How Stord Delivered Seamless Onboarding for Peak Design

Peak Design, a leader in premium carry and camera gear, recognized the need for a centralized partner to bring order to their expanding global network. They partnered with Stord with the goal of consolidating their disconnected fulfillment infrastructure into a single, tech-enabled operation.

About Peak Design: Built with “Details Within Details”

Born on Kickstarter in 2011, Peak Design was founded on a vision for smarter gear. While on a backpacking trip, founder Peter Dering saw an opportunity to improve how photographers carry their equipment. He engineered the Capture Clip, a mechanical component designed to lock a camera in place for both security and instant access.

Since then, Peak Design has spent over a decade engineering professional-grade carry solutions that connect heavy-duty utility and elegant industrial design. Operating with total autonomy and zero outside investment, the brand is committed to its community of backers, allowing for an uncompromising focus on premium materials and intensive research and development (R&D) cycles.

From award-winning camera bags to carbon fiber tripods and mobile device accessories, every Peak Design product is built on a “details within details” philosophy. They prioritize environmental responsibility and product longevity, ensuring their gear is built to last a lifetime.

What began as a manual operation in San Francisco has grown into a global brand with nine distribution centers and five retail locations. In the US, this expansion resulted in a fragmented network spread across three separate fulfillment vendors, creating an administrative burden that was no longer sustainable for Peak Design’s global operations.

The Weight of Disconnected Systems

In the early days, Peak Design’s fulfillment was as hands-on as their product R&D. Mark Wang, VP of Business Operations at Peak Design, recalls manually printing labels and stuffing products into mailer boxes to fulfill US orders. As the brand grew, the cost of San Francisco real estate prompted a shift toward third-party logistics (3PLs).

The scale of expansion brought new logistical concerns. While Peak Design included nine international distribution warehouses and five retail stores, their US infrastructure remained fragmented across three separate 3PLs, requiring a level of coordination that their existing systems couldn’t handle. Wang found that this systemic disconnect pulled his team away from high-level strategy and back into troubleshooting.

This disconnect created a cycle of constant manual intervention, particularly for their B2B business, which accounts for approximately 50% of the company’s revenue. Without a unified system, they navigated a confusing maze of strict shipping matrices and routing guidelines. Minor vendor errors, such as missed shipping windows, resulted in costly chargebacks and hours rectifying issues.

The lack of a centralized platform meant the team perpetually searched for data across siloed systems just to maintain basic order accuracy. Wang emphasized, “They’re always hunting for information that should just be right there, front and center.”

To protect the brand experience and reclaim their focus, Peak Design needed a partner capable of executing a high-stakes, technical onboarding. They required a solution that could unify their fragmented logistics infrastructure without missing a single shipping window during the transition.

Sprinting to Capture Connectivity

Peak Design required a technical fulfillment architecture reflecting the precision of their products. They chose Stord as their primary fulfillment partner, leveraging a unified system to consolidate their US operations and global inventory visibility.

This choice was validated during the onboarding process when the Peak Design team toured a Stord facility. Wang noted, “We were really impressed. Everything was a well-oiled machine.” The technology there was efficient, allowing for a quick pick, pack, and go operation.

The collaboration yielded immediate results for Peak Design’s domestic logistics. Gaining a new East Coast node through Stord eliminated the long transit times associated with shipping solely from their West Coast warehouse, accelerating delivery speeds to East Coast customers while maintaining cost-effectiveness.

With the partnership aligned, they executed a high-stakes technical onboarding, collaborating on a rapid deployment between Peak Design’s Oracle NetSuite ERP and Stord’s Open API. Wang highlighted the Stord team’s responsiveness as a key differentiator, stating the onboarding process was much better than experiences with other partners.

By onboarding with Stord, Peak Design took the first step toward streamlining inconsistent and tedious processes with a single, reliable partner, providing control over scaling their entire network.

A Solid Foundation for Future Scale

By establishing a high-performance technical foundation during the onboarding phase, Peak Design has created a scalable framework for their future logistics. This integration moved them closer to a unified, tech-enabled fulfillment, allowing for potential future expansion of their warehouse network.

The successful onboarding has unlocked a long-term strategy for Peak Design. With a point of integration now live, they are positioned to unify their disparate US nodes and gain greater visibility across their global network, ensuring backend operations match the precision and quality of the gear they engineer.