EP 201 - Cirq Trekking Pole Tent: Product Deep Dive

[00:00:00] Tayson: Everybody, welcome back to the Live Ultralight Podcast, powered by Outdoor Vitals. Today, in this episode, we're going to be talking about a brand new tent that we're bringing to Market and releasing, and I'm super excited about it. These are some of our most listened to podcasts. You guys love to get into the the Deep dive and the details of product design, and really understanding products and we love talking about it. So, today on the podcast again, we've got Brigham here or lead product designer. And our only product designer. I don't know what lead the man, whatever. Which by the way, hopefully, that will change in the next year, which will be cool to bring some

[00:00:37] Tayson: more talent in, but I'm really excited to be releasing this piece. And yeah, are we doing today? Brigham?

[00:00:46] Brigham: doing well, that's It's a nice February spring day. Didn't have the wagon April staring there. 16, you know, 60 something degrees and we had snow a week ago, we had yeah, winter last week and then Came and

[00:01:04] Tayson: came and went. So it's yeah, I hope we get a little more free home. Hope the little bit more comes in before. It's While I was really loud. Scratch that. But I hope we get a little more snow before. It's all said and done. We'll see but you know, today, we're talking about a release though of a new tent called the Cirq and it's gonna be released in a one person right now and Man, it's an interesting tent for sure. I'm super excited about it. This is, we've kind of ramped into leading up to the launch here and looking back at everything that's gone into the design, using the tent for

[00:01:49] Brigham: A couple of years now really.

[00:01:52] Tayson: I'm really, really excited about this. 10 to get it in people's hands. So let's start at the beginning, what made us, you know, wanted to develop a new tent and what were the hopes that we had? Those would be able to solve by by developing this tent. Well.

[00:02:11] Brigham: Like like a lot of new products or kind of the impetus around developing any product or updating a product or anything. It's just about you know, trying to Find things that. we want to improve or address or take a different angle on to provide a better better experienced, you know, whatever the product is, and I put the tent specifically you know, some of the things that we we wanted to to to offer to really you know kind of Step Up our game or offer as a better new option for the users is a lot of it is centered around, just like the overall tent experience of You know, Comfort ease of use. Simplicity like how

[00:02:59] Brigham: easy it is to set up, how easy it is to get in and out. And yeah, kind of just that whole livability and the usability of a tent. And then, on the Comfort side, you know, there's there's some other things just, you know, how much room is inside the tent, how the what's the Environmental Quality inside the 10? Meaning like what's the air conditioning like? and so, Because you spend, you know, while you do spend most of your time in a tents sleeping. Like that's sleep is that's, that's important. So yeah, a lot of what we focused on was just kind of the livability. It just improving the, the user experience with the tent. Well,

[00:03:49] Tayson: like I think at its core ride, a tent, is there to to Aid in the Sleep experience. But it's also your last line of defense per se out in the wilderness. Sometimes we've had a few experiences where it's like, Yeah, if I didn't have this tearing now like this could get ugly fast, this could get, you know, like you're basically trying to escape the Wilderness at that point versus thrive in it. It's it's it is your shelter, right? So, There's there's some aspects of that and we'll get into some of those, you know, storm, worthiness aspects, later on, in this podcast. But maybe let's also just start with the fact that this is a trekking

[00:04:28] Tayson: pole style tent and we've had trekking pole style tents in the past and I don't know about you, like the best way to say this. But once you've gone to a trekking-pole-style tent, And even able to condense, your shelter system to that small in your pack and you just have everything. Be that like, wait level dropped to that level of weight dropped out level of packability. It's like that's where like the new standard kind of gets set. And and so for us, you know we really enjoy trekking-pole-style shelters, but there can be Some downsides. And so maybe, let's just talk about some of the, the cons that we see in general,

[00:05:09] Tayson: with trekking-pole tents and what we, you know, to, like, lay out, like, what are we want, why did we want to produce what we did? What were those points that we're trying to improve upon, you know, you know, I kind of already touched on one, which is storm worthiness Not all tents are created equally whether they're trekking, pull tents or pulled tents or any tent storm worthiness is a factor. And one of the things though is not always, just can this tent, like survive, a storm. But are you thriving in it? Meaning is the tenth like, collapsing, onto your face collapsing, onto your feet is everything getting pushed in. You know, to

[00:05:48] Tayson: a point where there's no livable space anymore and then obviously is the tenth can a survive. The storm and storm for us can mean I know I personally had some of these out and 50 mile an hour winds you know, in way deep into the Wilderness where that's that's what was getting thrown at me for that day. And Attended to survive some pretty extreme situations. So that's one aspect, I think of trekking Pole. Sorry just tents in general, that we wanted to make sure was confronted. A lot of these trekking pole style tents. Also, you're dealing with single walled shelters. So that's just, I'll just say 10 in general, they're single wall. Type shelters, the

[00:06:31] Tayson: pros of that are that they're extremely like, but condensation can be an issue and trying to just make sure that you're not getting any moisture onto your gear onto the into the stuff in the contents inside. So, that's that's an area we had outlined on the design docket any other major points you want to point out that like we started off this project saying, like, well,

Editor’s note: The shelter, storm-worthiness, 50 mph wind, survival, precipitation, and condensation discussion reflects March 2026 design goals and personal field experience. Site selection, pitch, stakes, soil, exposure, and weather can materially change shelter performance.

[00:06:56] Brigham: yeah, I mean I would say Everything we wanted to address. Those are and it If I try to break it down. One is. They're based on common. Either frustrations among people that use trekking pole tents, that spend many days a year out on the trail or in back country or whatever. There's some common. I don't know if you call them pain points, common pain points are Condensation, that's one. And and the reality of condensation is, you cannot out design condensation. There's no tent on the market. There's, there's no nothing, there's nothing that can just wipe away the conditions that create condensation, but trying to address it and do what we can to reduce it and

[00:07:51] Brigham: mitigate it. And just make the experience with the tent, if there is the, you know, environmental conditions that can produce condensation. Then we want it to handle that, as best as we can. So condensation is one. Another one is kind of the confinement within a tenth or the Restriction of space. and when you combine that with condensation, that creates the the other big pain point when a tent is trying so hard to save weight and space that you can barely move around within the tent or take your shirt off and your brushing up against condensation or a little bit of wind blows. And now you have wet fabric hitting the top of your head or the

[00:08:38] Brigham: top of your sleeping bag, or the end of your sleeping bag and your feet. and so, there's Those are some. Significant pain points just with the livability of a tent. So when you either condensation and or just the Restriction of space being a little too tightly dimensioned inside a tent is one and then, Other pain points with trekking, pole, tents can be what I've I've kind of been referring to as like a fiddle factor. I didn't come up with that term buddy of ours that you know. We do a lot of backpacking with he tests a lot of our products Devin. He texted me that term one time when he was testing prototypes this tent

[00:09:26] Brigham: and that was the term is the term. But what if what it means is something that we were trying to address and that fiddle factor is with trekking pole tents they can be a pain point where the design of attempt to so complex or it's unfamiliar so that you set it up and you're not sure what goes where what lines to stake out first and then when you do it's takes like a bunch of attempts of retention this and resting this line to to fiddle around with getting the the pitch, right? And so Really wanted to like reduce that as much as possible. So we wanted to kind of eliminate, the fiddle factor we want.

[00:10:06] Brigham: We want to address the pain point of just set up having an easy to set up tent with you know, that you were able to acquire a good pitch really quickly with You know, as few Stakes as possible. And so I think those are like some of the major The major pain points that we wanted to address. In terms of you know just broad use General trekking, pole use those are common ailments that the people experience.

[00:10:38] Tayson: Yeah. Okay, so that's kind of the backdrop here. That we want to things, we want to address things, we want to solve and improve upon. We started this project off. A long time ago. Fact, I think I was just looking at some videos where I had it out on trail. I mean, essentially two years back now

[00:11:02] Brigham: so something close to at least. Yeah. At least two years for sure.

