Spotlight Episode 03: Steven Binns, Marketing Manager at Hestra

Transcript

Bryan Koontz (00:01) Hi, I'm Brian Koontz. The following is a conversation with Steve Binns. He's the North American marketing manager for Hestra Gloves. Hestra is a very cool company. They were started in 1936 in the small town of, you guessed it, Hestra, Sweden, by an entrepreneur named Martin Magnuson. And Martin began his company making gloves for lumberjacks in the mountains of Sweden. But about a year later in 1937, a nearby ski resort opened up.

And Magnusson, ever the entrepreneur, saw the need to make high quality gloves for skiing and therefore started expanding the glove line accordingly. If you fast forward to today, Hestra makes over 400 different styles of gloves, including gloves for people who love to hunt and work outside, and is still run by the family, the third and fourth generation of Magnussons, and they're still based in Hestra, Sweden. Hestra is a great story about entrepreneurship, a focus on making one type of product, gloves, and perfecting that craft.

I recently bought a new pair of Hestra gloves, the Hunter's Gauntlet gloves, and I've already taken them in the past couple of weeks on several waterfowl hunting trips here in Montana. This is my fourth or fifth pair of Hestras. I love them. I keep a pair of leather Hestras in my truck and so on, and started this collection three or four years ago. So I'm thrilled now that finally Hestra and Guidefitter are partners, and I hope you enjoy this conversation with Steve and I to learn much more about this incredible outdoor brand. Welcome to the Guidefitter Spotlight.

Bryan Koontz (00:27) All right. Steve Benz from Hestra. I'm so excited to talk to you because I didn't know anything about Hestra until I'm going to say three or four years ago, I get this catalog from Yeti Coolers. Okay. And, and

In the catalog, they listed like some other brands that they're affiliated with or whatever. And there was this Hestra ad. I'm like, what the heck is Hestra? This looks cool. And I'm really happy that I saw that ad and I'm also not happy because I've now spent so much money on Hestra gloves since seeing that ad. I have, I think at this point I have now five pairs of Hestra gloves and they're amazing.

Steve Binns (01:16) Hehehe

Yeah.

Bryan Koontz (01:37) And I didn't even know who you guys were until I saw this ad in a Yeti cooler magazine. We're still trying to get Yeti on the grid. I'm looking at you, Bill Neff. But I'm so glad that I did because I think that your product is amazing. And I'm looking forward to hearing more about the backstory, about the company, the brand, products and all that stuff, because I'm a huge raging fan. I'm so happy that we're finally able to partner with you guys. So.

Steve Binns (01:37) Really? Ha ha ha.

Bryan Koontz (02:02) Maybe talk a little bit about who you are, like, and then let's get into that, and then we'll get into the brand side of things.

Steve Binns (02:02) Absolutely.

Yeah, so my name is Steve Binns. I'm the North American Marketing Manager for Hestra Gloves. Hestra's a Swedish glove company. I've been with the brand for about just over about a year and a half now. But I got my first pair of Hestra Gloves in 2008. So I've been an advocate and a brand loyalist from day one. I entered, I started using Hestra as, I'm an avid skier. I was living in

Jackson Wyoming at the time and my second season I found a pair of what is now called the Fall Line and fell in love with the brand as far as the dexterity the fit deal and the warmth of them skiing and Over the years have learned more and more you mentioned you have five sets now I mean you only have 395 more to go. We have over 400 skews that range from once again

Bryan Koontz (02:59) Don't don't say that.

Steve Binns (03:02) With kind of three divisions, we have a dress division, we have a work slash job division which is called Hestra Job, and we also have our sport which is what skiing, snowboarding, hunting, biking, all those things fall under outdoor. So obviously with Guidefitter leaning really into our outdoor brand with our products.

Bryan Koontz (03:22) Awesome. Well, what's the so? What is Hestra mean? What's the name mean? Is that a family name or what is that? Let's get into the company a little bit.

