First Lite with Chase Millemann - Camo and Elk Legs
Hi. This is Ain't That Somethin', and I'm your host, Levi Smith, CEO of Franklin Building Supply. We're an employee owned building material supply company headquartered in beautiful Boise, Idaho. I'm a former ranch kid from Texas who found his way to Idaho and into leading this storied company. We're proud to be part of the fabric of communities we operate in and want to help share stories of other companies doing the same across this great state.
Levi Smith:In each episode of Ain't That Somethin', I interview founders or leaders about the stories of companies you may be surprised to learn have either had their start in Idaho or now call Idaho home. In every interview, you'll hear about an interesting cast of characters, learn about daunting obstacles, and be inspired by the persistence it took to succeed. Get ready to be surprised and entertained with each episode of Ain't That Somethin'.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, we had the reloading bench, the arrow fletching bench, we had, I think three chest freezers, you'd go down there and eat me and someone would be cutting up an elk in the basement.
Levi Smith:If you're a hunter or outdoor enthusiast, you're probably very familiar with merino wool, but you may not know the first company to figure out how to print camouflage on merino wool was First Light, located in Haley, Idaho. On today's episode, I talk with Chase Millemann, who's been part of the First Light story for more than ten years, and today serves as Senior Vice President of Operations for Mediator, which acquired First Light among other brands over the last few years. We get into the story of the early days of First Light really cultivating a community of people that were passionate about hunting and about its products and about its brand and where the brand's at today and where it's headed in the future. So enjoy this conversation with Chase Millemann, senior vice president of operations for MeatEater, as we dig into the story of First Light. Well, Chase, I'm excited to have you on the podcast today.
Levi Smith:But before we get into the story of First Light and becoming part of MeatEater and, all the things that are of interest there about the company, where it's been and where it's going, I think the audience and I would love to know a little bit more about you. So can you help us understand who's Chase? What's your story? Yeah, how did you get to the area and what's your story before you got into the thread with First Light?
Chase Millemann:Yeah, so I grew up actually in McCall, Idaho, so a little bit north of you. And then I went to school at the University of Oregon and got a business degree there. Then honestly, as I was going through school in Eugene, I loved the business school, was very interested in the classes. I also managed to fish about one hundred days a year while I was there.
Levi Smith:That's impressive.
Chase Millemann:For sure, yeah. It was a good exercise and time management.
Levi Smith:Okay, that's an accomplishment.
Chase Millemann:But I bought an old wooden drift boat my sophomore year. Just really I'd fished my whole life and spent a lot time in the outdoors in Idaho, but really got into it kind of at an obsessive level and moved to the well actually a buddy and I were after we graduated, we're doing a trip down to Baja for three months in the fall. And I needed to get a job, for the summer before then. So called the fly shop, one of the fly shops here in, Ketchum, and asked if I could come work for the summer, which which they obliged and that turned into coming back, you know, to guide fly fishing and doing some other things here, but really moved here for the outdoor opportunities. You know, this valley has on the fishing and hunting side kind of everything you could ask for.
Chase Millemann:Yeah. And growing up in Idaho, really resonated with the small town life. I grew up in a ski town, live in another ski town now. So that was really what drew me here and then kinda came to find out that having Smith Optics being based here, Scott ESS who eventually sold to Oakley, there's a really big spirit of entrepreneurship here and as I you know, kind of transitioned out of the seasonal work and more service industry jobs, like there's a lot of opportunity for a town of this size here, which
Levi Smith:Yeah, surprises a lot of people. Don't Yeah, that that unique concentration of people trying to figure out how to improve products for these outdoor activities. For sure. It's certainly not the, you know, only one of its kind across The US, but it does surprise people that right there in the Wood River Valley and in Ketchum, there's this concentration and and and real history of people doing that type of work. Yeah.
Levi Smith:Had you so when you grew up in McCall, had you spent time, you know, growing up also, you know, coming and fishing and doing things, you know, in the Wood River Valley and catch a merry and stuff. So, you know, when you, you know, called the fly shop and asked if you could guide, was it an area in a river, the Big Wood River there and others that you were familiar with and really kind of knew?
Chase Millemann:Yeah, my mom did like a ski bum stint here in the late sixties. So there was a tie with the family here in Ketchum my whole life. We come over once or twice a year and see friends and either ski or fish or you know. So I had a, I was familiar with the area, super in-depth, but knew that it would be a really nice place to at least at that point spend the summer.
