With Stone Ward’s Help, Camo Maker Shows Itself

Stone Ward is running a home-embracing campaign for Natural Gear of Little Rock.

For advertising exec Millie Ward, the assignment was a paradox: making a camouflage company more visible.

“It is a little ironic, isn’t it?” the Stone Ward president said with a trademark burst of laughter.

Her team started with a crackerjack tagline for Natural Gear of Little Rock, which makes hunting apparel and was looking to emphasize its local roots: “Born in Arkansas, Unseen Everywhere.”

The slogan is on billboards, social media and targeted ads, with messaging like this: “A better way to conceal hunters in Arkansas became some of the best camouflage in the world.”

Ward’s aptly named client, Natural Gear’s Hunter Scott, joined John Adams and a group of investors to buy the 25-year-old company in July 2017. “We’re a local company and always have been,” said Scott, the company’s vice president of operations. “But I’m not sure many Arkansans realize that. We’re determined to get that word out.

He says the current leadership — including Adams, VP of sales & product development — has no affiliation with original owner Larry Rial. The seller in 2017 was the investment group Colwal Roth LLC of Little Rock.

Still, Scott is proud of the company’s trailblazing in camouflage design, which led to its “original natural” pattern.

“There was no science to camouflage back then [30 years ago],” Scott said. “From a distance, a lot of it looked like big black blobs, and none of it was based on the surrounding environment.”

From the start, Scott said, Natural Gear studied “the science of how nature looks as it grows,” and mimicked it in camouflage. The original pattern, still Natural Gear’s money look, was quickly licensed for use by other manufacturers.

Since those days, the company’s business model has changed. “In the early stages of the company, licensing was the main source of income,” Scott said. “Now the brand and the pattern coexist, and the biggest part of revenue comes from sales of the hunting gear itself.”

The company still licenses out its camouflage pattern, which proved as effective for woodland duck hunters as for deer hunters, only to makers of products it doesn’t produce itself. Think hip waders and hunting and fishing boats. In 2018, the company introduced a new camo pattern called fields, designed for waterfowl hunters in brush and in fields of rice and soybeans.

A quarter of the privately held company’s revenue comes from online apparel sales, Scott said, but he added that company policy specifically forbids discussing financial figures.

For an enterprise with such a famous camouflage pattern, Natural Gear held an unnaturally low profile at home, Scott said. “I describe us as a 20-year-old startup,” he said. “The company was still profitable, but maybe a little complacent.” He wanted a “much bigger” operation. “It was time to buy it or to move on,” he said.

His goal was to showcase “the best camo you can find, at prices that are affordable to average hunters,” the folks who work for a living. “Oh, you can buy prestige gear and spend a lot more money, but that’s not our market.”

Speaking of working, both Scott and Adams plead guilty to putting in hours from the tree stand or the duck blind. Both are avid hunters, but it’s work, Scott insists: When you’re wearing your own camouflage, hunting is market research. Top-selling items include its WinterCeptor fleeces and its waterfowl apparel.

With about 10 employees and several outside sales representatives, the company has built up sales, particularly increasing its online presence and building revenue.

Natural Gear does 20% of its business in Arkansas; top local retailers include Mack’s Prairie Wings in Stuttgart, DNW Outdoors in Jonesboro, Fort Thompson Sporting Goods in Sherwood, Hunter’s Refuge in White Hall and Bass Pro Shops in Little Rock. New marketing efforts since the 2017 acquisition have boosted online business 300%, the company says.

“Arkansas is full of loyal people, but a lot of them had no idea we were in this field big-time. We want them to know,” Scott said. “With a new website, new logo and a full digital campaign, we’re getting that out there.”