John Merris will admit that he had an idyllic childhood. Growing up on a 50-acre ranch outside of Austin, he spent countless weekends around the campfire, telling stories, stargazing and simply enjoying what he refers to as the greatest pastime ever — hanging out with friends and family next to the warm glow of a wood-burning fire.
It’s not surprising that those nights left a lasting impression on Merris. Time spent outdoors gathered next to a campfire, after all, tends to have that effect.
So when brothers Jeff and Spencer Jan contacted Merris about taking the top position of their small-but-growing portable stove and firepit business, perhaps he was swayed a bit by a firsthand knowledge about the allure of campfires.
“You can imagine coming full circle to, ‘Hey, do you want to run a company that manufactures fire pits?’ I’m thinking, that’s what I did for fun as a kid on the ranch,” Merris says of his reaction when the brothers first approached him.
At the time, Merris was firmly ensconced in his role as chief revenue officer for Clarus, a global manufacturer of glass boards based in Fort Worth. And Solo Stoves, as the company was known then, was a six-person, Southlake-based business.
But Merris, who graduated from Brigham Young University and has an MBA from the University of Texas, was ready for a challenge and a change. Prior to Clarus, he had spent three years as a vice president at Irving-based MultiView, a digital marketing and communications company. While he was instrumental in driving sales growth at both companies, he didn’t want to be pigeonholed into a sales role.
“I really felt like if I could have more control over broader strokes of the business, then I could do more,” Merris says.
He joined Solo Stove as CEO in 2018, and to say that it has been a whirlwind four years would be a huge understatement. Since he took the helm, Solo Brands, as the company is now known, has acquired three other companies: Oru Kayak, which produces foldable boats; Chubbies, a men’s casual clothing brand; and ISLE, which manufactures paddleboards. In 2020, Merris was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southwest Region. And in October of last year, Solo went public, which has transformed the business into a $2 billion global enterprise, trading on the New York Stock Exchange as “DTC,” a nod to its direct-to-consumer business model.
That moment of ringing the bell on the podium of the New York Stock Exchange alongside his wife Cindy and members of his team was magical for Merris.
“It was really humbling to be in the building and to see, you know, Alexander Hamilton’s handwritten first trade ever done on the New York Stock Exchange, and all of the companies that are there that have made their equity accessible to the world,” says Merris. “To be numbered and named amongst that is pretty awesome.”
The IPO was also the culmination of a grueling few years and was what Merris calls “the heaviest lift” he’s ever done in business.
The company had a $2 billion valuation the day it went public, but for Merris, it wasn’t an exit for him — nor was it intended to be a big moneymaking moment.
“This was Day One of the next decade,” he says of that momentous day. “To build a brand that’s going to be around 50 years from now — that’s what we’re really about.”
He continues, “The public offering really put our company on the map from a marketing standpoint. We’re a heavily-focused direct-to-consumer business, meaning we market directly to the customer and ship the product right to them… And so that’s created a one-to-one relationship. The IPO allowed us to allow our customers — who have really made this happen for us — become shareholders. Now, everyone can be an owner.”
While the company headquarters recently moved from Southlake to a larger space in Grapevine, Merris remains firmly planted in Southlake, where he lives with his wife and their five children, who range in age from 2 to 14. They love to travel, and the family is currently building a second home in Utah. But that might be the extent of Merris’ limited leisure time.
“I tell people I don’t have hobbies — I have kids,” jokes Merris, whose days are now centered around maximizing time spent with family while handling the demands of being the CEO of a $2 billion public company.
COOKING UP NEW PRODUCTS
Since Merris joined the company as employee No. 7, it has grown to more than 500 employees who are spread out not just among their North Texas headquarters, but also fulfillment operations in Pennsylvania and Salt Lake City, Utah; satellite headquarters of the brands they’ve acquired, including Oru Kayak’s Oakland, California, offices, ISLE in San Diego and Chubbies in Austin; plus team members working from home in a couple dozen states. In August, Solo Brands opened a warehouse and fulfillment center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to focus on their evergrowing European customers.
International sales are one way the company will grow. Another way is through innovation, coming up with new products that fit into their portfolio of brands. To that end, Solo has introduced a product that will upend outdoor cooking: Solo Pi is an affordable ($470), portable outdoor pizza oven that quickly cooks crispy-crusted pizza.
“We’re ecstatic about Pi,” says Merris. “If you think about it, we have these four awesome outdoor brands: Solo Stove, Oru Kayak, ISLE and Chubbies. And our brand mantra is ‘Good moments, lasting memories.’ That’s what we’re all about. Anyone who’s made dough, rolled it out, put all the toppings on it with their friends and family and made a pizza together… You talk about smiles and moments and memories. It just fits so well. So we thought, ‘Why don’t we go out and really make a great, differentiated product that can do this even better than anything that’s out there?’”
