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American Backcountry has produced its own line of destination T-shirts to sell to outdoor enthusiasts since 1993. Selling T-shirts out of the back of his car, American Backcountry founder, Frank Hintz started out wanting to appeal to Appalachian Trail hikers making their way through Harpers Ferry, WV and to local markets in his home state of North Carolina. Since then, he has grown his Asheville-based company to become a preferred vendor for public land partners across the country by selling moisture-wicking, athletic T-shirts that are free of phthalates, as well as a new line of cotton shirts that are 100% made-in-the-USA.

According to Frank Hintz, selling to the public lands market always made sense to him. “I was a Boy Scout as a kid and lot of the trips we took were to National Park properties. From a young age, I’ve had a particular affinity for it.” When Hintz started designing his T-shirts, he knew he wanted to pick a model that he could commit to and he felt that parks and public lands were the best choice.

Seemingly, the public lands market feels the same way about American Backcountry. In the past eight or so years of his business, Hintz explained that his initial focus of selling to a few major outdoor retailers, such as REI, has shifted, so that 75% of his sales are to nonprofit cooperating associations that partner with public lands agencies.

“By nature, American Backcountry is a product that brings appealing graphics and an interpretive flavor,” Hintz said. With each T-shirt his company designs, he works with public lands and nonprofit partners to ensure that the messaging is educational and that the graphics capture unique places that public land visitors will want to take home with them.

“We think our customers appreciate the difference between any old mountain and the mountain they just climbed,” reads the mantra American Backcountry features on their website and social media. According to Hintz, that mantra is why their company continues to create T-shirts that focus on special places across the country and why they are finding creative ways to promote visitation to public lands.

Using Social Media to Increase Engagement and Educate Hikers

American Backcountry uses their #HikerChat hashtag on Twitter to promote discussions on hiking and the outdoors between public land leaders and potential customers. The hashtag not only increases communication with their community but drives traffic to their website.

“#HikerChat gives an environment where we pick a topic for one hour, ask questions and then the audience answers. Their answers help our company and help with awareness,” said American Backcountry’s Marketing Manager, Melissa Mathews.

American Backcountry helps sponsor the weekly #HikerChat tweet chat and works with a variety of partners, such as #HikerChat host TETON Sports to introduce questions each week and increase engagement among hashtag followers.

This past week’s #HikerChat theme, for example, focused on “changing leaves, cooler temps, and pumpkin spice” and hashtag followers were encouraged to join in on September 16 at noon (EDT) to answer questions such as “what wildlife do you look forward to seeing this fall” and “where do you go to see the changing leaves.”

Mathews added that engagement projects such as this have helped double their website traffic in the past four years and has allowed them to connect with diverse audiences and enriching content.

Destination T-Shirts: Featuring the USA and Made-In-The-USA

One of the most recent ways American Backcountry seeks to support public lands and appeal to visitors is through their newly launched Made-in-the-USA products. The initiative, which began in 2014, involved them shifting a significant portion of their branded product manufacturing to a 30,000 square-foot domestic facility in Union, South Carolina with their brand partner and manufacturing source, Vapor Apparel. According to American Backcountry, this initiative was prompted by their National Park partners and was secured through a grant from the state of South Carolina.

Through this project, the company plans to renovate an additional 20,000 square feet of building space over the next two years to increase capacity of sublimation, full package and warehousing and distribution. The project will add "at least 114 jobs to the local economy in the next several years."

Hintz explained that not only was this a good move to encourage local job growth but that logistically it makes them a better business partner because it means that they can fulfill orders and help replenish public land partner stores more quickly and easily.

While public land partner stores have primarily invested in their moisture-wicking, athletic t-shirts that are great for outdoor wear, he believes that this new line of Made-In-The-USA T-shirts will also appeal to visitors who want to support local economies. To learn more about American Backcountry and to view their public lands specific product line, visit http://www.americanbackcountry.com/store/national-parks-catalog.html.