In 1975, Steve and Nona Barker founded Eagle Creek in California’s San Jacinto Mountains to create high-quality travel gear. By the 1990s, Eagle Creek had become one of the premier adventure travel companies in the outdoor industry.

In 2007, VF (parent company of large brands like The North Face and JanSport), purchased Eagle Creek, expecting the brand to add $30 million in revenues that year. After Eagle Creek was acquired, it thrived for years. However, it eventually fell from its perch as a market leader, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, VF shuttered the company, saying it no longer made “strategic or financial sense” to continue operating the brand.

A few months later, Travis Campbell, VF’s former president of emerging brands, acquired Eagle Creek. Serving as its owner and CEO, he is now working to revive the brand. 

“I call this Eagle Creek 3.0,” says Campbell, referencing that he’s the third owner in the company’s history. “I really wanted to reposition it in the core adventure travel space, so that’s been our primary focus over the last couple of years.”

To return Eagle Creek to its former glory, Campbell is adjusting the product line, focusing on repair services, making operations more sustainable, and rebuilding the brand’s wholesale business.

Overhauling the Product Line

One reason for Eagle Creek’s decline is that the company lost its focus on serving its core customer base, says Campbell.

“The brand originally focused solely on the specific needs of adventure travelers around durability, versatility, and organization,” he says. “I felt it had lost some of that, and the product had become too homogenous.”

To get back on track, Eagle Creek pared its line to focus on adventure travelers’ needs. For example, it introduced a new version of the Tour Travel Pack, which addresses the trend toward big adventure trips that include several activities. This structured duffel bag has organizational compartments and comfortable shoulder straps you can stow when checking luggage onto a plane. With a nod to its core customers, Eagle Creek also continues to offer popular products like the ORV 2-Wheel Trunk, a bag large enough to support expeditions.

Repairs and Sustainability

While Eagle Creek is entering a new age, the company is holding fast to its traditions, including its dedication to repairing products. In Eagle Creek’s early days, Nona Barker—the company’s original seamstress—regularly repaired customers’ bags. Today, the company still offers its No Matter What Warranty and repairs thousands of bags yearly.

But Eagle Creek is taking repairs to a new level by outfitting bags with wheels that customers can easily replace themselves. “Every time somebody ships a bag to a repair center there’s a carbon footprint associated with that. If we can send somebody a wheel they can swap out, we’ve removed a ton of carbon from the supply chain, and that bag stays out of the landfill.”

The company has also reduced its carbon footprint by reducing the number of shipping containers it uses to convey products from Asia to the United States. By nesting products into larger ones—like putting bags and accessories into ORV bags—Eagle Creek has reduced the number of containers it uses by more than half.

Building the Wholesale Business

As Campbell improves operations and revamps the product line, he faces the added challenge of rebuilding Eagles Creek’s presence in outdoor specialty stores. When COVID-19 rocked the travel market, the brand lost its footing in the outdoor specialty channel. Even though the adventure travel market is recovering steadily, some specialty dealers are devoting less space to travel and offering smaller collections of products.

“The specialty channel hasn’t come back as fast as I’d hoped,” says Campbell. “We still think wholesale is incredibly important to our business, and our consumers are best served when they can touch and feel bags.”

To restore the outdoor specialty business, Eagle Creek reps are visiting stores and rebuilding relationships. “We’re really rerunning the playbook from Eagle Creek 30 years ago,” says Campbell. “Our reps are talking to retailers and trying to make sure they understand how much opportunity exists in travel.”

Eagle Creek Turns 50

One key to winning back dealers is reminding them of Eagle Creek’s long history in the outdoor industry. The company is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year and taking steps to remind dealers and consumers of Eagle Creek’s heritage.

The company is rolling out the Origin Series, a limited collection inspired by the Barkers’ original designs. Plus, the company is creating digital content that chronicles the Barkers’ early efforts to support the adventure travel community.

As Eagle Creek celebrates its past, Campbell also wants to share the company’s beliefs concerning the value of travel. “One of our big mantras internally is the world is a better place when people are out traveling,” he says. “Travel is fundamentally good for the world because, when you’re traveling, you quickly realize that the world’s much more similar than it is different.”

Trailheads: What was your most recent outdoor adventure?

Campbell: My wife and just did a little ski hut trip in the backcountry up near Cameron Pass. My last big adventure was a trip with my family where we went to Nepal and did a trek and explored, and that was really magical.

Trailheads: What is your bucket list outdoor adventure?

Campbell: A buddy up in Montana has a permit to float the middle fork of the Salmon River this coming September. So, we’re going to float the Middle Fork. As a family, we’ve floated the Main a couple of times, but I’ve never been able to draw a permit for the Middle Fork.