Steve Binns (03:29) CLEAR

Yeah, so Hestra is a small village in Sweden. So Hestra Sweden, which is about an hour and a half east of Gothenburg, is where the company was founded. The Magnussons, or it's a fourth generation owned and operated company in Hestra Sweden. 1936, Martin Magnusson found a need that there were lumberjacks in the village of Hestra who

needed warm, durable, and safe gloves. And he started building gloves for the local lumberjacks using local leathers sourcing wool from retired World War II uniforms and reinforcing everything with rivets. And that's how the company was founded in 1936. So, and now we are currently on our fourth generation of Magnussons. So Anton, who's the great, great grandson of Martin.

Bryan Koontz (04:21) That's wild.

Steve Binns (04:32) is now the CEO of the company. So really, really neat longevity heritage brand for sure.

Bryan Koontz (04:40) That's amazing. I'm just, I'm readjusting our screen here. Just give me a second so I can look at you. So that's wild. I didn't know that. I thought Hestra was like a family name. I didn't, I should have done my research, but that's, that's super cool. Yeah.

Steve Binns (04:55) Yeah, it's amazing how Hestra I went for the first time last May. And like I said, being such a fan of the brand prior to working for Hestra and going to a meeting there and seeing just the small community of where this international brand came from, it was amazing. It's a really cool place.

Bryan Koontz (05:16) So I was talking to you before we started the interview about my newest pair of Hestra gloves, which are the hunting gauntlets that I bought, which I absolutely love. I was just in a duck blind yesterday here in Montana with them again. And so tell me more about is Hestra looking to...

get more into the hunting side of things or like, clearly you're strong in skiing. I've seen all the ski gloves and they're amazing. But how does the family and the brand, you know, think about the rest of the outdoor industry and all that kind of stuff? I would love to know your thoughts there.

Steve Binns (05:55) Yeah, so one thing about Hestra is that it kind of, we have the saying a glove for every day. We are a company that only produces gloves. We don't produce hats or jackets or boots. We are strictly producing gloves. So once I said 400 gloves, so the idea that we pride ourselves on the fit, the feel, the dexterity that these gloves are coming from, whether you're out, like I said, skiing, or you're out sitting.

in a tree stand or just in a range or any of those things. The idea is that if you're doing an activity, whether it's cold or whether you need that protection, we have a product for you, which is once again, Hestra job, if you're working on your sled or your four wheeler or you're wanting, mentioning the Hunter Gauntlet, which I have right here, really taking advantage of things like, the big part about Hestra is every glove has the end user in mind.

Bryan Koontz (06:43) Amazing.

Steve Binns (06:52) what they're doing, what will help them be more comfortable while they're doing it. Things like the free curvature fingers that we have on the leather, where we stitch it in. Same thing with our Ergo Grip, where basically it's pre, we're removing excess leather so you have that better feel of holding.

Bryan Koontz (07:08) Wait, wait, let me just ask you. Pre-curvature, what is that? Like, is it designed for how the human hand is shaped? Is that what you mean? Okay.

Steve Binns (07:16) Correct. So with the Hunter Gauntlet right here, it has that pre-curve. No one's hand is naturally straight up and down all the time. You kind of naturally have that loop, for lack of a better word, or curvature. So the glove is already fitting to how your hand naturally fits or works and functions, whether holding something, whether just hiking, any of those things. So at the end of the day, yes, as far as outdoor, we have our outdoor.

Bryan Koontz (07:24) Sure.

Yep.

Steve Binns (07:46) line for hiking, but for hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, all those things that basically if you're outside, we want you to know there is a glove for you that will keep you safe, keep you warm without getting in the way. The idea is put a glove on, you don't notice it's there, that's the job of a glove. If your hands are cold, you notice your gloves aren't doing the right job. If your hands are warm, you're not noticing that your glove's doing the right job, so.

Bryan Koontz (08:11) Yeah. The other thing I've noticed about Hestra is the price point. There's quite an array of price points. Like there are some super premium, like, you know, above 100 bucks kind of, you know, gloves. And then there's some that are a lot less than that, like for work gloves and things like that. Can you talk to like what, you know, like who are you going? It really does seem like you're going after kind of anyone who needs something to put on their hands.

you know, rather than just trying to be a premium, premium brand or also you're not a Walmart brand at all. So like talk to me about that. That's a very interesting aspect of the brand.

Steve Binns (08:41) J.

