09/29/2026
🐻 Actually bear tested 🐻
We’ve always liked to say Kuma Gear is made to get outside and get used. It’s built to stand up to the demands of the outdoors, but sometimes our gear ends up being put to work in places we never expected.
Our relationship with the Northern Lights Wildlife Society started with something simple: Stainless Steel Dog Bowls being used to help care for the bears at the shelter. They’re tough, easy to clean and built for everyday use which, it turns out, makes them pretty handy when your “dogs” happen to be bears.
But this summer, our gear got a little further into the story.
KUMA’s Northstar LED Light was on-site helping with animal care all summer, and when Kim from NLWS and Veronica, a black bear research student from UVic, headed out into the field to look for dens that their rewilded bears had made or used, they were sure to bring along the lights and their favourite KUMA Hats along with them.
Founded in 1990 by Angelika and Peter Langen, NLWS provides care and rehabilitation for injured and orphaned wildlife, with a particular focus on bear and moose rewilding. The organization also supports public education, coexistence and scientific research. Since 1991, Northern Lights Wildlife Society has helped return hundreds of black bears and grizzlies to the wild, giving them a second chance to live where they belong.
So yes, you could say our gear is actually bear tested. But we think the more interesting part of the story is what that means.
A Stainless Steel Dog Bowl can help feed a bear that is preparing for its second chance. A Northstar LED Light can help provide light during the long days of animal care and fieldwork. And then, miles from the shelter, you can stand in a forest looking at a den made or used by an animal that was once in human care and see where all that work is ultimately meant to lead.
Back to the wild.
It’s one thing to know that Northern Lights Wildlife Society rescues, rehabilitates and rewilds wildlife. It’s another to see the places those animals eventually return to. Thank you Kim for sharing these with us! We’re pretty lucky to get a small glimpse into that journey, and even luckier that a few pieces of Kuma Gear get to be part of it.
Learn more about the incredible work of Northern Lights Wildlife Society and how you can offer support at wildlifeshelter.com.
