In 2006, YETI founders, brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders, set out to build a cooler without compromise. They were tired of handles breaking apart, latches snapping off, and lids caving in year after year. Ordinary ice chests were cutting outdoor adventures short and regularly costing money to replace. So, they decided to create a solution: to engineer a cooler that could keep ice for days, one that was durable enough for anglers to stand on and cast from, one that was completely different to any cooler that had come before it.
That’s how YETI Coolers was founded, and then the legendary Tundra® Cooler hit the market. It was a cooler made especially for the serious outdoor enthusiast rather than the occasional camper. One that can get dropped out of a truck, dragged through the backcountry, withstand any weather, and still be game for more. One that is virtually indestructible and designed to be irreplaceable. Since 2006, we’ve built even more products that stand up to the hazards of the wild so you can stay out longer, travel farther, and live harder.
No matter where the wild takes you, there’s a YETI ready to tackle your next adventure head on.
Built For The Wild
In August 2016, after more than two years of planning, Yeti opened its Innovation Center, a dedicated prototyping and product-development facility. The unmarked building sits in a corporate office park shared with an engineering lab, a few miles down the road from Yeti’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. The building’s one-way windows conceal a dedicated 10-person product-development team and millions of dollars of equipment — high-powered, complex machinery that most consumer-products companies would only dream of owning.
Before a product goes to market, Yeti puts prototypes in the hands of its brand ambassadors, all of whom are professional outdoor enthusiasts, for testing. While torture tests reveal breaking points, ambassadors provide insight into the practical nature of Yeti’s products, like the utility of straps or placement of zippers. Rather than targeting a particular audience, Yeti takes a pursuit-agnostic approach to product design. “It’s about starting from the ground up and making a product as best as we can make it, with no compromises”
Yeti’s reputation has begun to precede its product. Superlative durability, whether in a bottle opener or hard-sided cooler, has come to be expected. As Yeti broadens its horizons by introducing new categories and attracting new audience segments, its signature marriage of premium materials and true-to-life utility will endure, if not strengthen. Yeti is significantly focused on how they continue to bring innovation to the market; and that innovation is going to come in a number of different styles. However, they all tie back to Yeti’s focus on performance, durability, quality and design.