Gordon and Lili Colby
Co-Owners, MTI Life Jackets
TBD
Steering Committee Member
The Basics
Company Name: MTI Life Jackets
Location: Plymouth, MA
Founded: 1991
Full-Time Employees: 10
Products: U.S. Coast Guard approved PFDs for paddlesports and sailing
Social: Instagram // Facebook // Twitter // Youtube // LinkedIn
Claim to Fame: Independently Family Owned and Operated by Gordon and Lili Colby.
2009 - MTI was the first paddlesports company to include people of color in their annual product catalog.
2014 - ACA J. HENRY RUSHTON AWARD for outstanding achievement is advancing paddlesports and the mission of the ACA.
2018 - OIA "Together We Are A Force Award". Policy: ADVENTURE ADVOCACY TO SAVE A WILDERNESS.
2021 – Plans to celebrate our 30th anniversary!
The Culture
Demographics (Optional):
50% Male, 50% Female. 80% white, 10% Asian, 10%Latinx. 50% have worked for MTI for over 10 years.
The best thing about working at MTI Life Jackets is:
The incredible dedication of our employees. In the face of Covid shutdown, our team has demonstrated grit and determination to work together to survive this challenge.
When we’re not working, we’re:
Relaxing. Paddling. Sailing. Hiking. Gardening. Spending time with our families.
What we’re reading:
A Year in the Wilderness: Bearing Witness in the Boundary Waters by Dave and Amy Freeman
What we’re listening to/Watching on Netflix:
Can’t get Nina Simone out of my head after seeing: Nina Simone – What Happened, Miss Simone
If they made a movie about our workplace, it would be called:
“Go!” by Ira Colby, film student at Academy of Art University.
Inclusion in the outdoors matters because:
We are all human beings looking to connect with something greater than ourselves, to break out of our routines, challenge our bodies, to calm the mind, to bring us closer to nature. Being on the water can do all of that for us and more. Paddlesports is a gateway. To a weekend outing. To a lifetime commitment. It does not matter the color of our skin. What matters is our character and our choices. We hope that all people will choose to wear a life jacket when they paddle or sail. Life Jackets can help save lives…but only if people make the choice to wear them. MTI’s mission is to make life jackets that are comfortable and affordable. We support non-profit groups like Big City Mountaineers, The American Canoe Association, Heroes on the Water, the US Sailing Siebel Sailors Program, YMCA camps, and others because they help to bring more people – of all colors – to the water.
Five years down the line, it’s our hope that:
MTI is still the life jacket that people choose to wear. Not because they have to…but because they want to.