Then Came Kermode Overland

As the brand grew, something became clear: we couldn’t call ourselves Roof Top Tents forever. Our customers weren’t just buying tents anymore. They were building complete overlanding setups — truck beds, racks, awnings, canopies, the whole rig. We needed a name that matched who we’d become.

So we created Kermode Overland — our own line of branded gear including quality racks, awnings, tonneau covers, aluminum truck canopies, and storage systems. Products designed and tested for the roads and conditions we know best.

The name Kermode comes from the Kermode bear — the Spirit Bear of BC. A black bear born with a rare recessive gene that turns its coat white. Not albino. Not a different species. Just an extraordinary version of itself.

The Kermode bear is found almost exclusively in the Great Bear Rainforest of coastal BC — one of the most remote and untouched wildernesses in the world. To the Indigenous peoples of the coast, it is a sacred animal, a symbol of harmony between the wild and the rare. It is unhurried. Self-sufficient. It needs nothing but its own strength and the land beneath its feet.

That’s the spirit we wanted to carry into the brand. The overlander’s mindset isn’t so different from the bear’s — the deep pull toward wild places, the satisfaction of being genuinely self-sufficient, carrying everything you need and owing nothing to a campsite booking or a power hookup. You and your rig and the road ahead. The Kermode bear embodies that completely.

It also felt right for a brand born on Vancouver Island and raised on BC’s backcountry. The Spirit Bear doesn’t exist everywhere. Neither do we. Kermode Overland is built here, for this terrain, by people who actually drive it.