Levi Smith:Yeah, so you were were a fishing guide, you were doing a lot of skiing, were you a ski instructor or just enjoying skiing?
Chase Millemann:Yeah, so I was was guiding fishing in the summer and you know, somewhere into the fall and then I was coaching ski racing here. I grew up a ski racer in McCall and so coaching the U12 team here. I was doing some freelance photography work. I was doing some remote digital marketing work for a company out of San Francisco. You were doing it all.
Chase Millemann:It was the classic. I want to live in a ski town. So I need four jobs to do that.
Levi Smith:How do we make this work?
Chase Millemann:Exactly, which was kind of, you know, a good transition into I did that for five or so years and then it was, I was starting to look for a little more stability, things like health insurance. And, you know, something I could really dig into and focus that wasn't quite so seasonal. And that's kind of where the the first light job came into play and was fortunate to have the time into the company work out at that point.
Levi Smith:Yeah, so all that time management that we laughed about earlier undergrad really paid off as you're juggling these four jobs, but you know, you decide to, you know, go from four jobs to one, you know, focus more, get more maybe career oriented for lack of a better word. But as you said, they're just practical things you've got deal with as other people start depending on us as we get older and all of a sudden making the renter mortgage payment and health insurance and all these things start to really take on a different level of importance. So is that, do you have the timing right? You kind of came into First Light around 2015, is that the right timeframe?
Chase Millemann:That's right. Yeah. So First Light at that point was really small. They had the two founders and then I think three employees, then hired three more kind of at the time I was hired.
Levi Smith:Okay, so you got a half dozen people there.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, right. They were building out their wholesale channel, but more importantly, that's what I was hired to do was on the dealer side, but more importantly just needed people that were scrappy, that were gonna work hard, that could wear a bunch of different hats.
Levi Smith:Right, everybody's gonna be able to do everything.
Chase Millemann:For sure, which I've done damn near every job here over the last eleven or so years. Yeah, I was brought in as a dealer services representative to take care of our dealer base at that point, and then had a lot of twists and turns from there, but that was my start, the spring of 'fifteen.
Levi Smith:So let's back up with the First story. So First Light Light is started by two guys, Kenton Caruth and Scott Robinson.
Chase Millemann:Right.
Levi Smith:They start the company and I think 2007. So it had been, you know, around for ten, twelve years a little less than that when you come in in 2015.
Chase Millemann:Yeah.
Levi Smith:But can you take us back to the problem that Kenton and Scott were trying to solve? You talked about those other companies that have their genesis or origin in the Wood River Valley and people trying to solve problems with products, either fishing, skiing or everything in between. What was the problem that Kent and Scott were trying to solve? What's the opportunity that they saw that was really the spark for First Light in the beginning back in the February?
Chase Millemann:It was pretty straightforward. They both did all of the outdoor activities that you know a lot of folks do living here. They not only hunted, but they fished, they skied, they rode mountain bikes, just like kind of a well rounded seasonal outdoor, or list of outdoor activities.
Levi Smith:They did all the things.
Chase Millemann:All the things, and what they noticed was like the greater outdoor ski mountaineering industry had really leaned into merino wool at that point. It's just an amazing, it's an amazing textile. You can wear it in hot weather, cold weather, you can sweat it, it doesn't get, clammy, doesn't it doesn't smell if you wear it for multiple days like synthetics do. It just does a ton of things well, but it hadn't really been adopted in hunting. And a big reason for that was no one had figured out how to print camouflage on Merino wool because it's hard to do.
Levi Smith:Why is that hard to do?
Chase Millemann:Because it's a natural fabric and the textile itself, like it doesn't heat up well. Okay. And so you need like a special printing process to make it work where your synthetic, you can kinda, you know, you build up in a lab, you can do whatever you want with them, but wool is just a lot harder to work with.
Levi Smith:And would I be correct, I'm asking out of ignorance here, but take a natural fiber like cotton. Assuming cotton can be heated up a lot more and it's easier to do that application on cotton where the merino merino wool, this heating issue, and the delicacy of the fiber is kind of the was the main gap there.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, and you wanna make sure, you know, there are a lot of different printing processes but the beauty of merino is it has all of these qualities that come naturally and so you wanna make sure that the printing process doesn't detract from all of the things you're getting out of merino which is easy to do as well.
Levi Smith:Yeah, don't wanna say good news, we printed on it, we printed on it but we ruined it.