[00:11:06] Tayson: Uh-huh. So lock me through kind of, I mean, we went to a lot of prototypes, we took some things too far to, you know, went this direction, move things back. But for you, if you can think back to some like the very first prototypes, Um you know what? What are we I guess learn along this process and what can we talk about that that helps explain some of the things that we really like dialed in? I guess as we as we work through this

[00:11:36] Brigham: Yeah. yeah, the there's the very first prototype and the final product that they're quite similar but there's there's a lot of tiny little Nuance changes here and there that make them, you know, significantly different in terms in terms of like The amount of attention to detail in certain areas that had to go through multiple iterations and of where we are. But but that being said, like, we we got Made a lot of progress, just with prototype number one and and kind of feel like there's a lot of things that we have in the right direction. One of those was the ease of pitch. So, in in, Designing the tent. kind of, Didn't just look at.

[00:12:31] Brigham: Kind of stake out points, guylines and catenary cuts on on the edges of the tent. All those things are must be done in order to have like kind of a know fiddle factor or set up but um, went through a lot of kind of Or gave a lot of attention to actually. Creating specific geometry for every single sewing line. So every single if you have two pattern pieces or two panel pieces that come together, Playing with and and like iterating, very specific curvature of the edges of those two seams that are sewn together and not necessarily. Having the geometry of one match the other. so, that was a, that took a lot of a lot

[00:13:26] Brigham: of work and kind of trial and error. To get it to where we want. So essentially Yeah. Putting very specific attention to Everywhere, any kind of sewing occurs and seam lines are brought together and creating very specific geometry. For each. One of those kind of panel lines. And when what that does is when it allows the tent to set up and kind of create even tension everywhere so that Once you've staked it out where it's supposed to be staked out which is basically only six points everything's pulling evenly and and really, you can kind of get to like 90% of where you want to be with just those first six Stakes, right? Where you stake

[00:14:16] Brigham: them into the ground and then putting a little tension onto each line and that was kind of like the first The first major obstacle is, is getting to where we had. Most of that accomplished as soon as possible.

[00:14:31] Tayson: And let me just like take that a step lower for people that might not understand like what a catenary cut is or things like that. But a catenary cut is if you're to picture the bottom of a tent like just fabric, let's say and you're to drop point from one state to the other like and you have a perfectly straight line. Or just be a straight cut, right? A catenary cut means it's going to curve up a little bit in the middle. So you essentially have a little bit of a raise in the middle and that catenary cut by doing that at To pull things taut and tension as things stretch a little bit and

[00:15:04] Tayson: and settle. And so if I'm understanding you correctly Brigham not only did we have, you know, the catenary cuts on like the visible areas but in a lot of these other areas you are working very closely to make sure that all of these areas where they're sewn together. Also use some of that kind of similar geometry geometry to make it just as the lowest fiddle factor and easiest quickest pitch.

[00:15:27] Brigham: Yeah, so if you were to dissect this tent and lay out the pieces, You, there would be very few straight lines that you would find, basically the edges of every piece. Of fabric that becomes sewn together to create the shape of the 10th there. They're curved and they have a very specific amount of curvature on each one of those things and not any none of them are the same amount of curvatures. So yeah it really just helps things kind of pull. Pull tight. And yeah, just get a nice structure pretty quickly, okay?

[00:16:03] Tayson: So that's one thing we dressed in these going through these products and dialing in. And I know that was As a big time like a tile like like as far as the design time you put into this and hours and hours like dialing that in his death Factor. Yeah. Yeah, what else? What else were some?

Editor’s note: The roughly two-year development period, six-stake pitch, catenary cuts, seam geometry, ease-of-pitch, and “90%” comments are March 2026 design and testing claims, not guarantees for every site or user.

[00:16:21] Brigham: yeah, one of the We? You know, some of the things that evolved throughout each prototype, um, you know, was making the bathtub for Toler. So we, we made the bathtub floor. I think it started out at about six inches tall and it's eight inches tall, so increasing the height of the bathtub floor. Things like how much the the fly kind of extends beyond the inner tent body, which is like the bathtub floor. You can kind of think of that as the footprint of the inner tent body. yeah, and then And that essentially kind of where to there would be the outside fly extending over How It Ends and all so how the bathtub floor

[00:17:12] Brigham: ends. and I know he's like, one of the goals and the things that we dialed in and worked on was getting more head and foot room and kind of getting a more vertical. Vertical n per se, it's not coming right down and touching your toes or touch you like that. Where it's it's ending with with a good amount of height on the ends. Yeah, yeah. And as I kind of think the server is probably, I'm probably kind of if I think in things of think of things in terms of, like, the category of what we're trying to address like with pitching, it was a lot of the kind of the, the pattern shaping and the,

[00:17:47] Brigham: and how it's sewn together. Some curvature, things like that. I'll probably probably best to include right now with the pitching. Everything we did with the tent geometry to get a good pitch. The other main factor to include their is is the fabric. So so adding adding a fabric that Would. Essentially maintain high levels of strength and durability and terms of like tearing strength and wind performance. But one that would Stretch or sag less than 100% nylon. There's there's many fabrics and I can probably go into it now. So the very, very first prototype we made was using Ultra TNT fabric that is the fabric that you know, absorbs zero water and has zero stretch whatsoever.

[00:18:39] Brigham: And in those two performance metrics it, it does those performs those functions very well. What it doesn't perform well is in terms of tear resistance. Puncture resistance and things like that, that doesn't mean to say that we couldn't have. Gone forward with that, and designed around that. But the, it was not worth the effort in terms of what the, you know, pros and cons. it's barely barely lighter than like even the standard nylon fabric of, you know, say like a 15D kind of weight category but Anyway, what we what? We tried that in terms of pitching and water, you know, reducing sag and stretch. And we we actually made a multiple prototypes to using

[00:19:31] Brigham: that. he can go into that later in terms of in terms of fabric but but Ultra TNT, it had some some interesting benefits but the the disadvantages outweigh the advantages ultimately in terms of the tent, it's also much more expensive but it really doesn't give any advantage other than not stretching. So, What we did is. Kind of wanted to sell because we really liked the the durability aspect. The tear resistance aspect of of using a nylon Fabric and and not having to go to a heavier fabric just to you know, a heavier Fabric and say like 100% polyester just to maintain. The durability and tear resistance levels of a lighter weight. Nylon fabric. So we

[00:20:26] Brigham: we talked to fabric mills and and got a fabric to to make a fabric for us. That had a ripstop element that used, you know, a much thicker polyester yarn in the ripstop as part of the ripstop element of the fabric while maintaining a 15D nylon base fabric. So essentially the Ripstop Yarns, they're a 50D yarn versus a 15D. And so there it's a much thicker yarn and then we did a triple by double ripstop. So it's One Direction that's a triple ripstop in the other direction. It's a double ripstop. and then that, what that does is because those polyester Yarns, they won't absorb any water, they won't stretch And we can

[00:21:17] Brigham: maintain a lot of the Stitch line durability that we that we see in a 15D nylon Fabric. And then, if any moisture prolonged rain condensation, you know, that that fabric is going to stretch way less than a nylon fabric. Because essentially kind of like that that grid of polyester Yarns is just holding everything in place and preventing it from from really stretching. And so we we developed that fabric with the Fabric Mill and then That's kind of what falls under like the, the pitching category of what we want to improve. So by going with this fabric that sags way less absorbs, much less water and terms of Water that will affect fabric stretch while maintaining,

[00:22:06] Brigham: you know, essentially equal durability to like a 15D, 100% nylon fabric. Okay, so

Editor’s note: The 8-inch bathtub, fly coverage, Ultra TNT, 15D nylon, 50D polyester ripstop yarns, triple-by-double grid, water absorption, sag, strength, and durability comparisons are historical March 2026 product claims. Verify current construction and specifications.

