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Hidden Collective Uncovers Outdoor Entrepreneurs

Published Monday Sep 21, 2015

A Franklin-based company is launching a new online community and marketplace this fall aimed at connecting outdoor enthusiasts with entrepreneurs who handcraft small batches of outdoor goods and share the stories behind these products.

Hidden Collective wants to make it easier for outdoor enthusiasts to discover niche products rather than rely on national brands found in large sporting goods or outdoor gear chains.

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Co-founders David Glaiser, Tyler Matzke and Todd Boucher

“You can’t find small unique producers,” says Todd Boucher, an avid outdoorsman and one of the five founders of Hidden Collective, as well as principal of Leading Edge Design Group, an Enfield-based critical infrastructure specialist firm. “As consumers, people want to understand and feel connected to the products they use in their life. What we want to do at Hidden Collective is forge these relationships.” For this reason the site has profiles of  its featured craftsmen.

Launched in July, the fledgling site has a few hundred members, Boucher says, with the goal to grow to a community of 10,000 in the first year. It also has a handful of products for the marketplace, which it will grow with the fall launch.

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The marketplace will feature craftspeople from across the country. Hidden Collective earns a percent of sales and is developing a model where entrepreneurs pay a fee to be featured. Among the businesses now featured are Black Point Surf Shop, which makes surf boards in Maine,  Kearsarge Mountain Soaps and Sundries in North Conway, and Alpine Threadworks, a one-man outdoor sewing company in Canada that handcrafts and repairs outdoor gear. For more information, visit hiddencollective.com.

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