Meet Dan Vinson | Founder and Professional Wildman

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dan Vinson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dan, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
From a very young age I’ve always been concerned about having a “job” with a flexible schedule. I’m not sure why exactly – maybe it stems from growing up in competitive sports combined with a vigorous academic schedule. So for me – starting my own business was all about having freedom.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
WILD GYM was born in the wild. I was a Division 1 college athlete who had made the team as a walk-on. Walking on to a top 10-college team is extremely difficult. The first time I tried I was cut. However, I was not deterred and spent the following year training. This meant spending hours alone running sprints in the snow and exhausting myself in the gym. I tried out again as a Sophomore and made the team.

Going into my Senior year I took a summer job as a Wilderness Ranger in Sequoia National Forest where. To stay in shape for my final season of college sports I constructed an all-natural “wild gym” where I Squatted logs, lifted rocks, and did Pullups from tree branches. Think of the training montage from the movie Rocky 4 – that’s pretty much how it went. After spending that time in the wild I returned to school in the best shape of my life, earned a starting role, and even a scholarship to come back and play my final year of eligibility.

Not only did I used my all-natural weight room, but I also hiked hundreds of miles with a heavy pack that summer. I believe that Rucking – walking or hiking with a weighted backpack – was a huge factor to my enhanced fitness level.

Getting where we are today has been as series of challenges and viewing the “obstacle as the way”. In 2020 our supply chain was shut down from COVID which led to being sold out of one of our flagship products for 2 years. In 2021, my partner and co-founder left the business unexpectedly leaving me alone to now do both our jobs. Then, the Marshall Fire burned down my entire neighborhood in Superior, CO which left me and my family displaced for 5 months. We moved over 20 times with a 1 and 3 year. Running the business was a challenge to say the least.

Our mission is to help you be comfortable being uncomfortable. We’ve gone back to our outdoor roots with the release of our brand new Ruck Backpack. Rucking is inherently done outside and is a great way to build muscle and/or lose weight while also getting all the health benefits of being outside. Rucking burns more calories than walking and is lower impact than running. It’s an amazing way to get an effective cardio workout that you can do while listening to a podcast, talking with friends, walking your dog, or our favorite – making Zoom calls Ruck calls.

My dream as a kid was to be a professional athlete and in a way starting WILD GYM has allowed me to do that. It also means that I have had plenty of adversity on the athletic front. The first time I tried to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park my partner and I bailed half way up the cliff. I went back a year later and after two failed attempts thought I would never make it to the top. After resting for a day and psyching ourselves up, we finally summited after 31 straight hours of climbing. In 2019, some friends and I went to the Grand Canyon to run the infamous rim-to-rim-to-rim which is a 50 mile ultra run with over 12,000 vertical feet of climbing. We started in the dark and I did not see the rock that I stepped on a sprained my ankle only one mile in. I was devastated that I would not get to experience the jounrey with my friends – some of which I had not seen in years. Fortunately – the injury healed quickly and I returned to the Grand Canyon 3 weeks later. My friend Chad was extremely kind to join and ran part of the distance with me helping me achieve the goal I had spent the past year training for. For the past 5 years I have been elk hunting solo in Colorado. I’ve had some close encounters, but could never connect. This year in 2023, I am grateful to say that I took with first Bull Elk with my bow. Solo, in the backcountry. Besides getting married and the birth of my two girls – this was the most rewarding, humbling, and sacred experience of my life. Thank you, Elk.

I’m extremely proud of our community and encourage anyone interested to please join. We run a private Facebook community that hosts regular fitness challenges. These aren’t just another quick fix solution like the ‘industrial fitness complex’ want to sell you. Instead, we promote a lifestyle focused on consistency and doing what you can with what you have.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Day 1 – Climbing fest in the Flatirons outside Boulder. Then beers at Rayback collective. Day 2 – Ride bikes from Idaho Springs to the summit of Mt Evans. Burritos at Bonfire Burritos in Golden.
Day 3 – Run The Incline in Manitous Springs. Hit up In N Out Burger on the way back.
Day 4 – Climb in Eldorado Canyon. Beers at Southern Sun afterwards.
Day 5 – Hike the Boulder Skyline Traverse. Steak at Blackbelly to refuel.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
WILD GYM has completed 8 Kickstarters since 2014 and we would not exist without the support of our amazing community aka THE LEAGUE OF WILDNESS. Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years and helped to bring the vision to life!

Website: www.wildgym.com

Instagram: @wildgymco

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildgymco

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wildgymco