Our Story
Two men. One philosophy. A brand built from life.
Fortune & Glory™ did not begin in a boardroom.
It began with a friendship.
Christo Saggers and Robin met through mutual friends. They came from different creative backgrounds, but it did not take long to discover that they looked at life in much the same way.
The friendship was properly forged while hunting together.
Days in the hills have a way of stripping away small talk. There are long climbs, uncertain weather, heavy packs and plenty of time to discover what a man is really made of. You learn whether he keeps his word, carries his share and remains good company when the day becomes difficult.
Christo and Robin discovered a shared appetite for adventure, a practical approach to problems and a belief that life should be actively lived rather than passively observed.
Both had spent their careers turning ideas into something real.
Christo brought decades of design experience. Having created striking landscapes throughout New Zealand, he understood how form, function, materials and human experience must work together. His approach to product design followed the same principles: begin with a genuine problem, remove what is unnecessary and refine what remains until it feels inevitable.
Robin brought a photographer’s eye and years of experience behind the camera. He understood how to find the story within a place, capture the character of a moment and make an audience feel as though they were standing there themselves. Photography and film would allow Fortune & Glory™ to become more than a collection of products. They would reveal the life those products were created to serve.
One designed the equipment.
The other helped tell its story.
Both were problem-solvers.
And both were, by their own entirely unbiased assessment, lifestyle experts.
Not the carefully staged, immaculately dressed variety.
The sort who know that the best evenings usually involve a fire, that rain sounds better against canvas and that most problems become more manageable after a decent walk, a good meal and the right whisky.
Building Fortune & Glory™
Christo had already begun developing the foundations of Fortune & Glory™ when Robin joined him.
What started as a product idea became something larger: a living brand built around adventure, character, craftsmanship and the philosophy of the Rugged Gentleman.
They did not want to manufacture a lifestyle or create another polished outdoor fantasy. They wanted to build something drawn from the lives they genuinely led—hunting in the New Zealand backcountry, boating through the Marlborough Sounds, fishing remote rivers, travelling, camping beneath canvas, working with dogs and returning home with stories worth telling.
The products would come from real needs encountered along the way.
A better way to carry firewood into camp.
A proper bed for a loyal dog.
A leather bag that belonged equally in a hunting lodge, the back of a Land Rover or a good hotel.
A notebook worthy of the ideas, plans and observations gathered over years of use.
Nothing invented merely to fill a collection.
Nothing included simply because it might sell.
Every piece must solve a problem, improve an experience and genuinely impress the Rugged Gentleman.
Adventure First, Products Second
Fortune & Glory™ is built upon a simple belief: the product is never the whole story.
The story is the life lived around it.
The early start.
The weather closing in.
The long climb.
The cast that finally lands in the right place.
The fire at the end of the day.
The dog sleeping beside it.
The stories told when the work is finished and good company has gathered around the campfire.
Christo and Robin create the equipment, photography and films, but the brand belongs to something larger—a community of like-minded men who value freedom, responsibility, competence, good humour and the satisfaction of doing things properly.
Men with jobs, families, mortgages and responsibilities.
Men who cannot disappear into the wilderness indefinitely, but who still hear the call of the hills, rivers, forests and open road.
Men who make the most of the hand they have been dealt.
Fortune & Glory™ campfire is their meeting place.
A place to pull up a chair, escape the noise and share knowledge, experiences, hard-earned lessons and the occasional tall story.
Because adventure is better when it is shared.
And a good story should never be wasted.
The Road Ahead
Fortune & Glory™ continues to grow in the same way it began: through friendship, experience, curiosity and the determination to do things properly.
Christo designs.
Robin captures.
Together, they test ideas, solve problems, tell stories and occasionally disagree about the best way to reach the destination.
The standard remains unchanged.
Create equipment worthy of the journey.
Tell stories that are honest.
Encourage men to step beyond the familiar.
And always place the adventure before the product.
Fortune & Glory™
Outfitters of the Rugged Gentleman