[00:22:14] Tayson: I'm just gonna ask this question. I mean, you've had this discussion a lot but I think it's valuable to everyone else. Why not just use 100% polyester. Um, because that's there's different people moving that direction. Yeah. And it's becoming. So why was it not just say why are we making a custom fabric when I just use 100% polyester? Fabric

[00:22:33] Brigham: sure. Um because I Molecularly. Mechanically functionally. A polyester molecule is not as strong as a nylon molecule. So the structure doesn't like the structure is what it is and what makes you know the arrangement of those molecules one stronger than the other the bond stronger than the other that that there's no manipulating that. and so, however, by including some polyester in the Yarns that are going to kind of essentially be pulled on in terms of if it does absorb water, what might stretch You can introduce some polyester Yarns especially. At a thickness. That's three times. The thickness of the nylon Yarns that are woven So kind of holds the shape together while maintaining virtually the

[00:23:34] Brigham: same amount of tear resistance that would come from an equivalently weighted nylon fabric. So that's, that's why it's a, it's a durability, it's a tear resistance. It's a, you know, a stitch hole isolated location, tear resistance, issue, that we prefer nylon. And, you know, as just higher durability levels there. um, but there's definitely advantages to be had by using polyester, to mitigate Water absorption and stretch. So um one last question on Fabrics, just because

[00:24:10] Tayson: I want everyone to understand like the extent that we were looking at ever turning over every rock, you know? Did we consider a Dyneema? yeah, we we made prototypes with Dyneema

[00:24:22] Brigham: And that's not like, it's not a closed door. We're not, we're not. It does this know. Good. Closed doors. So we did prototype tents in dyneema. Again, Dyneema has amazing qualities. And very few, downsides. But the major downside is just that it is very expensive. It's easy to look at what you might see on a forum or YouTube. That's really a drop in the bucket compared to the reality of what people are actually using out there and are just Willing to pay for. So, it may seem like You're not worth your salt as a Backpacker. If you don't use Dyneema fabric because your base weight is 10.2 pounds and someone else's 8.7. Because you chose

[00:25:20] Brigham: to not spend dollars on. certain materials, but it is it's very significant and Like I said, we're not closing the door on dyneema. But to introduce a tenth and a tent that does with this one, does at the complexity level in terms of the design. At this point, it was not worth the, the significant, you know, disadvantage that, that is related to cost with Dyneema. So, I mean, it's just incredibly expensive. So I will add

[00:25:57] Tayson: in here to, like you said this all the time that with any single choice and design process, there are pros and their cons. You're, it's a trade-off game, right? You can fix this but it might affect this. And so on so forth with that cost, is the number one factor. I will just say this personally

[00:26:13] Brigham: There's some other little ones that are

[00:26:14] Tayson: like, maybe preferential such as like how crinkly it is or for me. the noise factor. It affects my sleep. I'm not saying I will not use a Dyneema, there's pros to it. Like, like I said, it's not closed door for us, but I think the idea that like Dyneema like is only pros and zero cons is something that is worth, really looking at, because I think he'll find that there is Pros and cons to every single design Choice. Yeah,

[00:26:40] Brigham: yeah. And it follow up like you said, I always say this, you know, about pros and cons compromises. Everything has a compromise and you know, really to To. To to almost like go all in on any single variable. In our gear choices is really doing anybody a disservice. So if if we just say that Fabric weight is the number one priority. Then we're compromising a lot of things and we're limiting ourselves to what otherwise could be a better option. So just a little bit of a little bit of advice there, you know, with, with gear choices. Design choices. Lots choices. if we single out a single variable and base a choice on that, Probably not.

[00:27:35] Brigham: Going to turn out, you know, as well as we'd like doesn't help the whole

Editor’s note: The nylon, polyester, Dyneema, tear, puncture, noise, stretch, weight, durability, and cost discussion reflects March 2026 design interpretation and prototypes rather than independent comparative laboratory testing.

[00:27:39] Brigham: package.

[00:27:39] Tayson: So all right, so we looked at these fabrics and fabrics. We got on the fabric topic when we were talking about the pitch ability aspect, right? So having this custom developed fabric that we that we have now, it allows us to get that. That structure aspect better, whether you're in high humidity environments or getting rain on the tent or condensation, whatever it is, it allows it to pitch easier and hold its shape significantly better than nylon options. If on the pitch ability side to talk about kind of the pattern pieces of cuts themselves, we talked about the fabric, Painting else with. Ease of pitch side of it, I guess you could say.

[00:28:23] Brigham: Um, just kind of some things that we we do is these tents come with, essentially all guylines included and so, Specifically with, you know, the Stakeout points, like the lines that are used to to stake out the corners. Like I said this tent, minimum stake uses six. So it takes six stakes to pitch, and you can get by in many, many

[00:28:52] Tayson: conditions with just those six stakes with just those six stakes.

[00:28:55] Brigham: And that was, that was important. But we make each one of those lines. So at any stake point, it's a it's a Dyneema-core polyester-sheath line that has A line lock tensioner. So every single line is adjustable but we make those about 18 inches long, and that's for just versatility in where you end up, wherever you are having the ability to adjust the length of each corner, or any stake point to suit, whatever the ground conditions are that we just found so many. So many times that that is so advantageous. And so you know, when we look at the whole, the tent as a whole, you know, we're including very generously, you know, size

[00:29:41] Brigham: stake lines and guylines. Because we want to just set the 10th up for Success without having to quote accessorize the tent or really you know, pay a significant extra to make the tent, you know, usable in most conditions. SO pitching that really helps to have the long lines and then we added. Another thing we did is we have so this this is a trekking, pole tent it has a front pole and a back pull. And then on the outside of the tent that each Peak where those pole pockets are there's an external guyline that that you Could connect to the the main front and back stake points as well. Or you can or stuff, run

[00:30:21] Brigham: a separate stake, even farther away from the tent for an even like more Rock Solid pitch. But that really helps in kind of tensioning. The roofline And really kind of anchoring those poles down really well.

[00:30:36] Tayson: Yeah, that's came in. Huge handy for me and some situation, some crazy situations for sure. And so those are really handy options, but I also want to back up just to simplify or like like paint the picture here of like, why we have those longer stake Point guylines with the trekking pole tent? Like, you can't just skip one steak and have the structure work anymore. You've got to get stakes in the ground at every point and sometimes like, how many times have you gone to put a stake in the ground? And there's a rock or there's, you know, something obtrusive there or maybe you've got like a whole or maybe you've got just loose ground

[00:31:15] Tayson: and you need to get some more solid ground. And so that 18 inches, if you can kind of think of like being able to Pivot that a little bit that gives you a very big. You know, I want to say square footage but maybe that's too big. But a big area to be able to get a stake in the ground and maintain that structure. And so we found that that is immensely valuable. So just kind of that that's like what, he's what Brigham you're really talking about is just like, how many times you got to put a stake in the ground? It's like gosh, there's a rock right here. Anyway, I do and you get

[00:31:42] Tayson: in that buying, you know, this really confronts that head on him before you get into that situation. So

[00:31:47] Brigham: yeah, because what trekking-pole tent, Compromise, you can't pick it up and move it, right? Like you can't set up a trekking-pole tent and then just pick it up and move it you know seven and a half inches to the left to avoid a root or a rock. Um so it those are just things that we just threw just tons of doing it out there. You know, in the field that it's just so worth having the versatility into the tent.

[00:32:12] Tayson: Yep. Okay. So that was a big design factor. Something we wanted to address. And I would, I mean just to comment on that really quick. It is it's much faster to pitch. It's much easier to pitch. It's easier for people that have never pitched a trekking Pole to set up and get tensioned right? And not have folds in the fabric or or things like that, and I will also say this particular design works really well. Even on uneven ground. I think that the way that the fly is where it sits. Maybe the catenary cuts, just all that mixed in like, There's definitely, there's some issues out there with with some tents where if it's on

[00:32:52] Tayson: uneven ground, it becomes a big fight, big battle. And I'm not saying that like a little bit of advanced pitching help isn't isn't helpful but like I think you're gonna you're gonna find that this does really well in those categories. So yeah, pretty forgiving, you What about maybe this is good time to just like when we're just talking about the pitch on that but we'll talk about little space for that, so sure. um, I guess, I mean

Editor’s note: The included guylines, six-stake minimum, roughly 18-inch stake lines, peak guylines, uneven-ground pitch, speed, stability, and field-use comments are historical March 2026 claims. Carry stakes and anchors appropriate to the site and expected weather.

