Kootenay Outdoor Recreation Enterprise Initiative
KORE is a Kootenay-based, non-profit, grassroots organization dedicated to makers and creators in the outdoor manufacturing sector. It’s the craft gear from here. We’re attracting investment, furthering a new business sector, and adding to the funky/sophisticated cultural and economic milieu of the Kootenays. We respectfully acknowledge that KORE’s head office is on the unceded territory of the Ktunaxa, who have occupied these lands for over 10,000 years.
Our “KORE” Values
We love wilderness, being in nature, and a life on the edge. We crave adventure. We are relentlessly creative. We support grassroots movements, locally made craft goods and hand-built innovation. We need to be authentic leaders and participants in the Kootenay community. Economic and environmental sustainability is of massive importance. Most importantly, we connect Kootenay craft gear creators and makers.
KORE Cluster
KORE’s “core” initiative, to attract the outdoor industry to start up or relocate in the Kootenay region of British Columbia to create and grow a cluster of outdoor gear makers and product designers.
KORE Discovery
The Kootenay region of British Columbia is a hidden gem which many in the outdoor industry are not familiar. The KORE Discovery Initiative will bring potential brands, designers, creators and media into the Kootenays to discover the lifestyle amenities and industry support and resources available to incoming outdoor businesses.
KORE CONNECTION
A robust network of outdoor gear builders, designers and creators is currently organically thriving throughout the Kootenays. The KORE Connection is an initative to bring together the outdoor industry with quarterly meet-ups for idea sharing, networking and collaboration.
KORE WorkForce
KORE is working with the College of the Rockies to identify labour market needs and workforce skills required for the next generation of gear builders and designers and to create a Kootenay Outdoor Industry Hub and Directory.
KORE Fab Labs
KORE is collaborating with the College of the Rockies (Cranbrook) and the Selkirk Technology Access Centre (STAC) in Trail to open the door for KORE’s gear makers to access fabrication technology for product design and rapid prototyping.
KORE Trailhead
Coming in the future, a KORE Trailhead co-op workspace hub for designers, makers and creators.
KORE’s Mission
KORE is Canada’s first outdoor craft gear makers alliance. Our focus is on attracting people keen on positively participating in our communities: local employment, local resources, local customers, local knowledge. We are for people who realize KORE is at the center of a new manufacturing economy, the small-scale, craft outdoor gear economy.
The Kootenay Region
It’s one of the world’s more renowned mountain regions. That rare combination of wilderness, distant peaks and funky little towns that connect the dots in between. Born from a passionate history of pioneering and exploring the mountains, Kootenay craft gear makers are not afraid. Just like the adventurers of the Kootenays, they welcome exposure, they’re not afraid of getting out there and taking a chance.
The Makers
Our people are passionate and innovative, they just don’t stop. And they do it humbly, they’re nitro-fueled creatives, they’re artists, wilderness seekers, oddballs. They’re the outliers, the doers. Meet the entrepreneurs, designers, innovators and creatives who are the center of Kootenay Craft Gear.