Yeah, when you start getting into our outdoor gloves, like you said, we mentioned that Hunter Gauntlet, our felt guide, which is kind of an outdoor, do it at all glove. What we're really, they're premium price point and they're higher. However, what we're really leaning into is all our gloves are, we source the best materials. Our leathers are the best goat and cow materials that you're gonna have, making them more durable. All our,

All our gloves are handmade, hand stitched. In one of our ski gloves, it's, I believe, 119 parts all handmade along the way. All these things, the time it takes to create these gloves, the quality assurance that we're guaranteeing, all these things are gonna eventually, yes, move the price point up. But what you're getting with that is a product that, one, is gonna function really well, and two, most importantly, it's gonna last. We're not producing a glove that...

you're gonna go, I'll use it two years and it's gonna fall apart and you have to replace it. It's still gonna be good, it's still gonna remain its high quality, it's gonna be warm. And if something happens to it, if say over time, over time we have replaceable liners, the idea is that you have a glove that's gonna last you five, 10 years, longer. I've seen some of our ski gloves at shows where people show up and it's, I've had this glove for 15 years, I make sure I bomb it, I take care of it with your...

leather bottom, I just replaced the liner over a couple years, and it's still going strong. And we love to hear that. But then we do have our job line , which is also available on Guidefitter, which are, they're really, really high quality work gloves. The idea is that, you know, we have, I have a cow driver here. The idea is it's just the dexterity, the fit feel, the high quality leather. And you know, we're not, this isn't the glove that we're hoping to want you to go out and go hiking or anything, and that's not its purpose.

Bryan Koontz (10:31) Oh nice.

Steve Binns (10:40) The idea of this glove is you might throw it in your truck and if you need to change a tire at the trailhead or you need to work on, you might, maybe at a campsite you don't really want to trash your nicer hunting gloves, you can pull this out of your pack and chop wood or gather lumber, whatever it may be. The idea is it's kind of the in-between. It's a work glove, it's meant to be a work glove. But once again, the same.

Bryan Koontz (11:04) What what and what is that one called again? Now I might have I might be looking at my six pair.

Steve Binns (11:07) This is called...

So these are awesome. These are called cow drivers. Obviously it's kind of a ranch inspired glove. It's just really high quality, unlined cow leather, but the suppleness and the feel you're gonna get once it breaks in is amazing. You know, I use these as like I said, a camping glove, but I also use them in my yard, breaking leaves, whatever it may be. And also though comes in an insulated version. So we're throwing in that G-Loft liner, making it that much warmer. So a winter version.

Bryan Koontz (11:14) L-drivers, okay.

course it does.

Steve Binns (11:40) same really great high quality cow leather. But once again for working at the campsite or working at your car or DIY projects around the house, whatever it may be. And that's the inspiration behind our job line, which is lower priced, but meant to be kind of the glove that you trash rather than trashing your, you know, your really great felt guides that you know, there's a lot more there are a lot more parts to a lot of these outdoor gloves. There's better linings, there's

Bryan Koontz (12:01) Yeah.

Steve Binns (12:08) They're meant to be warmer and the dexterity is getting better and they're going to last longer. There's a lot. So that's kind of the idea between the two, the two and the price points. And then there's everything in between.

Bryan Koontz (12:15) That's...

So the Gauntlet gloves that I just bought, that I've taken duck hunting now twice, they have a technology, I think it's called CZone Is that, can you talk to me a little bit, is that sort of a, I don't know what that is. It's clearly the waterproof thing for Hestra. Maybe talk a little bit more about that.

Steve Binns (12:41) Absolutely. So if you see CZone in the title of the glove or if you see CZone on the glove anywhere on the tag, that is Hestra's proprietary waterproof technology.

Bryan Koontz (12:51) Okay.

So that's Hestra's technology. That's not like a Gore-Tex thing. It's like Hestra, like that's their thing.

Steve Binns (13:00) It's our version. We do use Gore-Tex in our products as well. At the end of the day, Gore-Tex is the Kleenex of the waterproofing, windproofing world. Correct. So Sezone is our version of waterproofing. Typically with Sezone, if you see that on a glove, it's going to be between the liner, or the inside liner in the shell of the glove in between some membrane that prevents water from entering the glove.

Bryan Koontz (13:04) Okay.

But there's a lot of other technologies that are great. Yeah.

