About this idea
Whether you're hiking, camping, or enjoying a picnic, when you head into the outdoors, most of your gear ends up scattered across the ground. Cooking becomes a balancing act in the dirt, your essentials mix into messy piles, and you're dealing with a situation that feels chaotic from the start. The alternative? Lugging a load of bulky, heavy equipment just to stay clean and off the ground. Outdoor enthusiasts have accepted those as the only choices. Until now. The solution is Kimberlite’s patent pending system that is comprised of a 10 in. by 10 in. modular tree table. The tree table secures to a tree at working height, holds up to 20 pounds, and keeps your gear clean, organized, and off the ground making it the centerpiece of every campsite. It weighs one pound, packs up just larger than a Nalgene water bottle, and is built from premium materials like aircraft-grade aluminum, glass-filled nylon, and seatbelt webbing. The modular design comes from the table surface itself, which quickly converts into a ground table or a standalone surface whenever you need it. What really elevates this system is the line of proprietary accessories that lock directly into the aluminum table surface. To keep cooking clean, safe, and efficient, we developed a stove canister attachment that secures unstable cooking equipment, cutting board attachments that let you prepare meals comfortably, a flameproof windscreen to shield your stove, and a raised lantern hook to keep your camp kitchen illuminated at night. For organization, we created a series of snap-in hooks and a hanging basket to keep gear accessible at all times. The tree table strap not only stabilizes the table, but also supports up to one hundred pounds of gear, keeping your backpack and belongings organized and off the ground. Each piece works across every configuration and simultaneously with one another so users can scale up, pare down, or reconfigure for any trip.
Impact
Kimberlite’s Tree Table improves outdoor experiences by solving a common problem: lack of clean, stable, and adaptable workspace in the field. By creating a lightweight modular surface that works on trees, the ground, or on the user, we help campers, backpackers, and hunters stay organized, cook more efficiently, and protect gear from dirt and moisture. The system reduces pack clutter by replacing multiple single use items with one compact platform and snap in accessories. This supports lighter, more efficient travel and encourages more people to comfortably access the outdoors. Kimberlite also strengthens the outdoor economy by designing and assembling in Michigan whenever possible, supporting domestic manufacturing and regional supply chains. As the accessory ecosystem grows, the platform extends product life and reduces waste by allowing users to expand capability without replacing the core unit. Ultimately, Kimberlite enables more enjoyable, organized, and responsible time outside while building a scalable outdoor gear platform rooted in thoughtful design and U.S. based value creation.
What I'll do with $5,000
If awarded, the $5,000 will be used to procure our initial inventory of stamped aluminum planks that form the primary table surface of the Kimberlite Tree Table. These planks are the most critical component of the product and the key item required to move into fulfilled orders. This funding will allow us to place our first meaningful production order, secure material, and begin building finished goods. By investing directly in this core component, we unlock the ability to assemble complete units, fulfill early customer demand, and validate our supply chain at production scale. Because the stamped planks are common across every Tree Table configuration, this investment has outsized leverage. It enables multiple finished units and supports the broader accessory ecosystem, making it the highest impact use of early capital. In short, this $5,000 converts directly into physical product, accelerates our path to revenue, and reduces execution risk as we transition from prototype to scaled manufacturing.
Quick Bio
Robin Petersen and Casey McKellar are both West Michigan based product development engineers and graduates of Grand Valley State University's Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering program.
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