Timpanogos Hiking Co. opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Downtown Provo this past summer, near its namesake, Mount Timpanogos. A Utah native, Founder and Owner Joseph Vogel said he started the business as a side project while living in Massachusetts, where he worked as a professor.
“It was a way for me to reconnect with home,” Vogel explained. “I’d been away for 15 years, first for grad school in Rochester, NY, then for my career.”
Around the pandemic, Vogel grappled with a series of “tough, life-changing blows” and returned to Utah to help his mother, who had suffered a brain injury in 2020. During those trips, he hiked the canyons and mountains in his hometown. “It was nice,” he said. “I liked the movement. I liked just sweating, not looking at my phone and being surrounded by beauty.”
Before starting the business, Vogel reached the pinnacle of his profession, earning tenure as a professor of American literature and film and publishing bestselling books on pop icons Michael Jackson and Prince. He also participated in two documentaries by filmmaker Spike Lee. But “success,” Vogel said, “isn’t everything.”
The idea for Timpanogos Hiking Co. came one sleepless night in Massachusetts. “I saw the name and logo in my mind, and the tagline—escape the noise.” A few months later, he launched an online store on the Shopify platform.
“It was exciting,” Vogel said. “I had no idea what I was doing, but it was fun and challenging, and I could see the potential.” Rather than focusing on hiking gear, Vogel highlighted unique hiking-inspired designs, specifically for T-shirts and hoodies. “It was great,” Vogel said, “because you could quickly tell what was working and what wasn’t.” Initially, Vogel used print-on-demand services to keep inventory costs low and offered as many designs as possible. In just over six months, the business accrued over six figures in revenue.
In February 2023, Vogel signed the lease for Timpanogos’s first storefront. The buildout and inventory dipped into his retirement account, and he has been “bouncing back and forth” between Massachusetts and Utah while his kids finish the school year, but has no regrets.
“For me, it’s about something bigger. Something personal, obviously, but something others can relate to.” Vogel said he has taken inspiration from other purpose-driven businesses, including fellow outdoor apparel brand Cotopaxi. “You want your business to be successful. But you also want to ‘do good,’ as Cotopaxi puts it, and I thought one thing we could do in addition to making cool designs is bring awareness to mental health and how good hiking can be for people struggling with mental health.”
Timpanogos Hiking Co. said it has customers in all 50 states and has become one of the hottest outdoor apparel brands in the Mountain West.
Photo courtesy Joseph Vogel