Steve Binns (13:30) but does breathe. If it doesn't have CZone in the glove, if the glove doesn't have CZone, it's highly water resistant. Any of our leather gloves, leather is naturally going to be water resistant, but if it raining or if you're holding a really wet, anything really wet over time, you will have a little bit of moisture buildup. Specifically in the Hunter Gauntlet, we talked about earlier, unique to this glove is the liner is removable.

Bryan Koontz (13:40) Ahem.

Steve Binns (14:00) So you can take it out, if it gets, when the glove gets wet or damp or whatever it may be, you can let it dry. But the big part about this is, the liner itself is the waterproofing. So this is the waterproof part of the Hunter Gauntlet. This is high water resistance. So you might get a little moisture buildup in here after a long day, say you're sitting in the rain all day waiting. What you can do though is get home, have this dry separately, have this dry separately, and pop it back in.

Bryan Koontz (14:12) Ah, okay.

Got it.

Steve Binns (14:29) A lot of our gloves do have removable liners, which is great because one, if it packs out over time, the number of things to pack out on a glove is going to be the liner. Once it packs out over time, we sell the liners separately. So outside of the glove stays in great condition, still very functional. Liner's getting a little stinky, might be a little more packed out, as warm as it used to be two, three years earlier. Just buy the liner, keep the outside of the glove, save yourself some money and keep pretty much the glove out of the landfill, which is a giant...

sustainability story for us.

Bryan Koontz (15:01) That's true. I didn't think about that. That's true. You know to your point earlier about the only thing you guys do is gloves is It I think in some way it means that as a company you really focus on the little details that matter about all the things That go into gloves like for example I have several pair of Hestras that have the little wrist straps

And at first I thought they were kind of annoying until I realized, no, I now I know why they're there, you know? And then with the, with the Hunter Gauntlets I just got, um, I found myself wearing them in the morning. And then as the sun comes up here in Montana, we're duck hunting. I just clipped them on those metal grommets with that little thing right on my belt. And I'm like, God, that's just, it's, it seems now I get it. It's like, that's like a simple little feature, but I think when you focus.

on one product like that, you realize you pay attention to all of those little details. Where is the product team still overseas? Or is that here ? Like, what's the is it still? What? You know, where does all the product innovation and design come from?

Steve Binns (16:13) Yeah, our research development testing is in Hestra, Sweden. Giant facility in there. However, we get a lot of input from everyone, whether it be users from sites like Guidefitter, or some of our ski athletes, or just any of our partners we work with over time. We get a lot of information coming in that we send over to our R&D team. And

Bryan Koontz (16:16) Okay, still there. Yeah.

Steve Binns (16:39) We've had gloves come out the next season that are either improved or brand new products coming out. So, while it feels sometimes like a big company because we have so many products, it's still a phone call away to get to the person who's coming up with all the concepts. So, we're always, yeah, we're always looking to change things or improve things. The nice thing is about Hestra is we're not creating a million new products a year. I'll use the example of a ski glove we have.

Bryan Koontz (16:55) That's awesome.

Steve Binns (17:08) our Army Leather Heli has been the same since we came to the US headquarters starting I believe in 2005, that glove has remained the same. We're not fixing something that works really well. We'll add some color ways or we might do something but when we do find something that needs to be improved whether it be the location of a stitch on a glove or hey let's add some reinforcement to you know on our Ergo Grip we noticed skis were kind of wearing down on that section.

So we ended up adding a little bit of reinforcement there. We're always looking to kind of make sure those little improvements are.

Bryan Koontz (17:41) Interesting. That's super cool. I think that it would be fun, I think, with Guidefitter to get feedback from guides. What features would the guides like to see? Because guides are, I mean, I've been out with a million guides. They're constantly putting their gloves on, taking them off, because they're always glassing. And especially big game guides out west, like,

constantly have their hands on their binoculars and they're you know, moving around and stuff and so I think it'll be fun I'm looking forward to the partnership to You know figure out what can we help? Hestra design team do with future products based on the feedback We're getting from guides because the idea is that these guides come up with I mean these guys grind it out every day doing crazy stuff outside and the things they come up with I never would have you know thought about

from every product, you know, so I think that'll be fun to work with you guys on.

