All History

I looked back over the past 30 years and tried to sort out all the things that I remember vividly.

 

1993

I started learning tent-related work in May 1993.

That year, I had just graduated from high school and was a little over 16 years old. I joined a Korean-owned company specializing in tent production. It was a large ODM-oriented production company called Qingdao Banpo, which was well-known in the tent industry.

I think many international brands with a history of tent products will have heard of this company. They moved from South Korea to China in 1991. Unfortunately, the company closed in 2013.

Working at Banpo can be understood as two stages. The first stage is some learning and work in the production process, which allows me to understand all the processes of tents;

When I came to the company in May 1993, I first learned the production process of tent poles. For tents, poles are as important as human skeletons. My job is to assemble and cut poles. After working in the pole workshop for three years, I was transferred to the sewing workshop, where I learned the entire process of tents;

I only stayed in the sewing workshop for three months before going to the cutting workshop. My job in the cutting workshop was mainly responsible for the defective items in the production tent workshop. I had to complete the replacement and cutting of fabric pieces in the cutting department. I worked in the cutting department for more than three years. At that time, my chief section chief was Mr. Cui Rongji. I worked with him for about three years, and he was going back to Korea to live. He recommended me to the core department of the entire company, the development department; on the last day of leaving China, he came to the door of the workshop on purpose, called me over and hugged me. Later, I came to Korea several times and wanted to visit him, but unfortunately I asked many friends and couldn’t find his contact information.

The time I spent in the development room was the second stage of BANPO. It can be said that it changed my life. First of all, I want to thank my teacher Mr. Cui Junxi. His meticulous professional attitude taught me how to design a beautiful tent.

When I first entered the development room, I was very young, so Mr. Cui did not teach me how to design. Instead, he asked me to clean for three months and occasionally asked me to stand by and watch them design. At that time, there was a senior director Shen Dongyi who designed tents in the development room.

 

2000

I started working in the design and development room in 2000, where I met Davis, the founder of German Vaude, and their team Matillas and Pete; I also met Director Luo, the founder of DAC, Andy and his wife, the founders of Swiss brand Exped, Alex, the designer of The North Face, and Mr. Bente, the founder of Tentipi, etc.

Because of work, I met many bosses and designers of outdoor brands in BANPO. This stage was very helpful for my growth. I heard and saw many scenes. I saw Mr. Davis of Vaude lying on the carpet to measure the distance between the outer tent and the inner tent, and the president of Ogawa would wipe the floor of the workshop with his sleeves. These details are all imprinted in my mind...

At the same time, I learned about their understanding of tents, outdoor activities, and brands, and their working attitudes. Most of them are designers and avid outdoor enthusiasts. Their ideas have benefited me a lot. I still clearly remember the designers of the Scottish brand Vango sharing their camping scenes in Northern Europe with me, which made me very yearning.

It was also in 2000 that I had my first camping experience, using a Eureka single-person tent. Although that camping trip was not perfect, it left a deep impression on me. It was the first time I saw the sunrise and sunset on the ridge, which also made me like the quiet camping life. I worked in the design studio for about 6 years, and then I began to take over the management of the entire design and development studio, and began to independently do research and development and design for some brands. We have provided tent services to more than 70 brands or companies around the world.

After three months, Mr. Cui asked me if I liked this job? I said I wanted to try it, and I felt that designing a tent looked very simple. Mr. Cui said, then you can try making a tent yourself.

I started to copy what I saw in the past few months. That day, I worked until ten o'clock in the evening and rushed out the sample... But after a few days, after the sewing master finished sewing my sample, I found it was a mess. The tent was like a person without bones, wrinkled. I realized that what I saw and understood was only the most basic part of the tent. It was from that time that Mr. Cui began to slowly instill some theoretical basis for tent design in me.

After working in the company for 17 years, I gradually found that I had been trapped in a space, always repeating the same things. As a designer, I participated in the creation of many tent works, but I found that no one could know my existence through the tents, and sometimes people would comment that there were no high-quality tent brands in China. I gradually got a little tired of that feeling at that time... I wanted to create my own brand and let the world know about my existence.

