PA WILDS: Zippo Lights Up Outdoors with New Products

Zippo, one of the Pennsylvania Wilds’ most well-known manufacturing companies and a popular stop for many visitors who come to the region to recreate, is taking its connection to the outdoors to a whole new level this week, unveiling four new outdoor products at a major trade show in Salt Lake City.

The products – the Rugged Lantern, Utensil Tree, 4-in-1 Woodsman, and Campfire Carrier – are part of a new line called Zippo Outdoor that aims to build on Zippo’s legacy of fire, durability and reliability to win customers over in the backyard, at the tailgate and at the campsite.  

Zippo Outdoor Brand Manager Chris Funk said by phone Tuesday from the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake that Zippo has spent the last few years researching how to improve the camping experience. It’s reviewed existing products on the market and examined consumer insights about what’s missing or needs improved.

The consumer feedback – affectionately known internally as the “what pisses you off” research – has been really valuable, Funk said, because it has helped identify gaps or what annoys people about existing outdoor products and where there are opportunities for innovation.

The 4-in1 Woodsman, which can chop, saw, hammer and pull stakes, is a good example, he said. “It’s very unique and innovative and there’s nothing like it in the market,” Funk said.

A reviewer at Popular Mechanics magazine seemed to agree.  The Woodsman, the reviewer wrote, “is the kind of tool that makes you think, ‘Huh. Clever.’ … It’s easy to imagine the 4-in1 Woodsman making the chores of pitching your tent and tearing it down and then collecting firewood just that much more convenient. Plus, it just feel cool to carry around a hatchet that could convert to a saw at a moment’s notice.”

“At the end of the day we’re designing products that fit a very specific niche in the market,” Funk said. “We didn’t just go out and logo-slap products from Chinese factories and put our name on them. We want to earn genuine credibility.” In World War II parlance (WWII soldiers made the Zippo lighter famous), he explained, “we want to capture beachheads.”

Zippo’s brand has long been associated with the outdoors. A display box from 1932 — the year the Zippo lighter was created – for example, touts that the lighter is “For all outdoor people.” A number of lighter designs throughout the company’s history have targeted outdoor enthusiasts, and customers’ real-life adventures in the outdoors with their Zippos have regularly worked their way into the company’s marketing and culture. A popular 1960s advertising campaign, for example, focused on how Zippo lighters had triumphed over nature’s adversities, telling the story of a Zippo that was found in the belly of a fish — and still worked – and another situation in which  a cave explorer saved his own life with his “trusty Zippo lighter.”

“We’ve always had the outdoors in mind,” Funk said. “There’s always been that common thread.”

That thread officially became Zippo Outdoor in 2009 with the debut of three products: the Hand Warmer, Emergency Fire Starter Kit and Flex Neck Utility Lighter. From there the company’s development strategy focused on three specific categories – fire, cooking and comfort – which led to the four products being unveiled this week at the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake.

The OR show brings together hundreds of retailers and manufacturers of outdoor gear and clothing and helps identify and set trends in the industry for everything from backpacking and camping to paddle sports and fishing to endurance events and adventure travel.

Zippo’s booth, which is staffed by a team of eight, has demo videos as well as live demos that this year include a dunk tank (to show how the Rugged Lantern will float) and a sawing station for the 4-in-1 Woodsman. The booth also shows how the products are packaged for retail sale, so retailers can envision how they would present in their stores.

The main goal at the trade show is just to raise awareness about the Zippo Outdoor brand, Funk said. The show gets great attendance and media coverage, he said. “It’s the best event for this industry.”

Some of the products in the Zippo Outdoor line, such as the Cedar Fire Starters and Emergency Fire Starters, are made in the U.S.; others – the Windproof Stove and All-Terrain Grill, which are expected to hit the market later this year — are assembled, packaged or partly-made in the U.S.; while others are sourced out of the country. Zippo lighters continue to be manufactured in Bradford, in the PA Wilds, their original home.

“We always try to look at making products in the U.S.,” Funk said. “It’s a serious challenge. To just start making them in Bradford would take a lot of time and money.” Certainly Zippo’s overall expansion into outdoor products “has helped our bottom line which has kept our people in Bradford busy,” Funk said.    

All of the outdoor products in the new line were also developed in the U.S., Funk said, and the fact that the company is located in a region that boasts two million acres of public land, two National Wild & Scenic Rivers, the largest wild elk herd in the Northeast and some of the darkest skies in the world has played no small part.

“Most of our people working on these products are very avid outdoor enthusiasts,” said Funk, who counts himself among them. “We live in a region where that environment is right in our backyard. Indirectly it is absolutely ingrained into our products.”

Partners involved in growing nature tourism in the Pennsylvania Wilds are pleased to hear of the company’s efforts. Zippo has long been viewed as partner in local and regional tourism efforts; the Zippo-Case Museum in Bradford attracts more than 200,000 visitors a year.

“We are very excited that Zippo is expanding into a diverse line of outdoor products,” said Linda Devlin, executive director of the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau. “This is a perfect fit with our travelers coming into the area for outdoor recreation. Their new line of products will be featured in the Zippo/Case Museum, which is already one of our top tourist attractions within northwestern Pennsylvania, and should increase the number of visitors to their on-site store at the museum.”