Steve Binns (18:35) Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's what things with a lot of our products, you mentioned taking them off, putting them on. Our idea, we're always trying to make it where that glove can stay in your hand is in trying to get in the way. Like I said, I keep pulling up this Ergo Grip Active, and we also do an Ergo Grip Active Wool Terry And the idea is that we removed the excess leather from the fingers to create free curvature, but it also creates a ton of dexterity.

where you can zip things up, you can go through a bag, you can do a lot of the things, the ideas that you're, it feels like you're not wearing a glove at all. Specifically with some of these models, the ideas that's cutting down on wind, it's protecting you from the elements, it's not necessarily, it is keeping you warm in some fall or spring days. But the idea is that it's staying on your hand so that way you're not tinkering all day long with the chance of dropping it or whatever it may be.

So that's what we're always looking for that feedback to keep the glove on your hand not necessarily Off and on off and on all day or having to switch up different products and so

Bryan Koontz (19:43) So if you're, I'm just thinking about geographical differences and if it matters. I don't know. Like I'm not a glove scientist, but so like if you live on the East Coast and you're a whitetail hunter, you know, it's kind of moderate temps. Sometimes it can get cold, but it's usually pretty moderate. What's a good, what are, what are some good go-to Hestras for those folks? And then we'll kind of move.

Steve Binns (19:52) Yeah

Bryan Koontz (20:09) We'll move west from the Midwest into the West. You know, I live in Montana, so that the gauntlets are great, but can you give us a sense of, you know, what, what should people be thinking about? Let's start with the East Coast.

Steve Binns (20:20) Yeah, so the East Coast, you know, one thing, and then I'm going to speak kind of generally, but kind of there's more, there's going to be a little bit more moisture in the East Coast. So you might want to look at something that has some CZone in it. So something that does have that waterproofing technology. Not always, but definitely useful. I mentioned the Ergo Grip Active Wool Terry. I think that is a phenomenal product for

a lot of different parts of the country. One, it has the windproofing. Two, my favorite part is it has a wool liner. Wool, by nature, can get damp and remain warm. So if you do have that slightly damp day, even if your hand's getting a little wet, you still can remove warm during that time. Also, it's phenomenal dexterity, so keeping it on your hand. And that's kind of a go-to of mine for a lot of different parts of the country. It's not waterproof, but once again, the wool makes it where...

And it breathes really well there. So with humidity, it's still gonna be wicking the moisture away from your hand, which will by nature keep you warm. I think that's really important. Another kind of popular product, once again, using wool as the felt guide. This glove is basically designed with a survivalist outdoorsman in Sweden named Lars Felt. And the idea is, we always say he's kind of the bear's girl of Sweden.

Um, and, uh, once it's called, so it's called the felt guide. So it's F A with the two little dots on the top LT. It comes in this color, which is the brown, the black, and then it also comes in the white with the yellow. Um, the white with the yellow, when you, um, bomb it up and it ages and it patines, which is what leather does over time, it looks really great. It's just, it's a beautiful looking product. Um.

Bryan Koontz (21:49) And what is that model again? What is that one?

Steve Binns (22:19) Thought guide.

Okay.

Hmm. You keep grabbing that one, so I think that must be like a good go-to, like, stalwart model in the Hestra line, maybe.

Steve Binns (23:10) I f-

It's a phenomenal product. It is basically meant to do it all. As it breaks in, the dexterity of it is just phenomenal. It's high quality leather. It's gonna be durable. It's gonna, like I said, create really great dexterity. It has a removable Wool Terry liner. So once again, a liner that can be removed, dried out, washed, not dried. It'll shrink if you dry it, replaced as needed. But once again, with the wool liner,

stay warm when damp and it just does it's an overall everything glove. We sell it in our ski line. This is my backcountry ski downhill glove but it's also very popular within the hunting community, hiking community, do it all community. It's a phenomenal product. It's meant to be.

Bryan Koontz (23:10) So maybe kind of no matter where you live, East Coast, Midwest, West, that seems like a good just go-to, that one.

Steve Binns (23:18) I think it's a good go-to everything glove that you can do everything with. Once again, if you're out there, you're chopping wood at your site and you want to keep this in a little bit of a condition, you might throw these on instead. That's where our job line's for and that's going to help this last longer. But the felt guide, I think works everywhere. It's warm. It's, like I said, the wool liner's great and the dexterity once you break it in is phenomenal. It's an amazing product.