[00:33:22] Brigham: for a physical, that's really most of what we put our attention and effort into, then we, you know what comes to, Let's just say I'll just use condensation is just this overall air quality air condition of the the tent itself. Because that's, that's a that really is a huge Comfort issue. And and what's interesting is At first. When we, when we made the first kind of design and first prototype of the tent, the pitch actually came back really well. I was actually that very first prototype that Devin sent me a text and he's like, dude, 0 factor. And so that was great. That was great to hear, but the other thing we were trying to

[00:34:05] Brigham: address that tent at that time with condensation was well to help mitigate condensation, you know? Airflow is a big factor, the ability for air to move that anytime air moves. You know it pulls it, pulls heat or it moves heat away from certain objects and it just it makes it harder for water vapor to condense. And so really what we did a first was just think well what if we make the tent a little bit taller and raise the edges of the fly off the ground a little bit more. So there's just all around more room for air to come in and come and go out and move around. and then, We did that and

[00:34:54] Brigham: I would say it was it was fine. but I, I kind of Did not feel like that was. Significant enough that you could like, like noticeably tell something, you know,

[00:35:10] Tayson: I mean from one trip to another and what you mean by that too, is we say, we raise those edges and the easiest way to visually be looking at right now is to look at the back side of the tent. We raise that vestibule height up as well as all the edges. But like, but yeah, we raise that back side up and I would say, like, testing some of those. It was an impressive amount of reduction like a really impressed because because I'm not taking a like the back vestibule, or back fly all the way to the ground. You're essentially like scooping all that are so much easier um and and you're getting more passed

[00:35:52] Tayson: through of air within the tent and that's that is a factor that we tried on the very first one and it was impressive and so I end up keeping it but we did it just the amount of height play this in different heights of that because we did you know just like with anything you want to cut it too far and then decide where too far isn't. Back it up to where that sweet spot is and and we we did that. But I noticed the significant reduction in condensation, just from the back vent, or the back fly. And that positioning, and how much that allows air to circulate in. And that's not to say

[00:36:23] Tayson: that it's like straight up Breezy in the tent, by any means. I don't get that factor and we, we also have different Fabrics in the bathtub floor. And you can look at that to, to see that. Like it's not one solid piece of mesh. Either for that factor for privacy factors and and like, clean pasture or even or even like splashing of rain or something like that, if it was to happen. But I would say that was a, that really did significantly reduce some things, but we we went stop there either. So yeah, I think

[00:36:55] Brigham: he was just at some point, you know, after spending some time and having some other people. you know, do some field testing in that first prototype by Like, I kind of, I wanted to push that. the ventilation a little bit more and my, my very It's hard to sometimes, put thoughts out of your mind that are almost standardized. So if you look at most most times whether they're freestanding, summer free, standing, trekking-pole tent. Standard vent. Like, if I say what's standard a standard vent, in most tents, like, most people are gonna picture, probably the same thing. I'm going to picture. You're gonna picture kind of event that is triangular shaped. It's towards the peak of

[00:37:42] Brigham: a trekking, pole tent. There's a little prop rod and under that prop rod. There's a void in the fabric And that's in the vestibule and then you know and then there's maybe if one might be significantly ventilated. There's there's a matching or an opposing one on the back side or the back vestibule of the tent. And like when I thought of that, I just felt like, you know what, I don't actually feel like those, you know. They they help but I kind of wanted to like think a little bit more outside the box and think a little bit grander scale in terms of, you know. Okay. That You know, having spent time in intense a

[00:38:27] Brigham: lot, you know, it's crazy how we've talked about in windy weather, just getting in the tent, you feel so much warmer just because of that. And this this could be our first prototype tent. Like if it's really windy outside with how even with how how high that fly sits off the ground. Like you could get in there and immediately feel a little bit safer warmer and protective from bad weather because Even the tent body. And even the mesh slows down wind, it really does. So You know, thinking about wind needing to, you know, pass under the vestibule or you know, go through a little triangular hole towards the top of a vestibule. And then

[00:39:13] Brigham: counting on all of that. After it passes through, this big panel of vertical mesh, that's the inner tent body. And, and yeah, I guess I just Thought. like start kind of asking some what if questions and and really where it was is like what if what if we put the vents So, the vents are directly in the tent body. So, Like I said, this is a single single wall trekking pole shelter. So the vestibules are technically a double wall because the the fly extends away from the tent Stakes into the ground. You zip that open and then you again have to zip all open, another wall. That's made of no-see-um mesh to get

[00:39:57] Brigham: into the fully enclosed tent. Buddy, that's where we sleep, but the roof of that tent is a single wall. So I thought, well what if, what if we put vents right in the roof of the tent? So the air You know, one less. So there will be one less layer and space. There's very little space for are. So if there's a vent built directly into the, the roof of the tent, the air is going right through that single layer and it's going right into the inner tent body. So yeah, I had the idea to just play around with. How could I just make a vent that spans the full width of the roof? and then

[00:40:44] Brigham: do that on both sides and I started kind of thinking about square inches like what kind of square inches is that versus, you know, To versus like a triangular Peak vent or vestibule vestibule vent. Like, you would have to make a vestibule vent, almost half the size of the vestibule itself, like, coming down to two, to get the same square inch number as We could by just making a direct roof vent that spans the full width front to back of the fly on both sides. And so the square inches of ventilation space, massive. So I yeah, essentially, I drew up the design for that and that was implemented into the second prototype. and, and when

[00:41:35] Brigham: we got that, it wasn't perfect, but it was very encouraging because I actually Seeing it on a prototype. They would like it basically was like a confirmation like, wow. This this concept. Could work 100% could work. And so really, From there. We, we fell like, we just able to notice and see, like, how there's just such a massive introduction of airflow because it's at the highest point of the tent. So when that, you know, four feet above the ground, is going to be moving faster than the wind, two inches of the ground. You know, so catching the most win and directing that, that air flow directly into the tent body from either direction

[00:42:23] Tayson: from her Direction. I Would honestly say yes. So, he's got us tools front and rear and then, and that's those are capturing more air, potentially letting more air in the front back. Yeah, I have on the front back. Got two full width set and like,

[00:42:38] Brigham: you know, like in a house, right? If you just open one window. it'll start letting in a little bit of wind or air, right, but if you go to the other side of the house and you open, a similarly sized window, then it will You gotta at least double the amount of airflow. So now you open a window on the front and back of the house too. Now you've got Is it like loosens up the the pressure inside and just allows significantly amount more airflow.

[00:43:07] Tayson: So or if you're catching wind on a specific side or even on a slight angle between it all, it gives it somewhere ability to scoop and pass through.

[00:43:16] Brigham: Yeah. And so, the other thing I did, I started looking kind of looking at like HVAC system schematics and some of the just Like any HVAC Engineers gonna kind of probably scoff at what I'm really getting at. But like essentially there are these engineering principles that That you can base airflow by putting a vent at the top of the, you know, at the ceiling in a room. And if you look at a lot of houses, that's how it's efficiently done. They'll put Vents on the ceiling. At certain points in any given room and that. The placement of those will facilitate. Just this movement of air. And so that that was kind of like a little

[00:44:08] Brigham: bit of inspiration in terms of this design concept for for our ventilation system and realizing that. Yeah. When air comes in, you know, it's coming in at the Apex of a kind of like a triangle. That's the roof line of the tent. And so, having a matching vent on the opposite side allows air as it comes through to potentially As it comes through one side, it can draw are up and then out to the other side, but it'll also force a little bit of air to hit the other side. The other wall of the roof and direct air down and then it creates a circulation of airflow.

[00:44:53] Tayson: And maybe a little quick example of what you're referring to is. Many of you guys have sleeping pads and a lot of those pads come with those big Drive-In things that you blow into and then you push that air into your sleeping pad. I'm thinking about how much more efficient it is, instead of putting your mouth right on the pad and blowing and it's like a one-to-one ratio of every every breath goes straight into the pad. When you blow into that bigger objective, it sucks and pulls in air from surrounding and pushes it into that airbag. So you're creating like a draft situation and it's all pulling in there. And so, one breath can fill

[00:45:28] Tayson: this massive space, you know, and then you push that in. And so it's kind of similar situation where we're pulling and drawing air into there. It's circulating all of the air for top to bottom and and just creating more to movement of air in there. Yeah. Um

[00:45:42] Brigham: anyway, without getting too too. In-depth in Longwood at about the ventilation system, we saw a lot of Promise in this and so until Development was done. You know, we continue to refine the shape, the geometry, the closure, just to make sure that you know, it sets up easily and nicely and is in his stable. And so it's it's a really cool. feature of the 10th that it's kind of fun to talk about. It's just it's been it's been great like it's it absolutely works. um as a word it's like an exciting thing to talk about and I don't want to like I really don't want to oversell it or over blow it but like it's

[00:46:31] Brigham: it works. It's it's cool. Big factor

Editor’s note: The raised fly edges, full-width roof vents, opposing airflow, condensation reduction, HVAC analogy, and ventilation-performance comments are March 2026 design and field observations. Ventilation can reduce but cannot eliminate condensation.

