [00:20:00] durable. So like it's a really thick outer shell. So a lot of people will make like soft shells, soft shell, three layer fabric. So simple layer, exterior membrane. Then you have the F fleece. Where people like to build weight into a fabric is they'll make the fleece the next to the skin. That'll be like a heavier fleece.
And so that's where you're building your warmth up. I took the inverse, I focus on the exterior because that's where you get your snags, your tears. That's where the fabric can break down, original hunters, man, they hunted with leather. They killed an animal. That's what matters.
That exterior fabric, that's what's protecting you from the elements. And so we built that aspect up. The challenge with that is now you gotta factor in stretch. You need four-way stretch to move with you because you're moving through the woods, you're running, you're gunning, you're doing all that stuff, man.
Like I needed something that had stretch and durable and had the membrane that had breathability specs that were to our standard, and then had fleece for the next skin comfort. And so [00:21:00] like I was like, it took us like a long time to get this all together, but no. Now you have a three layer soft shell that's dead quiet, extremely durable.
Extremely durable. And when I say durable, like we're testing, snag testing. So like we have like a testing mechanism that basically imagine like toilet paper, a toilet paper roll. Giant, one of those with the fabric going across a thing, and then they drag a ball and chain across it like that has like giant pricks on it, knife tears, all that.
And you do that for 30 days. Literally. You run this machine for 30 days and you then test it like that fabric's gonna be degraded. And so like we have a standard, like the degrading of that fabric has to have less than, one snag, one tear, minimum visible d And so there's certified graders that do this and it's like we have our standard and past that standard, it's soft, it's stretchy, it's thick, and it's [00:22:00] perfection.
It's perfection. Nice. And so we needed that because like right now, current deer hunting is very much all about, they do a great job at matching the camo and getting the colors right, but I don't know of a garment out there that's. Fully customized, like they're taking like a standard fabric package, developing it, and then spend all the time to get the colors right.
We went the other way around, like I wanted the fabric to be perfect, then spend the time to get the colors match and so like I don't know of another garment out there. I can't even explain it to people because the closest thing I can say is synthetic letters. I think that's the closest way. Okay. But
Byron Horton: what would you describe perfect application for this as far as like a time of year?
Like use is say a cold item or more of a mid-season.
William: So like it could function in the mid-season with a simple silky base layers underneath it all the way down to 20 degrees, 10 degrees, so that I was using, I ended up living in the Phantom. When we were in Canada, I [00:23:00] had to put insulation on, but at the core of it, it was the phantom platform.
That's what was keeping us warm. That's what's keeping the wind out. And so like this is designed from a layer in perspective. And so like it's versatile enough to go in the mid season and give you longevity all the way into the late season with proper insulation and function between all those, all the nitty gritty.
So you get snow fine, you get rain, you're fine, you get ice, you're fine. I would not recommend this as a traditional rain wear because it's not fully tape, but you're gonna be fine. Water may seep through the crack, but it's awesome. It's pretty wicked. And so I wanted to, the Phantom is our best seller.
It's so versatile. I and I wanted it to take to the next level and truly deliver to the market the perfect soft shell hunting experience. And I think that platform is what all whitetail hunters need. You don't need to have like your mid-season garment and then you change out your system and then have [00:24:00] your late season garment.
Like you should have one system that gives you longevity through the entire season and you just compliment it with little products here and there. Like I'll add insulation today. I'll drop that, I'll put a vest on, I'll add a base layer, like that's what this is all about.
Byron Horton: Nice. So will this be titled The Phantom 3.0 or I remember what?
What's the
William: name? Fanm X, the X Series. I love it. Yeah, it's
Byron Horton: I, you just described myself as far as I have what I call like some October bow hunting pieces that I totally have to switch out my outer layer come November 5th ish when we start getting some 20 degree mornings. Yeah. And so being able to maybe now buy one piece and then add insulation to, but it's the same jacket.
My stuff's gonna be all, I'll have my system fully dialed. Like I, I don't have to change it. Come the rut. And
William: the biggest thing that I always struggled with soft shells is I'm a saddle hunter. Like a lot of soft shells don't move with you. They don't stretch enough with you. And that's [00:25:00] why before this, like I, I was stuck.
Like I had to have that mid-season garment because like when I'm climbing, I'm really running around like I wanted stretch, I wanted mobility, but I'm okay with losing stretch and mobility when it's cold out. Like I sacrifice, I'm gonna layer up. I just like mentally accept that. As like when it's cold, I can't move.
I gotta have all these layers. It is what it is. I wanted to erase that from the board and say, you know what, like I wanna have a garment that I don't have to struggle lifting my leg up, whether it's October or December, to make that extra long step in my, on my sticks up a tree. If I need to move, I need to stretch and need to all that.
I needed that. That's what this delivers.
