the story

It all started with a love of the outdoors. Founder Kenny Krotzer grew up in Western Washington and spent his youth camping, backpacking, hiking, snowcaving, skiing, and enjoying the natural beauty of the area. He earned his Eagle Scout with Troop 501 in Lake Tapps, Washington, and his time in the scouts laid the foundation for his passion for the wilderness. In 2014, as a part of his senior project in the product design program at Stanford University, Kenny had the chance to combine his love for the outdoors with his new-found skills in design and created TorchGlo.

These days, Kenny lives in Seattle, Washington with his girlfriend and their Australian Shepherd. The family takes regular backpacking and camping trips into the Cascade and Olympic Mountains and ends every night in the tent with storytelling by TorchGlo light.

TorchGlo

TorchGlo transforms a headlamp's blinding LED light into campfire-like ambient lighting. It attaches to a headlamp and allows a headlamp's narrow beam of light to scatter and diffuse to light up a whole tent, rather than just a single spot. It can be hung in a tent, used on the head as a headlamp, or set on the ground like a campfire. Confirmed with expeditions into the wilderness and observations of campers, the concept is based on that "campfire moment" that is a quintessential part of the camping experience: the time when stories are shared, trust is gained, and friendships grow. Where campfires aren't practical or possible (inside a tent, high-altitude camping, areas with burn bans) this campfire moment can be missed. TorchGlo makes this possible in a lightweight, compact attachment for any size headlamp.