Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey Dennington.
Hi Lindsey , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Treenet Collective really took form when my co-founder, Kane, fell in love with rock climbing and highlining. In those communities, people weave these massive, portable nets called ‘spacenets’ and rig them right in the middle of canyons to create multi-person hammocks hundreds of feet in the air.
Kane was fascinated by them. He knew this art form was just the tip of the iceberg and had so much more potential. After collaborating on a few spacenets and building some backyard treenets with friends, he became completely obsessed with the design possibilities—we’re talking curvy, spiraling, multi-level structures stretching 50-plus feet up into the tree canopy.
Seeing his passion, I started documenting his creations on Instagram. Within a couple of months, a few of our videos went viral. Almost overnight, we gained hundreds of thousands of followers and suddenly had a full-blown business on our hands. Dozens of people from all over the country were reaching out wanting their own. Luckily, we had just finished building out a Sprinter van during the pandemic, which put us in the perfect position to take this nationwide. So, we hit the road and made it happen (and still continue to live this lifestyle traveling full time offerings these functional art creations.)
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Honestly, it has not been a smooth road at all, though we are incredibly grateful for how busy we’ve been, because we know having too much work is a great problem to have. But if we’re being completely honest, our biggest struggle has been work-life balance. There are days where we look at each other and really miss our old life, because this business has completely consumed us.
Since what we do is so unconventional, we’ve really had to pioneer our own way of doing business. For starters, finding insurance took weeks of constant rejection. We’re essentially building multi-level, high-liability structures up in the trees, so convincing an underwriter to take on a brand-new art form was a massive uphill battle.
On top of that, building a team was a huge roadblock. Our business is entirely travel-oriented and incredibly labor-intensive. It’s a lot to ask someone to leave their life behind and live on the road for weeks at a time. Plus, this kind of weaving isn’t a skill you can just teach a random local hire in whatever town we happen to be in. It takes a specific passion, attitude, and stamina.
Between Kane leading the heavy labor on the builds and me handling the endless stream of emails and the screen time that comes with managing an online community, we’ve had to become nonstop workhorses.
We feel so lucky because our strengths and weaknesses completely complement each other, we really operate as a power couple. We are so deeply grateful that people want our work in their backyards, but it has definitely taken every ounce of our energy, sleep, and personal time to make it happen.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What we do is design and build custom hand-woven treenets, and we specialize in creating unique, safe designs tailored to each specific space and client.
What sets us apart is that we take customer service seriously. We pride ourselves on always going above and beyond for our clients to make their experience with us as enjoyable as possible. We are detail-oriented perfectionists with our work, and we always take the time to come up with the best design possible for the space, focusing on what will be the most safe and functional.
In our industry, we are known to be the most professional feeling treenet artists. We take a lot of pride in our unique designs, our clean look, our bold color choices, and the fact that we are fully insured and never cut corners.
We are also incredibly proud to teach this art form to the general public. We have two online courses that break down exactly how to build an outdoor treenet and an indoor loft net completely by hand, which allows us to share what we love with others.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Starting any business is no small feat so just be prepared for it to completely take over your life. Regarding building Treenets specifically and learning the craft, I would study any bit of information you can possibly find online and try to spot the small differences in techniques and what you like and dislike. Try to find a place where you can experience one in real life. Just create and practice the craft as much as you possibly can, thats where the learning comes. I would say to be open to change, weather Its for your technique or your lifestyle. Make sure to research and prioritize tree health and best practices for the trees long term health do everything you can to keep the trees healthy because no treenet is worth killing a beautiful tree.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.treenetcollective.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treenetcollective/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Treenet-Collective-61551564201915/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TreenetCollective
