How Durston Turned an Ultralight Tent Idea Into a Beloved Hiking Gear Brand

Based in Golden, British Columbia and founded by longtime thru-hiker Dan Durtson, Durston Gear is a small outdoor equipment manufacturer that punches well above its weight in the ultralight backpacking scene. The company is best known for its innovative ultralight X-Mid tents that have captured the hearts of ounce-counting backpackers and gear editors alike, thanks to a unique space-maximizing diagonal shape and affordable price tag.

Dan Durston didn't just wake up a gear designer. It took years of experience—he first began pondering better tent designs on his own thru-hikes, which he completed without a phone and its distractions. The Pacific Crest Trail, a Great Divide YoYo, and five Bob Marshall Wilderness Opens are a few of his accomplishments in the past 15 years. Though the PCT and a back-to-back GDT hike are impressive enough, the Bob Open is its own IYKYK kind of deal. Finishing at all, much less with an FKT, shows creativity and skill in the way Durston approaches challenges.

After years of hiking throughout the Mountain West myself, routinely spying Durston shelters along the way, I decided to dig in deeper to the story behind how Durston came to be. Here's what I found.

Durston X-Mid History & Gear Overview

The idea for Durston’s first tent was simple; what if your tent could go up without guylines or dedicated support poles, but still be weatherproof and offer enough headroom for you to sit up inside? To achieve this, the Durston X-Mid trekking pole tent is designed with a diagonal sleeping area inside a rectangular fly held in place by four stakes and pitched by the hiker's own two trekking poles along opposite corners. The result is a lightweight yet strong—and roomy—shelter with a protected gear vestibule on each side of the inclosed sleeping surface.

The X-Mid also won over many backpackers because of the properties of its Silpoly fabric. Unlike Silnylon, more commonly used in ultralight tents, Silpoly doesn't sag when wet, making shelters made of it perform a lot better in nasty weather.

The X-Mid put Durston on the map, and the tent category now also includes the new freestanding X-Dome 1+ and a total of nine available iterations between the two models. But it isn't just a tent maker. Durston also produces a tight line of purpose-driven outdoor adventuring accessories, each with their own sense of purpose, too. Durston's Iceline trekking poles feature just one adjuster that makes them more intuitive, lighter, and stronger than comparative models. And Durston packs were the first to use cutting-edge ALUULA Graphyte fabric that’s waterproof and highly durable, which make them perform well for whatever task you throw at them, be it ultralight hiking or a burly expedition. (The fabric is also now used by Arc'teryx and Black Diamond.)

It's also worth mentioning that Durston gear is impressively affordable—and known for its durability, which as a guide and gear tester, I appreciate immensely. The base model X-Mid 1 sells for $239, but even the more hardy X-Dome 1+ is $379. The company sells multiple packs for less than $300 and trekking poles for $169.

History of Durston: Founding & Product Design

Before Durston became a brand, Dan Durston was a scientist, with three degrees in environmental studies and biology. For many years, the X-mid was just a concept in Durston’s head, until he had an opportunity to make it a reality by working with Drop (previously known as Massdrop , the community-driven e-comm platform allows users to purchase products at discounted prices through group buys). Through the first few years of the pandemic, Durston worked with Drop to prototype and sell his concept tent. The process was rocky, so when Massdrop became Drop, and pivoted out of the outdoor space, Durston was happy to be able to pivot to his own site, which is now the primary retailer for Durston Gear.

When I spoke with Mr Durston, the passion he has for his products and ideas almost seemed to burst out quicker than his words could keep up. He’s prone to tangents and rabbit holes (which I encouraged) and it's clear he genuinely loves the analytical side behind the ideas. The very first step in his R&D process is called “parameterizing the search” and his focus is on creating “coherent designs” that stay true to their primary purpose. Conversations about his products are funny, relatable, nerdy, and indescribably, delightfully Canadian.

Durston Quality Control, Inspirations, and R&D

Durston's passion for gear is also evident from the way he engages with the community and his customers. The thru-hiking and ultralight communities are a critical bunch with a lot of spare time in the off season, and putting your design at their Altra-clad feet is an intimidating task. Newer customers can be difficult too, especially when you’re selling items that require some skill and experience to use, like ultralight backpacks or non and semi freestanding tents. He told me about one negative vlog review where the person filmed himself setting up the company's new X-Dome tent incorrectly at multiple steps. It takes a lot of patience to tune out that noise.

Despite the challenges of catering to a highly discerning crowd, that intensity has a flipside that has been overwhelmingly positive. What started as fielding emails for Massdrop developed into a prolific Reddit engagement that has led to better tutorials, customer service, and generally enthusiastic customers. “People appreciate that we care,” Durston tells me. “They are way more happy to tell people about your gear and suggest it if you're not just a faceless corp and you're passionate. People go to bat for you."

“We don't always hit the nail on the head, but we try super hard to make a great product people will be excited about,” he says.

It’s the kind of success story that makes you want to smack your forehead a little, because the secret is that there is no secret. Durston created gear that people love without all of the algorithm bullshit. It’s no surprise to learn then that Durston is inspired by Alpacka Raft, a company that paved the way for mainstream packrafting through an iterative design process that took decades instead of a brand that found success because of a clever TikTok. He also looks to OG cottage industry fixtures Feathered Friends and Western Mountaineering, who have earned devoted followings through decades by perfecting a few products and making them extremely well, instead of focused exclusively on innovation and flashy marketing.

Still, Durston worries about the challenges that come with the relatively rapid success his namesake brand has experienced—what happens when larger brands start to adopt similar designs, like many have with Silpoly?

“We don't really have any marketing, we don't advertise. Our strategy is to be super authentic, essentially. It's not a digital strategy, it's a philosophical strategy,” Durston says. "What I like to do is ask ‘Is this awesome?’”

It doesn’t hurt that he makes such photographable gear either. After all, there’s nothing sexier than a sunset tent photo or a nicely staged hiker in a backpack standing before a landscape. And there’s really no better marketing than seeing a tent night after night on trail, even more so if you’re looking at it while attempting to eat dinner laying down in your own cramped tent to avoid the bugs.

In Durston’s case, I think he’ll be just fine. His uncompromising authenticity and totally unique product eschews trends. And while the rest of us are zoning out to our podcasts and LTE peak bagging to slog out the miles, Durston will already be onto the next thing. Which, for my own sake, I’ll keep hoping is a single pole tent.