Meet the Team

Chris Hudak co-founded Escapod with his wife, Jen, in June 2016. The Escapod mission exemplifies his beliefs that enjoying the outdoors can be comfortable and limitless. The Escapod journey started with a crazy idea, a beer or two, and a sketch drawn on a napkin. Chris and Jen were always traveling and adventuring — their summertime passion was to jump in the car after the work-week and hit the road in search of the best mountain biking within a 12-hour drive. When they got sick of packing cars with tents, sleeping bags, cookware, food, coolers, water, 2 dogs...you get the point…they decided they needed a faster, more comfortable way to travel.

There was one "must have": it had to get them to the best camping spots. So, they started looking at teardrop trailers, after an extensive search Chris and Jen found that nothing on the market quite hit the mark. With that, Escapod was born.

Chris’ previous years in management provided a foundation for him to lead a team and run a successful business. His visionary ways have led to immense product innovations and his ADHD superpower provides the hyper-focus needed to do things that have never been done. Chris is known as the engine at Escapod, always propelling the team forward through challenges and pushing them to reach new heights.

Jen Hudak co-founded Escapod with her husband, Chris, in 2016. She sold the first Escapods that Chris was building in Jen’s mom’s garage. Jen & Chris weren't sure where Escapod would lead when they built the first prototype; they just needed a lightweight, rugged teardrop trailer that would be ready to go when they were. Now they get to experience the joy of watching their customers camp in the product they played a role in delivering.

Prior to her work at Escapod, Jen was a professional halfpipe skier with two X-Games gold medals and two World Championship Titles to her name. Though her time competing is behind her, she carries her competitive spirit with her in everything she does. Her degree in psychology and as a certified life coach have not only allowed her to connect with the Escapod community, but to lead her team at Escapod to excellence.

Like the rest of the leadership team, Jen wears a lot of hats - most of them to serve our customers. Her commitment to serving the customer has not only assisted in product refinements, but also in creating educational content and a customer experience that is industry-leading. Jen is the voice of Escapod, heard through written and spoken-word on the website, in social media & on YouTube.

Chris Eckel (known internally as “Eckel”), officially joined Escapod as a partner in 2018, but has been involved since the beginning through his design of the Escapod logo and first trailer graphics in 2016. He came to the table with a decade of design experience that had him initially focused on brand development and digital marketing.

After he met Chris in college, Eckel’s work experience was mainly in design agencies, first in Ohio, then in New York, and helped him gain an understanding of the necessary tools of a modern company in the digital era. Over the course of 7 years in New York, Eckel acted as creative director and developed strategy for sites including The Players’ Tribune, GQ, Public Art Fund, Homage Clothing, and The Fader magazine.

A chance opportunity to travel with an early Escapod prototype for six weeks in 2017 with his then girlfriend (now wife), Ale, and dog, Frankie, was an eye-opener. He was done with the city, the desk jobs, and intangibles of the digital design world. He wanted to head to the mountains and finally be part of building something he could call his own. With lots of history and a mutual affinity for risk, Chris and Eckel decided to give a working partnership a shot. Today, Eckel serves as Escapod’s president and is the stabilizing force in the organization. Demanding excellence from his teams and Escapod leadership, Eckel ensures that everyone is steering the ship in the right direction.

Joshie Fishbein officially joined Escapod as a partner in 2018, but started in 2017 as he helped the team define the ultimate digital experience to create a limitless brand. He had spent the better part of a decade working in product agencies in NYC where he brought dozens of now-household name brands to launch.

While Joshie had been wiring the web for nearly a decade, he was always searching for ways to connect himself back to the great outdoors. His role at Escapod became the perfect marriage of nature, technology, and community. Building a brand that will enhance, not interrupt, Americans' relationships with nature has been one of the most spiritually fulfilling missions he’s had thus far.

Joshie has used his previously successful digital technology and marketing strategies to build cutting-edge internal tooling for Escapod’s team and to develop delightful experiences for our customers. In January 2023, Joshie finally left behind his bagel-eating days in Brooklyn’s tree-lined Prospect Park to move to Utah. His presence in-person at Escapod is allowing technology to elevate our systems in even more impactful ways.