Our Story-Before Shark Tank airing October 7, 2018!
We’ve always been fascinated with great camping and survival gear. That fascination has driven our innovative nature to solve problems for the outdoors. At an early stage we saw the need for cookware to be more compact, but the only options available were smaller versions of kitchen pots and pans that were already on the market. Nesting pots are okay but we knew there had to be a more innovative solution.
Bear Minimum is proud to present the Bear Bowl cook pot. The Bear Bowl is the World's first cook pot that fits in your pocket. It’s lightweight and small but holds a whopping 32oz of water. It comes in two larger sizes as well. It works with most of your favorite camp stoves or over a fire in a survival situation. Others have found that putting tin-foil around it over campfire works great.
The Bear Bowl cook pot has been found to have other convenient uses, as well, especially as a portable dog dish and container for holding your important devices, trail food, flowers and more. It is the perfect companion to anyone who wants to cook on the trail.
The Bear Bowl cook pot was invented by Cory Santiago from Spokane, Washington. Cory has been known for his inventive ideas for decades. It started as a young child, when he played a game called "Pick" with his brother, Robby.
Cory explains, “We each got five items to choose to bring to the deserted destination. I am always interested in survival gear and kits. Most of the time my ideas get invented before I create them, but nobody had a good solution to the cooking pot. Nesting pots helped some, but they were still so bulky. The market clearly needed a better solution for a more compact, light weight, easy to pack cook pot. What is more compact than a cook pot that folds flat? People are amazed when they see how small it folds flat and fits so comfortably in your pocket. Then, when they see how well it cooks, they can hardly believe it is possible. We were not expecting or trying to make it the easiest cook pot to clean, but since it opens flat and because of it’s super slick material, it is the easiest cook pot to clean! Just compare cooking eggs on your old fashioned cast iron and then the Bear Bowl cook pot and you will buy a dozen!”
Cory is married to partner and cheerleader, Heidi Santiago, with their two youngest kids, Jordan (16) and Leilani (13) who have been very helpful putting in hours and hours of assembly line work while never complaining. The older three children are out of the house and off building their own lives but are proud of their dad’s success.
The headquarters for the production of over three thousand units so far has been in the Santiago’s home. They have started a large manufacturing order in China but are hoping to make the Bear Bowl cook pot an 100% American-made assembled product soon.
Currently, the Bear Bowl is available for purchase on Amazon and at bearminimum.org. You can get it before it hits the shelves!