When I started this conversation with Fischer, I was genuinely curious to learn the story behind Fish-Ski Designs, his brand of handcrafted bike bags. What I discovered was so much more. Fischer opened up to me, sharing not only how his project came to life but also the personal journey that led him here, the struggles, the hopes, the setbacks, and the comebacks. This is not just the story of a brand. It is the story of a young man fighting to turn his passions into a meaningful life, built on adventure, creativity, and determination.
Today, we have the pleasure of learning more about him, his journey, and the philosophy that drives him.
Hi Fischer! Tell us a little about yourself. What is your background?
My Name is Fischer Olpin, I am 27 years old. I was born and raised in Utah. I grew up with an amazing family and parents that got us stoked on the outdoors from a very young age. My Mom was a ski/snowboard instructor during the winter, and ran her own sewing company as well as a large craft show here in Utah. My dad is a Documentary filmmaker and photographer. When I was a kid my dad did a lot of work with action sports, BMX, Skating, Snowboarding etc. So I grew up always watching my parents follow their dreams. And when you are a kid you never understand how difficult that is to raise 4 kids and have freelance jobs. But one of the favorite quotes is “if it was easy, everyone would do it”
How did your passion for cycling begin?
My passion for cycling definitely started when I was a kid and I would watch my dads old BMX films and then I would be super inspired and go out with my buddies and go find some dirt or some boards and start building our own jumps. My dad always claims that the day that i got off training wheels on my bike the first thing i said was “lets go jump some curbs”.
Most of my kid years I was riding my little BMX bike but as soon as I was kinda tall enough I would start stealing my mom and dads mtn bikes and riding those around, also their road bikes. From a very young age I was hooked on bikes. Ride bikes to and from school, get home, build bike jumps with my buddies, on the weekends go to the skatepark!
How did the idea of Fish-Ski Designs come about? What inspired you to start making bike bags?
Fish-ski kinda has a long start story to it haha. My name is Fischer and I like to ski, so growing up I thought that would be a good username for me Fish-Ski. So then all my buddies started calling me Fish-Ski and I kinda liked the ring of it. After high school the name kinda died off and no one called me that, but I still really liked the name and I started to draw up some stickers for fish-ski, not knowing what I would do with the stickers or the idea… At the time I was studying Mechanical Engineering at Utah State University. Nearing the end of my 2nd semester studying engineering I was riding my grandpas old custom built Stout Road Bike and the fork broke near the stem (not sure how, or why, or when) I just remember waking up at my parents house days later with a smashed face, stitches and a large memory wiping concussion. Needless to say I should not have taking my school finals the next week but I did and I did not do well, failing most of my hard engineering courses. Feeling pretty bummed because I was usually an A-B student. I went out to southern Utah to go work my normal summer job working on my uncle’s ranch. Shortly after arriving there for the summer of working. I was riding a 4-wheeler to go build a fence, so I was sitting on a shovel. Made a hairpin turn and the shovel caught the throttle of the 4-wheeler and it sent me flying off a 30ft-40ft cliff into a river. Somehow I crawled 200 yds back to my aunt and uncles house and they called 911 who then called life flight (helicopter) I was in the middle of nowhere so it was a 50 minute flight to get to the hospital. I had broken my back (T4-T7) a couple ribs and scalped my head all the way to the skull from just above my nose to the back of my head. I got MESSED UP! but luckily there was no brain damage this time! A Lot more to the story if you want to hear it haha
Long story short I healed up from that and was not really feeling stoked about school so I ended up taking one online course and moving to hawaii for a semester to go surf and live life. While I was out there I started to learn about a program at USU (Utah State University) called Outdoor product design and development, I was intrigued. After 6 months in Hawaii I got back to Utah for another semester of school and switched from Engineering to OPDD, and it was all over, I was hooked on design. I Studied design at USU for 4 years, more than half the time I was working on hard goods design, 3d designs, CAD, Welding. I slowly developed more and more on fish-ski, using it whenever I had to do design work in classes (logo, hang tag mock up). At the end of my Junior year/ Start of my senior year I started designing my tall bikepacking bike. Worked on it through my senior year and started making bike bags for it, and tents and what not. After graduation I wasn’t really stoked on working for another company and didn’t really mesh well with the 9-5. So I started making custom frame bags, and then started making 6-pack bevvy holders, and posting about them and my work slowly started to take off amongst friends and beyond. From their I started to make different bags and scale up production as the instagram started to grow. Being that my mom is an amazing seamstress and my dad is an amazing videographer, I kinda meshed both things together and that is what really helped me to start fish-ski.
Your videos are truly amazing, and you have a huge following. How does it feel to know that so many people follow your adventures and appreciate your work?
It is a crazy feeling to have a lot of people watching you on the internet. It wasn’t always that way. I remember years ago the struggle of having 500 followers and just pushing content all day every day. People always ask me about social media and producing content and how to grow, and I always tell them “if it was easy, everyone would do it”. It takes years and years of posting multiple times a week, and daily stories, giveaways etc. and even then it still might not work out. I always enjoyed the video/photo side of it and enjoy making movies especially when it is about bikes and the fun stuff that I get to make for bikes.
It always gets me stoked when people reach out and tell me they bought a sewing machine and started to create stuff for themselves. or when people reach out and say they bought there first bike, Which most of the time is a 26er MTB because they are easy budget gravel bikes. I love to hear about the people getting out and having fun and if I can inspire at least one person to do that, works for me!
