Story time: The second generation Rev Tent.

In the age of AI, knock offs and influencer culture it's almost impossible to bubble to the surface and stand out with an original idea. 

17 years ago I imported a roof top tent from South Africa. The original idea was to see if my wife and I could start a business selling tents that go on top of vehicles along with other expedition style camping gear. I had a jeep. A roof rack. A roof top tent. This was overlanding before overlanding was overlanding. Sleeping on a vehicle roof was novel, if not downright strange. Having a real foam mattress in a tent was a mini revelation.2009 our first photoshoot with the original Front Runner FeatherLite Roof Top Tent

A lot has changed since then. Roof Top Tents have become a norm. But for some reason, real mattresses in tents, well, they're still stuck up on top of a vehicle. Camping up high on a vehicle is neither here nor there. There are pros and cons. In my opinion, the game changer for tent camping is the real mattress. That's where we at C6 Outdoor fit in. Our goal is to normalize sleeping comfortably in a tent. While that seems like an obvious "duh" -  most people are resigned to, and to a certain extent, take pride in, enduring crappy nights while tent camping. So much so that all other traditional tent manufacturers focus solely on the privacy and protection features of their products, putting zero thought in to sleep. 

We launched C6 Outdoor during the tail end of covid and slowly rolled out our Rev Tents (1st gen).  We are making some noise with a playful, bright and fun approach to tent camping. We get rave reviews for our tents and customer service.  We sell just as many ground and pick-up tents as we do vehicle top tents. We're growing at a steady pace. 

There's a lot of loud and bad ideas out there in the tent space. Gimmicks and Insta-glory crowd the market. Our contribution to try to influence the discussion back to basics is the next iteration of our revolutionary tent. We're digging in for the long haul! After all, It took us almost a decade to get roof top tents over the finish line and in to the mainstream.  

So back to this original idea - create a best in class tent that features a real mattress so you sleep as solid out camping as you would at home. Then iterate and improve. 

For starters, we reconfigured the pole sizing to create more headroom and a larger main entrance.  We sacrificed the 4th window and turned it in to a vent. No one was using that door behind your head, and the full size window there was overkill. While in the tent, especially laying down, you never look in that direction.   

Then we decided to decouple the fly sheet. Attaching the fly permanently was an interesting idea, not without merits. It saved time during set up, but created limitations in production and locked in the "4th" season of the tent. Although we built in clever ventilation chambers, the inner tent is better suited for warm and dry weather camping without the fly.   

We now have a common "inner" tent. The Rev Tent is the Rev Tent is the Rev Tent. Whether it's the pick-up, rack, or roof top version, the Rev Tent is the same. 

We've bundled the Rev Tent with a choice of fly sheets (different colors, different features), and different accessories depending on where you choose to camp. For the fly sheets we choose a DTY instead of FDY yarn to create a more canvas like matte appearance.  And as regulations changed, we were able to chuck the fire retardant coating, making these Rev Tents gen 2 PFAS free.  

Oh, and we added a nice oversize moon roof. Zip it open when camping without the fly for stellar views.  (is there a dad joke in there somewhere?)

The Rev Tent was the most versatile and comfortable tent available.  And it just got better with Gen 2.  (We challenge you to prove us wrong!  Meet you by the bike racks after school to settle it.)

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Why write a blog? The experts say do it for SEO rankings. I don't know how many real people will end up here reading this. But if you're one them, and If you like what you see, please consider camping with our products!  We have a 30 day no questions asked return policy so you can touch and feel and try our products. This way you don't have to take my (real human) word for it!

2010 at the 2nd Overland Expo in Amado AZ USA