[00:46:33] Tayson: in different tents. I've literally like, been in like the most the most humid of environments at times and I've I've literally just had like water dripping onto my on to me like on my face area that was like the worst of the worst that I've ever experienced and so it is it is a factor to be aware of and condensation management and any tent double wall, single wall, any, any tent Brigham do you know what? The, I don't know if this is a measurement that we've like, technically measured or that we list But do you know, roughly, like how high any of the edges are around the tent?

[00:47:14] Brigham: I can't remember the exact number and it was it's different. No on whether it's the ends or the front vestibule or the rear overhang He's one of them is different so

[00:47:25] Tayson: it's back overhang is definitely in the front. That's the old. Did we raise the front vestibule? Yeah, to previous it's a little bit taller. Yeah, I mean it's all in the net. The ends one of the goals at the ends is that we were kind of How to say this in the right way but the end of the tent fabric there was more there was a more significant height. Their meaningless like a fire. Another trekking-pole tent, you might like where the fabric ends. If you were to measure from there to the ground, it might be five inches or something like that. Whereas on this tent it's almost like where that where that fabric

[00:47:56] Tayson: ends, it might be eight to 10 inches of drop or something, from the end of the fabric to the ground. And so that was a factor that we that we worked on and that kind of leads us into also the internal space. Yeah. But raising all of those edges is also a part of just that the vent system, the big ends up top, you get the vents on the you got, you got the increase there now I guess, before we move off this, though. What do you say to someone who's like whoa, that's sounds too vented for me. That's sounds like like it's it's gonna be blown outside. It's going to be blowing inside my

[00:48:29] Tayson: tent too. You know? Like

[00:48:30] Brigham: yeah I mean it's I am like I have said and it's never not going to be true. Like everything has a compromise. Absolutely, there could be conditions where that could be too much ventilation for somebody wherever they are, whatever they're doing. Absolutely. We just have you know we just haven't found that to be the case in in our experience or others experience and so like again, I it's We designed the tent to accomplish these things, while maintaining the ability to be a very safe and secure shelter from precipitation. It accomplishes that. Now I was just saying this the other day, like, could we have had the fly extend all the way to the ground. Absolutely.

[00:49:25] Brigham: like, That's a decision that also has a compromised and that compromises in that case would be very poor airflow and a very heightened propensity for condensation to to exist. So, yeah, we we went with you know what, we think a lot of Backpackers in most conditions are going to appreciate and it's yeah, it's not, it's not a specialized tent, you know, we want a lot of people to enjoy the benefits of this tent. So Sure. There could be there could be really Drastic conditions, dramatic conditions that, and that, that might be too much airflow for for somebody. And I'll give you

[00:50:10] Tayson: my my thoughts. I know I pose the question but I'll also answer this I was nervous about that in the beginning and then, after using the tent, what I found was that you still have like, I mean, you still are redirecting a lot of win because of the fly itself, but also just climbing, inside of the mesh, it does cut down a ton of circulation, like that's just a factor that you have to deal with if you want to block out bugs and debris and stuff like that. And so in one particular situation, I'll talk about I was in, like, 50 mile an hour gusts I mean this this was this was one of, if

[00:50:53] Tayson: not the windiest conditions I've ever been in. Where it was? I it was, I was watching it. Pull nine inch. Stakes out of the ground that were seated to the hilt in solid placements. It would just sit there and work and work on because it was two days of storming. And we were literally in the tents for Sundown. Some of these days, it just was not letting up and I did not in that situation. We did like, this is actually an event was higher or the back, the back wall was higher, but I was taking are directly on that side. So like in the worst, Position for that are to hit as well. And I

[00:51:34] Tayson: was not in there saying this is too much airflow, like, I didn't have that feeling. And not situation. We actually were dialing in some other aspects of the tent. And I did walk away from that with some really valuable lessons for us that we we fixed and worked on, but I didn't not necessarily come out of that same. Like, man, it like I was getting too much airflow. So, take that for what? It's worth. It's, we have more airflow, absolutely, but don't, I would say my experience is that it's not like you're getting in there and it's just Breezy because that I loved climbing into a tent when it's windy out in your kind of

[00:52:07] Tayson: cold out and you like Zip that thing up and you're like that kind of instant warmth fact that instantly Like, I still get that in this tent. It's it's a factor.

[00:52:16] Brigham: Yeah, and I, I would just say kind of reiterate, you know what we said before? this is not a case where we want to isolate into one variable that we just want to be Superlatively Superior on in just one variable, right? So like I mentioned, the example. Like we could make the entire fly extend all the way to the ground and have 0 air flow, save it for those two vents, we do not want to go. That's, that's a very extreme commitment. We could have made this tent massively have significantly less covers than it does could have accomplished that, but that would be an over commitment on those variables which we didn't want to do.

[00:52:58] Brigham: and, Yeah. So in terms of, you know, just a very usable for, for most backpacking conditions for most, Backpackers that want to appreciate the weight Savings of a trekking-pole tent. You know, having some of the benefits of this tent will bring we've found that it's it's just been beneficial. I guess one thing we, you know, we did on kind of the back overhang to to add more balance to that equation was um, we didn't want that back, overhang to extend very low because we wanted the airflow, but for wind dust and even a little bit of privacy, we found like, you know, there was there's a kind of a gap in clearance to where

[00:53:47] Brigham: you're a little bit exposed, so we actually have a section that's I don't know about a foot tall. That's that's a breathable non-coated. Like nylon woven fabric versus a no-see-um mesh. So it increases a little bit of kind of dust and, and Spindrift, resistance a little bit of wind resistance, that blocks, something getting into the tent and then privacy for sure. Because we, Like I said that that rear overhang it it may be this is just a ballpark as it extends about half the height down the tent and so like if you're changing clothes in there especially if you're like on the at people all over the place um some people might not

[00:54:31] Brigham: want to have that level of exposure so we do we did Implement a big panel of of that solid uncoated nylon on the back wall.

[00:54:41] Tayson: Yep. Yeah that's The cell phone water, whatever different ways.

[00:54:45] Brigham: So, um, but I mean that's like that's, that's what, that's what we did to improve that the air quality experience in the tent. Because again, that pain point is You're in the tent. It's a small lightweight, trekking, pole tent. Condensation really stinks. Especially when it's brushing up against your heavier face or your feet. A lot of people get, you know, pretty protective about their sleep system that wanting that to get wet. And so, That's that those are the things that we did to to improve or address that concern. And then we'll get into some of the other part of that concern is not really about ventilation is just about the volume and size of the

[00:55:29] Brigham: tent. Yeah, I think, I think let's

Editor’s note: The 50 mph gusts, nine-inch stakes pulling out, two-day storm, warmth, wind, precipitation security, breathable rear panel, dust, spindrift, and privacy comments are personal March 2026 experience and design claims, not universal safety or weather guarantees.

