Dometic is a disruptor.
Based in Sweden, the overlanding darling has roots dating back to the early 20th century, when two engineering students had an idea for a cooling cabinet with no compressor, no moving parts and no ice. Today, we refer to their invention, quite simply, as a refrigerator.
A century later, the company is one of the largest outdoor lifestyle conglomerates in the world, with sales of more than $2.3 billion across all of its branches, including the pioneering American brand Igloo.
As for Dometic proper, the brand now manufacturers a wide swatch of products, ranging from rooftop tents to RV toilets to, the crown jewel of its catalog, electric coolers.
However, its most disruptive offering to date may yet be its simplest: a range of passive coolers called the Recon. Just don’t call them “traditional.”
Designed from the outside-in
“Our thought process from the beginning was not to launch another ultra-tough performance cooler. We wanted to have something unique. We wanted to bring in some innovation,” said Jeff Diamond, the Global Head of Mobile Cooling Product, in an exclusive interview with Gear Patrol.
The most radical idea turned out to be the simplest — namely, a reimagining from the cooler from the outside-in.
“Rather than develop a cooler that was optimized for the inside space, we actually designed it for the outside dimensions first,” Diamond added.
“I really wanted to get away from simply marketing a capacity. So we thought, ‘Hey, let’s just go small, medium and large.’ Then we can talk about secondly what fits inside the cooler.”
On that note, Recon is not a single standalone offering but a system where both hard and soft coolers of various sizes follow not just one another but real-world use cases. They are designed to nestle neatly in a garage or vehicle, what that be in the back of a truck bed or behind a passenger seat.
The foundation of a system
That said, there’s more to these coolers than thoughtful sizing. The lids, for example, open for multiple directions, and they can also be removed entirely — traits that not only underscore their accessibility and versatility but longterm potential.
Because, according to Diamond, a removable lid is an indication of what’s in store down the road.
“It allows for us to be thinking about lid accessories, whether it be seating, cutting boards or [the] integration of electric cooling,” he said. “Or maybe you just want to use it as a party bucket and keep the lid off of it.”
To be clear, this isn’t to say Recon is launching without a full suite of accessories that include dividers, baskets and a handful of other neat add-ons.
