AquaQuest
Canadian-owned · made overseas · based in British Columbia
Waterproof tarps, dry bags, duffels, backpacks and bivies sold direct from a Vancouver Island, BC workshop since 1994.
Courtenay, BC CA · aquaquest.com
AquaQuest is a founder-led waterproof gear brand based on Vancouver Island, BC, established in 1994 and selling tarps, dry bags, duffels, backpacks and bivies direct from its own site. Its legal entity, Gear Out Here Distributors Ltd, is registered in British Columbia; the site never discloses where the products themselves are manufactured or where the technical fabrics come from.
Factors
Ownership
100.0 reportedCA 100%
The vendor's About page says several founding team members still run the company from its BC head office, with no mention of outside investors or a parent company. BC OrgBook confirms Gear Out Here Distributors Ltd, the entity named in the privacy policy, as a registered BC company (BC0996586); Corporations Canada's federal registry returns zero results for both that name and AquaQuest, consistent with a provincial rather than federal incorporation. SEC EDGAR's 10-K full-text search and Wikidata turn up no US or other foreign parent. The BC Registry's own filing detail page is a JavaScript app that would not render for a fetch, so shareholder-level detail beyond the registration record itself could not be confirmed.
- About Us | AquaQuest Waterproof Gear · the vendor's own site “Established in 1994, AquaQuest's head office and home base is in British Columbia, Canada... several of our founding team members continuing to play critical roles in the company's development.”
- Privacy policy · the vendor's own site “Gear Out Here Distributors Ltd (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates www.aquaquest.com.”
- BC OrgBook search: Gear Out Here Distributors · registry record “GEAR OUT HERE DISTRIBUTORS LTD., registration BC0996586”
- Federal corporation search: Gear Out Here Distributors · registry record “0 results were found, 0 returned.”
Manufacturing
28.0 inferredCA 10% · other 90%
No page on the site, including About, Lifetime Warranty, Product Specs, FAQ, and Shipping, states where tarps, dry bags, or bivies are actually made; product pages give fabric specs (70D/40D ripstop nylon, PU coatings) but not a country of manufacture. Canadian outdoor brands that manufacture domestically almost always say so, and that claim is absent everywhere here, so this mix is a judgment call weighted toward overseas contract manufacturing rather than a documented figure.
- About Us | AquaQuest Waterproof Gear · the vendor's own site
- Lifetime Warranty | AquaQuest Waterproof Gear · the vendor's own site
- Product Specs · the vendor's own site
People
100.0 reportedCA 100%
The only location the vendor names for its team is its BC head office on Vancouver Island, described as the place products are developed and tested; no other office is mentioned anywhere on the site and a careers page could not be found to check further.
- About Us | AquaQuest Waterproof Gear · the vendor's own site “AquaQuest's head office and home base is in British Columbia, Canada at the base of the Vancouver Island Mountain Range.”
Inputs
28.0 inferredCA 10% · other 90%
No page names a fabric mill or materials supplier. The ripstop nylon and PU/PVC coatings used in the tarps and dry bags are the kind of technical textiles predominantly milled and coated in Asia, and that lines up with the unclear, likely-overseas manufacturing footprint above, so this split is an estimate rather than a sourced figure. The storefront is Shopify-based but is only one of several sales regions the vendor runs, so platform dependence is not a single point of control.
- Product Specs · the vendor's own site