CamelBak is an outdoors equipment company based in Petaluma, California, best known for its hydration products. CamelBak is also a supplier of hydration packs, protective gear, and other products to the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies around the world.
The company was founded in 1989 by bicycle enthusiast, Michael Eidson. He was competing in the "Hotter'N Hell 100," a 100-mile road race in the grueling summer heat of Wichita Falls, Texas. Water is vital to surviving the race, and there were few places to refill a water bottle. Eidson, an emergency medical technician by trade, decided to fill an IV bag with water and slip it into a white tube sock. Then he stuffed the contraption into the back of his bike jersey, threw the thin hose over his shoulder and clamped it with a clothespin.
Hands-free hydration was born.
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