our story

Rugged. According to the dictionary, to be rugged is "to have or require toughness and determination." This definition perfectly summarizes not only our brand and products, but also the community of people on this journey with us. 

Rugged Road was founded by Spencer in 2016. A student at the time, he knew that he was being called to do something big, but wasn't sure exactly what that would be. One day in chemistry class, a chemical engineer demonstrated a spray that he had helped develop for many military applications like coating the walls of government buildings to make them blast proof. Rumor had it that if you coated an egg in this spray and threw it off a building, it would bounce. Spencer knew that there was some potential here, so he quickly got to work brainstorming a way to utilize this spray for consumer goods. When the idea of an ultralight cooler came about, he knew there was no time to waste. 

When the first sample arrived, Spencer had to put the durability of the cooler to the test. Being an 18 year old boy living in his parent's house, there wasn't much "official" testing equipment available to him at the time, so he had to get creative! He shot the cooler with a bow and arrow, threw it off the roof, parked a jeep on it, and knee boarded on the lid... okay that "test" was just for fun. Needless to say, it passed each test with flying colors. It was time to bring this vision to life.

Throughout college, Spencer washed windows and worked plenty of other odd jobs to financially support his Kickstarter in 2019. His primary goal for the campaign was to gauge the market’s appetite for an ultralight high performance cooler, and there was a clear answer when the fundraising goal was crushed within just 24 hours of launching. The next few weeks were filled with plenty of R&D, sewing, and hours in a U-Haul making deliveries to customers in the greater Atlanta area. The first rendition of a Rugged Road cooler was named the Onitis 45; it was named after a species of beetle that has a higher strength to weight ratio than any other living creature on the planet. 

The Onitis 45 coolers began selling faster than we could make them, and just about every cooler we made the first year of production had already pre-sold! Spencer felt it was time to meet with potential new investors and manufacturing partners to keep up the momentum and push the company to the next level. In the weeks and months following the first Kickstarter, Spencer asked for feedback from customers - the good, the bad, and the ugly. From this, he took what he knew was working, and partnered with an engineer to fix what wasn’t. The ultralight structure, reversible lid, and ability to float were fan-favorites, while the harness system, inability to drain meltwater, and lack of security were points to improve moving forward. With this feedback, we spent nearly a year honing in the cooler’s features and functionality. In the summer of 2021, we launched the first rendition of the Rugged Road 65, which was designed with our customers' suggestions in mind. The RR65 now has a drain plug, marine-grade stainless steel latch, patent pending hinges for the lid, and two types of handles, all while still remaining ultralight with the ability to float upright.

In the months following the launch of the Rugged Road 65, we reached out to our customers for feedback once again. While the cooler had come a long way since the early days, we knew that our customers would provide insight and share their experiences to help us further improve the product. We received an overwhelming amount of support for what we were doing with a huge demand for accessories and more sizes.

This brings us to today. In 2022, we launched the Rugged Road V2 collection. What's new with V2? Well, we took our customers' tips to heart; each hard sided RR65 cooler now comes with a basket and divider. We have also increased the thickness of the coating to make the cooler more durable than ever before. The V2 coolers have a unique non-slip coating on the feet, and we extended our warranty from 3 years to a lifetime. Once completed, our V2 collection will feature the RR65, as well as the RR45 and RR85 in 4 different colors.

OUR MISSION

“Boreholes can provide access to clean drinking water to hundreds of people in developing communities. Having the opportunity to raise funds for this well changed my life in ways I could not have imagined, and has given me a purpose greater than just running a business. I will donate 10% of Rugged Road’s annual proceeds to the Rugged Road Foundation. The primary focus of the foundation will be to build wells in developing countries around the globe, with the help of people like Zakaria Yakuba (pictured left).”
- Spencer Sutlive, Rugged Road Founder

Did you know that 771 million people around the world still lack access to clean water today? That's nearly 1 in 10 people. When you shop with us at Rugged Road, not only are you supporting a local business, but you are helping us serve families in need with the gift of clean water. With the support of those on this journey with us, we have officially broken ground on our first water projects in Niger. Just one well will bring water to an entire community of people. We are overwhelmed with excitement to see our vision come to life.If you feel moved to donate or contribute, you can do so by clicking here.

OUR team

Spencer

Founder and CEO

Spencer was born and raised in Georgia and has a passion for the outdoors. He has been an entrepreneur for as long as he can remember. It all began with lemonade stands as a boy, and then he started a 6 figure t-shirt business with his brothers as a 14 year old. As a student at UGA (Go Dawgs!), when he wasn't hanging off the side of buildings washing windows, he was working on the foundation of Rugged Road. He has poured his heart into this business and spends nearly all of his time working on it. In his few minutes of free time, Spencer can usually be found scaling a mountain somewhere in the Southeast or kayaking down some white water rapids (with a cooler in tow, of course).

Will

Director of Sales

Will is a Louisiana native, but now finds himself in a town of 900 in Southwest Montana. He is the youngest of seven kids and graduated from LSU (Geaux Tigers!).

This isn't his first rodeo when it comes to building a cooler start-up from the ground up. He has quite the resume, and is the epitome of kickin' ass and taking names!