Launched on March 14, aka Pi Day, and shipping to customers beginning this July, the product is the culmination of more than a year of development, utilizing Solo Stoves’ signature airflow construction so that pizzas are perfectly cooked after around 100 seconds. They use the same high-grade stainless steel as the Solo stoves and firepits and, like the stoves, Pi will work using either wood or a blend of wood and gas.
In addition to the lineup of stoves, fire pits and the new pizza oven, Solo Stove offers accessories to make the experience of outdoor firepits even better, such as a bundle of Juniper firewood from New Mexico, with an aromatic scent that will turn anyone’s campfire into the envy of the neighborhood.
In fact, Merris’ favorite Solo product is the roasting sticks. These foldable dual-pronged stainless steel stakes are great for roasting marshmallows, brats or whatever else might be tasty when roasted over a Solo stove. They come in a chef roll and fold out to 36 inches apiece, keeping one far enough from the fire to make the cooking experience enjoyable and not uncomfortable.
“They’re incredible,” Merris gushes. “It’s things like that have enhanced the experience and made our products even more fun to use.”
SOLO’S NEW SPOT
All of the products are fulfilled in-house, meaning Solo Brands requires large warehouse spaces. That’s in part what precipitated the move to the new Grapevine warehouse, headquarters and showroom, located just a short distance away from DFW Airport and from Merris’ home in Southlake.
Walking through the vast showroom, you get the sense of what Merris and his team have grown this business into — an all-encompassing outdoor lifestyle brand. Products are on display amid quaint, lifelike scenes featuring their brands — a Solo portable fire pit set up outside of an Airstream trailer, a camping scene centered around Solo stoves, Oru kayaks and ISLE paddleboards flanking a larger-than-life photo mural of an inviting river. Nearby, a display of Chubbies water-friendly and active clothing makes you long for the weekend.
While it’s not a retail store per se, customers can order products from an iPad or from their phones and walk out with the product thanks to some amazing technology on the other side of the showroom wall. That’s where robots guide warehouse workers through the aisles, directing them to products as they fill orders. This type of technology allows the company to fulfill about 500,000 orders a month.
As one might expect or hope from a company that’s all about enjoying the great outdoors, there’s also a cool vibe to its offices, a feeling that you’re outdoors instead of inside working — from a replica of a dogtrot house smack dab in the middle of the offices to the firepit sconces along the walls. There’s company-wide grilling, pizza making and fire pitting on a weekly basis as well.
Solo Brands also has a culture that you might expect from an outdoor lifestyle company. It’s a place where employees do community service projects together, like cleaning up parks and planting trees. The company also has a comprehensive culture statement that team members are encouraged to live and work by, with values that are all based around the idea of being a good person, something its executives feel begins at home with your children, spouse, family and friends.
“We try really hard, both as an organization collectively and at the individual level, to truly be the good and to inspire that good in the customers that we bring into the fold,” Merris says.
TAKING IT HOME
Though idyllic in its own way, Southlake is vastly different from the 50-acre ranch of Merris’ youth. Yet, Merris is still able to create the same kinds of campfire memories for his children that he had as a child, thanks to the suite of products his company sells.
“What I love the most about Solo Stove is that we give everyday people the opportunity to create these amazing moments in their backyard without having to live on a ranch or pack up the car for an official ‘camping trip,’” says Merris. “It’s as easy as walking into your backyard and lighting up your Solo Stove, and in 10 minutes you're telling stories, laughing and making lifelong memories.”
Just like those of his own childhood.
A Day In The Life Of John Merris, CEO Of Solo Brands
There’s no such thing as a typical day for the CEO of a $2 billion company, but many days for Merris follow a similar structure.
5:30 a.m. Merris’ day begins early, before the kids are up, when he is able to get in a workout at the gym. “It’s the closest thing I have to a hobby,” he says, admitting that he prefers to exercise when the kids are still asleep so as not to take away even more family time than his job requires.
6:30-8 a.m. Merris helps the kids get ready for the day, which usually involves “dropping one or multiple kids off at school.”
8 a.m.-5 p.m. If he’s not traveling, Merris works from his office at Solo Brands’ Grapevine headquarters. His daily calendar is generally full of one-on-one sync ups with his team and a wide variety of public company-related activities. Merris also reaches out regularly to other CEOs and entrepreneurs to share ideas and explore new opportunities.
5:30 p.m. Merris makes it a point to be at home in the evenings, spending time with the family and putting the kids to bed. After the kids are asleep, Merris gets back on his computer, responding to emails and getting work done before calling it a night.