Today we’d like to introduce you to Bri Bruchmann.
Hi Bri, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
When I say the outdoors has made me who I am, that is no exaggeration. I was born and raised in a roadless fishing community in South Central Alaska where I spent my summers on the deck of my dad’s commercial fishing gill netter, and my winters in the Mountains.
When I turned 15, I swapped fishing for the booming tourism industry and started a summer gig (that I went back to for the next 7 summers) working for a white-water rafting company. Spending countless days in the wilds of the Chugach region of Alaska introduced me to loving inclement weather, being in the wilderness, obsessing over gear technologies so I could perform my job(s) comfortably, and the best part, meeting my Minnesotan husband.
This was the fire that I would say officially started it all. If you could picture a snowball effect, this was the perfect setup for what my professional life would shape into and how I went from a COVID-era stay-at-home mom to running every aspect of my outdoor lifestyle brand and company, Forage and Roam. To get a full circle view of my journey and what inspires me to do what I am doing today, there’s quite a bit of my historical context that I still haven’t figured out how to say simply. Here’s my “short” version.
I was ALWAYS outside regardless, but this shift in how I spent my days ignited the beginning of what was going to fuel the next 2 decades of my life. My dream and vision for “what I wanted to be when I grew up” was always filled with a great big picture of the outdoors and everything that went along with it. Growing up and well into college, it was my end goal to be a big mountain/backcountry snowboarder, have the video parts, and be a firsthand asset towards the development of gear technologies with big-name brands. I LOVED (and still do) the nitty gritty behind understanding the price point and functionality behind outerwear and hard goods, what those materials are going to do for you, and taking those pieces to the proving grounds and putting them to the test.
I got part way there while my husband and I spent 8 years in Southeast Alaska, with some great experiences working with a handful of companies and riding for the local board shop in the Winters. In the summer, I was a glacier trekking and ice climbing guide for a Heli-guided tour company, which is to this day, the absolute highlight of my resume. Spending long days in every type of weather in a coastal rainforest on a giant ice cube meant the right gear choices were crucial.
When my Husband and I decided to mix things up and leave Alaska for his home state of Minnesota in 2014, it was a given that our lifestyle was going to do a 180-degree shift. I dove into high-end gear retail and thoroughly enjoyed a handful of years of educating and outfitting individuals and families for their casually adventurous weekends or even the trip of a lifetime. If you caught me piecing together layering systems, fitting backpacks, or picking out tents or snowboards, I probably had just as big of a grin on my face as the person I was outfitting. This whole process was just SO enjoyable to me. Plan for the worst. Hope for the best. It was so fulfilling seeing people walk away from our time together confident in the choices they made for the experience they had planned.
Now a point that I will make having grown up in a roadless, rural Alaskan community, and has every bit to do with why I am a maker through and through, is that I was primed from a young age to be hands-on and resourceful. My dad is a self-taught boat builder alongside being a fisherman, and my mom was very hands-on in making a lot of our clothes. I grew up learning traditional skills from my Alaska Native background as well as traditional handcrafts like knitting and sewing from a young age. At that point in my life, I just really loved “making”. To this day, I am never not making something.
In early 2020 when the world was a crazy place filled with uncertainty, I walked away from my 17-year sporadic retail career after bringing home our second kid and decided to stay home instead of going back to work. A background like mine didn’t let my mind stay idle for long and I needed some way to stay “in” the lifestyle that I knew to some degree, utilizing my firsthand experience from all angles all while trying to solve a problem that would fuel the same excitement, I got from being outdoors and providing something beneficial in the process.
A comment I get often is that the winters must be cake here in the Midwest being from Alaska. Not at all. I never experienced the cold that hurt my face and burned my nose, which made me want to stay indoors to the extent that I do here. I found myself making excuses to not get outdoors because of the weather.
That was not me and the first time I caught myself doing it I was not ok with it. Being a stay-at-home mom, during a pandemic, far disconnected from a lifestyle that kept me so leveled out in a sense felt like someone turned the light off… I felt my mental health slipping, not getting outside, and being active like I was used to, especially with that time being my primary way to decompress. I was also completely lost from my “old self” and felt like that part of me just got buried under all my new responsibilities – rightfully so, but that is not how I wanted my kids to know me or how I wanted to raise them.
I’ve always been an extremely driven and creative person. I didn’t see anything stopping me from taking my years of varied experiences and giving them a go in the real world on my terms.
At some point during the Fall/Winter of 2020, I started playing with designing this hood that would go over my snowboard helmet but cover my face. I had something other than your average balaclava in mind. The final design landed on being what I call “The MultiHood” – the Swiss army knife of headwear, being an absolute multipurpose powerhouse piece of layering that I now feel very strongly is essential to leaving your house in the winter in the Midwest (or anywhere cold for that matter).
My brand name, Forage + Roam, was ironically something I had set aside in my head about 5 years earlier with the intent to start an outdoorsy candle company. When I brought my hoods to life and thought about the circumstances, I found myself in, and put that name in a new context, I didn’t even have to think twice. This was a brand with the message to get back out there and search for those little glimmers that sparked life in you. For me, it has always been the outdoors. “Search and Wander” didn’t sound like too amazing of a name but, “Forage + Roam”…I’ve been behind that decision from day one in hopes that what I make and offer helps someone comfortably get outdoors and reconnect with themselves or find a new love for something they otherwise would not have exposed themselves to.
My logo is a little tiny spruce tip packing a whole lot of purpose and in a sense, my entire feel behind my brand that I wanted people to experience. Every Spring, you see these little spruce tips that are soft and fragile in a brand-new environment, but they are coming into the world on the very backbone of the season after weathered season. After everything the world throws at them, they get tough. Real tough. And soon enough, that spruce tip is a strong foundation for the next new beginning. This whole journey is a story of strong pasts and new beginnings.