 

2010

One day in 2010, Andy, the founder of Exped, came to Qingdao. He wanted to design a tent that could be supported by a pole from the top, but my teacher Mr. Cui said that this support point could not be realized. But I thought that designing an accessory could solve this problem. Andy hoped that I could help him realize it. I heard that he was going to visit some sleeping bag and air cushion factories in southern China, which would take about a month. I asked him to return to Qingdao at that time.

A month later, Andy and his wife returned to Qingdao and saw the new tent I designed for him. He was very excited and hugged me. He said, "So beautiful!" This is a great invention. He even joked: "Let's use your name for this tent. Can we call it Jigang?"

This may be the last straw that broke the camel's back when I worked at Banpo.
After they left Qingdao, I couldn't calm down for a long time. In December 2010, I resigned from the company where I had worked for 17 years. In March 2011, I founded the brand The Free Spirits in a small warehouse in Chenjia Village, Qingdao...

 

2011

On March 22, 2011, we officially started the journey of establishing the brand. The first product was the Pangolin 1 single-person tent and the Pangolin 2 double-person tent. At the beginning, we focused too much on comprehensiveness. Although the functions were comprehensive, such as being large and spacious, and using DAC 9mm aperture poles, the weight was a bit heavy.

With the development of the times, we optimized the Pangolin and improved it to the Pangolin 2.0 with black label and the Pangolin Pro with blue label. Both are double-person versions, but they use two completely different sets of materials. The black label is the standard version, and the blue label is lighter.

 

2012

In 2012, we designed the Yuanshan tent and won the Excellent Equipment Award selected by 8264 Outdoor Information Network.

Then, in order to participate in the equipment selection of German ispo, we designed the Falcon two-person tent in 2013. Unfortunately, due to weight and other reasons, the tent did not win the recognition of the judges;

In the same year, we also launched the Yoto two-person tent and the Akatsuki pyramid. Later, we designed the Linghai three-person tent. The Linghai three-person tent was not fully mass-produced due to unclear positioning...

 

2013

In September 2013, I hiked the route from Changpinggou to Bipenggou for the first time. I used a Yoto double tent and felt the charm of the snow-capped mountains at the foot of Yaomei Peak for the first time....

 

2014

In 2014, we launched the Qiyun Frog Tent. During this period, I actually had no direction for the product. I was still in the state of doing whatever I thought of, and I had no clear positioning for the product.

This year, I went boating and camping with two friends from Yiyuan in Linyi to the urban area of ​​Linyi. The three-day and two-night camping left a deep impression on me. It was also in this year that I went to Friedrichshafen, Germany to participate in the European Outdoor Exhibition.

In the same year, we also jointly launched the Elf Pyramid Tent with the famous player "Jiangpu" in Xi'an. In September, I went to western Sichuan to climb the Banji Peak with an altitude of 5,430 meters, but at C2, because I was too excited, I set up three tents in a row, which caused severe altitude sickness and failed to reach the summit;

In the same year, we also launched the Yoto single tent, which is now Yoto pro.

 

2015

In November 2015, I designed the Enran tent. The name comes from my daughter 恩冉. The Chinese meaning is: En恩 Ran冉. I hope she can have a grateful heart and rise like the morning sun...

In the same year, we also developed the double tent Stars 2

2015 was also a setback for me. Because of the broken capital chain, we closed down for the second time. Later, with the help of Mr. Liu Jinrong, we restarted in 2016..

 

2016

In early 2016, I was invited by Tara to participate in the Hong Kong Camp to promote our brand. I met Mr. Li, the owner of the Hong Kong New Jingwei Outdoor Store, and established a cooperative relationship.

We showed the new tent Stargazer at the Hong Kong Camp and it was well received by the audience..

In February, we organized our own dealer gathering in Beijing and showed everyone the newly designed mountain tent Whisperwind S.

