A few months ago I wrote a post about a Bro-tastic project unfolding in the Pacific Northwest called “The Cinder Cone.” The project is the brainchild of 27-year-old Colby College grad Foster Huntington. He lives an escapist fantasy life that most Bros can only dream of. In the summer of 2011, Foster left a comfortable job in New York City with Ralph Lauren and started driving around the country in a van, living from adventure to adventure. A talented photographer, a few years ago Foster put out a book about nomadic vanlife called Home Is Where You Park it.
Eventually he settled on his family’s land in Washington’s Columbia Gorge, where he built a dream crib with his friends (he paid them to work on the project with him). It’s called The Cinder Cone and consists of multiple treehouses on a compound that includes a hot tub and a skate bowl.
The project is pretty much finished at this point. As inspiration for Bros to go out and live the dream, Foster dropped a video and book, which you can support on Kickstarter.
This weekend The New York Times called The Cinder Cone a “Bro-topia” in a profile of Foster. It includes why he left his job for Ralph Lauren after a year-and-a-half at the company to chase his dreams:
Four years ago, Mr. Huntington was working as a men’s wear designer at Ralph Lauren. He was part of a team that handled concept design, coming up with the stories, themes and presentations behind each collection: say, the bush pilots of Alaska and their ruggedly stylish world.
It was his first job out of college, and he initially found it fun and creatively challenging. But after a year and a half, he realized he didn’t care that much about clothes.
“I remember looking at photos of bush pilots and thinking: ‘I can take photos. I don’t want to live my life in the city. I want to go do something else.'”
Despite creating and living in a “Bro-topia,” Foster — who has a massive Instagram following — is still about getting work done to pay the bills. As he explains to the New York Times:
But the Cinder Cone is not a 24/7 fun park. Mr. Huntington may have left New York City behind, but he didn’t forsake ambition, or the fashion world.
For a time he was paid to be a social media consultant for the outdoor apparel brand Patagonia, and he has collaborated with the German financial services company Allianz and the computer maker HP, starring in online ads that played up his off-the-grid lifestyle.
He also works as a freelance photographer and publishes A Restless Transplant, an adventure travel blog he began in 2008, while still a student at Colby.
He is an outdoorsman entrepreneur who has invented his own career. The treehouses serve as his home and as an alluring backdrop for advertisements for himself.
Here are a few more pictures of The Cinder Cone that Foster sent BroBible last week:
As I said earlier this year, Foster’s dream compound seriously reminds me of the Ewok Treehouses in Star Wars. What a boss move:
That’s living the dream, Bros. Allow Foster’s tale to be inspiration to be rad, go out there, and go get it.