{"id":25528,"date":"2024-09-30T17:36:50","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T23:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-van-with-a-brand\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:19:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:19:52","slug":"a-van-with-a-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-van-with-a-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"A van with a brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Viewing
Viewing the fall foliage from Matt Hayes\u2019 1986 Volkswagen Westfalia. (Photo courtesy Matt Hayes)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A pair from Breckenridge came to Cortez on Sept. 22, traveling in style.<\/p>\n

The 1986 Volkswagen Westfalia, an iconic jalopy, was decorated with a vinyl wrap featuring pine trees, mountains, the setting sun, a howling wolf and \u201cConation Collective<\/a>\u201d in big bright letters.<\/p>\n

A friend, Almont-based artist Andrew Hoffman, designed the art to show off the mountain bike apparel brand that Matt Hayes, the owner of the van, owns.<\/p>\n

Hayes said he\u2019s worked in the outdoor industry for a long time, with jobs at a climbing gym, ski slope and even e-commerce and freelance writing in that arena.<\/p>\n

\"Vanny
Vanny and Hayes\u2019 girlfriend at Phil\u2019s World. (Photo courtesy Matt Hayes)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In that time, Hayes did a lot of mountain bike racing. And he still does a lot of mountain biking, which is why he came to Cortez \u2013 for Phil\u2019s World.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere just wasn\u2019t really the product I wanted available, so I decided to make it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Like most mountain bikers, when he raced, he wore a spandex race kit, that was \u201csuper-high performance, lightweight, breathable, everything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted something that was baggy that felt performance-oriented but that I could like wear into a bar,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n

Baggy mountain biking clothing was in vogue, but its performance was lacking.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I decided to make some that was aesthetically relaxed and looked like you just walk into a business, but performance-wise was like, oh yeah, I can go ride across the Continental Divide and it can rain on me and it would still perform well,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n

When he first started the business, Hayes said it was his primary focus. Now, he has a day job to pay the bills, so it\u2019s no longer his \u201cfull focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting a business by yourself is such a huge endeavor,\u201d said Hayes. \u201cI had someone tell me that it\u2019s helpful to have a cofounder because that means you could convince at least one other person that it was a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of its founding, he did have a few friends willing to go in with him, but \u201clife events\u201d barred them from joining.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the van is striking and helps with marketing.<\/p>\n

Hayes remembered his grandparents driving it when he was six years old. Eventually, it ended up at his aunt and uncle\u2019s house in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

When he asked about it, the van was broken down in the yard and hadn\u2019t run for eight to 12 years. It was essentially his aunt\u2019s filing cabinet, he said.<\/p>\n

But now, it\u2019s an extension of his brand, and he\u2019s testing the waters with making it his and his girlfriend\u2019s home on wheels.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs humans, we just don\u2019t get opportunities to be scared or to just be out of our comfort zone,\u201d said his girlfriend, who asked not to be named.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think traveling, especially in a time machine, you have this unique opportunity to remove yourself from a lot of comforts and you have to learn to roll with the punches, and I\u2019m not doing that with a lot of ease or grace right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayes said he\u2019s lived in Vanny for a handful of monthslong stints, but never with another person who\u2019s also a \u201cdigital nomad,\u201d pulling Starlink.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trip is kind of like a shakeout drive,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n

The morning of Sept. 23, they woke to a dead battery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like things to be orderly and not haphazard and last minute, making a plan on the fly. But I think that\u2019s part of the joy of traveling,\u201d Hayes\u2019 girlfriend said. \u201cAnything that\u2019s worth doing generally isn\u2019t easy and so I don\u2019t know, I think I\u2019ll get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said they were headed to Durango next to visit friends, then up to Vail and finally, back to Breckenridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe witnessed the most magical sunset last night. The colors were silly. These are the kinds of things you don\u2019t see, you know, we see some beautiful things in Breckenridge, but to have that kind of solitude \u2026 you don\u2019t get that a lot of places,\u201d Hayes\u2019 girlfriend said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

to town to enjoy Phil\u2019s World, and turned heads in a decorated hippie bus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,977,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mountain-biking","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78977,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25528\/revisions\/78977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25528"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}