67 Designs Embodies American Ingenuity as the originators of high-quality mounting solutions from locally sourced materials partners

Many people involved in the world of overlanding have interesting stories about the journeys that led them to this lifestyle. The idea behind the “Around the Campfire” Series is to explore some of these stories, and for our first installment we spent some time with designer and serial entrepreneur Gavin Stener, CEO of 67 Designs. After a number of years in the enterprise software world Gavin found himself called back to his industrial design and engineering roots, so he started 67 Designs. His original focus was meeting the need to hold larger tablets that were popping up everywhere in 2012. But his purchase of a 2012 JK Wrangler provided the “Eureka!” moment to bring high end and truly trail-ready mounting options to market. Here is a bit of our conversation with Gavin.

OX4: How did you first become interested in making vehicle-specific mounts and accessories?
GS: Overlanding started for me as a kid growing up in Australia. Some of my earliest memories are of our family bundled into a Holden and touring, and on lots of red dirt roads that today you would only do in a Toyota. Huge fun and some core glue for our family. I reconnected with the lifestyle after we purchased our first Jeep and started to see some truly inspiring clients’ builds.

OX4: What materials and processes do you frequently use when developing your products?
GS: Our design and testing start with in-house 3D printed proofs and then we work with suppliers in aluminum and beautiful carbon fiber. We contract out industrial 3D prints and injection-molded creations made of nylon. It’s all about working with our suppliers and in-house staff to make clean looking products that, when they sit in the hand, you know they were made with skill and attention to detail.

OX4: Is there a particular mission behind 67 Designs?
GS: Actually, I started 67 Designs with a social mission, to have 50% of our assembly and finishing team come from the IDD – Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities – community. It’s been hard to get that off the ground at the pace we are running, but I remain confident that as we grow we can dedicate resources to create a suitable environment for all the internal stakeholders. To date we have allowed our team to take up to a month a year for social projects at home and abroad. It costs us operationally as we experience amazing growth, but I think it’s important we strike a balance and enable our team to fulfill their non-work social calling or purpose.

OX4: Why can’t we find 67 Designs products in retailers or online at Amazon or eBay?
GS: We want as direct a relationship with our clients as possible. It’s harder, slower and very resource intensive, but we know if our clients are going to pay the premium price for our quality components they have to know it’s backed by a company that cares and listens. It’s about supporting our customers and you simply cannot do that through middlemen that have a volume vs. quality mantra. I believe it’s a marathon and not a sprint to build a company culture anchored by uncompromising quality.

OX4: How hard is it today to make all American-made products?
GS: It’s impossible to be 100% American-made. Materials from washers to machine tools are traded globally. We do what we can, but what is important is to create good jobs every day and work with vendors that share the same values regarding staff working conditions, customer service and who play the long game. Those businesses exist the world over.

OX4: Why do you not have an 800 number for customers to order products or contact customer service?
GS: We tried it for a while in 2016 and were swarmed by scammers and peddlers of services of every kind. It was too inefficient for a small team so I made the tough decision to go email-only until we can open a proper call center staffed with very knowledgeable agents. We’ll get there, but for now we are answering emails seven days a week and often across 18 hours of the day.

OX4: Do you have any new products or lines you would like to give us an inside track on?
GS: We have a solid pipeline as well as a track record introducing at least two new products a month. That said, we had to slow down introductions in the first half of 2019 as we needed to implement new manufacturing processes and build core capacity to meet our goals serving our Jeep, Toyota and Ford clients. Getting ahead of the demand right now is Job #1 before we add the backlog of new products.

OX4: Why are you seemingly keen to be “behind the scenes” and not a more public face for the company?
GS: I want the products and our old-school Golden Rule approach to service to set us apart. Doing this interview is a contradiction to all that I believe about staying “in the wings.” However, I am doing this to say a big thank you to our amazing clients for embracing us and putting our creations to such good use around the world. It is truly a privilege for our team to serve the overlanding community with our device-mounting solutions.

Editor Note: OutdoorX4 Magazine has been using 67 Designs products for years and their craftsmanship, intelligent design, versatility, and focus on American-made quality has absolutely won us over as a company whose products we highly recommend. To learn more or to purchase one of the myriad mounting solutions 67 Designs offers, please visit www.67d.com.

Additionally, OutdoorX4 hosted Gavin and other proprietors of American-made products on an episode of The Signout Podcast in 2023 to discuss the problems American companies face with intellectual property theft by fellow Americans who have been stealing product design, including Bullet Point Mounting Solutions who was involved in a federal lawsuit in Missouri involving trademarked and patented work by 67 Designs, and reproducing them in the Asian markets then selling them domestically on Amazon. We encourage you to listen to the podcast episode HERE and educate yourself on the importance of not only supporting those who are putting in the cost and effort to produce American-made products and hiring American workers, but also understanding how some companies continue to break the law and deceive consumers about their products.

OutdoorX4 Magazine’s Around the Campfire is an ongoing series highlighting individuals and organizations whose stories positively impact the vehicle-based and outdoor communities.

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