In this new episode of the Piper podcast, How I Grew My Brand, Mary Nightingale talks to Matt Gowar, founder and former CEO of Equip Outdoor Technologies, the business behind Rab, one of the great British success stories in mountain sports and, as Mary puts it, a true brand legend.
Matt isn’t Rab. That honour belongs to Scottish climber Rab Carrington, who started making sleeping bags at his kitchen table in the early 1980s to fund his expeditions. Over nearly 20 years, Rab built a name that serious mountaineers trusted with their lives. Matt describes this as “paying into the piggy bank” of brand equity by staying obsessively true to the core user and the purpose. When Matt heard that Rab was looking to sell and retire, it was an instant yes. His first sleeping bag as a teenager had been a Rab; he knew exactly how much was in that piggy bank.
Matt’s own journey started far from the summit, stacking shelves in Sainsbury’s, running a small outdoor concession inside a bike shop, then becoming a self‑employed sales agent after a chance conversation at a Harrogate trade show. Listening to customers led him to import hats and gloves from Asia under the Equip name, packing orders from the basement of his mother’s house. The first shipment landed in September 1993, and, with a couple of cold winters, the business grew from there.
When the opportunity came to buy Rab in 2003, Matt took what he describes as “quite a scary bank debt” to make it happen, partly because Rab trusted him not to destroy the brand that still carried his name. Overnight, Equip became the custodian of Rab’s piggy bank, inheriting a Sheffield factory with 40 machinists and combining to turn over just over £4m in their first year together. From there, revenue has grown to nearly £120 million.
It wasn’t always easy or smooth. Matt talks openly about some of the hardest calls along the way. He also shares how growth through the COVID years tested his entrepreneurial risk-taking instincts. Early in 2020, as Asian suppliers warned of shutdowns, he was “metaphorically screaming down the phone” for more product after a good winter. Weeks later, with lockdowns spreading, he was asking factories to slow down and wondering if this might be the end of the business. Then a simple observation — crowds of people walking past his kitchen window on a road that wasn’t even a footpath — gave him a hunch that outdoor activity was about to surge. He reopened the supply chain on that instinct, gaining a three- to four-month head start on competitors and helping the business nearly double in just two years.
Throughout the conversation, Matt comes back to the discipline needed to grow a brand legend through the inflection points we call 7,17, 70: protecting and investing that “brand equity piggy bank”, expanding carefully into new categories, and building long-term relationships with the factories that have been with him for more than 20 years. He talks about keeping Rab focused on the same core technical outdoor enthusiast, resisting the temptation to chase a broader, more fashion-driven audience even as the market around them has grown.
Like many founders, Matt is candid about the personal side of growth. He describes himself as a “control freak” learning to delegate, the emotional strain of being CEO through three decades of change, and the moment he recognised that taking the business from £110 million to the next stage needed a different skillset. After more than 30 years in the business, he chose to step back into a non‑exec role. For us, it’s a powerful example of navigating the 7,17,70 journey, knowing when to evolve your own role so the brand can keep climbing. Asked what he puts Rab’s success down to, Matt talks about hard work, luck, and the ability to recognise and seize opportunities. His advice to would‑be founders is simple: if you’ve got an idea and the urge to start, do it. Most people don’t regret trying, but many regret never having tried at all.
It’s this mix of bravery, discipline and long‑term stewardship that has helped turn Rab into the brand legend it is today. We hope you enjoy hearing Matt’s story.