Greetings from Richard, founder of Sierra Madre Research

[Richard Rhett]

Hi everyone!

I've been lurking on this forum for some time now, but I wanted to officially introduce myself today.

I'm from Vicksburg, MS and I have been hammock camping for about 5 years now and I love it! I'm a Research Mechanical Engineer and Gear Junkie.

My first real hammock adventure was in 2009, I went to Honduras for 7 days and chose to sleep in my (I'll leave this hammock giant unnamed) the entire time I was there. I really appreciated the simplicity of it, however, it just wasn't comfortable enough yet.

While I was there I worked with a doctor treating patients with various illnesses, 80% of them were related to water borne diseases/sickness.

These two moments were life changing events for me, my "normal" was gone. I am also the type of person that likes to take action, rather than talk about things. So through the grace of Christ I formed a company around those two life changing events, a company that will strive to make high quality innovative outdoor gear AND use a portion of each products profit to drill clean water wells in the remote regions of this earth for people that do not have access to clean drinking water. In a small effort to spread hope to the hopeless.

I came home from that trip, and like so many of you, bought a sewing machine and got to work creating a really comfortable/useful hammock. It took a while but after about 30 prototypes I finally came to what is now called the Pares.

http://www.sierramadreresearch.com/shop/pares/

I founded the company Sierra Madre Research in 2010 and boy has it been a crazy ride! In 2011 I founded our very own manufacturing company in Managua, Nicaragua, SMr ILLUMINATE S.A.. We teamed up with a sewing ministry in Managua that was teaching men and women how to sew (i.e. how to fish), and through the grace of God were able to start the company SMr ILLUMINATE to hire some of the students on full time after they graduated from the professional stitching class. This gives SMr complete control over its quality AND allows us to pay our employees what they deserve, rather than the low minimum set by the government. Through much toil and hard work we launched our first 4 products this past November, the Pares, Solo, EZSlings, and Slings.

This all brings me to where we are today, we have launched a new product on Kickstarter and it's called the Nube`! The patent pending Nube` is engineered to protect you AND your gear from rain, wind, and insects. We are really excited about it and I hope you will check it out!



http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...=home_location

I'd love to hear any feed back you may have on it, as we are in the business of producing FUNCTIONAL products and you guys and galls obviously know about functionality!! It's no "ultralight" system (those will come later) but it is spacious and protects you and your gear like a fortress. A group of us have been testing 10 of them all over the world since 2010 and it has performed outstanding!

Anyways thats enough about me, here is a link to SMr's "About Us" if you want to check us out.

http://www.sierramadreresearch.com/about-smr/

I look forward to many great discussions! Thanks!

[Ratdog]

Well done, good on ya and welcome.

Clean water and cheap electricity, change the world.

Welcome.

[Richard Rhett]

Thank you sir! Yep I'll second that!

[stevebo]

Welcome friend------and keep up the good work! (looking forward to seeing your new products!)

[Trambo]

Hey Richard, great to meet you.
I just was on your kickstarter website today.
Good looking idea.

Do you have any problems with air circulation in the Nube,
or do you just hang the hammock lower to get more breeze?

ETA: You might think about not using the current capitalization
of SMr. When it is in this configuration as shown in a testimonial on
your website "“Pares” is the deluxe hammock from SMr. Big comfort
for you – and a few more." it makes me think S-Mister Big.
I am attempting to be constructive, and it took me a few to realize that
this was just your company name (and I already knew it).
This could be a spot for confusion. Perhaps this is just because it was
at the end of a sentence.

[Dos]

nice page and interesting history.

Welcome.

[Richard Rhett]

@Stevebo thank you sir! Many more to come!

@Trambo, good question! The Nube` is designed to give you some control on airflow and temperature. The wings can be spread wide giving you A LOT of airflow through the Nube` or narrow which limits the amount of airflow!

The hammock also has a lot of adjustment room in how you hang it. Hang it high to be enclosed more and low to be in the midst of the airflow. The reason the Nube` allows this much versatility is because of its useable protected space inside (it's huge). Thanks for the insight on SMr we'll keep it in mind!

@Dos Thanks!

[halfastronomical]

This looks better than the other integrated net tarp that I have tried. (Nemo and HB Sky tent) My 2 year old would absolutely LOVE to sleep in that gear storage loft! I think that this fact has me sold on it! Thanks RR. Keep up the good work.

[Trambo]

Rhett, I'm a bit confused at the prices for the kickstarter.
What donation level gets you a Nube? Was that 250?

[Richard Rhett]

@halfastronomical Thanks for the encouragement! We're excited about the Nube` and haha yes kids love snoozing in the gear stow! I'll be responding to your PM soon!

@Trambo.aka.sail1987 Right now a $225.00 pledge gets you either the Burnt Orange or the Steel Grey Nube`. This is a limited "early bird" savings of over $90.00 and after all 80 are gone the price then jumps up to $250.00, which is still a $65.00 savings! Let me know if you have any more questions!