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YETI was founded by Roy and Ryan Seiders in 2006. The brothers grew up in Driftwood, Texas, and spent a large portion of their childhood outdoors. Their father Roger Seiders was an entrepreneur that designed a fishing rod epoxy. Ryan graduated from Texas A&M University in 1996 and Roy graduated from Texas Tech University in 2000.In 2006, Ryan started Waterloo Rods and sold the company nine years later. Roy, an angler and hunter, began his career making custom boats that were designed for fishing in shallow depth areas on the Texas Gulf Coast. The avid outdoorsmen became frustrated with the quality of the coolers available and founded YETI in response.
In June 2012, a two-thirds stake of the company was purchased by private equity firm Cortec Group for $67 million.In July 2016, the company filed with the Security and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering with plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the "YETI" symbol. The company was seeking a valuation of $5 billion and hoped to raise $100 million, but retracted the IPO two years later, in March 2018, citing "market conditions".As of January 8, 2018, Yeti still was a sponsor of the PBR and the YETI "Built for the Wild" event.In April 2018, the National Rifle Association, via its National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, announced that YETI refused to be a vendor. The NRA then dropped YETI as its official supplier of coolers. This led to a backlash from NRA members, leading some to destroy YETI products they had already purchased. In response to the NRA's comment, Yeti contacted The Washington Post and said that the NRA's comment was "inaccurate" and that neither the NRA nor the NRA's Foundation was targeted, and other organizations were also included in the removal of a "group of outdated discounting programs".On October 25, 2018, YETI became a public company via an initial public offering of 16 million shares at a price of $18 per share.In September 2019, Yeti opened its first flagship store in Wicker Park, Chicago. Today, multiple store locations have opened in Dallas, Denver, and across Florida.
On November 4, 2020, Yeti initiated a consumer product safety recall for over 240,000 Rambler mugs, manufactured in China, for what the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission described as "Injury and Burn Hazards". The commission explained that the magnetic slider on the lid could malfunction and hot contents could spill. The product was sold at stores nationwide and through the company's website during October that year.