In the second week of April, we participated in the famous Japanese lightweight market OffTheGrid. Although there was no commercial gain, we met many new friends and went to camp in Kumotori Mountain in Japan for the first time. The campsite can overlook Mount Fuji, which is very beautiful...

In May, the Akatsuki cuben version we designed was officially released by Dyneema for the first time. They think it is a very novel tent design.

In June, we released the Bealock double spire tent. In September, a Japanese guest who met at Offthegrid came to visit us in Qingdao. He looked at all our products. He thought our products were world-class and should be promoted better. He wanted to promote our brand in Japan, but in the end we did not cooperate because we felt that he lacked professional foundation.

 

2017

In 2017, Director Luo from DAC visited our company in Qingdao. We started to have some cooperation with Helinox on tents. He also introduced us to the American brand BA, and we also manufactured some tents for BA.

We continued to participate in the offthegrid market in Japan. This time, we brought Enran and Akatsuki tents. After the market, the exhibits were bought by a young Japanese man.

In April, I designed the first version of Robotech and designed the first double spire for the Hong Kong running group to participate in UTMB.

In June 2017, I designed the lightweight poleless tent of Coast Set, and in October, I designed the Mega Pyramid and handed it over to Yang Xiao (our brand ambassador). He is the best backpacker in China. We have some cooperation with him, and we went hiking together in Litang, western Sichuan...

In November, another family tent Skydome was designed

In December 2017, the famous Nepalese Everest expedition team, Seven Peaks Expedition, came to Qingdao to visit and wanted to cooperate with us to make high mountain tents for commercial expeditions on Everest.

 

2018

In 2018, we participated in the market of Hong Kong Camp again, launched the Light rock 1P tent, and held a sharing session at the New Jingwei Outdoor Store in Hong Kong for the first time. After the meeting, Hong Kong users spontaneously formed a fan club.

In April, we were invited to participate in the large outdoor market Goout in Japan. We brought Space Fortress, Sky City, Orion and Diamond Sky to participate in the market. Before the market, we went to Tanuki Lake Camping Ground under Mount Fuji to experience the beautiful experience of camping under the cherry trees...

At the end of April, our sponsored climber Han Xiao successfully climbed Mount Everest with our tent.

Participating in goout gave me a great feeling, not only because it looks huge and the atmosphere is warm... Because camping sites in Japan can burn fires, the warmest scene of Goout activities is at night, and each tent will use a fire table to burn fires for heating. At this time, the whole camp is brightly lit, and every family looks warm and romantic. I feel that this is the real camping life.

After returning to Qingdao, we began to focus on the development of family tents, hoping to promote the family-based camping lifestyle in China, and organized the first event in Beijing, which was a prototype of the Soul Friends Club.

In June of the same year, we sponsored the Hong Kong Mountaineering Team's climbing activity on Mount Everest, and all members completed the climbing goal..

In September, we designed a new single-person pyramid tent soloist

In October, the American brand Six Moon came to Qingdao to visit. They wanted to launch a new product with us, but due to other reasons, no cooperation agreement was reached in the end.

In 2018, we were fortunate to be favored by the art team of the Chinese science fiction film (The Wandering Earth). The Robotech tent we designed was used as the main prop for the filming of the camping scene in the movie. Because the crew had no camping experience, I personally participated in the design and layout of the scene. Unexpectedly, the movie was very successful and created a milestone for Chinese science fiction films.

In November, we released the Goromity single-person tent.

