We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bri Bruchmann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Bri thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I don’t feel like I ever deliberately chose to be a creative entrepreneur as a full time gig. I have always dabbled in something on the side, mostly just to be able to buy whatever snowboard gear I wanted year after year and where I am at today absolutley feels like a snowball effect of all this bits and pieces coming together, with the most important lessons sticking to finally have enough under my belt to tackle something greater. It’s amazing how there are just never enough hours in a day when you are working for yourself but you are constantly counting them down working for someone else. I have a hard time sitting in that space knowing what this half is like, despite the sacrifice and investment you have to make.

The creative/maker’s aspect is a strong suit of mine that had fallen into place since before I remember. By default, daydreaming, brainstorming and creating is a space I mentally spent a lot of time in. I am the kind of person that hyper focuses on the small details that collectively create an overall experience. I think very big picture and then I chip away at it in reverse. Thinking back to all the stepping stones that landed me where I am today, I have felt at the top of my game when I am freely utilizing aspects of my personality that come naturally. Those are the times and places that I have felt the most purpose and most fulfilled.

When I have not been running my own business or creative side hustle, I spent over a decade as a professional adventure guide in Alaska and in the outdoor retail space in the off-season. The “I wonder…” is pretty much gone when I think of having a regular job at this point and it is more replaced with dread. But if I am looking back at my almost 25 years of employment, not many of my occupations would be considered “regular”, so it does make me wonder what I might even explore at this point in my life.

It’s no exageration when they say the second you decide to become a business owner, you go from a 9-5 to a 5-9. While the truth in that is so heavy, it also packs a freedom that I can’t imagine giving up, like starting the day late to go out for breakfast with my husband after we drop our kids off at school without being rushed on someone elses time frame, and dropping everything you had planned for the day and heading out to the woods because it’s the perfect day you have been waiting for to demo some new material, product or squeeze in a photo shoot.

My brand currently is a Winter focused venture, but I am dabbling in the off season here and there as I expand and experiementing with what direction I want to take my brand to bring it to a year round collection. This past winter, we did not actually get Winter in Minnesota. It was an interesting year to push out content like I usually do. I struggled. This season, instead of having the usual subzero stretch we usually do, which is where I do a majority of my business after the holidays and where I invested a huge chunk of my expansion this year, we were in t-shirts and I’m trying my hardest not to start my garden early because it should NOT be 60 degrees in February in Minnesota.

I got very discouraged 2/3 of the way through my main season this year and I actually was job hunting for a few weeks. While I spent a handful of years in college and took a few courses here and there after a long break, I never did graduate with a degree and my resume that was stuffed with riding helicopters to work on a glacier, snowboarding, making coffee, and selling high end outdoor gear didn’t leave me with many lucrative options after leaving Alaska. I’m all for new opportunity and personal growth – that is the exact premise I built my brand under. I would hope that I see people starting to work for me before I start to work for them if I’m really thinking about where I would love to see this journey take me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a life long Alaskan, turned Minnesotan with an extensive history in the outdoors. I grew up commercial fishing with my dad in the Prince William Sound in Alaska. In my mid teens, I transitioned over to adventure tourism and spent most of my early career in the outdoors as a guide, which led me to outdoor retail when I went off to college. I built the entire span of my 20s more or less around if I would be able to make first chair or not most days of the week at the ski hill. My playground also fueled my professional knowledge first hand where I worked with a handful of big name brands as a gear and product tester and grew fascinated with the technical side of the outdoor gear industry. I loved learning about fabrics on rain jackets and insulations that were warmer than anything else twice its weight and snowboards with helicopter blade material for a core. These small details I realized later on were a form a storytelling in product development that I could pass down to consumers to ensure proper gear selections based on need and price point. I LOVED working in gear retail. But after over 15 years, there was a degree of burnout that I finally felt like I could not recover from between being a post covid world at the time when I last left the space, juggling 2 kids and finding a paycheck that justified paying for care or staying home.

My brand, Forage + Roam Goods was an accidental launch into what I now call my full time career. The TLDR (Too long, didn’t read): I had an idea for a thing when I was home with a newborn and needed a hobby during covid. I played with the idea of these polar fleece hoods meant to for OVER my snowboard helmet for several months. Talked myself into putting it on TikTok. It went viral and I haven’t looked back. I have quite literally been rolling with the punches and going hard 6 months of the year and tapering down in the summers when my kids are home and ramping back up in the Fall. I am 3 years in this season and working on development timelines that more align with the actual retail space, not just producing on demand like I have been, and expanding my product line to support year round business. This is the first season I will be producing my hoods through the whole summer to have a full season’s worth of inventory when I launch for my 4th season this coming September.

My target audience is pretty broad, while also being very specific. On a large scale, if you are someone who gets cold, you could absolutely find a benefit to making a Forage + Roam hood a staple in your cold weather clothing rotation. You won’t find me walking across a parking lot without one if it’s cold out.

If you are a skiier/snowboarder/ice climber/fisherman/winter camper etc. who would appreciate a less is more approach to functional layering above the shoulder when it is below freezing out, I designed my MultiHoods especially for you.

(I call them a MultiHood because I consider them the swiss army knife of headwear, being a face covering, cowl/scarf situation, and hood all in one that can be worn a number of ways.)

