Why Crazy Creek Is the Newest Name at Every MVP Camp
Some partnerships take months of pitch decks and follow up calls. This one started at the Total Archery Challenge, in a conversation that didn't need much convincing on either side.
Crazy Creek makes their chairs in Red Lodge, Montana. Montana Vet Program runs veteran trips out of Great Falls, Montana. Once that connection was on the table, the partnership made itself. Two Montana companies, one already building something veterans were using constantly, decided to make it official.
How It Started
Crazy Creek didn't need a sales pitch to see the fit. The moment MVP and Crazy Creek connected at TAC, both sides recognized the same thing: a Montana made product and a Montana based veteran nonprofit had every reason to work together. What followed wasn't a drawn out negotiation. It was a few quick emails, and an order of Crazy Creek chairs, logoed for MVP, was already on its way.
What Crazy Creek Actually Sent
The first move Crazy Creek made was sending product to support Backcountry Immersion, MVP's civilian fundraiser. That's not a small detail. Every piece of gear a BCI participant takes home is part of what makes that three thousand dollar ticket worth it, and Crazy Creek chairs went straight into that lineup. Almost every participant who used one named it as their favorite piece of gear they walked away with.
everyone headed to a quick class and this is what the fire ring looks like
From there, MVP ordered a batch with the MVP logo on them and put them into rotation on VLTAT hike trips. It didn't take long for people to notice.
Where You'll Actually Find Them
Go through the photos from any recent hike trip or Backcountry Immersion and try to find one without a Crazy Creek chair somewhere in the frame. Strapped to a pack on the trail. Set up during the morning routine. Pulled around the fire at night. They've become as much a fixture of MVP's trips as the trips themselves.
now with the mvp logo!
They're not just for sitting, either. On the first night of a hike trip, when the group cooks venison for supper, the Crazy Creek doubles as a cutting board. That's the kind of detail that tells you a product was built by people who actually spend time outside, not people who designed it for a catalog photo.
The Part No Other Partner Has Done Yet
Here's what makes this partnership different from every other one MVP has running. After a trip, veterans have the option to buy their Crazy Creek chair at a discounted price. If they do, that purchase helps fund the next chair for the next veteran coming through. About half the veterans who go through a trip choose to buy theirs, taking home a piece of gear that means something, while making sure the person behind them has the same thing waiting for them.
MVP hasn't been able to build that kind of cycle with any other partner. It only works because Crazy Creek's product holds up to being used hard and passed on, and because the partnership was built to allow for it from the start.
most of us carry them on the bottom of our pack, but we all find a place for it
It Was Real Before It Was Official
The most convincing part of this story isn't the logo or the discount program. It's that MVP's own people bought into Crazy Creek before there was ever a partnership to speak of. Luke Urick, MVP's Executive Director, has used one personally for years. Team leaders had already started buying their own, one by one, quietly replacing whatever camp chair they'd been using before. By the time the partnership became official, it wasn't introducing something new to the team. It was catching up to what they'd already chosen for themselves. Every team leader now carries their own MVP logoed Crazy Creek, and it's the only one they want.
luke urick (executive director) with his crazy creek back on vltat 24-3
What This Looks Like If You're Considering Partnering With MVP
This is the shape a good MVP partnership actually takes. It's not a logo swap. It's a product that shows up in the field trip after trip, gets used the way it's meant to be used, and earns its place because it works, not because a contract says it has to be there. Crazy Creek didn't have to convince MVP their product belonged on a Montana backcountry trip. MVP's own team had already decided that on their own, years before the partnership existed.
If your product is Montana made, built for people who spend real time outside, and good enough that veterans want to take it home with them, that's the conversation worth starting.
