25 Years of Packrafting with Thor Tingey of Alpacka Raft: From Innovation to Industry Leadership

Thor Tingey, CEO of Alpacka Raft, discusses what it takes to establish a new category in the outdoor industry and to build an independent, family-owned company. Twenty-five years after pioneering modern packrafting, Thor shares hard-won wisdom about balancing innovation with customer feedback, navigating explosive COVID-era growth, and why maintaining in-house production is critical to his long-term strategy. Thor explains how thoughtful, sustained growth and deep customer relationships define market leadership in the outdoor industry.

Episode Highlights

• Domestic manufacturing philosophy: Why in-house USA production preserves critical manufacturing knowledge that offshore production erodes.
• Establishing a new sport: The unique challenges and responsibilities of pioneering packrafting as a recreational activity and building a market category from scratch over 25 years.
• Customer-driven success metrics: Defining business achievement through authentic superfan stories rather than revenue numbers—when customers evangelize your brand unprompted, you've won
• Innovation vs. feedback balance: Weighing when to push design boundaries versus listening to what experienced customers actually need in the field
• Market leadership responsibility: Grappling with the ethical dimensions of being the category creator—from social media restraint to thoughtful product positioning

Links:
KORE Outdoors
Alpacka Rafts
Sheri - a documentary about Thor's mom who was Alpacka's original founder & CEO
Abundance - book Thor mentions

For more about the KORE Outdoors Podcast, visit https://koreoutdoors.org/podcast/

The KORE Outdoors Podcast is supported by the Province of British Columbia.