Chase Millemann:Right, yeah, now it's no longer, know, it's no longer soft, it doesn't breathe, like there, you just have to be really careful. But that was the problem that they recognized is, you know, the hunting industry was late to adopt merino as a base layer fabric. Like hunters have hunted in wool for a very long time, but more of your heavier wool that folks are using as outerwear and not merino that you're using as a base layer.
Levi Smith:And when did they start working on this? I mean, this, you know, were they thinking about this in the late 90s? Or is this the early mid 2000s? I mean, we talked about the company founded in 2007, but just give me an idea, how long did they work on this before they solve the problem that we're gonna hear about?
Chase Millemann:I think the timelines are always a little foggy even, you know, because
Levi Smith:they started The stories vary.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, they started small while they were still, you know, doing full time jobs and like they were kind of tinkering with it. But I think, you know, that mid two thousand's is like February is fairly accurate.
Levi Smith:Okay, but they were working on this for years before they kinda got it figured out?
Chase Millemann:For a couple years, yeah. But they started small with just merino wool base layers and that was kind of the niche that they were trying to fill.
Levi Smith:So what is the breakthrough that they had? How did they figure this out? Other people, you know, maybe had this idea, we don't know, but they figured out how to print camouflage in particular, but you know, on merino wool. What was their breakthrough?
Chase Millemann:Yeah, they worked with a factory owner that was, you know, had been making lots of merino wool base layers and he and Scott and Kitten just kind of tinkered with, you know, different processes and different wool weights, different blends, and eventually the three of them kind of came up with a printing process that worked and a product that felt good. And yeah, it kind of had this breakthrough that we have a camouflage merino wool garment that feels just like the solid colors, you know, the printing process hasn't detracted from the qualities of the wool and they were kind of off and running at that point.
Levi Smith:So in those early days, talking about stories, I've heard stories that the first light operation was quite the gathering place for the hunting crowd. Can you take us back? I think there's something interesting there about this community, you know, that they cultivated that became, you know, not only users but also fans and evangelists for the product and brand over time. But take us back and help us kind of understand what that what it was like maybe in those early days as I've heard these stories of, you know, probably a lot of outlandish things about, you know, all the things they had there, people processing their game there, and live Sasquatches and all the things. Just kind of what was it like in those early days as you've heard?
Chase Millemann:I mean, beauty of the brand that something that we've tried to maintain today is the First Life brand was always very welcoming, right? Like, we don't care how many years you've been hunting. We don't care, you know, if you shot a big deer last year or whatever, like, if you want to get into this, we welcome everyone in. And that came along with us really diving in on the conservation side with one of the first brands in hunting to really lean into conservation as one of the kind of the core tenants of the brand. And so people really resonated with that.
Chase Millemann:But I mean, to your question, my first week, Ryan Callahan, who eventually went to Meteor and now is the CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a major conservation group in hunting and fishing, I show up, I actually didn't have a desk the first week, I had a chair next to someone else's desk and I was sharing a computer. And Ryan has like an old elk leg that he lower leg of an elk that he gave to his dog. That's like, you know, carried around. I've got my dog in the office that's like going crazy. And like a week later I was like, Cal, we got to get rid of this thing.
Chase Millemann:It stinks. My dog is like, you know, going nuts. And we always had, you know, people come visit, they'd sleep in the basement on the couches of the old office and catch them like it was, it was definitely a fun and somewhat loose workplace there for I
Levi Smith:mean, I've heard that, you know, there was everything going on from people reloading bullets to game freezers to like
Chase Millemann:Yeah.
Levi Smith:Mechanics garage fletching arrows. Are those things true? There's just this
Chase Millemann:Oh, yeah.
Levi Smith:You know, assortment of activities related to hunting, and it was, you know, it it almost kind of reminds me of the old school libraries where, you know, it's a gathering place and people come in and they're doing all these things. Sure. But this is a business. Is that is that an accurate
Chase Millemann:Oh, yeah.
Levi Smith:You know, sort of depiction that, you know, it's just this gathering place for hunters that, you know, are coming and just doing their things there in the shop with other like minded people.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, we had the reloading bench, the arrow fletching bench, we had, I think three chest freezers, you'd go down there in the evening, someone would be cutting up an elk in the basement.
Levi Smith:And it was That's fantastic.
