GSI Outdoors, a leading supplier of outdoor cook- and tableware, has hired Kurt Gauss as director of research and development. In his new position, Gauss assumes overall responsibility for research, development and design management including new product and brand development. 


Gauss was with the company from 1998 through 2002 as an independent consultant for design development, brand building and marketing for the company’s giftware brand, Outside Inside.  During this period, he did so many special projects for GSI Outdoors that he closed his Canadian design company and moved to Spokane to become the company’s lead product designer. He returns to the company following a three-and-a-half year sabbatical as associate head of department for the product design, electronics, electrical and robotics programs at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK.


“The addition of a dedicated research and design development director to our management team will help launch us into a new and exciting time for our brand,” said Don Scott, co-owner of GSI Outdoors. “Kurt understands our products and our customers as well as the company’s business philosophy, so he can hit the ground running.”


Gauss said he looks forward to applying what he's learned to help outdoor retailers.


“We have such great talent and dedication throughout the whole company and the brand is unsurpassed in its category,” he said.  “My goal is to utilize what I’ve learned over the past few years to develop exciting and highly desirable new products that build on this great foundation and exceed our customers’ expectations.”

Kurt can be reached by phoning (509) 209-2924 or emailing kgauss@gsioutdoors.com.