26 / 56
A spark of nationalism ignited
Dong Sook Kim’s journey into mak-
ing a backpacking stove. At the time,
Korean mountaineers and outdoor
enthusiasts such as Kim used the
widely popular Swedish Svea stove.
Leveraging his engineering skills, he
created a backpacking stove for the
Korean market and with a nod to
Svea named the company Kovea.
Thirty-some years later, Kovea
group is running three different
businesses, the domestic arm Vision
Kovea, Kovea LTD for manufacturing
and export and climbing gear manu-
facturer Trango. Today, Kovea’s stove
line can be seen everywhere under
the Kovea brand or by OEM part-
ners in seven countries including the
United States.
A great deal of Kovea’s success
can be attributed to its in-house
initiatives. Its research and develop-
ment teams continue to drive the
brand amid a crowded market. That
has helped the company win inter-
national recognition, such as the
2014/15 ISPO Gold Award for Asian
Products for the GigaSun heater. The
following year, Kovea struck ISPO
Gold again in the much larger Out-
door category with the introduction
of the Alpine Pot EZ-ECO.
The EZ-ECO, however, is more
than just an innovative product.
It represents the vision of Kovea,
and its fellow progressive outdoor
companies, toward a smaller envi-
ronmental footprint. This, despite
the inadvertent contributions to
unforeseen problems Kovea had a
hand in creating.
Herein lies the irony. Korea
manufactures 80 percent of camp-
ing gas canisters, according to
John Park, Kovea’s Americas sales
manager (Kim had a direct role in
the shape of the canister). Kovea
and its OEM major-market partners
also have been very successful in
bringing products to the market
that lower the barrier to outdoor
participation. Of late, that success
has paid off to the tune of around
$150 million with Kovea alone. Be-
tween all those sales by Kovea and
its manufacturing partners, an un-
anticipated issue arose: improperly
discarded gas canisters.
“Not only do you see this in
national parks, but you also see
Bringing
the Heat
Kovea tackles the orphan gas canisters problem
littering the landscape
By
Ernest
Shiwanov
The author’s personal collection of partially used gas canisters, marked
by weight and/or percentage of remaining fuel. These canisters screw
onto the appliance by a Lindal threaded nozzle (©2016 adrenalinshots)
Inside
Outdoor
|
Spring
2016
26