Chase Millemann:You know, everybody in that office hunted hard and like, it just seemed normal at the time, you know, but it was, I think set us apart from a lot of other brands because like you talked to, you call that office in September and one of us had, you know, been out chasing elk the night before. And it was
Levi Smith:Y'all were living it.
Chase Millemann:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have and it it was everyone. Like, yeah, everyone was living it and it was it was really fun.
Levi Smith:Or maybe you called in September and there was no answer because everybody's That happened occasionally.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, it got a little around September 17 when the rut really picked It got pretty light in that office from time to time.
Levi Smith:So they've got a few products they figured out that, you know, they've worked with a manufacturer, they've gotten this breakthrough on how to print, you know, camouflage pattern in particular into merino wool, they're bringing this into the hunting industry. They're, you know, doing this with this unique community they're cultivating. Think it's so interesting to that point that you made about, you know, first light from the early days and you know, assumedly being really important to both Kenton and Scott to invite people in regardless of their experience. Because it's not just hunting, but you know there are lots of brands out there where if you're not, you know, we could think about you know biking and skiing and snowmobiling and fishing and all kinds of things. And they do have a general feel that if you're not already at this level, we're not for you.
Levi Smith:And so it's very hard for people to get into that and it's off putting, you know, except for the people that are already sort of in that club. So I think just to have a few products and building that community and cultivating that experience. I guess my question here is how strategic and intentional was that? You talked about the conservation being very digital. And how much of that was just, kind of happened that way.
Levi Smith:But in hindsight, it was really smart and savvy.
Chase Millemann:I think it happened naturally. It was just the kind of Scott and kittens personalities and the folks that they hired.
Levi Smith:Just the kind of people they are.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, no one took themselves too seriously. Everyone wanted to get their friends into hunting or eventually their kids or whoever it was. I think it just, if you're gonna run a business and exclude people from the activity that you're promoting, that's not very good for business. It's same with the conservation side. For us, like, why wouldn't we be pro public land?
Chase Millemann:We don't have public land, then our customers don't have anywhere to hunt, you know? Right. So it happened very naturally and organically, but it
Levi Smith:was also it was also good for business, which is a nice thing as well. So let's shift back to your work. You're brought in, albeit initially without a desk and just a chair and an elk leg, you know, being drugged around, but you're brought in to work on this wholesale dealer channel. Help us kind of understand, know, that was relatively new work for them. You know, they were trying to get that figured out.
Levi Smith:Take us back to that, you know, that kind of 2015, 2016, 17 time period as you were working on getting First Light into other channels.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, I mean, at that point we had developed pants, we developed some outerwear. So we had, you know, a full system at that point. We, base layers were still kind of the foundation, but we had enough to sell where if you were going at, you know, at that point hunting to the West, you we sold everything you needed. You know, were in over 100 and some doors at that point. We were in a couple big box stores, small but but growing and a lot of interest.
Chase Millemann:And what was tricky at that point was the D2C channel was growing like crazy, the dealer business was still growing at a healthy clip, but we couldn't keep up with demand from an inventory perspective. So, and Scott and Kenton, you know, they grew somewhat, well, they grew somewhat slowly and intentionally because they didn't wanna take on a bunch of outside capital. Okay. So as we're building out this dealer business, we would, you know, I moved into dealer services as well as started with like a sales operations role where I started doing our demand and supply planning. And we'd order our flagship product and they'd all be accounted for on pre books for dealers for the year and we had none to sell on the website.
Chase Millemann:Wow. So that balance of the two channels became definitely a challenge. And we ended up, you know, a year or so later for a period of time moving to a direct to consumer model for, you know, a variety of reasons. But one of those reasons was we just couldn't order enough product to keep everyone happy. And so it was where do we run out?
Chase Millemann:Who are we gonna fulfill? Who we aren't gonna fulfill? And it seemed it wasn't a great experience in a lot of places. So we focused on the on the DTC model for a period of time there.
Levi Smith:Assumingly, that's pretty bittersweet. I mean, you'd done this work with a great product to develop those dealer relationships. But for the problem then to be that you can't meet the demand. And it's understandable that both Scott and Kitten might want to sort of grow slowly so that they don't dilute their ownership or take on more debt than they're comfortable with, all those type of things that any, you know, small or mid sized business owner is used to navigating. What was that like for you managing that?
Levi Smith:You've developed this dealer relationship, but then you're having to tell them essentially, I'm gonna have to cut you off. And, you know, what was it like to navigate that conversation with those folks?
