Photo courtesy of High’s Adventure Gear High’s Adventure Gear owners Jaimee (left) and Justin High, on the opening day of Firearms Season, Nov. 15, in their Willow Tuff Parka, which their company not only sells but manufactures in their own facilities.

CALUMET — The revitalization of downtown Calumet continues to be in full swing as another new small business has found its way into the area,

Justin and Jaimee High, of High’s Adventure Gear take “shop local” to a new level. On Saturday, Nov. 27, the High’s celebrated the grand opening of their brick and mortar store at 309 Fifth Street. High’s Adventure Gear specializes in custom outdoor gear designed and crafted by Iditarod Mushers in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

The Highs, who for the past 12 years have operated their online business out of their basement in Mohawk, manufacture the products they sell. The building on Fifth Street is their first storefront location.

High’s Adventure Gear produces a wide range of gear for dog mushers, iron doggers, fishermen, hunters, and outdoorsmen/women in general, ranging from parkas, gauntlets, mitts, packs/bags, chaps and dog gear. They make gear that is built specifically, as they put it, to the Copper Country’s needs out of the highest quality material available. They also manufacture and sell snow skirts, bibs, chaps, small youth items, snowmobile gauntlets, bicycle ponies, and children’s outdoor gear.

Jaimee serves as the owner/operator of the company while Justin is the chief operating officer.

“All of our products are hand made in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan,” said Justin.

High said the company was established in 2012, originally concentrating on mushing gear.

“Over time we’ve evolved to fulfill the needs of outdoorsmen and women in a wide range of gear,” he said. “In 2016, we introduced our Willow Tuff Parka. It’s a, windproof, waterproof, three-season parka that works well at -20F but is also quite comfortable at 30F. And it only weighs three pounds.”

They are ultra-light and weatherproof, he said, which is “what you need around here.”

High said the Willow Tuff Parkka is their mainstay parkka, which also produced as a Willow Tuff Extreme, but it is not really salable in this region, because it is rated for 65 degrees below zero. The Willow Tuff Extreme parka was introduced at The Yukon Quest and Iditarod in 2017.

While the Highs currently focus on outdoor three-season outerwear, the store will remain open year-round, as they are working on adding some choices to their line.

“There’ll be some lighter and some puffier rain gear,” he said, “but mostly we concentrate on cold-weather gear.”