Maven Outdoor Equipment

Maven exists because three friends refused to leave Lander, Wyoming. In 2013, co-founders Brendon Weaver, Mike Lilygren, and Cade Maestas faced a buyout at their previous optics employer that would have forced a relocation. Rather than pack up, they started their own company. "Operating the business from Wyoming and employing Wyoming people was non-negotiable for us," Lilygren has said. That stubbornness about place has shaped everything Maven does since.

The company designs and sells premium optical equipment — binoculars, spotting scopes, riflescopes, rangefinders — direct to consumers. By cutting out retail markup, Maven offers glass that competes with the big European brands at a lower price point. Hunters, birders, and backcountry guides have taken notice. The optics are designed in Lander, manufactured to Maven's specifications by a select group of partners, and backed by an unconditional lifetime warranty.

What sets Maven apart from the optics giants isn't just the price-to-performance ratio. It's the customization. Buyers can choose body colors, reticle options, turret configurations, and other specs through Maven's online build tool — a level of personalization that mass-market brands don't offer. That direct relationship with customers also means faster iteration on designs. When users report feedback, it goes straight to the people who designed the product.

Maven broke ground on a new Lander headquarters to accommodate growth, and the company's optics appeared on the world stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Through it all, the three founders have kept the operation rooted in their small Wyoming town. There's no Silicon Valley office, no corporate board driving decisions from a distance. The people designing the binoculars are the same people using them in the Wind River Range on weekends.

For outdoor enthusiasts who care about where their gear comes from and who stands behind it, Maven offers something rare: high-end optics from a company small enough to know its customers and principled enough to stay where it started.

Products

• Binoculars (B-series compact and full-size)
• Spotting scopes (S-series)
• Riflescopes (RS-series)
• Rangefinders (RF-series)
• Monoculars
• Custom-built optics configurations

Why We List Them

• Co-founded and co-owned by Brendon Weaver, Mike Lilygren, and Cade Maestas
• Headquartered in Lander, Wyoming — founders committed to staying local
• Direct-to-consumer model eliminates retail markup
• Unconditional lifetime warranty on all products
• No outside investors or corporate backing
• Customizable optics built to individual specifications