Osprey Packs, Inc, commonly known as Osprey, is an American company that manufactures outdoor backpacks and other travel-related gear. It was founded in 1974 by Mike Pfotenhauer and is headquartered in Cortez, Colorado. It was purchased by Helen of Troy Limited in 2021 for $414.7 million.[1]
History
Mike Pfotenhauer, Osprey's founder, and his wife Diane Wren, originally founded Osprey as Santa Cruz Recreational Packs in 1974. It was headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, where they would build custom fitted backpacks for backpacking.
In 1990, the company moved to Dolores, Colorado. In the same year, 90% of their workforce was made up of Navajos. In 1994, the company moved production from Dolores to Cortez, Colorado. In 1999, the company moved all operations from Dolores to Cortez.
The Osprey Aether 60 is shown on the cover of the June 18, 2001 edition of Time magazine, worn by blind climber Erik Weihenmayer. Weihenmayer was the first blind climber to summit Mount Everest.[2]