Hang Time

If you want to put your feet (and the rest of you) up, Boulder's Trek Light Gear is just the ticket.

Courtesy Trek Light Gear

It’s called “hammock vision,” and it’s what happens when you start using a hammock. Suddenly, you can’t stop picturing other places to put it up: dorm rooms, porches, strung between your car roof rack and a tree. That’s the beauty of the products made by Trek Light Gear, says Heather Pallack, the company’s official “director of happiness.” The Boulder outfit, founded in 2003, goes by a simple slogan: “We’re here to make you happy.”

How it all began

“Seth Haber, who is still our CEO, moved to Colorado from Rhode Island,” says Pallack. “He was a weekend warrior, going camping and exploring because he hadn’t really seen much of Colorado before moving here. He was sleeping in a tent on the adventures and kept thinking, ‘There’s got to be a better way. I love these weekend trips, but I never really sleep well all weekend.’ So he started exploring hammock camping, which almost no one was doing at the time, and realized that sleeping off the ground is a much better method when you’re in the wilderness.”

What Trek Light makes

“We started with the double hammock, which is still our best-seller. Today the company makes the double hammock, the single hammock, and the compact hammock, but our brand has really changed into a lifestyle brand over the last few years and we’re far more than a hammock company. We also make blankets, apparel like hats and tee-shirts, accessories like key tags, magnets, and stickers, and bundles that include things like a hammock, mosquito net, and rain tarp.”

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How Trek Light inspires people

“Our hammocks are super easy to set up in just a couple of minutes, and hundreds of our customers have gotten rid of their beds and sleep in our hammocks full time indoors. It’s awesome. We have lots of amazing stories from customers who have had issues with insomnia or snoring and say our hammocks have completely changed their lives. And almost from the beginning, before social media, Seth would get photos from customers showing them in their hammocks. We’ve even heard from students who have started hammock clubs at colleges, as well as couples who have gotten engaged in one of our hammocks.”

Trek Light Gear
Maker of hammocks and other outdoor gear
1925 33rd St., Boulder