Inc.

Burst Out of Your Niche

How one company built a $30 million business from specialized products—and how you can too
BANG ON TARGET A longtime hunter, Jason Hairston (wearing Kuiu gear) named his new company after an Alaskan island that attracts expedition-style trackers.

JASON HAIRSTON KNOWS his hunting gear. The first company he co-founded, Sitka, brought the high-tech materials found in specialist outdoor clothing to the camouflage set, a demographic historically overlooked by performance-sportswear brands. But in 2010, he says, his CFO “sold the business out from under me,” to Gore-Tex owner W.L. Gore and Associates. So Hairston started again, and in 2011 launched a new ultralight-outerwear company, Kuiu. It started

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