sun valley

Nomadic Van's Founding Story

Established in 2019 in the beautiful mountain town of Sun Valley, Idaho, Nomadic Van was founded upon a passion for the outdoors and robust vehicles capable of getting to hard-to-reach locations. Nomadic’s creators, Rondo and Gardner, met over a post ski beer at the local watering hole, Grumpy’s. The two quickly connected over their love for the outdoors and their blood being rich in automotive history. Rondo came from a lineage of mechanics, with his grandfather being a master mechanic for CAT; while Gardner’s great grandfather invented the “Cord Front Wheel Drive Automobile” and his grandfather won the first world championships for Toyota Factory Racing Team. At the timing of meeting the two were more interested in skiing/snowboarding through their 20’s than a possible future in the automotive world...

Three years after their initial meeting in Grumpy’s not much had changed and the two found themselves skiing pow in Japan and buying Delicas on a “work trip”. Thus, Nomadic was off the ground and “timed" to perfection. They happened upon a post Covid world full of people ready to adventure, with a focus on reliability and functionality. The first three years were filled with many late nights, lots of R&D and the required persistence to get any entrepreneurial enterprise off the ground. Now four years into the Delica journey, Rondo and Gardner have acquired a team of mechanics, skiers, and over-landing enthusiasts, who continue to build the Nomadic life in everything they do.

Nomadic’s Founders Rondo & Gardner at a photo shoot in the early days!

To see more of what Nomadic has become beyond its humble beginnings, be sure to follow our social media pages and follow our newsletter below for updates!

We are stoked to share our founding story with you all in this week’s post! Stay tuned for more about our culture here at Nomadic Van in next week’s blog post!

Sincerely,

Nomadic Van