A field trip to Simms Fishing Products headquarters in Bozeman.

As an avid fly-fisherman living in one of the most pristine blue ribbon trout meccas of North America I'm constantly buying new gear and then eventually replacing it with better gear. So when Mercury told us that our next Geotravel inspired field trip would be to the Simms factory here in Bozeman I rescheduled my meetings and signed up to find out how my new waders were actually going to hold up to this season's thorn bushes.

Mercury employees participate in the mandatory stretch break.

Like a kid with a golden ticket to the Wonka factory, I was the first in line and also the first to pass by the sign "Employees only beyond this point." As we began our tour, our guide Andy Wunsch, international director of sales, asked that we don't touch anything, ask as many questions as we'd like and not to look behind the blue curtain. Andy assured us that the secret to making the great Simms waders was no secret at all. The formula is actually quite simple and for all of us to see. What we discovered was that it wasn't a special glue or a high tech laser that made this product special, it was the workers themselves that were giving the product it's high standard.

Employees are given an incentive to care more about my waders than I do. Each step in the process brought us to a new station with a new face. Each worker was completely engaged with their task and undistracted by our presence and my ridiculous questions, which Andy was happy to answer. Their pay is partially determined by an hourly wage and partially by quantity and quality of those items. If their work doesn't meet expectations they are required to fix the flaw before moving on which comes out of their time to meet their quota. So the secret to the awesome Simms waders isn't actually a man behind the blue curtain (which we later found out was just their testing environment and not a wizard) it was the people behind the product striving at every minute to stay focused and make a great product.

Later, when a bell rang and music started playing, sewing machines, presses, cutters and gluers stopped and the factory was no longer making waders. They were caring for their employees just as the employees cared for their product. You see, every 45 minutes when the bell goes off and the sounds change from whistling and humming machines to music and conversation it's mandatory to stand up, stretch, take a breath and focus on the employee and not the product.

Big thank you group shot in the Simms showroom area.

It's no secret that Simms waders are the best made fishing waders in the industry, but it wasn't until that Geotravel inspired field trip to the factory that I knew why. To be honest I'm more of a walk through the thorn bush rather than walk around kinda guy. Now that I've seen first hand the care and passion that goes into making a superb product I think I'll start taking the long way around the next thorn bush I encounter.