#817 - Jason Hairston & Brendan Burns

Joe Rogan (0:00)

Couple of hours.

And yeah, we got the gun. What's up, gentlemen, how are you?

Jason Hairston (0:05)

Good, thanks for having us, Joe.

Joe Rogan (0:06)

For people who tune in to this podcast, I got Brendan Burns and Jason Hairston who run a company called KUIU, which is the premier, if you could look at your company, like in comparison to a lot of other like sporting good companies, and like if people think about like a hunting company, you think about, oh, it's like some duck dynasty type shit.

You guys, what I like about your company is there's not a lot of people that take what you guys do, like make clothing and gear and take it to the most technical and most intelligent, like what is the best shit you can possibly make?

And go do that.

But because of that, this company's become this gigantic company. I found out about you guys from my friend, my friend Matin Poutelis, who works for MeatEater. He was wearing these clothes. I go, what's going on with that? What do you got there? And he's like, this is KUIU. This is this new company that's out there. Feel this, feel this, feel this. This is Ultralight. It's the best kind of fabric. So he started telling me about your company. And I just love when people go for it. I love when people like, people wouldn't think that there's like this big market to create the most technical, most ridiculously engineered hunting clothes. You would say, well, what the fuck? Who's doing that? Like we're-

Jason Hairston (1:27)

And who cares?

Joe Rogan (1:27)

Yeah, exactly.

Jason Hairston (1:29)

Who needs it?

Joe Rogan (1:30)

But then listening to you guys on a couple of podcasts, I'm like, these guys are fucking sharp dudes. Super sharp, intelligent people who just happened to be in love with hunting. And so you've taken this mindset, this achievement oriented mindset and put it towards this company. It's fascinating to me.

Jason Hairston (1:48)

Yeah, it's, you know, I just got into it because I wanted to make stuff I couldn't find.

I wanted better performing products. It's what, you know, we created the category with Sitka back in the days, back in 2004, because I was wearing all mountaineering gear and wondered why I was the only person that wanted that style, that type, that performance level of hunting gear. I didn't believe that I was alone and came up with the concept, introduced it in 6 to the hunting market and it exploded. Created the entire technical apparel category and it's just, it's now what everyone's chasing. It's what everyone wants to wear and makes a significant difference for our customers in the mountains.

Joe Rogan (2:25)

Well, there's a bit of, there's a lot of hunting people are kind of fashionistas in a way. Totally. They're like, ooh, what do you got there? Who's that under armor? Ooh, is that first light? Like they start like looking at your stuff, almost like girls look at shoes and purses and shit. It's really kind of interesting that way.

Jason Hairston (2:40)

Well, no one likes to go to hunting camp and be out geared, right? Your buddy's got the coolest latest stuff. They're like, what?

Well, what is that?

Joe Rogan (2:46)

One of the reasons why I wanted to have you guys on is because I've done the best job I can of trying to educate people as to what I see when I talk to people that are really intelligent, really ethical, very involved people that are fanatics about hunting. Because I think people have a distorted perception of what hunting really is.

Jason Hairston (3:07)

They totally do.

Joe Rogan (3:08)

It's like yahoos, beer drinkers. It's Bubba.

Jason Hairston (3:11)

I mean, people think of hunters as Bubba. Rednecks driving around drinking beer, shooting stuff out of the truck.

And it's so not that. At least our customer base and what we do. I mean, it's a true lifestyle. It's a heritage that's been passed down in my family. It's where we live and breathe. It's why I train every day.

It's what my focus is on my life and what I've done for a career in a business. And there's a lot to it. And the places we go require that, or you're gonna pay a huge, huge price.

And so it's a way for me to test myself as a human being, as a man, as a hunter and in life. And it's something that is a big, big part of me. It's been passed down from my father, and I'm passing down to my kids. And we've been hunters for two million years, and I'm freaking proud of it. A lot of people shy away from it. And it's something that is really, really, obviously a very important part of my life.