Denver cooler startup adds showroom, expands into Dick’s Sporting Goods

RovR is rolling.

The Denver company launched a new line of coolers and drinkware last month – the first time it’s debuted new products since opening in 2016, according to CEO Kelley Smith.

He said the new chillers and ceramic tumblers are part of a rebranding effort for RovR, which his packraft company Kokopelli acquired two years ago. Instead of targeting hunters and fishers, he wants his gear to appeal to soccer moms and beach bums alike.

With three soft coolers and three hard ones, Smith is expanding the offerings to be more versatile. He said its rubber and inflatable wheels are the only ones of its kind on the market, helping it traverse through both rugged terrain and sand.

They come in five colors, including coral and matcha, something he thinks helps give them a broader reach.

“You can think of the cooler as the hummingbird feeder that everybody kind of congregates or gathers around,” he said. “And we want RovR to provide all the products.”

Its most popular cooler, the $275 RollR 45, is also set for a test run in 80 Dick’s Sporting Goods on the coasts of Texas, California and Florida.

Smith said if all goes well this summer season, there will be opportunities to grow within the athletics chain. Though the product is already in REI and can be bought online at Backcountry.com, Lowe’s and Home Depot, Smith sees this rollout as a catalyst.

“There’s 140 or 160 REI store locations. There’s 750 Dick’s Sporting Goods,” he said.

“So the size and scale of a Dick’s compared to an REI is significant.”

When he acquired RovR in 2023, Kokopelli, which Smith founded in 2012, was in a stable spot. As a niche maker of packrafts, his market was capped. But with RovR he sees a massive potential.

​​”Kokopelli is strong and steady… It’s just our core community of pack rafters. They’re always there, but it’s not a massively adopted activity,” he said. “Just not as many people are doing that as going in their backyard and drinking a beer.”

He said 2025 is the first year his brands have seen an increase in sales since the peak of the pandemic, when the outdoor recreation industry boomed.

“We saw sales declines in ‘23 and ‘24, and now we’re finally seeing that trough and trending back up,” he said. “We’re seeing it on both sides. Maybe a little bit more significantly on the Kokopelli side.”

Smith said they are raising $5 million, with $1.7 million already secured. He expects most of that money to fuel RovR, and hopes to close by the end of the year. With Kokopelli, he’s raised $6 million across rounds in 2021 and 2023, according to SEC filings.

“From a brand standpoint, it’s very separate. It’s more on the back end,” he said of Kokopelli and RovR’s structure. “For how small we are as a company, you really couldn’t afford this level of talent, whether it’s marketing, operation, sales, on two separate teams.”