OK 7: Outdoor Team

Team 7 members

Coach

Gary Bracelin
Gary Bracelin

With over 30 years building outdoor brands, Gary’s entrepreneurial career began in the emerging snowboard industry, and was augmented by work and collaboration with companies including Helly Hansen, Sessions, Nike, KIALOA, Homeschool Snowboarding and more. In 2014, he founded Bend Outdoor Worx (BOW), the first independent outdoor accelerator in the US, to help mentor and grow early and growth stage outdoor companies, and has become known as a community leader and advocate for the outdoor industry. A serial entrepreneur, Gary is also a founding partner in Tokyo Starfish, a vertically integrated cannabis business with production, wholesale and four Oregon retail locations. He was a founding member of the Oregon Outdoor Alliance (OOA), as well as Cascade Cannabis Association (CCA), a cannabis industry organization for Deschutes County. He is also a board member of the Oregon Entrepreneurial Network. representing Central Oregon in both outdoor and cannabis industries through business collaboration and political representation.

Team Members

Ryan Price
Ryan Price

Owner of Motive Collective-
We moved back to the PNW about 2 years ago and are loving Bend! Love family / friends, animals, old international scouts, building stuff, travel, and being outside as much as possible.

Jackson Higdon
Jackson Higdon

I am a true Bend, Oregon native. I have been molded and shaped by our mountain town’s emerging culinary scene. My education was earned from the school of nicked digits and sizzled forearms— From cranking out massive volumes as a part of the first kitchen team at 10 Barrel’s original Pub on Galveston Ave. to becoming the Executive Chef (and first employee) at Crux Fermentation Project. After six years at Crux he spent Summer 2018 putting together a food operation for 21st Amendment Brewery's tasting room in San Leandro, California. Was Currently residing as the Head Chef/GM at Riff Cold Brewed Coffee’s craft food and beverage taproom before the Covid 19 pandemic. Fast forward to today, I am currently fulfilling my dreams of launching the Luckey's Woodsman Concept. I partnered with Silver Moon brewing and took over their kitchen in November 2020 as well as building and launched our food truck operation at Mt. Bachelor for the 2020/2021 ski season.

Jeff Parks
Jeff Parks

My name is Jeff Parks and live in Bend, Oregon. I own Tailgate Industries LLC, that is a soft product manufacturer for the backcountry market. I have an Industrial Design degree and previous experience in designing and building furniture along with freelance design.

Gabe Garbarino
Gabe Garbarino

I'm the sole (at this point) founder of Toast Wear. As a former US Marine, I've spent half a lifetime seeking the same level of esprit de corps that I experienced while in the military. Since those glory days, I've worked predominately in corporate settings as a mechanical product design engineer (Intel), a commercial BDM (Vestas), and have even tried my hand as a self-employed commodities trader [most recently]. However, that yearning for collaboration and being a part of something bigger than I has ultimately guided me to the startup community. Being an avid nerd of all things tech and a champion of outdoor recreation further inspire the company I've founded.

No random question, email, call, telegraph, or calendar invite for beers (!!) is unwelcome from this community, as I am but a humble student looking to learn and grow with each of you. Truly--I'll buy the first round.

Linda English
Linda English

My passion: gravel cycling. And when I’m off my bike, I’m the Executive Director of Dirty Freehub. It’s my second time around for forming a nonprofit. I started my career in technology, with ten years at Microsoft. But have worked on social missions for the past 20 years.

Mason Palmer
Mason Palmer

I've spent most of my career at a marketing agency leading partnerships. We specialized in the financial/newsletter niche. I'm now building a cannabis accessory business, Smoke Honest. I also own craftybartending.com, a content site around bartending and drink recipes.