[00:55:30] Tayson: let's lead straight into the space factor and I'll kind of start this one off. Just in saying that I've slept in quite a few trekking-pole tents. I was actually thinking back some of the first ones that ever used that were were not produced by OV. And I remember us going the first time I went to the Wind Rivers trip. I was using a different truck and that was honestly one of the coolest trips I've done and Like remembrance and last decade, it's like in the top two trips. Three trips for me in terms of not maybe that the temperature was that cold, but that I was sleeping that colonized a few factors. But one

[00:56:07] Tayson: of them was that I was trying to turn to pull 10 out. And there was not adequate space and I was bumping the edges. I was getting wet. I was getting condensation on me. I was touching areas and and that's not the case for everyone. But I am six foot two and space is a factor if I have. Like I don't want to get in a tent and be like I have to sleep in this exact position. I can't move an inch wood, or an inch down. Or I will touch the edge of this tent because if you're touching the edge of that tent and there's condensation which in a tent, there's that's a factor

[00:56:40] Tayson: a lot, like, you could directly be putting water straight onto your sleep system, which is the opposite of what you should ever want to have happen. Especially if you're going day after day after day and potentially having that compound. And and he's just at nature,

[00:56:55] Brigham: even forget even absent, the water. The pressure of the tent fly pushing up against a sleeping-bag footbox. That's just that's just compressing The Loft and the insulative factor of your foot box. So even if there's zero condensation, 0 moisture. still is going to negatively affect your foot box warmth because it's just like if you you go to sleep and then but you you know, you Put something big Broad and heavy right on top of your sleeping bag. That's gonna become a cold spot because it's just, it's just flattened the down there. So, that's it. That's the other significant factor there.

[00:57:33] Tayson: Yeah, so being as tall as I am, it over 60, that was a factor. That was like that. I was very, very consciously aware of and then not to mention. If the wind is blowing and it can blow the fabric into your footbox, or blow the fabric onto your face, you know, when you're not gonna sleep or two, you're gonna be getting cold from that and then three people keep making bigger and bigger pads. So, I'm sleeping most of the time on three inch thick pads that I going up to you, like the NeoLoft. Oh, things like four, four and a half inches. Sometimes in the right conditions and so when you when

[00:58:10] Tayson: you add that, Extra, you know, inch and a half or two inches and then you add my height, you're just gonna get close to the, to the flights. And so that's where having those steep sidewalls and more space really matters. So that was something that we stepped on the same, okay? We need to improve This and like, bring him already mentioned changing clothes. There's different reasons why, but the reality is, people want space in a tent especially if it doesn't come at as much of a week cost. I have seen personally on trail I'm sure many of you guys as well, tons of people using trekking, pole, two person tips. Just because they want space

[00:58:48] Tayson: for one person to have ample room. Yeah and I don't think that's the goal either here we you want to have a tent that is just Adequate for your needs, you know, in sized appropriately, for your needs. So we wanted to address space. So where did we start? And what did we do with space?

[00:59:04] Brigham: So, To two main areas like laying down. We want head and foot-end clearance and then sitting up and or moving around setting things up inside the tent changing clothes. So we want to Vertical clearance now in Broad term. we use a two trekking, pole setup, that's very intentional that's based on experience with single wall or single pole, trekking, pole tents, Basically just having a lot of dissatisfaction with that Arrangement too many conditions again not all conditions. Too many conditions were were experienced in the field where The wind was coming from the, you know, the side that has the biggest panel that doesn't have a support structure under it in like being a trekking Pole.

[00:59:55] Brigham: That wind just blows fabric right onto your body. tethers, you can put Two extra guy out points back on that panel of fabric and that'll help a little bit but it does not, it just does not provide the level of clearance and structural stability that a second trekking pole does. And so to us that's that's you know, with this tent design that's like A requirement of having a two-pole structure.

[01:00:25] Tayson: So just like, maybe you may as well, use what you've got. Like,

[01:00:29] Brigham: you know, most people never had one track most people using trekking, poles are are hiking with two again? Going back to what you might see on a form, what you might see in certain YouTube videos, you might see people that are just like, yeah, I I roll with one trekking pole, that's fine. That's, we're not saying that's wrong, but in reality, Get out on the trail. You will see most people if they're using trekking poles probably using too. So having to is is kind of a requirement other general, you know, design features of the tent are that Okay. So we'll kind of stopped there with head and foot clearance, but for head and foot clearance,

[01:01:16] Brigham: that means having a long enough floor for that will accommodate taller people. Up to a certain point. We do not like to give a height limitation because then, you know, that kind of sets people up for either disappointment, or just we kind of don't want to go there but you know, if we look at we sell we sell clothing, we sell pants, and Sell pants with a tall inseam like a 34 inch inseam so we can we can kind of paint the picture for how many, how many people are out there that are tall enough to need. And, you know, a tall inseam and kind of interpolate that into tent design and like the kind

[01:02:07] Brigham: of the, the window of size we want to create for a tent but like, you know, maybe it's six foot four, I don't know six foot four, my big cap on high and and we're okay, doing that. Knowing that there's people that are six foot eight, that are still going to be unhappy with, you know, the temp clearance. And but we have to make a decision and say, based on what we see, like, we're going to cap it here, because The vast majority of people out there are gonna be within this size. So yeah, the tent, the floor is rectangular, so it's the same width at the head and the foot, it's not tapered. And

[01:02:48] Brigham: we we really wanted to actually create the head and foot space. As a means of adding just space in the tent versus making a wider footprint. So The floor width is 28 inches, so it will fit your your your wide pads. But the floor length is a little bit over 90 inches. So that we can accommodate taller people and anybody that's shorter than that is, obviously just gonna be able to read the benefits of more room without just having just this Behemoth of a long tent. But so that's, that's kind of the where it starts as on the floor in terms of head and foot clearance and then to create vertical clearance from the head

[01:03:31] Brigham: and feet that goes by how tall the tent is so kind of touch on some other pain points, but You know, when we're setting up. A one, we've got two poles because setting up changing clothes, having one panel of fabric right next to your face because it's a single pole tent is really obnoxious changing clothes especially in the presence of condensation. Everything's getting wet. It's uncomfortable and we wanted to create a more comfortable experience. So we've got the two poles but our poles are lower pole. So the front desk of your poll is taller than the back. The back is 44 inches tall. That's about as tall as most standard. Trekking, pole tents, any of

[01:04:17] Brigham: their poles are, maybe an inch or two shorter, but it's 44 inches tall, and the back and the front pole is 53. So that's more than that's almost four and a half feet tall in the front. And what that means is you have a lot of clearance and because that the peak height is that tall as it extends to the head and foot, and you have a lot of head and foot clearance in addition to the floor space, and that's really important. Again, if condensation exists, if wind exists and pushes into your head, or your feet a little bit, we've got some some a buffer there and it The farther away from the condensation Source

[01:05:00] Brigham: or the moisture Source, the fabric can be the less likely it is to have condensation. So If our face, if we're laying on our back and the tent fabric is three inches from our our nose or our lips. You know, that's pretty close. But if it's seven inches away, that's more time for that Vapor to move away from our body dissipate and not condense on the, on the roof fabric. So, That's part of the condensation management, as well as just the overall comfort and clearance of of the ten geometry. So, The only just go ahead. Oh you might be heading right into this so what's this? Makes it so nice for changing clothes and having

[01:05:44] Brigham: rooms that you're not like getting little, you know, connective muscle cramps, you know, because you're really trying to squeeze in your shoulders to be more narrow than they are. You're tilting your neck to the side because you are tired of bumping it on the on the roof. if you have rain in condensation, that that's like that's almost like the worst of conditions because The rain is basically flicking the tent from the outside and causing the comment. The condensation on the inside, to basically Reign inside the tent. So that clearance is really nice and the other thing, it just makes it so nice for is getting in and out of the tent. That's I think once

[01:06:28] Brigham: people get in and out of this tent a few times, or maybe if somebody has this tent and they still have an old tent and set them up side by side and get in and out. it's it's a substantial difference and I, it took me like a few uses to actually appreciate that because I just started using it, but then for whatever reason, testing other products, other like, meeting development tents and things like that, that didn't have as much clearance. It's like a night and day difference between really having to crouch down all the way to the ground, just to crawl in the tent and set the tent up forcing versus almost feeling. Like I

[01:07:09] Brigham: kind of just have to duck a little bit. And I can walk almost walk into the tent as like kind of how it feels like. So it's One of the hugely beneficial, one

[01:07:18] Tayson: of my biggest, most annoying, pain points of all backpacking, is blowing up my pad and deflating my pad like, because you're in your tent in the morning, you want to play it and I need to fit it. Well, they've got to kind of set up on your knees. You gotta try to roll that pad up nice and tight for the whole day, so it's taking up a space. And that's a prime example of when not having that head and area room like becomes really annoying. That's when I'm bumping into the sidewalls. The very, very most is like rolling up a pad. It's not like I want to take it outside the tent and introduce dirt