Chase Millemann:Yeah, I mean, was tough, for sure. Because, you know, in this industry, it's all relationship based, right? Like, it's a lot of mom and pop shops that you know, the owners quite well, and you have really solid relationships. What we told everyone and it was largely well received was we're not anti wholesale business at this point. We're not anti, you know, brick and mortar or any of that.
Chase Millemann:We just had to make a business decision for the point of the business that could best could best serve where we were at. And it was, it was hard, but most most of those accounts, they got it I mean jumping ahead a little bit, we're now, we have been fully building out our wholesale channel again for the last couple years, and we're in a lot of those same shops. Yeah, you've come back. We've come back and it was never, there was never any negativity anyone on that side and we were able to pick up the phone and say, know, we're ready now to, you know, have a full omni channel business and it's been pretty well received.
Levi Smith:Yeah, so I mean, just, you know, having to tell people we're gonna have to pause this, but we're not going to burn this bridge. It's our intention or aspiration to be able to come back to this. But I think, you know, it's easy when you're thinking about building a business in the early days to think that you've just got to tell everybody yes all the time.
Chase Millemann:Right.
Levi Smith:And how important it is to have the humility to recognize when you need to say no and you need to have some constraints to protect the product, the brand, so that you get that opportunity to come back. This season of Ain't That Somethin' wouldn't be possible without the generous support of Truss Joist, a division of Weyerhaeuser. Truss Joist has been a great supply partner to Franklin Building Supply with their array of engineered wood products, including their Marquee Truss Joist, which you may be surprised to learn was invented and first sold right here in Boise, Idaho. Now ain't that somethin'? Future episodes will drop every one to two months, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast in your listener so you'll see the next episode when it arrives.
Levi Smith:You come in twenty fifteen. I think if I have my timing right, maybe by the end of twenty seventeen or into 2018, Steve Vranela of MeatEater fame, television show and podcasts and books and everything else, he's got the MeatEater brand, but he had been using the First Light product as he said, y'all introduced merino wool in camo colors and similar to the hunting industry. He's a user, he's a bit of an evangelist for the product. Talk us through how that, you know, beyond him being a customer and obviously kind of celebrity customer in the hunting world, how did the business relationship start to, you know, come together where Steve and, you know, the investors that he partnered with thought that adding First Light to the meat or brand of products, and we're going to get to kind of what that looks like today. But what started to happen where that conversation came together and that started to maybe make sense for both sides?
Chase Millemann:Yeah, I mean, he was good buddies with Ryan Callahan, who I mentioned, who was the first employee of First Light. Steve was a really good fit for the First Light brand. He has always been a very coherent and well thought out voice for the hunting industry, And he's been super active in conservation since the early days, the food side of things, know, processing and cooking wild game, his brand was called MeatEater and like that was every episode. Yeah. Know, ended with here's what we're cooking out of.
Levi Smith:Yeah, he's focused end to end. What does the whole sort of hunting cycle look like? Yeah.
Chase Millemann:Which worked really well with with our brand. And so he started wearing our stuff really, really early. There was always a connection there. And then as you know, channel and his brand grew, he was on Netflix, he had the podcast, he's writing books, became, you know, I would say probably the most trusted voice in hunting media. Yeah.
Chase Millemann:And he partnered with a private equity group to, you know, continue to pour gas on the fire on his brand. Steve and that group had a real vision of content to commerce where, you know, they've got the content side covered with Steve, and then let's get some commercial brands that fit into the ethos of what we're trying to do here and kind of build a portfolio there. And so First Light was a pretty logical target for them based on how long Steve had been using it, you know, how he's really trusted it. It's in all of his media. And so, that they then moved into, you know, an acquisition I think in '19 to buy First Life.
Levi Smith:Real quick here mentioning Steve, I'm chuckling thinking back to my kids and I were flipping through. I think we may have been traveling and his meat eater show popped on. And I'm originally from Texas and he's on a hunt in South Texas and I think it's for antelope. And so he's out there hunting, and at some point we'd been living in Idaho for I moved here in 2016, so we'd been here for seven or eight years at that point. But prior to that, really all my history is in Texas.