Bryan Koontz (23:29) Throw those on. Yeah. Right.

That's awesome.

Steve Binns (23:46) You know, you were mentioning the Hunter Gauntlet. It might be too, it is very warm. It's waterproof, it is very warm. So some of the milder climates, it might be too much glove for someone. But you know, if you've gone really cold, it's a great option for sure.

Bryan Koontz (24:01) Like, for example, I hunt back East with my dad. My dad's in his eighties and you know what? He's getting after it every day. And as often as I can hunt with him and my brothers, I'll do that back in Pennsylvania. Um, but I think the Gauntlet is kind of too much glove for Pennsylvania. That's my thought. Like I, I rarely wear gloves in Pennsylvania. If I, if I did, it would, it would just be something just to kind of like. Keep the breeze off my hands or something like that. So I think you're right. Like there's.

a little bit of variability depending on where you live. But there's some crisp mornings I would love to just throw on a pair. And I have a pair of, I don't know what the model is now. It's a leather pair. I wish I had the name, Hestra leather pair I keep in my truck. But I generally take those with me back. They're not work gloves, but I forget the name of them. But the point is, got.

Steve Binns (24:45) Mm-hmm.

Could be a high, the high lens looks very similar to kind of, it could be another option in our door line as well.

Bryan Koontz (24:58) Yeah, they're not heavy, they're not waterproof, but they're perfect for just a little crisp Pennsylvania morning, you know. But you know, you come out to Montana where it can be negative 30 sometimes, you know, you're gonna want some more teeth to the glove for sure.

Steve Binns (25:02) Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yeah, yeah. And it's exactly we definitely have obviously we've really high quality leathers. We have a glove called the NJORD It's N-J-O-R-D. Very minimalist leather glove, high quality, very light liner wool liner inside, but very light but meant to basically protect your hands from the elements. One thing to mention too is if you have a lighter glove like you can always add on yourself some like high fitters just a stand-a-lone liner, a merino wool liner that you

be okay it's never really correct yep and you can wear them to like with liners you could wear them for an early morning spring or fall kind of hike out to something or if it's a little bit chillier but it's not quite glove weather but it's not quite bare-hand weather but then you can also throw one in right underneath the glove if you're like oh man it's pretty cold today and my you know my new arts which are usually 95% of time perfect

Bryan Koontz (25:44) You can buy the liner separately? Okay.

I see.

Steve Binns (26:09) are just not warm enough, but I don't want to bring a second pair of gloves. You could bring a liner and put it underneath it and you're adding about 20, I believe what we say is 20% more warmth when you add a liner underneath the glove.

Bryan Koontz (26:19) Well, that makes sense. Then you can pop it off if it's too hot later in the day, throw it in your pack or your pockets. Yep. Yeah.

Steve Binns (26:24) Exactly shed it right away, whether it's the liner or whether it's the physical glove layering is a big thing of ours. We kind of make it sure that like we make shells to keep over gloves. We put liners under similar to what you do with your jackets. Um, and you know, base layers, stuff like that.

Bryan Koontz (26:41) It's interesting. So are any of the original family members still involved with the company? Or is that, really? Okay, because that's.

Steve Binns (26:49) original, well, like they're all the Magnussons still running. So it's right now Hestra's third and fourth generation owned and operated. So as I mentioned, Anton is currently our CEO. He's a fourth generation. They unfortunately, so there have been Magnussons who have passed away over the years, obviously. But yeah, but it's.

Bryan Koontz (27:05) Okay.

Well, sure. Yeah, no, no. I just didn't know if they sold out to like private equity or whatever. But no, yeah, they're still. That's awesome.

Steve Binns (27:16) Nope, 100% family owned and operated. And the Magnussons, this is their baby. It'll be family run. There's already, I believe, eight grandkids or whatever down the line are ready to take on the business as it comes through. So no, it's family run and operated, which is a really great story. It's great. It keeps the quality. It keeps the story alive.

Bryan Koontz (27:36) I think.

