Fred Bohm Outdoorsman, hunter, writer, photographer, inventor and owner of Sage & Braker talks with Aron Snyder and Frank Peralta about hunting, photography, and pooping!
We are all in this together whether we know it or not. Some of us understand this when young, some never do. My realization struck me like a brick in the face early in August 2014. I can’t think of the event that caused it, but I knew that my life would never be the same because of this awakening.
We are blessed with time on this earth and there is no guarantee we will be given another breath. Some die in a bed, insides rotting of cancer, others never make it out of their mother’s womb. You’re reading this and I’m writing it, so our time isn’t up. Make it count. Don’t let others decide how you are going to live it, and for the love of God, Allah or science, don’t let the rat race trap you into a life you never intended.
So this is me. These stories are intended to share with you a part of what makes my life worth living. Most will be about hunting. All will involve people and creatures I love.
So I invite you to take this walk with me. Through the woods, through the fields, through whatever adventures this great world throws at me. You will learn more about me as I learn more about myself. And I hope in the process to get to know some of you as well.
// Fred
Crafted at the Highest Caliber
We live, breathe and make everything at the highest caliber possible. In our products, in our pursuits and in our vision. And we’re proud to pass that caliber of craftsmanship to you.
Our Story
I have to admit, I didn’t start this company with the purest of thoughts. I started it to escape an industry that I really didn’t like, to spend more time in the outdoors and of course with my family.
But as often happens, when you pour your heart into something it starts to take over. It starts to create a life of it’s own. It gives you opportunities that you never thought were possible. Make a living for my family? That’s cool. But to have an opportunity to help preserve the lands that I love so much? Never. How the hell could that be possible. That’s for the big guys, the Patagonias of the world, not the small Sage & Brakers out there.
But I said the hell with it. Even if it was a couple of hundred dollars a year to a good cause, I had to at least try. After all, it has to be more than just about me. I’m on this earth for a short time, but maybe the good my company could do would outlive me. Affect more people than just myself. Meh, who knows?
Then not more than half a year later it was solidified. The only thing that has made me weep in the last 15 years came into this earth as a beautiful baby boy. Atlas. And like my father before me, I now bear a tremendous responsibility. I am here to point him in the right direction, to show him the values that I hold so dear. And I realize that I have to SHOW him these values, not tell him about them. I don’t remember a lick of advice my father gave me, but I remembered what he showed me by his example. That is what formed the man I am today, and Atlas’s moral fiber will be learned the same way, by example, not by well meant advice.
The way I run my company will be the way my son will learn his work ethic and how to treat other people, whether I like it or not.
So I have a responsibility. To him, to the community I love and towards keeping our public lands in their most raw form around for his generation and the ones to follow. To give him the same opportunity to sit in the middle of nature and just listen. Not to the busy streets, to the beeps and chirps of a cell phone and not to the news on the television blaring the destruction of mankind. To search his soul the same way I continually search mine.
Just a company right? Just a way to pay the bills?
I did that before and it stole a part of my soul from me. A mistake. A costly one, but one that has set my path straight.
So what does this have to do with you?
Everything. You are the foundation of this company and without you guys there is no reason to have it.
A small company, yes. A small impact, perhaps at first. But I’m not a fella that likes to back down and I’m pretty sure you’re not either. We can do this together. I encourage each and every one of you to reach out to me and I promise to listen.
~ Fred Bohm
Made in America, bred in the back country, and galvanized in combat, you won’t find tougher, better built outdoor gear. In fact, we’ve been doing so since 1979 – from backpacks to sleds, Tipis and other shelters. We continue to innovate, and others continue to follow.