Why Yeti CEO Matt Reintjes is doubling down on bags

When outdoor accessories brand Yeti completed its first major acquisition last year, there were skeptics. After its January 2024 purchase of Bozeman, Montana-based cult bag brand Mystery Ranch, many of that brand’s acolytes feared it would disappear, swallowed by its larger new owner. And second, isn’t this a coffee cup and cooler brand?

Not exactly. It’s been almost a decade since Yeti first dropped its first Panga duffel in 2017, and since then it’s branched out to include backpacks, luggage, and more. But the company sees the new Ranchero backpack—the first Yeti product to integrate Mystery Ranch design—that launched in March as a turning point for it to truly become a bags brand instead of just a cooler brand that makes bags. 

CEO Matt Reintjes says that if you look back at the last decade of Yeti images and films, chances are they include a lot of non-Yeti bags. Because of the brand’s presence across the outdoors, whether hunting, fishing, surfing or skiing, or in camping and BBQ, bags were just a natural presence. So it’s perfectly natural for the company to be expanding its portfolio of bags. “This isn’t just about grabbing something, slapping our brand on it, draining the opportunity, and moving on,” says Reintjes. “We think there’s an incredible opportunity to take what Mystery Ranch has created in its brand, and what Yeti has created, with our brand and our capabilities, and have the best of both worlds.”

Yeti has long believed in a low-and-slow approach to expansion, that takes the company into areas that make sense and, more importantly, it has permission to be. It took the same approach to bags, gradually rolling them out over the past eight years. Now, with the Ranchero, the brand is ready to add some swagger. 

No more dabbling

The original Yeti bags were a natural extension of their founding product, the indestructible cooler for outdoor adventure. The Panga duffel and backpack were fully submersible, waterproof packs. 

Yeti’s head of marketing Bill Neff says that even though the brand has a pretty big portfolio of bags, it’s always been seen as dabbling in the category. “For the people that know we make these bags, they’ve been really successful for us,” says Neff.  “We just have never taken it overly seriously. Now, with the Ranchero, we’re going to talk about bags like we do coolers and drinkware. This is the flag we’re planting in the ground.”

It’s a flag in the ground, but the brand is still doing it the Yeti way. Don’t expect a Super Bowl ad. Instead, it’s about showing up in places that add credibility along with exposure. In 2023, the brand signed a licensing deal with F1’s Oracle Red Bull Racing, and now outfit the entire team’s luggage and bags. 

Neff says they’re also taking bags to ambassador deals. “We have ambassadors that personify who we are as a brand, but they’d be using North Face or Patagonia bags on-camera from other deals,” says Neff. “But a lot of them would use Pangas off camera. So we’re at a point now where our contracts include the bags category.”

Mystery Ranch Lives

Often when a smaller brand is acquired by a larger one, its value is in the expertise and IP, but the brand name is eventually phased out. Even at Yeti, this has happened with its 2024 acquisition of cast-iron pan brand Butter Pat. Reintjes says that this is not the company’s goal or intention with Mystery Ranch. While the new Ranchero backpack is the first Yeti product to utilize Mystery Ranch design IP, the Mystery Ranch brand is still alive and well. 

Reintjes says that one of the things that attracted him to Mystery Ranch was its origin story. Founded by Dana Gleason and Renée Sippel-Baker in 2000, it quickly became known for its focus on pushing the edges of design and development for gear in extreme environments. 

The brand will still live on in creating specialty gear for military and firefighting. “Mystery Ranch has really established itself in that world, and that’s that place we’re excited about where it can grow,” says Reintjes. “And on the broader, outdoor, everyday adventure travel side, the Yeti brand really fits in. So we think they’re really complimentary.”

Deposits and withdrawals

Yeti has managed to maintain an incredibly strong brand connection to its roots, despite becoming a public company in 2018. But quarterly demands haven’t altered the brand’s commitment to growing at a natural pace and in areas it has already an established presence. 

“We feel very fortunate that we have built a brand umbrella that’s much wider than the product portfolio that we have today,” says Reintjes. “So the privilege and permission to expand the product portfolio underneath the Yeti brand, that we work hard to earn from our consumers, puts us in a position where we have a lot of ideas on where we can go.”

An example of this approach is surfing. Yeti didn’t just jump in and sponsor the World Surf League or pro surfers like John John Florence. Its connection began as surfers were using its products while fishing and cooking outdoors. It became a natural place to expand. 

The acquisition of Butter Pat, and subsequent launch of Yeti cast-iron pan, came from its BBQ and cooking ambassadors. 

“From an acquisition perspective, we tend to think about it as, Are we making deposits on the brand or are we pulling out from it?” says Reintjes. “Sometimes you’re drawing on the brand to help establish it somewhere, but we’re almost always looking to add to it. I think what happens when you start cashing out a brand, it just gets more and more generic. It gets less and less loved. So we’re always asking, are we making it more rich, are we making it more deep and more connected?”

View the full article