Byron Horton: Nice. Nice. With the new gear item, what do you feel is the sleeper pick of all the new ones and what do you feel is going to be the most popular?
William: Probably sleeper Pick is probably gonna be the win proof fleece. That is gonna be [00:26:00] who doesn't love win proof fleece, like literally who does not love win proof.
Flee incredibly warm. Incredibly soft. The only downside does not have the stretch of the Phantom X, but like that is gonna be, I know so many people that may not like they love the Winford Police and they will buy Winfred police. Like they, they could be invested in a whole nother camo pattern, but they're like, if you come out with win, please, I'm buying it.
Everyone just loves like win. Please. Unstoppable, that high burley fleece,
who doesn't love it? Yeah. Like you're looking at it like, it's like a baby sheep skin.
Byron Horton: It's super, yeah. I'm a fleece guy. I've owned several garments that, that, yeah. And in the past the negative was if you got that wind that was maybe starting to get above eight miles an hour
William: and you'd feel it.
Yeah. You feel it. And so to have that, like [00:27:00] my perfect setup right now is I wear the, I wear heavy base layers, which is the H one Polar Tech 320 gram fabric weight, super stretchy, super warm base layer fabric. That's pretty awesome. Then I was wearing our windproof fleece vest underneath it with our Phantom X.
I'd made the collars. I didn't want to go full on what's that movie? The vest. I don't know. I can't think of it. It'll come to me in a second. But anyway, the vest comes up high. Like it's got a high, so like you can tuck him like the matrix. It could be the matrix.
Byron Horton: I'm trying to think of the Dracula, right?
Like Dracula used to tuck into
William: his Blade Runner. Blade Runner, the new 2049. Brian Gosling always like, how high can his collar go? That's we can go full on neck, like face. But yeah, that's what we were going for. So you can like snuggle in. I like when I get cold, like I just wanna I'm in the tree, I'm just sitting there.
I don't wanna move. Like I just kinda sit down, hunker down, get into that collar and so that vest provides that warmth. [00:28:00] But then I have all my pockets, so like I have all my gear already in my jacket. I'm not like wanting to take everything else. Like I have my one jacket and my one pants. That's what I run with the entire season.
I don't wanna change it. I don't like to, oh, I forgot my call. I didn't, I have my gloves like permanently in my pants, pockets, like they just live there. So yeah, I
Byron Horton: love that aspect. Okay. So you think that's gonna be like the sleeper pick or most popular.
William: Sleeper. I think it's
Byron Horton: sleeper. What's gonna be the most popular out of the new items?
Maybe we already talked about
William: it, but no. T 1000 pants. T 1000 pants. It is, I don't hold this. To me I'm like, we've not gotten full pricing of like end to end. So like for us in like, when we do total cost of manufacturing, like there's cost of manufacturing, there's importing, there's shipping, but everything's down low right now.
So like shipping costs, all that stuff is super cheap right now. So we're shooting for a $99 pan. That is our target price that we're coming to market with. And so like you sign up for the email, like [00:29:00] subscribe, like you get a 15% discount. Like you're buying what I would argue is probably the best hunting pan in the upper echelon category.
I won't say there's is the best because like it becomes, and when you get into the A category, there's just stylistic preferences.
Byron Horton: We're talking we're talking like the CU U attacks, the asat, nars. Who else has got some? I'm sure that there's a handful out there. Yeah.
William: But this up there and like with a discount, you're looking at buying at 75 80.
That is unbelievable. And like stretch, lightweight early season. And then can transition into the mid later seasons with the right base layer underneath it. Like it is wicked man. And like it's coming in all sorts of colors. Oh, love that. Yeah. So I think it's five different color options right now.
And so that's gonna be the best seller. I just hands down, I've talked to enough people, we've struggled in the [00:30:00] past, like entry level pant. The cheapest pant we sell right now is like 150, 160 bucks. And so that was something that I knew outta the gate that we had to bring to market soon.
And so to have a $99 pan that is like perfection. Yeah. That's gonna be our best color. There's not a doubt in my mind. Yeah. And then you
Byron Horton: mentioned some of the oh, couple different colors, some of the earth tones, like the fall jacket. I have it in green and. I wear that like around the house, out in the yard.
I scouted in it because it is like a tougher, stretchy type material, does well with thorns. So I probably didn't hunt in it one day, but I probably wore it the most out of 365.
William: So I'm coaching baseball in it. And but like one time I did come to the baseball, I coached baseball, I coached my six, seven year old and like I was in ful camba.
And my wife thought, I was like, people were looking at me like, what's going on? But I was like, I make camo. Come on, let me coach baseball. Yeah. But like I, when I don't have that, I had to come in. [00:31:00] I wear that ball jacket man all the time. And it's innocuous. Is that a hunting jacket? Is that cool?