 

2019

In March 2019, at Tara's suggestion, we established a sub-brand Pretents, added some distinctive products to Pretents, and released the Ridgeline double tent;
For some other products, we also formally divided the categories to make the positioning of the entire brand clearer and more accurate, so that users can intuitively understand the characteristics of the products and make choices;

White Label Series: Base Tents, mainly for home use
Red Label Series: Adventure Tents, mainly for mountaineering and adventure
Blue Label Series: Lightweight, mainly for hiking
Black Label Series: Standard Edition, mainly for short-distance camping for 1-2 people in the countryside

Skite, an outdoor goods store from Nerima District, Japan, became the Japanese general agent of our Pretents, and the manager is Nagashima; and another store located in
In April 2019, the double spire tent was launched, Libra 2

This year, I participated in the football league for over 40s organized by Qingdao for the first time. After eight years of entrepreneurship, I felt for the first time that I had entered the middle-aged stage and felt that the responsibility on my shoulders was heavier...

In June, we became the first official agent and represented the niche brand Kupilka of Finland to promote their tableware in China.

In July, I came to Germany again to participate in the outdoor exhibition in Munich.

In August, the white label version of Yoto plus tunnel tent was launched, which was well received by users.

In September, we reached a cooperation intention with the Korean store Hellon, and they became our first Korean agent. At the same time, we also found agents in Japan and Taiwan and began to officially enter the overseas market.

 

2020

In June, we launched the Light Rock2 double tent from Presents.

In August, we launched the Gemini from the Blue Label series, which used Monofila's inner tent fabric for the first time, which played a good role in preventing condensation.

In December, we also launched a special version of Yoto plus in collaboration with the Chinese outdoor brand GoGoGo, which attracted widespread attention from domestic players, and Chinese camping began to grow explosively..

In December, we launched a new product in the White Label series, the Wooden house tent.

 

2021

At the end of 2019, through Tara's recommendation, we met the Japanese garage brand Neru Design Works. We discussed with Neru and decided to launch a new small spherical tent. We changed the version three times. Finally, at the end of 2021, after about two years of research, the tent was released and named Cave. As the first Chinese brand to co-brand with Japan's M16, this is a memorable moment.

In 2021, as a designer, I received an invitation from the Burberry brand to design a co-creation of a wooden tent made of waste paragliders. The theme of the work is the reuse of waste items and the promotion of social environmental awareness.

Because of the COVID-19 policy from the end of 2019 to 2022, we have been dormant in China for these years and have no way to go abroad to participate in exhibitions. It is also in recent years that China's camping life has ushered in explosive growth. Our white label series has been a best-seller in these years, and it is also hard to find a tent in Japan and South Korea.

It is also in recent years that our hiking tents have stagnated due to the extremely high attention to camping life and serious shortage of production capacity.

During this period, we have cooperated with BMW, Audi in Germany, Black design, AES, and SMG in Taiwan to produce the black version of Skydome pro, the Japanese brand Tarp to Tarp, Asimocrafts, Mountain reseroth and other joint actions, which have qualitatively improved our popularity in East Asia.

In 2021, we jointly released the Opera House Pyramid Tent with the niche brand "Wild Will".

From 2020 to 2024, we also held offline activities of TFS Camping Day in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing, South Korea, Taiwan and other places, which increased the communication and cohesion between the brand and users.

 

2023

In 2023, the epidemic ended, and we re-participated in Japan's OTG outdoor market after several years. In 2024, we received an invitation from Mr. Koshiro, the president of Japan's Zanearts, to participate in the outdoor exhibition held by Zanearts in Matsumoto.

 

2024

We launched the new product white label series of Beyond tents, and the Loners tent designed with the "12 Camps" designer for motorcycle camping.

 

2025

We plan to re-strengthen the field of professional tents. We have redesigned the Enran 1P and 2P tents, which is also a new breakthrough in weight. We hope to bring more wonderful experiences to more mountaineers and hikers under the premise of safety protection.

I have always considered myself a very lucky person. A part of my life happens to be my favorite job. Entrepreneurship has allowed me to meet many excellent people. The nature of outdoor work also gives me a reason to experience the most beautiful mountains, rivers, stars and seas when testing products;

We have received support and help from many friends along the way, as well as the love of users, which has enabled us to have our own place in the outdoor field. We hope to maintain our passion and continue to develop more high-quality works to bring a better experience to outdoor camping life.