1979 – The Beginning
When Steve Cole and Don Banducci purchased Yakima Industries, it was just a small machine shop in Yakima, Washington. As kayakers and cyclists, these two pioneers saw a better—and bigger—future for hauling recreational sporting equipment. They moved Yakima Industries to the wilderness of Arcata, California and undertook the mission to put gear on cars and friends in cars.
1984 – Olympics
Yakima’s brand promise—Regardless of your destination or adventure, Yakima helps get you, your friends and all your gear there , allowing you to focus on what really matters—creating memories to last a lifetime.—held true when they built aerodynamic fairings for all race vehicles at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Only five years old, Yakima was also the official rack supplier for the 7-Eleven Cycling team who won nine gold medals.
1995 – Q Tower
With the growing popularity of the world wide web, acronyms like LOL and OMG began appearing in the American lexicon. Yakima’s contribution to this new language was QTR, representing what’s now known as Q Towers. The Q Towers were so well engineered they’re still produced today, BTW.
2005 – Moved to Portland
Yakima moves its headquarters from California to Oregon. With this transition comes two vows: keep friends in cars and keep Portland weird.
2008 – Flugtag
This is the year the HoldUp and SwingDaddy, our new hitch racks, were released to public and critical acclaim. It’s also the year Yakima engineers soared 62 feet to win Red Bull Flugtag in Portland, going down in history, as well as the Willamette River.
Yakima welcomed two new members into the family in 2010. Both the RACKandROLL trailer and the sleek, elegant Whispbar received rave reviews.
2015
2015 – In late 2015, the Yakima team moved into a new state of the art facility outside of Portland, OR.
2016 – Today
We’ve teamed up with Toyota for as the Official Sponsor of the Road Warrior team. Armed with SWAG and endless amounts of rack knowledge, the Road Warriors can be found at outdoor events, trailheads, rivers, rack dealers and of course out on the open road.