Yeah, it's awesome. I love
Byron Horton: it. Love it. So something you did tease and my audience needs to perk up on this, is you had thought about designing a couple garments very specific to a mobile hunter's needs. You wanna speak any more to that? Is that something that is probably a year or two out, but
William: That's interesting.
So it's, we are, so we are developing the fabric right now. And that is the exterior fabric. So like it's going to be a three layer fabric. But we might be changing some things around this. Totally unique for saddle hunting. And we're probably a year out next season could be not this coming season.
The season after that is when we're gonna be coming to market with that and we're working with some pretty awesome saddle hunting people that,
Byron Horton: Yeah. Yeah. That may or may not be within striking distance of the office.
William: Yeah. And so it'd be pretty cool. It'll be pretty cool to have [00:32:00] something that's truly unique.
For saddle hunting in a really cool package. Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Byron Horton: Okay, so do you have anything else you wanna drop here on the podcast related to gear garments? I know bibs are they coming? For sure. That's awesome.
William: Not this round okay. So I I'm waiting the perfection.
I wanna come to market. We're gonna probably come with three bibs and so I want a just. Think like fall jacket, what you have on right there, like a early season bib. Or maybe even an overall, like a full coverall style, lightweight. I'm James Bond. Go into the woods, I'm leaving the office.
I'm gonna zip, zip this over my tuxedo and I'm gonna go wax some deer. That's in the concept phases right now. And then a full on three layer with insulation bib, ice station. Once we get that insulation dialed back, it's more to what extent can we go back on it and maybe layer some.[00:33:00]
We'll see. But that's coming next season, not this coming season after that. And the bibs may be, and the jacket may be rolled in with the saddle setup They all come together into one package. Love it. Love it. It's pretty cool that like we're trying to incorporate like wind proofing in the inverse.
Like to get, so having like truly like the wind proof is the outer layer. Yeah. It's different. It's different, man. Like we're trying to get it, so imagine like a lightweight, puffy, so Like our north star or our tailwind, so like that like really lightweight fabric and a brush concept that also has a membrane in it.
So think like packable down to a softball that is also has a membrane that is windproof and your saddle setup could maybe come together and here's my bibs and here's my jacket. Yeah. And William
Byron Horton: just made the shape of roughly a [00:34:00] softball, if you will. And yeah, that applicability aspect, I think that would be very interesting.
Yeah. And maybe even playing with it, maybe you guys got a bib that is the size of a softball, but he has another hunting jacket that he really likes, but still. Yeah you're packing in. That's, I weighed my clothes last year. They were my outer layer alone was seven pounds, like more than my tree stand
William: normally, like clothes run between six and nine pounds.
And and then you, that's a serious amount of weight. That Shing clothing that you're gonna put on. What we're looking for is like softball size, maybe a mi a kid's football size that can fit in like a SIS hauler or some sort of like pouch. And be able with the functionality to put on in the tree.
Not like I wanna be able to get up without sweating it out, like walking in and getting up in the tree. I'm all set up and then I put my gear on and it's like whip it out shake dry and poop, put my jacket on, [00:35:00] put my pants or my bib on. Big zippers, or not big zippers, easily lift, but long zippers so I can slide my leg through dead quiet and be good to go.
Love it.
Byron Horton: That is so cool, man. That yeah. Yeah. And you have a good amount of good testers in that mobile hunting game to, to dial that in perfectly. Let's talk a little fun here. It is about to be peak grilling season here over the next several months. You had just bought a smoker last time we talked.
I now own one and use it more than I thought I would. What is maybe a what is your go-to meat and side dish recipe from the smoking world that you're like, Hey, we're having guests over. I'm making
William: this, so I'm a big, I've been big on making Brisket or pork belly and like making a co I've been on an Asian thing lately, so like I've been making more like an Asian sauce.
But then I smoke it like the pork belly, 6, 7, 8 hours. The brisket, I'm running 20 hours [00:36:00] long. I'm doing a full packer brisket. But then the key aspect is like I'm loving to make I like to make my own rice. Rice cooker and then fluffing it with some chili oils and then some herb, some herbs, and oh, and like making a full on like Asian Thai rice and then the pork belly, and then caramelize it.
So like I'll take make a hard barbecue sauce and then like I'll blow towards the exterior to get a nice little crispiness, like little it's sticky. And then lay that down on the fluffed up rice. It's like the chili oil, rice, and then little garnish. Wow. It's money. It's so good. Nice.
Byron Horton: I I do a pretty good queso like corn, Mexican street though, dip, if you will.
That's like my favorite appetizer. Just cause What do you do with the caso? So what do you do for the, it's like a pepper jack cube. Let's see here. Cream cheese. Layered corn, jalapeno tahe seasoning. [00:37:00] Oh, a can of model. So yeah it's very simple, very easy. Throw it on there. It takes about two hours, but you can have that going as you're finishing up main course.
