Why You Won't Find Frost River Discounts and Coupons
Folks ask all the time when our goods will go on sale. Some websites even pretend to offer coupon codes for FrostRiver.com to try to get a discount, but they’re not even real, they’re just trying to get traffic so they can make money with ads.
The thing is, our goods don’t go on sale. We don’t run promotions and gimmicky specials, and that’s because we believe that it’s better to price the goods right from the start.
Fixed and fair pricing comes from building a pricing model off of what goes into a bag. Each bag uses a certain amount of canvas, a specific number of buckles and rivets, a set amount of leather, and takes our team a different amount of time to build each one from start to finish. All of the parts that go into our goods are the best we can find. Solid brass hardware, heavy duty waxed canvas, and tried-and-true leather from Red Wing, MN mean that Frost River goods are built without compromise. They’re not cheap materials… they’re the right materials, and that’s the start of our goods.
We take all those raw materials and put them together by hand in our shop in Duluth, MN. Our team of artisans and craftspersons work diligently sewing, kitting, riveting, cutting and building reliable softgoods while earning fair pay and benefits like dental insurance, health insurance and PTO so that they can stay healthy, get care when they need it, and spend time with their families. It’s important to Frost River that our team is rewarded for their hard work, that their attention to detail and skills in craft are appreciated by not just their fellow Frost River teammates, but by the end user. You can feel confident knowing that the pack on your back or the bag over your shoulder wasn’t built through exploitation, it was made by American workers who take pride in what they choose to do.
Our goods aren’t cheap, because they’re not cheap to make, and most importantly, they’re high quality when they’re done, because our gear is built to last.
So many times in the softgoods and apparel industries, companies push their production costs down, down, down, while driving their retail prices up and up to what they think they can squeeze out of consumers. How high can we go? That model lines up just right with outsourcing, offshoring, seconds, specials, discounts and blowouts. An item priced high in order to go on sale a bit lower is simply smoke and mirrors to you, the consumer; it gives the perception of a deal, the idea that you’re saving money, when you’re just being pandered to by the big corporation.
Seasonality comes into play, too. Goods that are perishable with the time of year, based on trends and the whims of fashion are goods that must be cleared out, moved to make room for the next best things and the new season’s line. Chasing colors and styles that change over the year isn’t our style. We make goods that are generation-proof, gear that is just as relevant now as it was back in the day. When a company doesn’t chase after the consumer’s ever-present urge to acquire things, and to get a deal, it doesn’t have to be priced it up to sale down. Making Frost River softgoods pricing fixed and fair means it’s up to you, the consumer, when it’s right to get our goods. You don’t have to feel the pressure of a sale, the urge to buy something online out from under the hardworking folks at your local retailers. You get to make the decision based on what’s best for you. And we think that’s right.
Another reason we don’t get into the discount game is because we truly value our Retail Store Partners. Those are the good folks at retailers across the country and around the world that work so hard to stock shelves and create an engaging experience in their curated stores. We ask them to adhere to our pricing model because it’s important for them to be able to succeed. They pay rent, utilities, wages and taxes and help support your local economy. Because our prices are the same from Kansas to New York, our partners won’t be undercut by some big box across the country
.…but the one who really makes all of that possible is you, the customer.
You are not the norm, you are not the center of a bell curve: you are a rare breed, a classic purveyor of quality goods— whether that’s born from an attraction to the aesthetic and the ideals that these goods embody or a requirement that your gear remains steadfast in the backcountry, reliable in the front-country, or consistently stable in the urban wilds — you are what makes Frost River.
Without folks like you, who appreciate quality, value rugged materials, recognize timeless designs and rely on equipment that’s built to last a lifetime, not made to be cheap and disposable, without you, Frost River wouldn’t be a possibility and a reality. That takes a certain personality, an appreciation that is born out of an understanding of what it is that makes quality gear. We won't let you down, we'll keep building the good stuff so you can use it over a lifetime and pass it down as an heirloom. Thank you for supporting American Manufacturing, American Jobs, American Goods and believing in Frost River now, in the past, and going forward.
