KIRKLAND, Wash. — Homegrown Trailers comes by its name honestly -- company founder Corey Weathers built the first one himself.
"I built the first one in my garage just for fun without the intention of starting a business."
He called it his 'Sanity Project'.
"I wanted something hands on, I wanted something for lifelong experiences with my family."
That first trailer still sits in the Homegrown Trailers shop...named for the part of Washington that inspired Weathers to build it: Vantage
Today these trailers are crafted in Kirkland. They're handmade, mostly of wood, and the first thing you notice when you climb into one is the smell.
"They don’t smell like a trailer, that’s for sure. It smells like naturally fresh cut wood it's quite nice,” said Weathers.
They look retro, but bring some futuristic features to the campground.
"The trailers are all solar powered they have lots of light and air flow, there's a big kitchen with the mini fridge and induction cooktop and a little mini composting toilet.” said Eric Gertsman, co-founder and marketing manager.
"We really want to do an RV that had the features and comforts of the tiny house and it didn't exist,” Weathers adds.
The trailers start at 25 thousand -- but if you're not ready to lay down that kind of money -- there's a way to try them out.
"One of the fun things is that we have a rental fleet so every renter gets to be part of our R&D department - they give us great feedback on what they liked what they didn't like,” said Weathers.
The company's ethos is more about roadtrips than revenue:
"We think of ourselves less as a trailer company than as an experience company? We want people to go out and enjoy the world, have adventures. Go get lost in the forest somewhere, really live it up!” Gertsman said.
And they're not just making travel trailers here... they're making Happy Campers.
"A lot of people are using this who have never done camping, have never done RVing. This just speaks to them in a unique way. So we're just hoping people get out there this spring and summer and have a lot of great times,” said Gertsman.
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