From Dennis Brune, Owner: I started ALPS Mountaineering, a small company located in rural east central Missouri, with the mission of "providing more gear for more people". We offer performance oriented packs, tents, sleeping bags, furniture & air pads. All of our products are “consumer designed” for comfortable enjoyable trips that have tough, durable construction for a lifetime of use, and while the products are great, the prices are even better. I have been working in the outdoor industry since 1978 in a variety of design, sales, and marketing positions. A lot of my prior outdoor experience came from running the Kelty brand, which also marketed packs, tents, and sleeping bags. In 1994, Brian, the oldest of our 3 children, was about to enter middle school, so I left Kelty because I wanted to have a more flexible schedule to allow me to be more involved in my family’s activities.
As our business has grown, so has our need for good, qualified staff members. We started filling those needs in 2003 when Brian graduated from college with his degree in marketing. While my intention never was to “only hire friends and family”, I continued the trend by next hiring my wife, LaRayne. When Adam, our second son, graduated in May of 2006, also with a degree in marketing, we also hired him. In the summer of 2006 we needed even more sales and marketing help, so we next hired our daughter-in-law, Sarah Beth. Our youngest child, Sarah Kristin, graduated from Mizzou in May of 2009 with her degree in communication, and we also said to her, “come on board!” As I’ve happily and very proudly told several people, we’ve “redefined the family business”. Of course we have plenty of “non-Brune” employees … Debbie, Karen, Phil, Sean, Laurie, Zach, Tracy, Jeff, Doug, Spencer … and we consider them to be part of our extended “business family”. While we believe in making exceptional products, we also think it’s equally important to have outstanding employees … and I can say that we’re doing a great job of both.
Regarding our products, the challenge we have is to convince you that we can deliver products that offer great designs, are loaded with plenty of features, are made with excellent quality … AND are also affordable. In our current economic situation, it’s extra important to evaluate all of our purchases. We think if you do your “homework” and fairly compare our products to those of our competitors, you’ll see we can offer you the best true value.