That's what I was going to say. Right. That's the pride that there's like, it's more than just money. There's family pride on the line. So like, you know, we're going to make the best damn gloves on the planet kind of thing. And that still flows through the family line. So that that's really cool to hear. That's I love brands like that, that just it's more than just a business. It's sort of a passion project, you know? Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's part of the family crest in a way, you know.

their life.

Bryan Koontz (28:09) Which is amazing.

Steve Binns (28:09) Yeah, no, it's amazing what we mentioned has to Sweden. I don't know the exact population of the small town, but it's tiny and there's multiple small businesses, manufacturing companies that are in Hestra. It's ingrained in the culture, but it really transitions well into, like Hestra itself transitions really well into the US and Canada and the high quality, it's just the high quality Scandinavian,

products that we produce just really fit in well with all sorts of like whether it's ski whether it's hunting and fishing on You know there all those things that are popular here very popular in Hestra Sweden in Sweden in general, so it's pretty neat

Bryan Koontz (28:50) Totally. Have you have you had the chance to go to Hestra? I kind of I kind of want to go now. Like, I'm like, man, I, you know,

Steve Binns (28:55) So I went, yeah, I went last May for the first time.

It's a, it is, I wouldn't go this time of year. It's a little dark and dre ary until the snow starts falling. Um, no, it's a, which is, but it's a great place to develop products for cold, wet climates. Uh, like they are, they're in it. It's, it's basically the idea of basically going from a work club to where we are today was in the 1940s. There's a small ski area called Isaberg And, um, in the 40s, some trains, skiing group trains started coming in. And that's where they.

Bryan Koontz (29:05) Drill, drill, drill.

True.

Steve Binns (29:29) magazines made the transition from work into sport, was there was a need for ski gloves. And that's how they transitioned into ski. And then over the years, things are just, you know, they've always wanted to touch on different parts. So we still have the work brand still, but we have our ski and we have our, once again, like the amount of like hiking, camping, fishing, hunting going on in Hestra, Sweden is very, it's very ingrained in the culture. So they want to make sure that the products we're producing help and benefit the end user.

which is, I don't think every brand can say that regardless of what they make, which is great.

Bryan Koontz (29:59) Yeah.

Right, right. So interesting. Steve, I've enjoyed this conversation, man. Like I I've learned more about the brand. I as you know, I'm already a fan, so I'm definitely biased. But I just like any final thoughts about if you are into your you live in the US, you like to hunt, you like to camp, you know.

Why would you consider Hestra? I mean, there's a lot of gloves out there. You go to like Home Depot and there's like the glove line and you know, there's so many things out there. Like I love the brand. But how do you for someone who's not had the Hestra experience, how do you convince? Like, you know, what gets you into your first pair? Because I think once you get the first pair, you're done like me. I'm done. And like the other Brian that works at Guidefitter, like he's done. So like.

Steve Binns (30:31) Mm-hmm.

Bryan Koontz (30:55) But you got to get someone into that first pair and they're kind of like, what's Hestra? I never heard of them. Like, you know, all that stuff.

Steve Binns (31:03) Yeah, so I think the key is getting one on your hands for the first time. What you're going to notice is the fit and the feel, and that's what we pride ourselves on, the dexterity. We don't do small, medium, large in sizing. We do a numerical 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. It can confuse some people. One piece of advice.

Bryan Koontz (31:20) I, by the, by the way, that's, that's a good point is I've learned, I got a, um, what's that called? Like a tailor's tape where you go around, they call it, what's it called? Like the French method of measuring the hand or something where you go around that the, the circumference of the Palm and it's very precise fitting that you guys promote.

Steve Binns (31:28) Mm-hmm. Yeah, more importantly than that is gonna be the length from your middle finger to kind of your wrist. There is a sizing chart on Guidefitter. One random thing that a lot of people don't know is about 85% of people, their US shoe size corresponds with their hand size. So if you're a size nine, you'll probably, it's a look, yeah, it's a random thing we try to share as much as possible. It's not at 100%...

Bryan Koontz (31:45) Okay. I didn't know that. That's a thing. I didn't know that was a thing. Okay.

Steve Binns (32:08) guaranteed technique, but it might get you in the pair closer. It might get you closer to the right pair. If you're an eight and a half, size up to a nine. But once again, I think just as far as, and this was my personal experience, put the glove on. Because of our size, we have more size, of like a larger range of sizes.

