Expansion of AR Gaiters

 In 2004, I started sewing my own gaiters for trail running and adventure racing. I made a few pairs here and there for friends on request. In 2008, I did the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge for the first time and learned how regular mini gaiters are no defense against the desert sand that finds its way into your shoes through the mesh in the front. In 2009 I was back with version 1 of my Desert Gaiters. I refined versions 2 and 3 at the Namib Desert Challenge, Fish River Canyon ultra and another year of Abu Dhabi. 

By this stage my mom was helping me by sewing the AR Mini Gaiters and then the AR Desert Gaiters. It must have been by 2012 that we had the AR Adventure Gaiter, with shin protection, for orienteering and adventure racing. It was around this time that my mom took over handling all the orders and customer interaction too. I didn't have much to do with AR Gaiters for the next 10 years. She brought out the AR Hiking Gaiters by about 2020 after making a number of pairs for her friends with hiking boots.

AR Gaiters has has a slow-and-steady, organic, word-of-mouth growth. The first 10 years were fairly quiet, the next five picked up and the last eight years have been busy. On reaching the point where she was sewing seven days a week, we found cutting and sewing assistance for my mom.

With massive changes in my life, I've jumped back in to AR Gaiters to expand the offering and take over the admin of handling orders and enquiries. I've revamped the website to have an AR Gaiters eShop (www.argaiters.co.za) with our AR Gaiters and complementary products that suit our customers' activities of trail running, hiking, orienteering and adventure racing. The eShop structure also makes it a lot easier for customers to select and order the fabric print for their AR Gaiters.

We've had a few recent enquiries about custom prints and just this past week completed our first custom order with our own design for a customer that was sublimated onto fabric. It came out perfectly. I've got another three projects on the go for custom prints. Very exciting.

I've got a number of plans to roll out over the next few months and look forward to continued growth in our offering of in-house products as well as those from trusted brands and suppliers.