Yellow Barn Makers

Yellow Barn Makers

Where: Fernie, BC

Year Established: 2019

Website: yellowbarnmakers.com

Owner: Pat Simpson

We specialize in custom fabrication of goods with an emphasis on outdoor gear.

Give us a brief description of your manufacturing processes and philosophy.

We have a full woodworking shop as well as digital fabrication machines such as a laser cutter and two 3D printers (Formlabs and Prusa). We are quite excited by the new possibilities that our machines bring in terms of local, small-batch fabrication as well as enhanced collaboration.

How many employees and/or contractors do you work with?

One.

What brought you to the Kootenays and how long have you been here?

A dream job and promises of deep snow brought our family to Fernie in 2012.

Tell us about the history and relative work experience of your founder(s).

I trained as a professional engineer (mechanical) and started my career in automated packaging machine design. I did that for two years, honing my skills on different aspects of machine design including 3D cad, manufacturing processes, etc. Then I took a left turn and worked in the maintenance and reliability field in heavy industries for more than 20 years. I’ve now returned to my design roots with Yellow Barn Makers but still working in the maintenance and reliability field as a part-time consultant.

Describe the mission, vision, goals, and aspirations of your company.

The mission of Yellow Barn Makers is four-fold:

• Bring back manufacturing to the Kootenays
• Solve hard and interesting problems
• Collaborate with other makers and get creative
• Aspire to move one day from a service to a product business. I’m still on the hunt for the perfect problem that gets my heart pumping!