Bryan Koontz (32:17) Okay.

Steve Binns (32:32) You're going to find a glove that once you find the right fitting glove, you're going to notice, oh wow, I've never knew a glove was supposed to fit the way it does until you put it on. I think that's truly true. When in doubt, I think we always say best case is you can go into a retailer and try one on. If you have a ski shop near you and say you're interested in this felt guide and they're not selling it in a retailer, you can go into a store trying a ski glove. Our gloves run the...

run the Gauntlet. So if you're a seven in one, an outdoor club, you're going to be a seven in a sport. You're going to be a seven in job. It's just how it works. So first try them on, second do the measuring, and also third, what size shoe are you? I think once you put on, once you kind of enter the Hestra world, like you said, you're going to put one on and go, oh, it's different. There's a...

Bryan Koontz (33:11) I see. No, you're done. Then you gotta start explaining things to your wife about why packages keep showing up with gloves. Yeah, no, I know. It's, yeah, it gets really bad really quickly. Well, awesome, man. Yeah. Well, listen, I really appreciate the time spending with us just talking more about the brand. I've learned a lot of things in this conversation and.

Steve Binns (33:27) Yeah Yeah, right?

Bryan Koontz (33:49) Um, I'm a fan. I'm a raging fan. There's other people at Guidefitter that are raging fans and we're looking forward to this partnership, this new partnership with you guys. And, um, I, you know, I think, you know, I personally think everyone who loves to hunt and get outside should have at least a couple of para Astra in them. And now I've learned I need a pair of work gloves, uh, in my truck that I don't have. But, uh, thank you so much. And,

You know, we're going to post this up on Guidefitter and hopefully we'll have some folks that'll have more questions and you know, we can throw them your way if they come up. But yeah, so but thanks so much, Steve. I really appreciate the time, man.

Steve Binns (34:24) Absolutely. Yeah, no, absolutely. Thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun and makes us very excited about the partnership as well, for sure.

Bryan Koontz (34:35) If you ever want to come out to Montana, you know, in the in the cold weather, you're no stranger to the cold. But if you want to come out, you're always welcome. And we'd love to host you and hang out.

Steve Binns (34:46) Appreciate it, yeah, definitely. Definitely go on a line for sure.

Bryan Koontz (34:50) All right, Steve. And I kind of think I want to go to Hestra now. So, you know, the town. So, you know, I would love to do that sometime. That would be great. I went to a friend of mine from Austin. He's a Swedish guy and he got married. This is a long time ago now, Jens Telefson. And they got married in Stockholm and my wife and I went up there and.

Steve Binns (34:55) Hahaha

Bryan Koontz (35:16) We hung out in Stockholm for like four days and it was like in the summer. So like barely gets dark, you know, and we hung out in like the old, the old city in Kamalastan. And anyway, it was just, that was my only time to Sweden and I always wanted to go back. So maybe I now have a reason.

Steve Binns (35:22) Mm-hmm. Nice. Yeah, Gothenburg is a really cool little town too on the West Coast for sure. It was definitely young, a lot of things going on. People at like, you know, three thirty, four o'clock, people are out there doing fika, which is their afternoon, you know, cake and, cake and beers or whatever it may be. It's basically the end of the day, kind of relaxation break. And it's a really cool place. Like I, I had never been to any Scandinavian countries. And, um, it was a lot of, it was a, it's a, it's truly a special place. And that's like what everyone says. And you're like, you get there, like,

Bryan Koontz (35:58) It is.

Steve Binns (36:00) It's special here, this is not quite anywhere like it. It's very small, but it's very cool.

Bryan Koontz (36:04) I agree. Totally agree. Awesome, Steve. Well, hey, thanks again for the time. I really appreciate it, man. And we'll be in touch, I'm sure throughout this partnership.

Steve Binns (36:15) No, absolutely. Let me know if you need anything from me leading up to or in the next few, over the winter

Bryan Koontz (36:20) Perfect. All right, take care. Steve from Hestra thank you for joining the Guidefitter Spotlight. This is awesome. All right, see you.

Steve Binns (36:21) Cool. Thanks, Brian. Thanks for having me. See ya.

Bryan Koontz (36:30) Alright.