If you have been following our site, social media feeds and forum posts you may have seen us talking about the Hangs we host. However if your new to the hammock world you might say "Hang?"  and who would blame you.  It's not a term you see used a lot but basically we are talking about a meet up. A hang is just a hammock campers term for a group get together.  It's a social event specifically for hammock camping.  It's a chance for hammock campers to get together, camp, discuss gear, and hammock camping technique.  

Some hangs are based around car camping so that anyone can attend. Some are based around backpacking trips.  But the main idea is to find like minded folks that enjoy a more elevated life in the woods.  

We at AHE host a few hangs each year to get local folks in Idaho together.  This year we have a number of events planned.  

Our Spring Meat and Greet is our big late spring/early summer event....and no we did not misspell Meat.  As a car camping event we plan a big Pot Luck dinner.  It's a chance for all of us to show our camp cooking skills and share a meal around the fire.  Even if it's just a bag of chips everyone is welcome to add to the meal.  

See more about our hangs here:  Hammock Hangs

So join us for one of our upcoming hangs, everyone is welcome and all events are family friendly.  

 After a very busy holiday season AHE is finally all caught up on old orders and we are back to our normal production time of 2-4 working days on most orders.  We have a good stock pile of materials and we are ready for the spring camping season. On the horizon we have a number of new product ideas and we will be working to introduce new gear all year long.  Be sure and check out our New items section on a regular basis as well as follow our social media feeds for whats going on week to week.  

If you are just getting interested in hammock camping be sure to check out our line of hammock kits, here's a little teaser video. Check out the full videos and the kits in the Hammock section of the store. 

We recently added Instagram to our list of social media outlets.  We have been posting photos of gear both in shop and in use in the woods as well as some of the amazing scenery from around Idaho that we run into while out on adventures.  Check us out and follow us for regular updates.  

As more and more people have gotten into hammock camping over the past few years they are often introduced to many new terms.  From the unique vocabulary that revolves around suspension systems to the creative names many companies give to their products and more so even to the very definition of those companies’ style of business.  Whoopie Sling, Stinger, Mamajamba, and Dynaglide are not everyday terms for most folks.  Neither though is Cottage Shop.  So what is a cottage shop, how is it different and what does that really matter to a new person looking at hammock camping equipment for the first time?


Cottage Shop is a term that might make you think of a small village business in Europe hundreds of years go…it did me the first time I heard it.  Little cottages in town each with a merchant in it pedaling their goods to travelers.  Baked goods, wooden shoes, shiny trinkets, pet rocks and at the edge of town the blacksmith with an anvil by the door.  And honestly in many ways it has not changed.  None of these shops have big manufacturing facilities and assembly lines out the back door of their cottage.  No, instead they all have a back room or a kitchen counter where they put their goods together.   Fast forward a few hundred years and a few things have changed.  Now with the internet many cottage type businesses don’t have a store front on main street but instead a website.  And I think that is where many people in this day and age get confused.  Having a website does not define how large of a business or how it inventories goods.  Amazon is a website and they have dozens of warehouses’ where they have hundreds of employees boxing and shipping goods all over the world.  But many small businesses don’t have that same sort of business model.  Cottage shops are generally made up of a few people working to make goods one at a time.  They don’t have unlimited resources and don’t tend to have their products produced for them overseas.  Instead they make their products one at a time or in small batches.  

For hammock equipment this means that each piece of fabric is rolled out and cut, each piece pinned together and sewn individually.  A good analogy is to consider your morning breakfast.  Think about 2 mornings and the same breakfast, lets say pancakes, sausage and hash browns with a cup of coffee.  One morning you stop at the fast food drive up window.  You order from a garbled speaker with a digital read out of your order, pull forward, pay at the first window, pull forward, get handed a cup of coffee and a bag and you’re off.  Now picture day two where you stop at the local mom and pop diner.  You sit at the counter and are greeted by pop who tells you the coffee is a bit old and puts on a fresh pot.  He asks you how your day is going and if you caught the game last night.  You order your breakfast and rather than someone pulling stuff out of the freezer and microwaving it you hear mom in the back mixing up pancake batter and putting on some hash browns to fry. Pop brings by the fresh hot coffee and the paper.  He grabs his cup and tops it off with fresh coffee as well. A few minutes later mom brings your plate full of hot fresh food out and says “Here you are dear, can I bring you anything else”  

Now mom and pop certainly took a bit more time from your day.  But your food was made fresh, not in a factory and re-heated for you in under 2 minutes.  Is one better than the other.  I’ll let you ponder that, but think also about which one is made with you in mind.

