Springbar
Salt Lake City, Utah 🇺🇸
Tracing its roots back to 1961 when founder Arthur Jack Kirkham Sr. revolutionized the outdoor industry with his innovative, high-tension frame design, Springbar is an iconic American manufacturer of premium canvas tents. Operating out of its dedicated sew shop and retail factory headquarters in the Salt Lake City area, the company has spent more than six decades building an enduring legacy centered on structural integrity, weather resilience, and heirloom-level longevity. By rejecting the flimsy, synthetic materials common in modern mass-produced shelters, Springbar has positioned itself as the gold standard for rugged base camps, overlanding expeditions, and serious outdoor life across the American West.
The defining characteristic of a genuine Springbar tent is its unique, tempered spring-steel tension rod system, which allows a heavy-duty, 90-pound basecamp structure to be easily pitched by a single person in just a few minutes. To maintain absolute performance in torrential downpours, high winds, and heavy weather, the company utilizes a meticulously managed domestic supply chain, sourcing its military-grade components and custom-treated canvas exclusively from long-standing American mills. Every USA-made Springbar model—from the timeless 10'x10' Traveler to the cold-weather, stove-compatible Skyliner hot tent—is cut, stitched, finished, and rigorously inspected by skilled hands on their Utah production floor, ensuring each shelter is inherently built to last for generations.
Manufacturing and Material Standards:
Gold-Standard Canvas Selection: Utilizes 100% cotton, double-fill, boat-shrunk army duck canvas (ranging from 8.5-ounce walls to 10.1-ounce roofs) dyed and finished with a wax-based Sunforger® treatment in Georgia for maximum breathability, water repellency, and mold resistance.
Heavy-Duty Structural Components: Features aluminum alloy upright poles reinforced with steel components and tempered spring-steel tension rods machined and fabricated locally in Salt Lake City.
Bombproof Hardware and Stitching: Constructed with robust 2- and 3-needle lap-felled seams, heavy-duty 12-ounce seamless vinyl floors, #10 YKK zippers, and high-strength steel wire stake loops forged in Chicago.
Salt Lake City Sew Shop and Tent Garden: Maintains a transparent manufacturing facility where visitors can view the active production floor and explore a fully pitched display of core models in their on-site outdoor testing garden.