This whole process was happening when TikTok was taking off for makers and small business owners. When I decided to make this an official thing, I put myself out there on TikTok in early 2021, all while taking over the entire basement of our home and turning it into my studio space. At this same time, I was also studying to get my real estate license, thinking it was about time I put some big girl pants on and went after something entirely different for me. I quickly found myself at a very clear crossroads – become a licensed Realtor, or build and run my company.
It wasn’t long before I had a pretty clear answer. It was Easter day and my family was out bouncing between egg hunts for our kids when my phone started going off non-stop and I was getting order notifications every few minutes, and in no time at all, my website was empty. I had officially gone viral, for the first time. I put my real estate binder on the shelf and haven’t looked back.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The experiences I have had helped guide me in a clear direction and stay focused, but the process as a whole has been a roller coaster of learning and adapting and knowing when to say no or walk away from something. I have been quite literally rolling with the punches and learning as I go.
I’ve found perspective to be an insanely valuable asset to keeping my head straight in stressful situations. I have had a handful of one-two-punch-type scenarios happen just over the past few weeks as I build up to my Holiday shopping season. Viewing these situations more as the universe doing me a favor and weeding out the unnecessary, further pushing me towards the big picture, over sitting in a corner stressing that nothing is working out how I planned, really helps keep me leveled and make the right choices to build my brand the way I see it finding its place in the world.
I do have occasional help (my husband helps me in his off-season, which is my on-season, and I hired out a local manufacturer to help me scale during my busy season) but aside from that, every aspect of curating my brand story, running my business, and producing my product and content is 100% me. I’ve dealt with inconsistencies in fabric quality, completely running out of inventory over and over, overproducing at the end of a season, not producing enough when the demand is high, learning various sewing machines, and finding the best fit for the heavy materials I work with, and just having to stay on top of everything, in general, to run smoothly. I prefer to source as many of my custom finishes as I can from other US-based makers and small businesses. Going that route requires quite a bit of foresight and lead time to have enough on hand versus just popping on Amazon.
My biggest struggle is trying to not do it all at once and drilling it into my head that “less is more”. I am filled with ideas that excite me and I tend to think VERY big picture. Whatever my initial thought or idea is for something is completely unrealistic and I have to tone it down several notches to have a chance at making it any form of reality.
I will take a comparison of last season and this season for an example in comparing some struggles I’ve had. Last season (year 2) I bought every fleece that I thought was fun or pretty and had a massive selection, in hopes of appealing to everybody. I sold through nearly all of those hoods very quickly and was unable to source more of some of the materials because they had already sold through for the season from my supplier. Sitting on several 100 restock notifications that you cannot fulfill is extremely frustrating.
This year (year 3), I have shifted my focus to utilizing high-end technical materials like softshell waterproof fleeces, wind block and high loft fleeces, and a new base fleece that has been tried, tested, and true for big names brands for decades. Fewer options aesthetically, but what I do offer packs a serious punch when it comes to functionality. This is the “playground” I saw myself in from day one. This is my background in all forms and to come full circle and hand curate and craft my products that are worthy of sitting next to the very gear I built my career utilizing, is right where I want to be. Coming into my 3rd year able to take on the investment of the upgrade in materials makes me feel so good about the products I am producing and the purpose behind them.
I am in the process this year, as I view it, of growing beyond handmade fleece things in my basement, to a durable, functional, and reliable outdoor brand that I hope people start to ask for by name.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I started Forage + Roam as an evolution and finding of place since leaving the mountains behind. After moving from Alaska to Minnesota where my husband and I raise our 2 kids (8 and 3), my outdoor lifestyle did a 180, and for a while, I was pretty lost. As a lifelong maker and outdoor professional, a collision of my two halves seemed more than fitting to bring to life a brand offering multipurpose and solution-driven products.
My primary piece of gear, The MultiHood takes the place of a scarf, face gaiter, and hat (although I am always wearing a hat with mine) all in one, can be worn multiple ways, and comes in 2 sizes:
The Regular 2.0 | Slightly larger than the hood on a sweatshirt, will fit over all winter headwear as well as lower profile helmets such as cycling, mountaineering, equestrian, youth Snowsport, and some adult Snowsport helmets.
The Helmet Friendly | Large and roomy to fit over adult winter sport helmets and some full-face style helmets. Also ideal for those with larger head sizes, big beards, lots of hair, or a preference for a roomier, less restrictive fit. The fit can be dialed in by adjusting the draw cord and toggles to your preference.
While my initial target audience was skiers and snowboarders, I have grown to have amazing customers from all walks of life all over the world. If you get cold, this is for you. If you find yourself outdoors when conditions are less than ideal, this is also for you. I take so much pride in selecting my fabrics and dialing in my craftsmanship to create something that will be an absolute staple in your cold-weather wardrobe.
In my third season, I am super excited to not only expand my base materials with the technical fabrics but also grow my hunting collection with the addition of blaze orange and registered camo (coming soon!) hoods in several prints you may be familiar with if you buy camo gear specifically for hunting.
I hope that through my brand and products, you are encouraged to take the time to get out, slow down, and as I like to remind myself, meet up with that version of you that no one could keep up with.
What matters most to you?
At the end of the day, confidence in the quality of materials I have sourced and chosen, and that they live up to the expectations of those taking them out in less-than-ideal conditions.
I think making an informed choice in something as simple as a head covering can make or break an experience, especially in Winter conditions. My customers have the peace of mind of knowing I have thought through every little detail so their hood(s) not only complement their time outdoors but enhance it.
Pricing:
- Price Range: $55 – $68
Contact Info:
- Website: www.forageandroamgoods.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/forage_and_roam
- Other: tiktok.com/@itsmebrib
