DESIGNED BY EXPERIENCE
Hello! We're Ty & Annie Tatro, founders of Redtail Overland. Before forming Redtail, we spent a combined 18 years at a luxury expedition vehicle manufacturer here in Colorado. Ty honed his advanced engineering, design and manufacturing chops there, becoming COO, co-owner of the business and lead designer of their line of overland vehicles, while Annie directed the customer experience and growth of the brand, ultimately becoming CMO. In 2020, we formed our own company with the goal of developing design-forward, innovative and ultra premium solutions in the overland space.
We created Redtail Overland as a boutique shop with a focus on craftsmanship and the customer experience. We design and build only a small number of finely crafted products each year and are constantly dreaming up the next innovation.
When we launched Redtail, our initial focus was on solving the issues we'd personally experienced camping in a rooftop tent. We drew upon our background building premium overland vehicles and developed the world's first luxury rooftop camper - a climate-controlled, hardsided, carbon fiber rooftop tent we called the Redtail Skyloft (Patent No. 11,130,437) .
We began sharing the concept of the Skyloft early on in its development and were floored when it became an online sensation, garnering hundreds of millions of views on social media around the world and a massive waitlist of interested buyers - before we'd even completed the prototype. The reception was incredible, however as we moved through the R&D phase, it became clear that the true cost to build the Skyloft, with all the features we knew it needed to have, was much higher than we wanted it to be. The value add for installing a Skyloft on top of an SUV or pickup truck just didn't make sense at the price we'd need to charge. We hit pause on production and explored raising capital and even outsourcing manufacturing to scale up and bring costs down, but ultimately those avenues required too much compromise to the quality and features of the product. In addition, the working conditions and low wages we saw in outsourced manufacturing didn't sit well with our conscience.
Through that process, we also realized we didn't want to run a high volume business pushing thousands of units out the door. That wasn't our vision when we started Redtail Overland. We enjoy the hands-on, handcrafted approach and being able to design the best products we can without limitation from investors or outside sources. We want to know every member of our tight knit team and their families, and we really love getting to know each of our customers personally.
Ultimately, the solution evolved on its own. The Redtail Skyloft had gone viral in the van life world and we were receiving a lot of interest in developing a turnkey solution that would integrate the Skyloft into a van - a van built with the same thoughtful design and premium quality as the Skyloft itself. The value add now made sense - space is one of the biggest pain points in van life and our Skyloft helped solved that issue. At the same time in our personal lives, our kids were getting bigger and we'd begun looking at larger vehicles to accommodate our family, dogs and gear. Our background was in building luxury overland vehicles - why not combine that experience with our Skyloft technology to create something unique in the van space?
Enter the Skyloft Van - the only van in the world with a climate-controlled, fully four-season and secure master suite upstairs. By moving the master bedroom upstairs we are able to outfit the interior below to comfortably accommodate a family of four without compromising vital amenities. Every Skyloft Van includes a wet bath, a full galley, large fridge and freezer, plenty of storage, a rear lounge that converts to a second sleeping space and perhaps most critical to many - four secure automotive seats for safe travel down the road.
But we didn't stop at the interior. We come from the overlanding space and any vehicle we build needs to be ready for rugged adventure. So we outfitted the Skyloft Van with oversized offroad tires, offroad suspension, front and rear winches, skid plates, custom front bumper, light bars and more to ensure our customers can take the road less traveled.
Pivoting to a high quality, low volume product allows us to continue building the kind of business we love, lets us know each of our team members and customers, and most importantly allows us to maintain the premium build quality and innovative features Redtail Overland has become known for.
We are proud to provide good wages and ethical manufacturing here in the US. Every Skyloft Van is handcrafted by our talented team in Boulder, Colorado. We are excited to offer something fresh and innovative in the van life space and look forward to being a part of your next adventure.
Ty & Annie Tatro