Groundbird Gear is: Bobwhite, Powder River, Wes and Cooper
Why "Groundbird" Gear? I got my trailname, Bobwhite, because my family uses the Bobwhite's whistle (bob-WHITE!) when we need to call each other. Bobwhites are ground birds. They love to walk and be in a covey. Join our Covey!
Hello! Welcome to Groundbird Gear!
I'm Marie, the owner and maker of Groundbird Gear. I look forward to sewing ultralight, comfortable gear for your dog! My goal is to make sure your dog will not get chaffed in the backcountry! Many customers enjoy the fact that you interface directly with me, and I am also the person hand-making your gear. Like yourself, I am a long-time member of the ultralight, Leave-No-Trace, responsible hiking community. Ya'll become covey and trail-mily with me! I genuinely care about the welfare of your trail dog.
Groundbird is both a product and a service. When you buy from us, you are not getting a mass produced item. I have sewn for over 1,000 trail dogs since 2014 and am excited to apply my vast knowledge of dog shapes to making the best gear for your dog. For an understanding of the price of made-in-USA hand-crafted hiking gear, I encourage you to cross reference our pricing with that of Zpacks, ULA, DutchWare, Enlightened Equipment, etc, and please keep in mind that their gear is production-made to universal sizes, whereas at Groundbird, we create every piece based on custom measurements. Every single harness order that comes in, is carefully made to your dog's measurements.
My trailname is "Bobwhite." During my Appalachian Trail southbound thru-hike in 2011, I learned a lot about backpacking gear. Powder River (A.T. NoBo '08; C.T. '10) turned me onto several Made-in-USA gear companies when I was buying gear for my hike. We are happy to now be one of those companies! Powder River proposed to me on The Trail during my AT thru hike. A month after we got married, we adopted our tuxedo mutt, Cooper. We searched for Cooper's backpacking gear in our gear-nerd fashion but all the dog packs on the market swallowed him whole and simply did not fit our lightweight backpacking mentality. I have a fine arts degree in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art. My brain thinks in 3 dimensions. I started designing and sewing gear for Cooper and he tried out each variation on our backpacking trips all over the USA.
Groundbird moved into a new studio Nov 2020 in the Old Gaucher neighborhood of Baltimore City. I have been a proud city resident since 2003. We use laser cutters to precision cut our fabric at Open Works, one of America's largest Community Maker Spaces. We were proud studio residents of Open Works from 2017-2020. We occupy the unique space of living and working in the heart of a major city, and we love the wilderness. We acknowledge that for a long time, outdoor recreation was limited to, restricted to and/or marketed as a White activity. All people belong in the backcountry and we stand by anti-racist and accessibility efforts in this sphere. May vast and wide healing of all forms of racial divides come to America.
Since the Spring of 2014, I have worked with many avid hikers to get my patterns just perfect for trail dogs of all shapes and sizes. Our durability has been proven by the now countless thru hikes our gear has traveled on! Many years ago we came up with the concept for the Turtle Topquilt, a dog quilt with an integral harness which ensures the quilt will not slide off your dog at night. In 2019, we were happy to finally start producing our quilt and we use responsibly sourced down. Many customers enjoy purchasing our full kit: harness, saddlebag, quilt and UL dog bowls.
Our ultimate goal is to keep your dog comfortable for the duration of any length of hike.
I look forward to you joining our covey,
~Marie Bobwhite Sellenrick
I'm Marie, the owner and maker of Groundbird Gear. I look forward to sewing ultralight, comfortable gear for your dog! My goal is to make sure your dog will not get chaffed in the backcountry! Many customers enjoy the fact that you interface directly with me, and I am also the person hand-making your gear. Like yourself, I am a long-time member of the ultralight, Leave-No-Trace, responsible hiking community. Ya'll become covey and trail-mily with me! I genuinely care about the welfare of your trail dog.
Groundbird is both a product and a service. When you buy from us, you are not getting a mass produced item. I have sewn for over 1,000 trail dogs since 2014 and am excited to apply my vast knowledge of dog shapes to making the best gear for your dog. For an understanding of the price of made-in-USA hand-crafted hiking gear, I encourage you to cross reference our pricing with that of Zpacks, ULA, DutchWare, Enlightened Equipment, etc, and please keep in mind that their gear is production-made to universal sizes, whereas at Groundbird, we create every piece based on custom measurements. Every single harness order that comes in, is carefully made to your dog's measurements.
My trailname is "Bobwhite." During my Appalachian Trail southbound thru-hike in 2011, I learned a lot about backpacking gear. Powder River (A.T. NoBo '08; C.T. '10) turned me onto several Made-in-USA gear companies when I was buying gear for my hike. We are happy to now be one of those companies! Powder River proposed to me on The Trail during my AT thru hike. A month after we got married, we adopted our tuxedo mutt, Cooper. We searched for Cooper's backpacking gear in our gear-nerd fashion but all the dog packs on the market swallowed him whole and simply did not fit our lightweight backpacking mentality. I have a fine arts degree in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art. My brain thinks in 3 dimensions. I started designing and sewing gear for Cooper and he tried out each variation on our backpacking trips all over the USA.
Groundbird moved into a new studio Nov 2020 in the Old Gaucher neighborhood of Baltimore City. I have been a proud city resident since 2003. We use laser cutters to precision cut our fabric at Open Works, one of America's largest Community Maker Spaces. We were proud studio residents of Open Works from 2017-2020. We occupy the unique space of living and working in the heart of a major city, and we love the wilderness. We acknowledge that for a long time, outdoor recreation was limited to, restricted to and/or marketed as a White activity. All people belong in the backcountry and we stand by anti-racist and accessibility efforts in this sphere. May vast and wide healing of all forms of racial divides come to America.
Since the Spring of 2014, I have worked with many avid hikers to get my patterns just perfect for trail dogs of all shapes and sizes. Our durability has been proven by the now countless thru hikes our gear has traveled on! Many years ago we came up with the concept for the Turtle Topquilt, a dog quilt with an integral harness which ensures the quilt will not slide off your dog at night. In 2019, we were happy to finally start producing our quilt and we use responsibly sourced down. Many customers enjoy purchasing our full kit: harness, saddlebag, quilt and UL dog bowls.
Our ultimate goal is to keep your dog comfortable for the duration of any length of hike.
I look forward to you joining our covey,
~Marie Bobwhite Sellenrick
