TEXTILES.ORG
Manufacturing and renting tents to provide custom solutions.
Not too far outside Denver, Colo., in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, is Mountain View Tent Co.—a family-owned business that prides itself in renting quality tents and providing excellent customer service. The fact that the company manufactures its tents allows it to readily adapt and customize tents to meet customer needs.
Tom Miller, the company’s owner and president, started Mountain View Tent Co. in 2002, with the help of an uncle who has been manufacturing and renting tents since the late 1970s. “My uncle has become very successful providing tents all over the U.S. but primarily in the Midwest,” Miller says. “He was gracious enough to teach us how to do the same and helped us start out by providing a few small tents and some basic equipment and tools that we needed to get started. With his pattern for success as an example we were able to quickly grow in the first three years, and started to manufacture our own tents in 2005.”
Beyond events
Not only does the company provide tents for weddings, parties, corporate events and festivals, it also provides tents for industrial purposes, such as storage and construction sites. For a recent event at the Pepsi Center in Denver, a customer needed a large tent to cover monster trucks, with quick, easy access in and out of the tent during the shows. The crew installed the company’s 80-by-85-foot Super Tent®, set on 12-foot legs, with a custom installed 14-by-16-foot strip door.
Because of the company’s location in the Denver area and Front Range along the eastern face of the southern Rockies, the crew can go from setting up tents in a compact downtown setting to a remote area in the mountains or rural farmland in eastern Colorado. “Because of this we have encountered all soil types, which is of course an important factor as it relates to anchoring tents,” Miller says. “We have encountered what I would call ‘regular’ compacted dirt, sandy soil, very rocky soil and even soil with more clay-like consistency.”
The unique problems that demand custom solutions provide both the challenge and reward for Miller and his staff. “Some of my favorites would have to include set-ups that require a custom solution, whether it’s driven by the customer’s needs or by the location’s physical challenges,” he says. “Being our own manufacturer allows us to accommodate them—making it possible for the clients to have what they need for their event.”
A view to the future
Miller’s assessment of the tent and event industry in Colorado is that it’s strong, but the challenge of filling crew and crew lead positions has become even more difficult in recent years. Among the reasons Miller cites is an increasing number of marijuana users in Colorado since it was legalized. “All our positions require a clean drug test,” he says. “Of course that’s especially important because there are so many driving positions needed for our industry, not to mention that we are working with machinery and power tools.”
Despite the labor challenges, the company is thriving and Miller is optimistic. “We have a beautiful state that draws people to be outdoors attending events, festivals, parties, etc.—and there are plenty of them to choose from,” he says. “With the ever increasing number of people moving to our state, I believe that current events and festivals will continue to see strong attendance and growth—and I believe we’ll see some new events and festivals getting started as well.”