But as I grow more it gets a little more stressful, trying to run a fun/funny account and post the things that I want to, but it seems that someone is always upset about something “ your helmet wasn’t clipped in the last story” “why do you have your helmet on in the Grocery store” “you were riding on the sidewalk” “why were you drinking a coke, those are so bad, you shouldn’t promote that”
But at the end of the day I really enjoy the content creation and I love to make videos and share adventures. I am really excited to get more long form content up on my youtube channel and get that going more.
"At the end of the day, I really enjoy creating and sharing adventures... if I can inspire just one person to get out there, that’s enough for me."
You told me that you have several 26-inch bikes and that it was actually a 26er that got you into bikepacking. Can you tell us more about that experience?
Yes it was a 26er that really got me stoked on bikepacking. Around the time I was building my bikepacking tall bike I was sourcing frames at thrift stores and I found a mint condition 1987 Raleigh Mtn Tour at the thrift store for $40-50. It was too clean to cut up for my tall bike to I kept it and built it into my first bikepacking bike. I threw some mustache handlebars. A rack on the back, Also threw a back rack on the front hahaha. Got it set up with a 1×9 drive train and it was the perfect cruiser bike! I took it on a local overnight trip by my house and I was hooked. I now own 2 of the 1987 Raleigh Mtn tours one in a 56cm and one in a 52 cm. I call them “my twins” haha really keep the people guessing.
I am always keeping an eye on local listings, Facebook Marketplace, and thrift stores for rad 26er MTBs. If I see a rad one I am almost forced to buy it. When I was first getting into building bags I was also building and selling kitted out 26er MTBs. I would buy them beat up from the thrift, get new cables, housing, drive train, tires. set them up with a 1×9. Put some fun handlebars on them, throw on a front and back rack. Make them a couple matching bags and sell them! I wish I still had time to do that because it was so much fun and I loved getting to work on bikes all the time!
Currently at my house I have 5 26er MTBS.
1987 Raleigh MTN tour x2 and Bridgestone MB-3, These 3 bikes are built and ready to be taken on adventures. I use them as loner bikes if friends want to come on bikepacking trips with me!
Giant Iguana & Giant Sedona that are both in the process of being built up!
I firmly believe that 26-inch bikes, if properly built, are still a valid option for exploring the world and living the adventure. Do you agree?
I agree, 100%. I think that 26er MTBs are thee best way to get into backpacking and bikes in general! They can be sourced for fairly cheap, the parts for them are very cheap. Most of the time they are steel frames which are amazing and very durable. Also if you are in a different country I think parts for these are easier to source then new fancy bikes!
What are the most beautiful trips you have taken? Is there one adventure in particular that left a lasting impression on you?
I have been blessed recently to go on some amazing trips, one that really sticks out to me is last May I was able to go bikepacking in Japan and ride from the southernmost city of Kagoshima up to Tokyo. About a 900 mile adventure. It was so amazing to be able to cruise such a beautiful place like Japan and be able to have everything you need on your bike with you for the whole journey. Japan is the most bike friendly place that I have ever ridden, it was amazing.
Your bags are always packed with all kinds of gear. What are the essential items that you never leave behind on a trip?
Being that I am a bag maker and can make bags for every nook and cranny of my bike I always end up over packing on every trip I go on haha. But I’ll give a quick rundown of what I keep in my bags.
Starting with the essentials: Sleeping bag, Pad, camp pillow, Tent, Cook system (coffee press, pot, pan, spork cup), Bike repair kit, First aid kit, spare voile straps, Garmin inreach, water filter, lots of food, electrolytes, Battery banks.
Clothing: Puffy jacket, rain jacket, rain pants, thermals, couple pairs of underwear ( I never ride with padded bike shorts, I have a brooks saddle, no need) shorts, Swim suit. sun shirt or 2, button up or 2, pair of pants. couple pairs or socks. My landed shoes, my bedrock sandals, 2 bandanas.
Random items I carry: Z fold pad for chilling, Trail flute, Art kit and notebook, lots of camera gear (360 camera, sony point and shoot, tripod, couple mounts for action camera), sometimes a drone, small camp towel.
We saw that you crafted a handmade flute. Can you tell us the story behind this object?
The Trail flute is something that I have been carrying on my bike for a couple years now. They are handmade wood flutes, made in Southern Utah. They are about 12” long and only weigh a couple grams if that. I made a special little bag for my flute and I started posting about it on social media and people saw it and wanted it! So I reached out to the flute man and he was down to make me some flutes, so I made a bunch of patchwork bags and now Trail flutes are available for sale. They are a great way to bring up moral on the trail and great thing to break out around the fire or while making dinner!
What are your future plans? Any new ideas or upcoming adventures?
Future plans are to keep moving on the path that I am on, I love making bikebags and working in the outdoor industry so I will continue to grow and develop Fish-Ski Designs. I have so many new bags I want to create. In the future I would love to open a working studio here in Utah somewhere so I can have a fun store front area for people to come hang out and also a place to develop new bags and manufacture those bags in house here in SLC. I currently do all manufacturing here in Utah but would love to move out of my basement into a warehouse or fun store front area!
I am always dreaming about my next bike adventure and have so many fun places I want to ride. One thing I have been dreaming about is a bikepacking trip where I have my surfboard strapped to my bike for most if not all of the adventure. I love moving slow and think that would help me to stop and enjoy loitering and surf along the way.
What advice would you give to our readers who want to get into bikepacking?
I think the best advice would be to just start. Don’t wait till you can buy the nice gravel bike with all the fancy mounts and racks and what not. You don’t need all the fancy bells and whistles. Just get whatever bike you can and make it happen. Even if that means your first trip you are wearing a backpack and your sleeping bag is strapped to the handlebars with some paracord. You won’t regret getting out there on your bike and going camping, it will change your life.
