Who is Trail Designs?

Trail Designs - New Steward

Tom Heinrichs took over the reins from Lee, Russ, and Rand in December 2025. 

After spending several weeks training with the crew in Modesto and San Jose, California, we spent a week tearing down and packing up the shop and loading it into a semi-truck van to haul to Trail Designs' new home in Alexandria, Virginia. This was a BIG job and unpacking and reconfiguring will be a work in progress for some time to come. Thanks to our loyal customers for their patience while I unpacked half a ton of the lightest backpacking gear on the market and a couple of tons of manufacturing equipment into my workshop.

I (Tom) have been backpacking and climbing since I was a teenager. After college in California and many weekends spent in the Sierra and climbing in Yosemite, I went on a post-graduation trip to explore Alaska. I never left. Thirty-one years later, I returned to Virginia to care for my aging parents. In Alaska, I worked as a glaciologist and hydrologist in my 20's before moving into computers and satellite remote sensing. I worked and hiked in the wilderness and climbed many mountains in Alaska, most of which you have never heard of and a few you probably have. I have also bike toured and sea kayaked extensively. My most recent big adventure was hiking the 800-mile Arizona Trail over six weeks in the spring of 2025. 

I look forward to carrying on the the unique, high-quality work that the Trail Designs founders have developed through their amazing creativity and engineering skills. 

Retirement: Announcing a New Steward for Trail Designs

Thank you to our incredible community for the outpouring of support following our retirement announcement. We are excited to share some wonderful news: a new owner has been found to continue the Trail Designs journey!

Our chosen successor is a passionate member of the backpacking community who is dedicated to upholding the values that make Trail Designs special. You can be confident that the commitment to ultralight performance, clever design, and American manufacturing will remain the core of the business. (more info)

 

The Founders: 20 Years! (2005-2025)

Trail Designs®, and its products, are the vision of three Northern California backpacking mechanical engineers. Through our various treks deep into the Sierra Nevada, hauling heavy and inadequate gear, we concluded there should be better solutions than what was commercially available. As a result, we formed Trail Designs LLC in June 2005 and began using our keen wit and razor sharp talents to develop products optimized for the lightweight and ultralightweight backpacker.

Here's an interview with the whole Trail Designs crew for Hendrik's Hiking in Finland blog

.....and another separate interview with Rand Lindsly for Benjamin Moryson's Outdoor blog from Germany.

.....and this just in Russ Zandbergen's podcast with Practical Backpacking.

.....and yet another interview with Rand Lindsly for Jacob Dinardi's "Hike it. Like it." site!

....and another interview with Rand Lindsly for Keith Foskett's blog

photo by George "Tin Man" Andrews