About Eureka!

Eureka! History

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Johnson Outdoors Inc. is a publicly traded company on NASDAQ (JOUT). The Eureka! Tent Division has more than a century of tent and soft shelter experience and is a leading full line tent manufacturer with design capabilities that serve camping, military and commercial canopy/rental markets. Eureka! was established in 1895 as a small custom canvas shop that designed and sewed house and store awnings, Conestoga wagon covers, horse blankets, American flags, and – of course – tents.

Eureka! became a major manufacturing facility in the 1940's when World War II erupted and demand for tents skyrocketed. During World War II, we manufactured hundreds of hospital ward tents. In the 50's, many returning G.I.'s purchased mobile homes in the housing shortage, and bought trailer awnings from Eureka!. In the Vietnam campaign, Eureka! produced liners for thousands of Quonset huts.

Our "camping" tent history began in the late 50's and early 60's. That's when work on the Draw-Tite® began ... the tent used first by Sir Edmund Hillary and then by America's first Everest expedition in 1963. From this benchmark, innovation grew. A breakthrough came in 1973 with the introduction of the Timberline®. For backpackers, the Timberline® was the first self-supporting, lightweight tent. Brass hooks were used to speed set-up, an early predecessor to clips. Truly our first StormShield® design, over 2,700 Timberlines were sold the first year, and by its tenth anniversary, sales of the Timberline® topped 1 million! And in 1978, Eureka! was with the American Women's Himalayan Expedition to Annapurna every step of the way. In fact, Eureka! tents have accompanied all the North American "first ascents" of Mt. Everest, including the first Canadian woman in 1986 and the first American woman in 1988.

The Eureka! commercial tent division has earned a reputation for quality products and innovative designs in manufacturing. Eureka! was first in the industry with the introduction of the Genesis and Elite tension fabric tents. We have been the recipient of multiple IFAI Achievement Awards for tent design and excellence.

Keeping up with the growth of our business, Eureka!'s facilities, located in Binghamton, New York have grown to over 77,000 square feet of manufacturing space and a 42,000 square foot distribution center in 2 locations, employing a total of 250 people.

Above all, we make it special!

Whimsical fun. Absolute elegance. Sentimental memories. Hopes for the future...

In the tent rental business — where our products' final destinations are as diverse as wedding rehearsals and retirement parties, ethnic festivals and country fairs, backyard birthday parties and corporate galas — the word "special" has many meanings.

Why call attention to all of these "special" expectations?

Because recognizing them — and, more importantly, actively seeking them out and addressing them — is what makes Eureka! the leading supplier of outdoor structures for the rental market.

Whether we're making a consumer's event a success by inventing a tension tent certified to withstand 70 mph winds — or a backyard canopy time-trial tested to set up in under 15 minutes...

Whether we're supporting our independent sales agents or authorized dealers with online ordering, sales-building promotions, or just working past 5 p.m. to track that "gotta be there" shipment...

Eureka! is working to make sure our relationships with those important to us are strong, mutually rewarding, in a word...

Special.