Engineering Trust: The Evolution of Thule Safety and Design

BrandsWalk Creative |
Thule's very first product wasn't a roof rack. It was a fishing trap. 1942, Hillerstorp, Sweden. Erik Thulin founded Thule as a dedicated outdoors enthusiast, and the fishing trap he built quickly caught on with local fishermen. By the 1960s, that same company had invented the roof rack, the product it's known for today.

Decades later, in that same town, Thule built a test lab. Now their focus is safety. Every product goes through more than 25 proprietary standards before it ships: crash tests, drop tests, arctic cold to desert heat. The testing goes beyond what regulation requires, because the people carrying this gear are trusting it with what they care about.

Image | THULE Test Center

Every strap, every seam, every zipper goes through this. Testers walk loaded, monitored, and measured, while equipment reads how the pack performs against a moving body.

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