Levi Smith:And so I hadn't really gotten into hunting until I moved to Idaho because access in Texas is actually, you know, quite limited and inexpensive. There's not the public land there. But he's out there doing this antelope up, and at some point, you know, they're in trucks and, you know, they've got all the gear with them and it's flat and they're chasing these antelope down. And at some point he turns to the camera and he says, I just want to say to all my friends in Idaho, I consider this harvesting. So my kids and I had a good chuckle because as they've heard stories of, you know, me getting out there and, you know, both archery and rifle and hunting and primarily, you know, chasing elk and wearing products like those made by First Light and stuff, my stories didn't match up to what they were seeing in this episode.
Levi Smith:And so that quick comment on the camera, you talk about the trust. Right. Right? That comment saying, I'm gonna be honest about what's happening here.
Chase Millemann:For sure.
Levi Smith:And I'm going to both, you know, say that and also kind of connect with this crowd in a way that resonates. So I think he does that really well. So to your point, you know, just brought a lot of genuineness and authenticity, you know, to the brands that he's, you know, kind of advocating for. So at that time when that acquisition happens, you know, it's not the only one that Mediator has done, right? They've pulled together an array of brands And I think you're are you overseeing kind of how all those brands fit into the strategy and model in addition to First Light?
Levi Smith:And how does that work in your mind in terms of, you know, layering all these, you know, kind of brands and products together in a way that makes sense to the consumer, whether it's direct to consumer, or somebody walking into, you know, a mediator store or a dealer store?
Chase Millemann:Yeah, after the first acquisition, a year or so later, Meteor bought FHF gear, which makes a bunch of accessories, binocular harnesses, different pouches, backpacks, really well thought out made in America hunt, fish and tactical product.
Levi Smith:A lot of smart products. A lot of smart products. Like you can write until someone spent time really tinkering and thinking about how to address the pretty subtle annoyances of other versions of those products.
Chase Millemann:For sure. Yeah. Yeah. So FHF gear was added to the portfolio and then Phelps Game Calls, which is based in Peel, Washington and Jason Phelps, is, you know, active on both the mind behind Phelps Game Calls and engineer and then but also does, you know, some work on the content side. They started as an elk call company, now sell turkey calls, deer calls, predator calls, and then more recently Dave Smith Decoys, which is based out of Oregon that makes, you know, some of the best turkey, deer, goose, now duck decoys in the world.
Chase Millemann:Connection there was it was all stuff that Steve and other folks on the Meteor crew love to use and had had personal connections with, right? So, you know, Steve worked with Paul at FHF Gear, the founder and had had given a lot of product feedback and had always worn FHF harnesses. Same with had used Phelps game calls and new Jason. Well, Jason had been on the podcast and, and so it's a pretty easy sell, right? When it's stuff that you you have used independently of any business relationship and that you really trust, you know, without getting paid to do so.
Levi Smith:Yeah, he's curated these brands and these products as a user.
Chase Millemann:And yeah, and as we kind of built out the org, we had to decide where you want shared resources and where you want like brand specific resources. So I run our operations and two of our sales channels now, and it's generally across all the brands. It makes sense for an operations team to be forecasting and ordering, working on the supply chain and everything across all brands. There are places like product and certain aspects of marketing. Those are brand specific.
Chase Millemann:We really want the product team here in Haley to be focusing only on First Light and really digging in some of the brand marketing side, we're only worried about First Light and the same for the other brands. That was definitely something that was learned over the years, but it's really important that each brand has its own voice and can make its own decisions when it comes to large portions of the business. I think we've picked good spots of where finance can work across the whole portfolio, that's not an issue, but
Levi Smith:Yeah, where it makes sense.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, it's working pretty well, but it definitely takes time to figure all those things out.
Levi Smith:That's a lot to, you know, really synthesize. And I think as these brands and companies were being acquired, you know, we talked about that first First Light headquarters. But First Light has a flagship store in Haley, Idaho opened up in around 2022 or so. With Media to bringing First Light and these other brands together, it ends up opening up a store. Its first store, think in Bozeman, Montana, where headquarters are now for MeatEater.
Levi Smith:But in 2024, I've been in that store a couple of times and particularly the last time I went, I'd actually messaged a few people at the company just saying, you know, they've done a great job and this goes to you as well. Just a great job of really layering all those brands together in a store experience that doesn't feel disjointed or kind of discombobulated for a consumer. They're not trying to label everything with one brand, right? Letting the brands stand out.
Chase Millemann:Right.
Levi Smith:But that can be hard to pull off in a store where you're walking into a meat eater store, but you're seeing all these different brands coming at you. You don't want it to feel like you walked into a general sporting goods store. You know, the company's done a really good job of merchandising and, you know, getting all that to come together in a way that I think as a consumer and a hunter walking into, you know, that flagship store made sense. Yeah. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't confusing and that's not easy to pull off.