A contoured neck band cuts drafts along your neckline while the stowable face gaiter protects your skin from driving wind and less than ideal weather conditions when worn over your face. You can also tuck that piece down when not needed for more of a “cowl” feel around your neck. The oversized hoods will fit all winter headwear underneath as well as cycling, climbing/mountaineering, equestrian and wintersport helmets underneath between the two sizes I offer.

This year, my third year in, I have transitioned my material sourcing to utilizing mostly Polartec® fleece which is widely used by larger brands in the outdoor space and a handful of other companies that are producing some top level technical materials, like the RePreve® fleece made from recycled plastic bottles, or 3 layer laminated waterproof softshells.

One of my biggest requests over the years has been to offer a camo line for hunting. If this was something I was going to do, I was starting with no regrets of wishing I’d gone this route sooner. I partnered with Realtree Outdoors® and became officially licenced to utilize their proprietary camo prints for my hoods and will be expanding this collection to offer more prints in the future. I also have a Polartec Blaze Orange that has been my top seller for my male demographic for 2 years strong.

Looking ahead to my 4th year and further settling in my space of being a solution driven outdoor accessory brand, I will be introducing some new additions to my assortment this Fall that will appeal to those that don’t have a need for the full blown hood, but still after some kind of winter layering. I absolutely love hunting down these materials that fit the bill for what kind of product I am trying to execute, telling its story, and getting it in the hands of the adventurers that could benefit from it most. Some of my favorite hoods I brought to life this year have been my waterproof softshells, windblock, and HighLoft® technical fleeces.

While I had my target audience of skiiers and snowboarders, my favorite surprise has been one of my biggest demographics being those with farms and homesteads. I didn’t plan for that, but I couldn’t love it more and it makes me so happy seeing something I brought into the world make a lifestyle I hold so much respect for even more enjoyable.

I get so much out of being able to do this as a career, but hands down, when my customers, who’s names I regularly see on repeat, call me out saying how much their hood(s) have improved their time and comfort outdoors, allowing them the space to enjoy more of what they are doing and less worrying about staying warm and dry in the process. Having people recognize the purpose behind why I chose a material or designed something the way I did and actually hearing it make a tangible difference in their experience…that is when it all comes full circle for me.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I have a long history with selling things I have made online. I’ve done Etsy. I’ve done a very unofficial “comment first to claim” situation on Instagram, but have ultimately settled with my own domain through Shopify.

Viewing my brand from the outside, I want to be seen and known as a quality outdoor gear brand that is worthy of sitting next to these brands I spent years selling in high end outdoor retailers – in a space where people come to, expecting well thought out design, quality material sourcing and the functionality of finishes. It was not my goal to be a “good crafter on Etsy” when I decided to launch strictly as an e-commerce based brand (although I spend a lot of time there supporting other makers and artists. It’s honestly one of my favorite things to do though, discovering other makers absolutely killing it and making their craft a part of my space and supporting them.)

I personally love an online shopping experience that feels like just that – an experience, and I wanted total creative freedom with how people interact with my brand for the first time. There are stories to be told and feelings to make people feel that hopefully inspire them to head to a wild space, enjoy some fresh air, and disconnect from everything that we’ve become so tethered to.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

When I launched my business 3 years ago, I was making 100% of my hoods myself in my home-based studio. My husband is also self employed and our “on” seasons are kind of opposite. When he usually has a lull is when I am at my all time high for the season. I put him to work hand cutting for me so I could focus on sewing, and it’s so fun to work next to him. He is a general contractor so he got all the gold stars when he would be squaring off the fabric patterns, aligning them as perfectly as possible.

I did end up reaching a point where no one could shop my website any time they happened to wander on because I would sell out SO fast, and then have to crank for 2+ weeks to get another good sized drop prepped, which would sell out by the following morning, and I was running that schedule on repeat. I searched and searched for how to have my hoods produced for me. This was all during a post covid era when importing was uncertain and I found i very difficult to navigate the space knowing next to nothing. I took a good look at what kind of business I wanted to be and at the end of the day, I’m always going to be a cheerleader for the local, small business and I searched for independent contractors, sewing studios, or local manufacturers that specializes in scaling micro brands like mine – not in the thousands of units, but hundreds.

I have been working closely with a Minneapolis based studio for the past year and a half to help with volume (I am still sewing, I just have help now!) as well as create some products that I don’t have the sewing knowledge or experience to execute (working with the stretchier fabrics on my winter headbands or heavy duty materials that were just too much for my home machines.)

As I wrap up this Winter season, this will be the first year that I don’t take most of the summer off. Instead of producing on demand as I have been, I will align more with a retail supply schedule and produce next years product throughout the summer, and start the Fall off fully stocked to last through the Holidays so I can focus the main part of my upcoming fourth season on marketing, fulfillment and branching into wholesale.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.forageandroamgoods.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forage_and_roam
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/forageandroamgoods
• Other: tiktok.com/@itsmebrib

Image Credits
Flint Grey Polartec MultiHood | Photo By Lia @fiddleheadacres Sunset Floral and Lilac MultiHoods | Photo by Jeremy @lavenderpeaks All other photos by Bri @forage_and_roam