Fresno family starts its own adventure van brand

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- All-terrain vans are on a new adventure with a new name.

"Today we're launching our new brand Field Van. We used to be a licensed store for another company that was building vans around the country, and we decided to break out on our own. We've been doing a lot of innovations over the years and driving our products. We felt doing our own brand and Field Van was the right move," said Jonny Feld.

Jonny Feld is the President of Field Van, a play-off their last name.

Previously vans produced from the Fresno facility were sold under the Sportsmobile brand, but now all-terrain vehicles assembled in Fresno will be branded Field Van.

Feld says it's a meaningful change for the local family.

"We've been family-owned 30 years here in Fresno building vans. We have a lot of family members that have worked for us. A lot of families that are employees have family members here. So it really is a family atmosphere," Feld said.

About 80 employees will stay on to build the vans.

Feld said it'd been a long-standing goal to start their own business, and the pandemic didn't deter them.

"The whole industry is growing. We're about a year or two backlogged on a lot of these vans. Our goal is to get more efficient, be able to build these vans more efficiently to get them in our customers' hands so they can be out camping sooner rather than later," Feld said.

The company says it will work with Valley businesses and use local products to make its vans roll on.

In addition to the Fresno facility, Field Van will have another location in Reno, Nevada. The grand opening is next week.

Feld said they're ready to build vans for the county and world.