Badger Tool Belts
OUR
BADGER
STORY
If you’ve got a few minutes, let's talk Badger origin story! I've been asked several times about where this all started and how I came to be making tool belts. Aside from making a duffle bag in middle school home economics class (oh, and poorly made beer coaster print curtains for a 1978 Datsun 200B station wagon I camped in down under for several months), I didn't touch a sewing machine until I was well into my 30s. That was when the opportunity to quit my job and work from home with my partner came about. She was struggling to keep up with demand for tool belts and I hated my job. So, we spent the next several years making Diamondbacks in our spare room and garage. And we were very proud of what we were turning out every day, and to carry on the founder's, Jim Skelton, tradition of a home based business making the best tool belts you could get your hands on.
To cut to it, we split up. She moved back up to Alaska with the company. Without the means or opportunity to purchase the business when she closed up and put it up for sale, I began the long process of putting a start-up together. Although I'd have no name recognition, I would have something I'd always wanted; control over new designs and the ability to provide quality custom gear to discerning customers. From years of customer critiques and the ideas I'd been compiling, Badgers were born. Although I learned to sew during my DB years, this is the first opportunity I've had to express myself through my product, except for the rare side project. And it's been so much more rewarding. Many of the same innovations initially added to Badgers have now become more common in the industry. Cobra buckles are the best I could find when we first started searching for a replacement to the antiquated slide buckle that we used to use. They are now seen more and more on tool belts. And if SuperFabric can make its way into more chisel pouches around the world, that's a win. Haven't had a single complaint about that amazing stuff since day one. Both those products seem custom made for tool belts but had not been seen on them before Badger introduced them. Upgrades like that just make the industry baseline higher. We are proud to play a part in that. And we will continue to evolve as best as we can.