Cottage made gear goes though the same sort of life as your mom and pop breakfast.  Rather than just sitting on a warehouse shelf, when you order from a cottage shop someone has to take your order and turn it into functional gear.  They take fabric off the roll, cut it, pin it, sew it and turn it into a finished product, gear for you to use.  They think about how that gear will be used, does it need to be durable, light, warm or strong. Does it need to hold up to hundreds of uses.  Does your enjoyment of your trip depend on it.  Does the safety of the user need to be considered.  Just like Pop thinks about how fresh the coffee is because he is going to drink it too, most cottage vendors consider how well their gear will work because they are going to use it themselves. 

To me, a cottage shop is different than big businesses in how they function and the service that comes with that.  In the hammock camping community the vendors run the range from companies that market goods made in china to shops literally run by 2 people, mom and pop (very literally) for a few.   Most though are small businesses that have a handful of employees to help keep things running smooth and minimize wait times.    

We have just released our newest line of gear on the earth and everyone should jump over to AHE and check it out.  

When starting out with hammocks there is so many options to take in and consider.  So many bits and pieces that it can get overwhelming.  AHE has decided to help take a bunch of the "what do I need to hang?" out of it.  We have put together a basic and step up kit together that gives you all the parts and pieces that you need to actually get out and hang.  No more guessing if this piece or that one will work together.  We built kits around our most popular and most versatile gear.  In the coming weeks we will be building another kit for the next step up which will include a tarp with all the fixings...Guylines and Ridgeline, seam sealed and ready to pitch.  

The bonus in buying in a kit like this is the savings and simplicity.  $50 - $80 off of piecing all to the gear together your self.  Everything you need to hammock camp will come to your door in 1 box ready to hang.  


Our New Hanger Kit will get just about anyone up off the ground.

New Hanger KIT CONTAINS: 
Gathered end 11 foot double layer hammock.  
Ultralight Whoopie Sling Suspension with Adjustable length Ridge line for the perfect sag. 
3 Season Partial length Jarbidge Under Quilt with foam foot pad
Removable HUG - Half Bug Net
Sap Sack to store your Tree Straps and Toggles in
Micro Ridge Line Organizer 


The Apprentice Hanger kit adds an Owyhee Top Quilt and Cub Pillow to the kit.  


Both are available now at: http://bit.ly/1IKAruv



Not only is Arrowhead Equipment the one stop shop for all your hammock camping needs but we are also now a one click stop to get well hung.  Add just the New Hanger Kit or the Apprentice Hanger Kit to your cart and your set to hammock camp. 


Paul@AHE

Call the Boss and Tell him your celebrating NationalAHEday2015
Take the national holiday off, 
Light up the Camp Stove, Burn some Romen
and order some gear!

Enacted into law on April 27th 1918 by President William Howard Taft, National Arrowhead Equipment Day is celebrated world wide.  Taft Loved hammock camping so much and recognized that Arrowhead Equipment should have it's own day set out on the calendar to celebrate all sorts of AHE gear....Quilts that Kick Ass, Tarps, Suspension, Pillows, Cozies, and so much more. 

To Celebrate, Taft asked us to share his personal Discount
 code at AHE with all of the other Arrowhead Equipment Fans!
 
NationalAHEday2015  
 
Just type NationalAHEday2015 into the coupon code box in
 the cart as you checkout and President Taft will take 15% off 
your order total today (4-27-15) only. 

Any order over $50 qualifies.


President Taft signing National Arrowhead Equipment day into law. 


More Details at  http://conta.cc/1Kmswlj