Kammock - moving people beyond a product into a deeper experience
Greg McEvilly, the founder of the outdoor adventure goods company, Kammock, has always been entrepreneurial. He's had this love for business and what business could be and also love for the Lord and for ministry.
However, growing up, he saw these as two diverging paths - a sacred versus secular path. If he really wanted to pursue his faith and love Jesus then he needed to sell everything and be in full-time ministry. So, he and his wife decided to sell everything, go to Bible College and not even going to look back at the secular path.
However, God started rekindling a passion for entrepreneurship and business and how business would be a way to live out his faith in a really incredible way and have a transforming impact on a broader scale. So he founded Kammok - an outdoor adventure brand purposed to equip and inspire people for the adventure of changing lives. They do that through high-quality outdoor products such as camping hammocks, sleeping bags, and new product lines to come. Gear that's really simple and intuitive to use that can be used in your back garden, even in your house, and then go with someone on their most epic adventures.
People find themselves in routines and that allows comfort to set in. So adventure is a catalyst to shake things up. In some ways, the antithesis of comfort. In the end, it proves to be a most worthwhile experience. Kammock want to encourage and use adventure very strategically to help produce something greater in people - humility, curiosity and wonder. A ministry that is equipping and inspiring and moving them on - the products are catalysts for creating that experience of a fuller and deeper life.
Greg says, "I love that in my work I'm not just in this bubble of faith and interacting with all these other people that are believe the same thing that I do or see the world the same way that I do. I think that being in the business environment just gives phenomenal opportunity to connect with a diverse group of people in ways that maybe an NGO or a faith-based organisation wouldn't be able to have. As a believer who is deeply passionate about ministry and thinking about how ministry is integrated into my work, I see them not as two separate things. I see them as all one. In the outdoor space, it's a very social space, people that are wanting to connect with a deeper meaning and purpose, and so we actually have something to share as to why we believe there is deeper meaning and purpose. We want to move people beyond the brand, beyond the physical products and into this deeper experience of adventure, community and love. Ultimately, my hope is, in those catalytic events, they would find the Lord."
Kammock also give 1% of their revenues each year to nonprofit partners, who are working to Give Adventure to deserving youth for long term, impactful change. Over the course of a 6-year program, teams of 5 mentors and 15 explorers, underserved youth from sixth to twelfth grade, embark on monthly Saturday adventures, undergo leadership training, team building, and develop skills that will be impactful for the rest of their lives.
See a short video here:
Retweet about this article:
Geoff Knott, 28/02/2017