2023 Design Breakdowns

What is Verus Kayaks? Well the short answer is we’re a paddler owned and operated whitewater kayak company. We’re a couple of guys, with a passion for boating and a big dream. We might be a small team, but we’re working to make boats that give you a reason for chasing rain and spending time with friends out on the water.

The boats you see sitting up on the display rack didn’t just happen overnight. They’ve been the product of 8 years of development and steady improvement. When Josh Pecaric founded Verus Kayaks in 2015, we set out with the intention to make the most fun, highest quality, and most progressive whitewater kayaks out on the river. To get there, we had a lot to learn and with that big dream in mind, we started on a small scale. In 2016 Josh moved to Shanghai for 6 months to meet with rotomolders and composites manufactures and start learning the basics of boat building. This is a little known fact, but our first project was actually a carbon playboat known as the Volant. Shortly after, Josh developed the shape that would eventually become the Gladiator. Josh hand-shaped the plugs for these designs and started down the road that brought us here today.  

A year later in 2017, Josh went back to China but this time he brought along George Fiske. The two of us met guiding expedition canoe trips in Northern Ontario, Canada, and at the time George was pursuing a major in Chinese Language and Culture. Pairing our skill-sets, we went back over and really got things kicked off in earnest. With George helping as a translator, we met the team that would become our manufacturing partner for the next three years. We worked on sourcing components, specifically elements for outfitting such as grab handles and hip pads, and saw the first production samples of the original Gladiator. Now a staple of the Verus fleet, we started with just 30 Gladiators and distributed them to team paddlers across the Southeast. 

Now let’s fast forward a few years to 2020. We took the time in between to hear feedback from our team paddles and work on improving what we started. We set into the year with big goals in mind, ready to launch the Gladiator 2.0, and our first full slice design, the Hellbender. Then came the pandemic. Our working model for development and manufacturing soon proved to be highly volatile in the era of Covid. With shipping rates going up exponentially, tariffs on foreign manufacturing, and a generally unstable economy, we had to go back to the drawing board and rethink just about everything.

Rather than backing down to the new challenges, we got busy. In 2021, we first met the folks who would help us bring our operations stateside and kick off what we called Project: Made In America. Essentially starting from scratch, we got to work re-launching our business down in Anderson, SC. Starting with setting up the new oven, and shipping our existing molds from our old Chinese facility, we got to tear into all the details of what would become our new manufacturing set-up. In 2022, we expanded our team and brought on Max Campbell. With over 15 years of experience across the outdoor industry, from guiding to retail, he’s been integral in working with shops across the country to bring Verus Kayaks to a store near you! But enough about us. Let’s talk about the new boats!