Yeah. We've done some barbacoa recipes that are probably my favorite. I think I like beef a little more than I like some of the pork coming off of the smoker. Yeah I don't think I have a go-to yet. I think I'm still developing my skills my co-host or my, my, my. Partner in crime, Dave Ebra. He is definitely team chef.
He's a much better cook than I am but yeah, like I, I've done some barba COAs where I smoked the second half and like some chilies and adobo sauce and get some fixings in there.
William: I did started, have you ever heard of sodium citrate? No.
You get it on Amazon. It's 10 bucks or five bucks, and it is a chemical that basically it skips the process of having to make a rue. So if you wanna make the best queso in the world, I always make a r. So like I'm hardcore, I make a rue [00:38:00] match butter to flour ratio. I'm cooking it so I don't burn it.
And then I start slowly adding the milk. Like I make really good taste, love my taste though. And I just shifted to sodium citrate. So stick of butter, 20 grams of sodium citrate in there. Cook that down a little bit. Full pint of heavy cream, and you can put any cheese you want in there. If you wanna make mac and cheese like a brick of Parmesan, a brick of cheddar, and then a brick of smoked goda.
Shred that in the food processor. Dump that all in there. Best case that you've ever had for mac and cheese. You wanna substitute the Parmesan for Monterey Jack, the best chips case that you've ever had, it's so easy and it's just it's a, it's like a, I think it's a salt type that's like from fruit like oranges.
I think I could be totally off in making stuff up, but it's a sodium citrate get on Amazon and it just allows you to make the best creamies. Perfect queso in the [00:39:00] world.
Byron Horton: So I, Dave would be chirping in here. Do you make your own homemade tortilla chips? Cuz he's been making his homemade, like frying them up.
Yeah, he says it's next
William: level. It is next level. Cause like the timing of pulling out the chips and salting them. So I just go to the grocery store and I get the the little, like tiny. Six inch, seven inch, like taco tortillas. I prefer the flour. My wife prefers the corn tortillas. No flour. Tortilla guy.
Yeah. Yeah. Flour tortillas. And I just cut those into quarters. I cut it and it's literally like a stack of like a hundred tortillas. Cut 'em into quarters, throw that into 320 degree oil. Right on my countertop. They're done in three minutes, but the minute you pull them out and you salt them for some reason.
It's like perfection, man. And the chip is like a little heavier duty chip. You don't have any crumbles and it just gets just right. Like just right.
Byron Horton: Love it. Love it. And Dave and I also, [00:40:00] we need this take from you. Pulled pork sandwich or pulled pork nachos.
William: Oh, pulled pork nachos. My man, I'm so like, I.
I'm, I'd like to, so I run this is getting a little personal the Mondays and Sundays. I normally will cook like 20 chicken breasts on my smoker and I'll cook that and that's my meal all week. Chicken and rice, that's just, I'm I, my macros, I hid my targets. I'm good to go chicken and rice.
Then on Saturdays I have my one cheat meal like my, where I blow it all out last Saturday. Was full pork nachos, the queso that like, but like I don't wanna go out, like I don't wanna go waste like 50, 60 bucks on a meal. And like I know that I could have done it better. So making my own pico, I'm making my own queso, I'm making my own chips, smoking my pork, but it's literally perfection.
And it's like my Saturday project and pulled this all together. Oh my god, you cannot beat. Full pork nachos with the ho. Oh [00:41:00] yeah. Oh
Byron Horton: yeah. Okay. Crushed, dude. That is awesome. I'm really glad we brought that up. Oh William, wrapping this up. Where do, where can people find you and maybe some of the new gear items, when do you roughly expect them to maybe hit the website?
William: New gear. We're tentatively shooting for nine one. Nine one is that target date? Maybe 9 2 93. But like that, that those couple days sign up for our email. Sign up for our email. Sign up on social. I cannot, we go outta gear quick. We're not like we go outta gear quick and so get there. We will give advanced notice when this stuff is dropping so you can know cuz like I know there's already a waiting list for a lot of our win proof police and the T 1000 van that's just gonna happen.
And I think we even have a waiting list on the grid, please. But there's waiting lists already built up. So sign up, get advance notice, get in that queue as quickly as possible. And then fleet.com, ww.fleet.com. And yeah that's where we're at right now. I'm gonna do
Byron Horton: [00:42:00] Gabriel a solid the YouTube for Fleet Outdoors is actually really good.
It's a good, it's a good pace. It's well shot. There's like cinematic stuff, but then there's like really funny or like, how high can we climb with 10 climbing sticks videos? It's really, it's a good channel. So I would, if you're a YouTube guy, check out Outdoors on YouTube. Thank you guys. Thank, all right, William.
I'm gonna wrap up. Stay on the, here.
