I've never done a Swift Campout ride. Every year, I tell myself I will. Then the summer solstice rolls around, and I see photos of bikes packed, riders rolling out, sleeping under the stars and I wonder: why didn't I? Maybe it's my energy levels. Maybe it's just bad timing. But every June, I get the sense that something is happening. Something good. Something global.
Swift Campout isn't just a bike ride. It's a shared idea: ride out, camp out, wake up outside. That's it. Simple, and it stuck. What started in 2015 has grown into the longest-running global bikepacking event. Hundreds (maybe thousands) of riders across dozens of countries all head out on the same weekend without a central route or any real rules. Just one thing in common—the longest day of the year.
To find out how it has lasted this long, and why it still feels fresh, we spoke with Martina Brimmer. She's the founder of Swift Industries and, along with her partner Jason, helped kick off the very first Campout. We wanted to know what keeps it going year after year. Why the branding always lands. How it still feels personal, even as it grows. And how a simple weekend ride turned into a global tradition.
Ten years is a long time to keep any event alive, especially one this open-ended. But after talking with Martina, I finally get it. This year, I'm in. I'll be finding a local Campout—somewhere on Vancouver Island, or close enough.
So let's get into it.
Tell us about the very first Campout?
In the early days of building Swift, Jason and I were so busy sewing bags and learning how to build a cottage company that we couldn't make the time for the two to three week bikepacking trips that had once been fixtures in our calendar. We started doing one-nighters, inspired by Grant Peterson's S240, and Path Less Pedaled's Bike-Overnights. In Seattle, we're spoiled with a rad choice of campgrounds within 40 miles of our hometown so we can access the reprieve of bike getaways in micro doses. At the time, Jason had this social ride series called the Get Lost Adventure Club and he would rally friends to go bike camping after work. Swift Campout emerged as a natural extension of his ride series.
In 2015, the first official Swift Campout pointed to a county-park in a farming valley about 30 miles from Seattle. A crew of 30 campers rallied to explore trails and farm roads to a meadow camp nestled between a forested trail system and a meandering river. But what made that overnight especially magical, was that it was happening in sync with campouts in the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia and Japan (to name a few), who were sharing our experience thousands of miles away.
To this day, that sense of a global experience thrills us!
When did you realize Campout had become bigger than just a weekend ride?
A few years into Swift Campout, the year that Kyler Martz' artwork took center stage, a crew in Melbourne replaced our snoozing fox with a koala. That was the year that we knew that Swift Campout was everything we dreamed it to be: a grassroots event powered by adventurers all over the world and owned by our extended communities! Since then, the local variations on Swift Campout artwork over the years has been a constant delight.
We enlist community organizers, that we call Navigators, to lead Swift Campouts all over the world! This year's Navigators are a mix of indie bike shops that we partner with, like Treehouse Cyclery, Sprinters Bici Taller, Campfire Cycling, Kissing Crows Cyclery and The Woods, as well as individuals and groups that are active in the bikepacking space. Plugging in with them is one of a few ways to be part of Swift Campout. Other options are to host a public campout, or simply head out on your own bikepacking trip on the solstice!
Either way, you'll join the Swift Campout community over on the site, and then register your adventure on the global directory.
It's astounding, over the years we've had campers register from over 25 countries and at its peak 1500 campers signed on in one year. The truth is that we don't know how many people actually do the thing. For example, Swift Campouts hosted by local bike shops have turned out more than a hundred campers at a time. That leaves us unsure of how big Swift Campout really is, but knowing it's waaaay larger than our count.
Maybe that's the magic of this cosmic event.
How has Campout kept such a strong identity with no central route or rules?
The format of Swift Campout empowers everyone to do campout their own way. This year, one of our Navigators, the Nakamoto family, is celebrating the arrival of a newborn, so their spin on campout is that they're riding around Tokyo for the day and planning to camp in their yard. We also see folks riding into remote wilderness and everything in between. We're platforming a cross-cultural event that exists to show that bikepacking gets to take shape in all kinds of ways.
Has any local Campout completely surprised you?
When Tokyo's Blue Lug showed up at our Seattle Swift Campout in 2019, I almost keeled over. And then in 2023, they took it to a whole new level—six different crews bikepacking in six different regions of Japan. I mean, really?! Furano, Hachijo Island, Wakasu, Akiruno, Tsumagoi, and Boso. Just incredible.
Haetam Attimimy's crew in Indonesia last year inspired everyone with a breathtaking ride to camp on a beach. It was no wonder he won last year's Swift Campout Video Challenge that's front and center on the Swift Campout site.
I want to shout out to the folks who rode bikes all day and then camped in their backyards in 2020 during the Covid-19 lock-down. A way to keep the magic alive, that was incredibly special to us!
How do you decide on the branding or theme for each year's Campout?
We're always on the lookout for folks with ties to the adventure community whose art jumps out at us! We've had exquisite artists capture the ethos of Swift Campout over the years, and it's been a highlight of my year to work with each of them. I met this year's artist, Christine Tyler Hill, at WTF Explorers, a bikepacking summit for women, trans and gender expansive bike adventurers hosted by Radical Adventure Riders. We are linked by that experience, and our mutual love of exploring by bicycle.
What role has Campout played in the growing awareness of bikepacking?
Thanks to the incredible bike shops and community groups that have rallied their communities to join them, we know that Swift Campout has been a first bikepacking experience for hundreds of people. Every year we hear from folks that they came on Swift Campout only to realize how simple bikepacking can be. For lots of folks, heading out in a group for a one-nighter demystifies the activity. We need to acknowledge that for lots of people, bikepacking in a group is safer.
Everyone deserves access to nature and the empowerment of bikepacking.
What kind of rider do you think Campout speaks to?
Swift Campout is likely to captivate folks who relish spending time outside and in the elements, love to travel and are up for a unique adventure! If we're introducing them to bikepacking that's amazing, if they're a seasoned bikepacker that's amazing.
When we ask participants what Swift Campout means to them, the common refrain is that the weekend is a celebration of bikes, community and slowing down. We couldn't agree more: the state of the world is divisive, dizzying, and worrisome, and Swift Campout is one of our personal antidotes to the chaos.
What's one way you'd love to see the bikepacking world grow or evolve in the next few years?
For me, it's about opening up the activity to more voices and more experiences. Culturally, we still struggle to call something an adventure unless it's masculine, hardcore, or rugged. But there are so many people finding joy in bikepacking who don't fit that mold—and it's a huge mistake to keep defining it so narrowly.
What would your dream version of Campout look like five years from now—without limits?
I want to see the Global Swift Campout directory grow like crazy—with bikepackers joining in from India, Africa, South America, and beyond. We're especially excited to keep platforming gender-expansive, trans, and female riders, and to connect with even more of our peers out there.
Honestly? I want it to be automatic. When someone asks what you're doing on the June solstice, the answer should be: I'm going on a Swift Campout. It's on the books every year!
