New Hope in Old Appalachia
This month the American Glamping Association is thrilled to introduce Nomadics Tipi Makers.
How long have you been in the glamping industry and how did you or your organization begin your journey into this industry? If you are the founder of your company, what made you jump into your entrepreneurial effort? Was it a slow or fast-paced start?
Nomadics Tipi Makers was founded by Jeb and his brother Thomy in 1970. During a thinning contract in the Oregon forest, they lived in a quite poorly made tipi through the winter. Jeb decided to make a better quality tipi and since those early days, we have been striving to improve the experience of tipi living. We have been selling tipis to campgrounds and retreat centers long before the glamping trend started, but it was always a fairly small portion of our business. We mainly sell tipis to individuals who revere the magic and close connection with Nature that a tipi can offer.
Ventura Ranch KOA in California was among the first to invest in tipis as a glamping option, and we have established a close cooperative relationship with them to consistently innovate and improve our tipis. They experimented with offering a glamping option to their customers since 2011, and in 2016 we designed a special “Campground Model” for their needs. We switched to 100% organic cotton, increased the door opening for easier access, made a lockable zipper door, added critter/mosquito guard to keep unwanted little friends outside, and waterproofed a tipi with an exterior rain cap and/or interior rain catcher. We also offer fully painted mural artwork as additional protection to the canvas, and we have designed a 24ft tipi with an interior bathroom option.
What makes your business stand out?
What makes Nomadics Tipi Makers stand out is our commitment to offering authentically designed, high-quality tipis as a way to help keep the Native American culture alive in today’s world. While we continue making the traditional tipi with its beautiful earthy artwork, collaborate with Native American people to bring tipis to reservations and are committed to being ecologically responsible (being a member of Green America), we are also embracing the glamping industry’s request for comfort.
What excites you most about your organization today?
What excites me most about Nomadics today is working with the challenge to adapt the Native American Tipi to 21st-century quality standards, so it continues to be experienced with reverence for the native culture. One of the biggest challenges we face is to communicate the uniqueness of a night in a tipi versus a night in a yurt, a tent or a tiny home. To spend a night in a tipi is to experience being in a living artifact, as you will be sleeping in the same structure that the ancestors of this land slept in.