[01:07:47] Tayson: and debris and things that could pop my pad. So I'm doing that inside my tent and that area. The truth is, you gotta you gotta roll that thing up. You gotta kind of usually get on your knees and roll over and try to like it's it's there's I don't know, for me that's what I'm like. Really I want to another time I really appreciate that space. But the combination between side entry and that height, I think is why this tent is so easy to get in and out of, if you're getting in like, at the foot or the head end of a tent, there's kind of that factor. You gotta crawl in a little bit

[01:08:17] Tayson: and then you're on one end and the side entry with the side, just it is, it's it's really easy in and out. One other factor that I wanted to point out with space. and it kind of asked to go back to the geometry of the tent is if you drive around your neighborhood, And you look at roof lines, you'll see that there are what's called different pitches on roofs. There's really steep pitches and there's very there's some that are like flat. Roofed there's there's these different angles right? And so with a 10 that's all so a factor that's going to influence some of the space, some tents out there might have a higher Peak or

[01:08:52] Tayson: a high-ish peak Point Peak. Height and but then they've got really steep sidewalls which then still puts that fabric right on top of your face or right on top of your feet. Whereas with this one we did play a little bit with both, increasing the height of the tent. But also, just the pitch angles that make it. So that it's it's capable of maintaining that height clear to your feet. Maybe a hair better and so, like I say at the very ends of the tent, it's it's not like coming right to the ground right on top of you. And so pay attention to that. As you look at the tent, can you can kind of

[01:09:27] Tayson: see the angles of the tent and if you compare it to some like there are tents actually one of the samples. I just remember this one of the samples I took out. I got in and I was like Whoa, like this thing is Tiny and I got looked at and looked like a teepee almost and we had you been messing around with some of the angles of the cuts and things like that, and it went way, way Steep, and it was so much more unusable space on the inside. So that is a factor that we, we dialed in, we worked on, we changed, we just said, and what it does is it gives you that

[01:10:00] Tayson: space and that, that those pitch angles mixed with the height, or what are going to give you your head and foot space at the ends. And you kind of mentioned like, well we don't really tell people how tall you can be in this tent. Time and you threw out the number six for, I don't know that I would limit it to that. And maybe that's something that we need to adjust. All I know is I'm six foot two, and I feel like I can slide up and I can slide down inside the tent and I still have plenty of clearance. And so obviously this is a risk reward. Like if you were six six you're

[01:10:32] Tayson: like, oh is this tank in a work for me? You're going to get closer and closer to that fabric but it's still might work for you. So just know like that's a choice, you can make but I as six to I can slide towards my feet, I can slide towards my head a few inches and still have plenty of clearance over my feet and head. So kind of wanted to just clarify that but overall tons of space in there. And that is very, very much appreciated by me to be totally honest. When we look back at our past trick and pull tent that could become like, it was like, it was like fine when conditions

[01:11:11] Tayson: were good, but when the conditions got worse, whether that be wind or or an area with high condensation, that became a real nuisance for someone my height. And yeah, I mean honestly I think if you ask anyone like more space is typically good. The only con I think maybe to address the space is just like Like the footprint itself like is this a really big footprint like is it hard to find a space? And I would also say I don't I don't think it really is it didn't really change much from our past tense and there are other styles of trekking-pole tents that require honestly a much bigger footprint to place this thing. Yeah.

[01:11:48] Brigham: I think The we we would rather limit the width. Then limit the length like I said, though, without making it. Like, gigantic long. But I mean, a lot of the places most of the times we have found limited tent spaces because of the width. So you know that again that's kind of why like we want to keep the tent, meaning the footprint of the tent, the the floor, which is rectangular. Meaning, it's not tapered 28 inches so that we can absolutely fit a 25 inch wide Pad. But we've got storage Pace below, our feet and above our head in terms of the length. So, you know, like I said it at over

[01:12:38] Brigham: 90 inches that, that's a straight line measurement. That's not, you know, the maximum possible length, you know, of a kind of a diagonally cut floor or a floor that, you know, you can. You can see that link if you're laying in one exact spot in the floor. It's it's straight. So it's, you know, it. The edges are perpendicular. The full rectangle, and we find like that. it's pretty easy to find a place to pitch this tent because it's not excessively wide and it's You know, it's kind of got a good a good footprint.

[01:13:15] Tayson: Maybe last thing here is let's just touch quickly on the lack of a taper in this some tents do taper and I mean Cuts weight out of a tent to do that but we from from years and years ago, decided that we really did not like tapered because in the field You don't always get to choose every single position and what not of your tent. And sometimes you need to sleep with your head on this end and sometimes you need to sleep with your head on this end when your vestibule is hanging off of this side of the tent. And so, that's really helpful. In the field, I will just say, you know, you might

[01:13:52] Tayson: say fractions of an ounce or something like that, to taper a floor, but by not doing that, it gives you the ability to pitch it. and different scenarios and not be forced because there are times when I have tried tapered floors, or I've had to sleep with my head on the tapered for side and that got really tight like kind of claustrophobic and and And just it was not a good experience, whereas now we keep a square. So not only can you can you sleep with your head on either end, but you can also have all that storage space that Brigham just mention and it's significant. I I unload the entire contest of my backpack

[01:14:25] Tayson: in there. Every night I've got room for dry bags. Up by my head as well as at my feet at the same time. So there's

[01:14:31] Brigham: yes I'd say the kind of capsulate that as is Is with what we're trying to accomplish is make the tent easier to use more comfortable, just the living experience with the tent. So, to accomplish that balance, we wanted to reduce the limitations, you taper a floor. You introduce limitations. So we minimize limitations by just making before a straight rectangle. Meaning you're not limited to having to sleep, one way or the other. And if you do have to sleep the one way, where you're on the tapered end, now, you've got limitations and some heightened restrictions. So, we really wanted to minimize the limitations within the bounds of what this tent is meant to accomplish. So, Okay.

[01:15:17] Brigham: Those are we've

Editor’s note: The rectangular 28-inch-wide, over-90-inch-long floor, 44-inch rear pole, 53-inch front pole, tall-user fit, wide-pad compatibility, footprint, clearance, and storage comments are historical March 2026 dimensions and usability claims. Verify current measured specifications and fit.

[01:15:18] Tayson: covered like the big, the big ones, the venting the space, the pitching all those things but they're still some other things that that we need to work through because they all so factor into the ease. Of use and enjoyment of use. And so, There's a single internal pocket in this. So beware of that, there's the maybe talk a little bit about the zipper and just place them a zipper if there's anything unique to call out there. Yeah. Okay. Um maybe on the inside specifically on the outside, it's straight line from the peak, right? But on the inside we did.

[01:15:55] Brigham: Yeah. So for the the tent body, like the mesh body zipper that's like what you that's the entrance to the actual inner tent so it's it's cut at an angle so that the Flares or angles. Wider at the bottom. Then the top. So meaning if you look at the the peak of the tent, the the zipper line does not just go straight down at a 90 degree angle to the floor. It actually it angles to the side so that you have more width of the opening at the bottom. Then you do it at the top. Are bulkiest when we're crouched down or moving items in and out of the tent, that's like the bulkiest area.

[01:16:46] Brigham: So, we create, it gives a little bit more in, and out space, to move things to get in and out of the tent. And so, that's, that's how the zippers are changed.

[01:16:58] Tayson: Okay. Um, there's also internal hanging loops loops at both Peaks. Yeah, so if you like to put a little cord in there and hang stuff dry stuff, which honestly, with like we talked about those big vents up there, you're gonna get much better drying performance, and so some hanging. So that's what they're all. Get some good air flow. Anything else you want to call it on any like trims or or things like that?

