Photo by Erin Nelson.
Guests look at the different features of the Storyteller Overland Beast Mode vehicle at the open house event for the new Storyteller Overland Intergalactic Headquarters in Birmingham on Aug. 20.
Story isn’t just in the name at Storyteller Overland. It’s at the center of what the adventure van business seeks to do daily.
“Story is at the center of it all,” said founder and CEO Jeffrey Hunter. “People are giving themselves permission to pursue more adventurous lifestyles.”
While much of the company’s initial market was out West in places like California, Hunter said the RV maker, which touts a new and unique design, has found a home in Birmingham, both figuratively and literally, with a new space opening recently at 428 Industrial Lane.
“[Birmingham] is ideal for recruiting and retaining craftsmen, skilled labor and executive leadership,” Hunter said. “We absolutely love and adore Birmingham.”
Alabama is “welcoming” and “pro-business,” Hunter said.
The new, 80,000-square-foot space is twice the size of the company’s previous space and allows them to expand into Birmingham, which showed an interest in the outdoor lifestyle. Hunter said he is excited about bringing people into what he called the “intergalactic” headquarters of the company, and said it should “up the volume of engagement” in their backyard of Birmingham.
“It’s fun to see people discover us and learn about us,” Hunter said.
Owning a van and taking it all over the country on various adventures is fun for customers on their own, but the business has noted through their marketing and communications efforts with those customers that they’re finding like-minded travelers as well, Hunter said.
“We get to equip people to find adventure and community with each other,” Hunter said.
As people push themselves “to the edge of their personal map,” they’re learning that they aren’t alone in that pursuit, Hunter said.
Storyteller Overland features Class B adventure vehicles, dubbed, in various forms, the MODE. The vans are designed to be more agile, smaller, able to fit in a normal parking space, Hunter said. That comes along with what adventurers typically desire, from four-wheel drive to an energy system that allows users to be off-road and off-grid, Hunter said.
The vans can also be financed for up to 20 years and can be insured with traditional agencies, which Hunter said is unusual for RVs. The Storyteller RVs, he said, allow users to go beyond the “traditional” offerings like campgrounds and other spaces typically reserved for RVs, while having creature comforts like air conditioning and more. The floor plan is also flexible and allows for users to adjust it based on what they need at the moment, Hunter said.
“We’re blessed to have a few MODEs out in the wild in Birmingham,” Hunter said.
Hunter said the market is growing here, allowing for out-of-state visitors to correct some misconceptions they may have about Alabama. Owners from as far out as the Bay Area or the Pacific Northwest will come into town and find how “lovely people are,” which is different than what they expect, Hunter said. They not only find loving people, but biking trails and other offerings they may not have known existed here, he said.
“It just blows people’s minds,” Hunter said.
While the West has more public lands and national parks, adventures can still be had here, Hunter said, and they are just as meaningful. There is a “natural beauty” of river and lake systems here, he said.
The van’s local dealer is Mercedes-Benz of Birmingham. For more information, visit storytelleroverland.com.