Chase Millemann:Yeah. Well, appreciate that. No, it's been very intentional to when you walk into a meter store, there is an FHF section that could stand alone in any other retailer or on a website, right? Like this is the FHF portion of the store, Phelps, First Light, Meter, and that has been really intentional. Like you just can't let all these products kind of mix in and live together.
Chase Millemann:Just doesn't work. It's not an intuitive shopping experience. Yeah. Yeah, that's been a big goal from day one on the retail side because it's a much different challenge than merchandising these things on a website for sure.
Levi Smith:Yeah, so even though they have their own separate section store for anyone that's not had a chance, mean at this point you've got the immediate or flagship store in Bozeman, but there's also one in Wisconsin and Minnesota. And you know if you've been into these stores or get a chance to go in just to see how they each have their own individual space, but again they're very complementary of one another visually kind and of how the store is laid out again. It makes sense for consumer. Okay, all these, these are curated brands. These are curated products.
Levi Smith:Yeah. That you know, sense to me as a consumer as a hunter in particular.
Chase Millemann:Yep. And we opened the store in Milwaukee last year. Okay. Which was, you know, a big step for us as kind of a major whitetail market. And that's been going great.
Chase Millemann:Then we're opening another store in the Minneapolis area this summer. So continue to expand the retail fleet.
Levi Smith:Is that in it's in the Adena area, is that right?
Chase Millemann:That's right. Yep.
Levi Smith:Yep. So the the retail presence is expanding, which also kinda brings us back, you know, to First So First Light's had this flagship. So I find myself saying this right now, and I just kinda wish I would have gotten a chance to go to that old headquarters back in the day and experience what that was. But, you know, that that that's a that's a story and sort of lore now for those that were the early adopters. But y'all have had a store in Haley, which for those that are not familiar with the Wood River area is kind of, you know, on route to catch them into the Sun Valley area that's, you know, particularly known for skiing, but the Big Wood River running through that valley.
Levi Smith:But it's been on the back side of Main Street. So the people who know, know, but the people who don't, don't. And can you tell us about, you know, what's happening right now with a new store that's going to be, you know, on the road frontage, you know, side of Haley there so that people are, you know, seeing that and encountering that as they just, you know, drive through or walk down that strip there in Haley.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, so we've had the store in Haley for a number of years. That's where our office is as well, is in Haley and it's done great and it's been, I mean it's amazing to see this valley, you go skiing now and half the jackets on the mountain are First Light jackets, Yep, First Light jackets. When I started, if I saw someone wearing a First Light hat in this town, I was ecstatic. So like, it's been really cool to kind of take care of the local population here in this valley with the First Light store. But we had there was a space that opened up on Main Street and we were a little, know, we were a block off, but it was a little hard to find if you didn't know the area or know it was there.
Chase Millemann:We're going to be moving this summer to the Main Street location. And we just just got the paint the sign up. So you can see it now when you're driving down Main Street and a coming soon sign.
Levi Smith:There you go.
Chase Millemann:So it'll be really, really cool. We're gonna do a big opening party and work with some of the conservation groups, get some live music out there and like have a lot of fun. So I'm really excited to not only open up stores in new markets, but move our original store to a little more visible location and make sure people that are driving through town know it's there.
Levi Smith:That's that's extremely exciting. I mean, a great next step for, you know, the brand. And, you know, I'm I'm I'm just excited for y'all in that area that, you know, it's gonna be that prominent. Like I said, it's it's not hard to get to, but it's still on the backside right now where, you know, again, you kinda, you know, have to know it's back there to
Chase Millemann:Yeah.
Levi Smith:To to round that corner and to be right there on Main Street and see it from your car is gonna be a great next step. So in your role, you know, going back to, you know, what you mentioned earlier, this, you know, challenging season shortly after you arrive where the product's taken off, but you can't supply enough of it and managing the growth. You know, now you've kind of come full circle. You've got the dealer support and wholesale is fine, but you've got these stores that you're also pushing as well as what y'all do online. How in your role do you see managing all that?
Levi Smith:Because a lot of companies and brands see those as inherently conflict laden, like we can't compete against our customers. How do you all balance having online, your own stores and then supporting dealer wholesale? How do you think about that as somebody you know, in that role, you know, trying to balance all those things?
