Chris Doyle.


Hello, friends of Tenson! I’m your current host of Tenson’s Community with Purpose and I’ll be loosely guiding our Community’s journey as it develops.

By way of brief introduction: You can read my professional profile here. And, I'd also like you to meet my wife Emma as well, who's a serial entrepreneur and even tougher in the outdoors than me. She's the founder and driver behind our micro-enterprise microgreens company, Emmas Stadsodling, which serves our local community residents, markets and restaurants. She delivers our produce to customers on our e-cargo bike, which is why she's also backing Tenson's Community with Purpose. 

Now, here's more on how I got to be connected to Tenson...


When I’m indoors, I’m a bit of a caged lion. I quickly get restless and crave to get outside and into nature. Here in West Sweden, fortunately, it’s quite easy to do. Of course, to do so, I need the right gear. And, I consider myself a bit of a gear expert as I’ve been active professionally in the outdoor gear and apparel and adventure tourism industries since the late 1980s. For me, when I’ve got the right gear, every experience outdoors is more comfortable.

In a natural development as a permanent resident and soon-to-be Swedish citizen, I came to learn about Tenson, “The Swedish Outdoor Brand”, as part of my indoctrination into the Swedish culture (I married a Swede and together just outside of Gothenburg, we’re raising our three children and we’re all super outdoorsy!).

Then, I studied Tenson’s history. I studied its journey. In my professional work, I’ve been involved in conservation and expedition efforts for decades and so I found Tenson’s 70+ year history truly compelling. I met the Tenson team and I sensed I found a community I could trust. And, they were already deep into a rebuilding effort. And, the high-quality product I tested throughout the winter was solid. Then, I got the chance to contribute to the vision of Tenson’s future.

So here I am, now helping to organically create a natural meeting place of people who share interest in supporting a consumer brand that’s on the right path and trying to be better in a world where so many brands are simply trying to make money at all costs. At the end of August 2021, I became Tenson's Director of Marketing, Sustainability & Community Development with 50% of my available working time. The other half, I continue to contribute to responsible tourism design, development and innovation. It's hard to separate the outdoor gear and tourism industries, so my professional role is interwoven like a colorful tapestry of work with purpose.

To pilot our new Community with Purpose, I reached out early this year to my personal and professional friends to ask if they’d like to join in Tenson’s renewed journey. For me, my personal and professional worlds are hard to separate, since I tend to surround myself with people I care deeply about and who share life’s similar experiences, sensibilities and visions for a better future - for our kids, for the planet, for people. Without exception, every person responded favorably to the mutual exchange of value proposition Tenson offered. I am super jazzed about this. Each person is choosing to get involved. They can leave at any time. We have to continuously earn their trust and respect. We aim to do just that.

Starting in the fall, on behalf of Tenson, I’ll reach out more regularly with updates about Tenson’s progress, share anecdotes from our past to help you understand where we come from, and will actively be sharing friends of Tenson’s stories along the way.

So, we start here and we hope you’ll start following #Tenson, #CommunitywithPurpose, #TheSwedishOutdoorBrand. We hope you’ll join our growing community and help to share our journey. Please reach out to me/us at [email protected].


Profession/TItle:
Managing Director CMDInspired & Soon-to-be (23 August 2021) Director of Marketing & Community Development for Tenson

The PURPOSE of you/your/life/profession work:
To partner with extraordinary people to stimulate net-positive impacts for societies and our natural world.

Favorite outdoor activity:
Long treks accompanied by waterfall experiences, and by that, I mean get into and under the waterfalls!

Favorite outdoor place/s:
I'm a mountain guy through and through, but I must have significant bodies of water nearby!

Favorite campfire food:
"Pigs in a blanket, Doyle style" - that's a pancake on the bottom, two over-medium eggs on that, followed by a few meaty slices of bacon, then covered with another pancake and a healthy dose of Canadian Maple Syrup!

Favorite food to forage:
Freshly foraged anything, especially blueberries and chanterelle mushrooms!

Favorite "adventure"/nature read:
Pico Iyer's, "A Beginners Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations" - It is subtle, sublime, poetic, and accurate. And, for a more classic choice, Miguel de Cervantes', Don Quixote.

Favorite cinematic/"adventure"/outdoor film:
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid - what can I say, I'm nuts about classic Western and the outdoor settings are outrageous, especially the final scenes! A close second is Robert Redford's, "A River Runs Through It" with Brad Pitt, as I'm a fly fishing hobbyist.