Remote Vans
“Like most adventures, our story began not with five beers, but with a bowl of pasta, tons of laws being broken and a desire for freedom and a better life.
Like you, we were trapped indoors during the great Covid lockdowns. Gone was the freedom to visit friends and family. Gone was our ability to travel and work on our laptops from anywhere in the world. Life’s greatest treasures were now exchanged for endless streaming (remember ‘Tiger King?!) and learning how to bake sourdough. The only human interaction was waving to the Amazon delivery guy once a week. It was wild!
Like most animals, you can’t keep entrepreneurs caged for long. Under the cover of darkness, Tony escaped from his house, climbed up to the roof, and parkour’d across several buildings before breaking into my apartment. Over a bowl of pasta, Tony shared his idea. He wanted to go on an adventure. He wanted to convert a Mercedes Sprinter van, pack it with the latest technology so that he could work from anywhere, and ensure the van also had all the creature comforts for life on the road. Oh and he wanted to get a dog!
I had spent 6 months holed up in an apartment unable to get back to see family in South Africa or run my annual African adventure The Put Foot Rally for hundreds of people across sub-saharan Africa. My only outlet was spending hours each day tearing down a vintage 1972 Ford Capri and my nights hunting for parts all over the internet.
It’s fair to say Tony and I shared the same spirit. Never again would we be constrained to a building, or unable to travel, or be held back from spending quality time with friends and family.
So the question became – could we build one van? Or could we build a van company that has a place in this new, post-covid world? A van company that shares and promotes the values that we’ve all learned to reprioritize since the pandemic, like a healthy work / life balance.
And could we build vans for the new faces of the Vanlife Movement? The solo travelers, entrepreneurs, working professionals, families, outdoor enthusiasts, urbanite campers, the soon-to-be retired, and retirees?
And perhaps most importantly, could we build futuristic vans that provided folks with the opportunity at a truly unparalleled : WORK – PLAY – TRAVEL lifestyle?
It was an easy decision.”
Daryn Hillhouse, Co-Founder