Chase Millemann:Yeah, mean, we've had the kind of the luxury of the wholesale and retail side and owned retail side we've built out over the last few years. And we've been really intentional with who we partner with. And so you know, the D2C side is gonna keep keep kind of chugging along and growing, but we're only working with dealers on the wholesale side that are really best of the best that represent a premium brand really well. Really selective. Really selective and like fun, fun folks to work with, good relationships.
Chase Millemann:Like we entered wholesale again in a position where like we didn't have to. So let's work with the best people that are gonna, you know, they're gonna benefit from having another premium brand in their shops and we're gonna benefit from them having a trusted, really quality customer base. And so that started with Shields. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Shields, but big
Levi Smith:box. Yeah. Yeah. Because they opened up the Shields. I wasn't before, but when they opened up Shields here just a few years ago in Boise, the other connection with us is Franklin Building Supply that I serve as CEO and leader of.
Levi Smith:We're 100% employee owned and Shields is also 100% employee owned company. That's another fun connection
Chase Millemann:with You know, our first year we just worked with Shields and they have folks on the retail floor selling selling our product that have worked there for twenty years, right? Like, it's just a really quality experience. And so we started with that.
Levi Smith:Yeah, they're often are different retail experience.
Chase Millemann:And then we started building out our smaller independent retail from there, and just tried to partner with the best people we could. And then when we identify a market for an owned retail store, what we've you know, what we've seen is kind of rising tide lifts all boats and there's a lot of marketing value to dealers in those areas to, you know, us talking about, for example, the Milwaukee area, and everybody sees a positive impact from that. So we've really tried to build it out intentionally, not open too many doors, not, you know, kind of take the easy wins, but partner with people that we think are going to be positive for the brand.
Levi Smith:Well, I'm excited about this new store and what's next for the brand for First Light, but for MeatEater and bringing all these brands together and this kind of curation and myself, I'm a fan of y'all's products and what you're doing. And I really appreciate you taking the time today to share your story, but also kind of peel back the curtain a little bit or pull back the curtain and let us see a little bit behind First Light and sharing that story and helping folks really understand that the opportunities to solve problems, create innovative products, build companies exist right here in Idaho and exists in small towns that may surprise you. I think one of the strengths of Idaho is we've got a lot of people that do things. They're out there doing the outdoor activity. You know, they're they're they're pushing, and they see where the problems are, where the gaps are in the market.
Levi Smith:And for someone like, you know, know, Scott and Kenton to attack that problem and to innovate, that's something that other people can do as well and it can be done right here in Idaho.
Chase Millemann:Yeah, I think the unique thing about Idaho is, you know, a lot of people choose to live here because they love the place and then let's figure out how to make it work and how to thrive. And it's not, I moved here for X, Y and Z, it's like, you know, a lot people, I moved here because it's a wonderful place to live. So yeah, I agree. I think there's, if for folks that, you know, haven't been here, there's a surprising amount of opportunity and we're lucky to have been able to take advantage of a piece of it for sure.
Levi Smith:And there's more people doing this type of work than people realize. I mean, talked about some of that history Yeah. You know, in the Wood River Valley, particularly around optics and other things. There's more people doing this work than people realize they're just not maybe that vocal about it. That's part of why we're doing this podcast.
Levi Smith:Those stories aren't necessarily always shared or well known. And we hope to inspire more people to get out there and get living in Idaho and while you're doing it notice where there are opportunities to maybe innovate and do something a little bit better and don't be afraid of chasing that and pursuing it. You never know when you might get the opportunity to break through and become a first light and part of a bigger brand and, you know, on to, you know, bigger and better things while not losing the ethos and authenticity of what you started with, which I think is one of the things that's also great about, you know, so many of the Idaho companies and brands that that really remains, you know, as you said about conservation and just kind of the community and those type of things that were part of First Light Day one. Absolutely. Well, Chase, thank you again for taking time on the podcast, and we look forward to seeing the new store there on Main Street in in Haley before too long.
Chase Millemann:Yeah. Thank you. We'll have you out for the for the opening. We appreciate it.
Levi Smith:Thank you for listening to this episode of Ain't That Somethin'. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider subscribing to the podcast in your listener and sharing the podcast or this episode with others. Thanks again to our season sponsor, TrustJoyce, and to our guest for graciously sharing their time and story. So go start, create or build something surprising so I can share your story. Until next time.
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