Sometimes you have to start a business to get the lifestyle you want.
One spring day in 2019, on one of my last days of work at Denver Food Rescue, I was driving into work when I saw something that would change my life. Stopped at a red light, I looked to my left and saw what looked like a Back to the Future fan’s version of a VW hippie van: the hair-metal offspring of a Mercedes Sprinter and Vanagon. “What is that?” I had been looking into 4x4 vans for weeks, planning my #vanlife summer after seven demanding years running a startup nonprofit. What I had uncovered in my search was that we had reached peak #vanlife in the West, which meant exorbitant prices on 4-wheel-drive adventure vans. A van from the early 80s with 200k miles for $40 grand? No thanks. As the light turned green I caught a glance of the emblem: “Mitsubishi Delica.”
A quick search taught me that what I saw was a four-wheel-drive, turbo diesel, compact minivan from Japan. They were never exported to the US, but they were all the rage in the early 90s across the Pacific. Fuel efficient, short wheel base, and dorky as hell: this was the van for me. Relatively affordable Stateside, and a profit could apparently be made bringing them over and selling them to skiers, climbers, and adventure seekers. That is when a friend had an idea: if you import a few of these things, you get one for yourself for free.
My brother and business partner, Cameron Wyatt, took five months and a huge stack of paperwork to pull off the first trans-pacific deal. By the time those first 1992 Mitsubishi Delicas reached Colorado, we had built a little business, Dirtbag Vans, to handle the sales. We sold out within the first few months, and kept bringing more over. Sixteen vans in all across the life of the business, and we gave $400 from each one, $6,400 in total, to Conservation Colorado.
Dirtbag Vans is permanently SOLD OUT.
