Fishing for as long as I can remember.
I’m Taylor Strout and along with my wife Nikki and our three sons—we are excited to bring to you, Rugged Seas.
I guess you could say I was born to fish. My father, a lifelong fisherman off the coast of Maine, passed it down to me at a very young age, and I plan to continue the tradition with my boys. It’s a challenging lifestyle, but I wouldn’t change what we do for anything.
Our mission.
Our brand is as tough as the people who fish our oceans and live in our coastal communities. Rugged Seas isn’t just for the fishermen who work year-round and through all kinds of weather to bring seafood to the table—it’s for all of us who love and respect the ocean and what it does for us.
It’s important to me to shine a light on what the people who fish our waters do every day. We all, quite literally, throw our lives on the line each time we set foot on deck and set out to sea to bring fresh, quality food to our tables.
Not only is it a dangerous career, there are many other struggles fishermen face within our industry. Our goal is to take something that represents every fishery—fisherman’s hauling pants (bibs)—and turn them into something recognizable for everyone to utilize and enjoy.
The bib to bag cycle.
We work hard with a handful of local companies to keep our products made in Maine. The recycling process starts and finishes with the fishermen by the purchase and return of their bibs to local stores.
Hamilton Marine and Vessel Services have set our drop sites at their locations for fishermen to recycle their old, used bibs. We then use a local dry cleaning company, Pratt Abbott, to wash the worn gear and bring the material back to life. The cleaned bibs are then delivered to a local, family-owned business Maine. The material is laid out, cut and sewn into our Rugged Seas bags. We also work with Guy Cotten, a company that has been making hauling pants for over 50 years to recycle their remnant material.
These partnerships have enabled us to bring our model full circle and recycle the bib materials from the production to destruction all while keeping the business in Maine.