[01:17:22] Brigham: Um, They're reflective guylines, couple reflective webbing Loops, you know, on the tent body, just how many tie-out points. Like, if you walk through the extra anchor points extra okay, extra anchor points. Like we said, there's the two external Peak. Points. Those are those places significant role in increasing the stability and kind of pitch strength of the tent? And then at the head and foot and there's guylines on there, as well with tensioners to that all. So, Two things, that, that accomplishes. If you can't arrange your tent in a way and there is a wind blowing, you know, directly towards the header foot and that really helps with stability and it helps with, you know, a

[01:18:10] Brigham: little bit of internal clearance so you can kind of put a little tension on those and it pulls the tent body or the fly a little bit away from the tent creating more clearance inside. So that's kind of the reasoning there. And then there's there's little, there's points on the edges of the fly on the bottom edges, all the way around the tent where you can add additional guylines if you choose to do that. Now, let's kind of the main trim trim points. We we touched on

[01:18:39] Tayson: the fact that there's like line lock tensioners on the 10 but I think it's worth just clarifying what that really means. You know, a lot of tents, you've got one and a secured to the tent and the other end has like more the loop system in your kind of like, you're basically looping it around the stake and then you're tensioning it on the line like a slide, a slider, slides up, the line to tension it whereas, in a lot of these areas we've got these LineLoc tensioners, which are there faster and easier to use. I would say they're more secure and or like stable like that. I'm gonna slide it at all or move it

[01:19:14] Tayson: all. If you're catching wind for long period of time. But why did we move to the line lock versus like that? You know, traditional Slide up the line style tensioner. Um well they're they're strong

[01:19:28] Brigham: for what they do. And they're, they're really great for specific Corner anchor points because all the mass is right there at the corner, it's not hanging out there on the line creating weight that can cause the line to Sag. Yeah, there's just really straightforward to use very intuitive to use, they hold. Well, yeah, just that's adds versatility.

[01:19:53] Tayson: Yeah, I think that the easy use will be appreciated by quite a few people as well. So Have touched on everything so then we can get into maybe the weight of this really quick. So the weight which would include all of those guylines which includes the two really long guylines from the Peaks, they hadn't thought guylines, those things and the stuff sack but this does not include your own Stakes using your Stakes would be 1 pound 13 ounces or in other words, 29 ounces. So still a really, really light tent for space and everything that you're getting in here.

[01:20:35] Brigham: Yeah, I'm I'm really happy with that weight that's similar to the weight. We've had on our tents in the past which is always felt light, super compressible. So worth, I guess, kind of as we kind of build like a guest all that we talked about how much more Headroom space. Yeah, extra attention, there's extra guylines that, you know, all these different factors that got put into the tent, we still ended it at a phenomenal weight, which really happy, I think in another way to kind of describe the tent in general. There might be, the could be some other. Tents out there or another way to say it is, you could almost classify this tent as

[01:21:15] Brigham: what you might see someone else call like a plus size tent, or a tall. which I would say this is, Probably in that category. We just don't want to say that we're calling it a plus like this is this is the tent and we believe that you know it's great to accommodate the taller people but it just Means it has a lot more usable livable space for, you know, the people that are not in that that really tall category and it we didn't feel like we want to have a smaller or standard size and then you know, hassle with offering a tall size like this is just the 10th that it just accommodates. A broad

[01:22:02] Brigham: range of people up to, and, including the, the tall people, and giving them a lot of space as well. So, that's another bit of context for the kind of the, the size of the tent.

[01:22:13] Tayson: Yep. Yeah, so definitely take that into consideration when comparing weights and sizes and everything else that that you're looking to potentially potentially compare. This is a drastically larger tent than, you know, just just a standard one person tent. They a lot of one for like, like that's kind of a, it's an interesting candidate. I want to get too far into it, but you can label almost anything which on a label it, you can label anything one person then or so, on so forth, but you're gonna see, massive, varying differences footprint size. Usable headspace, you know, those kinds of things. So, just be aware of that. And, like I said, I think, I think everyone is

[01:22:57] Tayson: going to enjoy the space with your tall or not. It's just convenient and nice to have. And it's just makes a very, very enjoyable situation inside of there. So, okay, I think we've covered all of the details about this. I'm super excited to get these in people's hands. I think they're gonna have tremendous experience with the tent. I think that. something I guess, just to consider with this is we cut like we cut no corners on this tent in terms of the labor that goes into this tent is so significant because we've like there's no easy there's no easy aspect of this tent with every curved seam with that top vent. You know like we

[01:23:46] Tayson: went through iteration iteration because it's a challenge to produce and so it You know, just it every step of this tent, I would just say the labor cost to produce it to adjust and improve these, all these little things that make this entire tent. So, good did add into this whole equation. And it just I just didn't want to skip over that I

[01:24:13] Brigham: guess because I guess, yeah, it's a good point. It's like things we didn't talk about is The complexity of this tent design in terms of executing it in a non fragile way. the so, getting to what you're kind of explaining is like This tent is complicated in terms of its construction, how it's constructed and things that you might not see. There's lots of Double or triple layers of fabric and certain areas. And those are, that's all by Design. We could probably have made the tent, use less materials in certain areas. To save a little bit of production cost or complexity of manufacturing. So there's a lot of sewing steps that take place to create this

[01:25:02] Brigham: tent and it's because we're reinforcing. We've got reinforcement patches in certain places. We've got extra layers of Fabrics on it, to certain intersections of fabric, or corners and seam lines. And all that is done so that we can execute this tent design and its design intent with confidence in it holding up and and being durable and it's construction. So, yeah. All of those things, add complexity to the, to the sewing process. which, You know. adds just to the To the the manufacturing cost

Editor’s note: The one pocket, hanging loops, reflective guylines, tie-outs, line locks, 29-ounce/1-pound-13-ounce weight excluding stakes, space, reinforcement, and durability comments describe the March 2026 design. Actual weight may vary; verify current included components and specifications.

[01:25:43] Brigham: and complexity of the tent.

[01:25:45] Tayson: Yeah. And on this podcast, I'm not going to give you the price of this because we're still bringing them in the still passing through Port essentially. And we don't know what the Tariff situation is. Its Dynamic day by day, right now. So I'm not going to quote you anything, but I will tell you this, The cost of this tent. To like our cost on this tent was significant and it was kind of is frankly surprising but if you think about how easy it is to maybe sew together to rectangle like two straight seams versus two curved seams like that gives you just a small taste of just like all the little things. And like just

[01:26:19] Tayson: Brigham mentioned sewing extra fabric here and vents here and all these things that was all shocking and so but we want to release this at a super competitive price. And we want this to get in people's hands and have them have a great experience. So this is actually gonna be our lowest-markup product. We've ever done overview history because we really want you guys to get this at a, at a, at a good price and man, but it is. It's it's a challenge like Brigham designed this thing he made an amazing product and we're going to do everything kind of get this to you. That it really really competitive price for what compared

[01:26:57] Tayson: to what actually, you know goes into this. And so take that for what it's worth. But again super excited to have this pain and people's hands super excited. To just finally be launching it and giving people this new solution and I think people are just gonna really, really enjoy it when they get that thing out in the field. I know we've enjoyed it. Our staff is super excited about the upgrade as well and Yeah, I think people are really enjoy it. So if you guys have questions, feel free to drop them in comments. If you're watching on YouTube, you know, you can comment right there or email us in a support at outdoorvitals.mom chat

[01:27:36] Tayson: with us, on our website happy to answer any additional questions. But this has been a fun project. I guess, the other thing I didn't even mention is for this. Also, being a part of this low-markup products, this project consumed, a lot of your time and bandwidth. It is one of the most complex things it does. Sometimes, it doesn't seem like it will be. But if we've learned anything about 10 design and never goes smooth, it's never fast. And it takes a lot of time, so good work. I'm just getting this thing to the finish line and going through all of that. But super excited to get into your guys's hands. And I think you

[01:28:10] Tayson: guys are gonna really, really enjoy using this in the field. So, Okay. Do you like this? Make sure you're subscribed, share with the friend who needs a tent or just loves to learn about the details of product design. We appreciate you guys and we'll catch you in a future episode. So,

Editor’s note: Launch timing, tariff uncertainty, price positioning, availability, support, warranty-adjacent expectations, and future design comments are historical March 2026 context, not current offers or commitments. The exact Cirq Trekking Pole Tent product page is the sole episode resource; generic links are excluded.