Spencer Kadas
Spencer Kadas quit his data science job at 31 to be a ski bum for a year. No grand plan, just one question: will I regret not doing this? A year later he bought High Above, the Seattle company behind some of the most bombproof, USA-made mountain bike packs out there. He'd never sewn a stitch. A month after the papers were signed, a ski wreck on top of Mt. Baker nearly took it all away.
He Got Airlifted Off Mt. Baker, Then Taught Himself to Sew Left-Footed
In this episode we get into what it actually takes to buy a beloved, founder-built brand and make it your own: learning bag construction from High Above's original founder, moving the shop from Bellingham to Seattle's Pioneer Square, designing packs in CAD with a CNC fabric cutter, and why doing your own repairs teaches you more about durability than any spec sheet.
We also go deep on the new Cascadia, the hydration hip pack High Above spent almost two years developing, with a custom UHMWPE/nylon fabric designed from scratch, roughly four times the abrasion resistance of a standard pack cloth, and a magnetic buckle from a small Olympia, Washington company. And we close on the thing that grounds it all: the pressure to be “super rad” online, and why the real reason we ride has nothing to do with it.
Spencer Kadas is the owner of High Above, a Seattle (Pioneer Square) bag company known for bombproof, USA-made mountain bike hip packs. Spencer bought the company in 2024 with his friend Kyle, learned to sew on the job, and has since led the design of the Venture 3D, the Supernatural vest pack, and the new Cascadia.