Born on the
California
Coastline
Two friends. Two cities. One shared obsession with the outdoors — and a mission to make great camping gear affordable for every adventurer in America.
"We grew up hiking the Santa Ana Mountains and the Cuyamaca trails. We knew the gear. We knew the prices were too high. So we did something about it."
— Marcus Reid & Danny Vega, Co-FoundersTwo Cities,
One Big Idea
Marcus Reid was a software engineer in Los Angeles who spent every free weekend hiking Angeles National Forest and camping the Eastern Sierra. Danny Vega was a supply chain manager in San Diego with deep connections to outdoor gear manufacturers and a lifelong love of Anza-Borrego.
The two met on a backpacking trip near Mount San Gorgonio in 2014 and bonded over a shared frustration: incredible tents sitting in warehouse clearances — unsold, unknown — while new campers overpaid at big-box stores up and down the California coast.
In 2015, Marcus quit his engineering job in LA, Danny leveraged his San Diego supplier relationships, and together they drove to their first liquidation auction. Tent Clearance was born. Today, a decade on, we're one of the web's most trusted sources for clearance camping gear — still run by the same two California campers who started it all.
Shop Our Tents →Our Core Values
Every tent is inspected, tested, and vetted by our team before it ships. Clearance price never means compromised quality — we stake our reputation on it.
We tell you exactly why each tent is discounted — overstock, last season's color, minor cosmetic blemish. No surprises, ever. You know exactly what you're getting.
The California outdoors shaped us. We believe camping in Joshua Tree, Big Bear, or the Cascades should be accessible to everyone — not just those with premium budgets.
We sponsor trail clean-up days from the San Diego backcountry to the LA foothills. Healthy trails mean happy campers — and we invest in keeping them that way.
By redirecting clearance inventory instead of letting it landfill, we prevent thousands of tents a year from being wasted. Good for your wallet. Good for the planet.
Every person on our support team is an active camper. When you reach out, you talk to someone who has personally slept in the tent you're asking about.
Our Journey So Far
Marcus in LA and Danny in San Diego pool their savings. They drive to a Fontana liquidation auction, bid on 40 clearance tents, and sell out in 72 hours from a simple website. The concept is validated.
Danny's San Diego supply chain connections unlock the first direct manufacturer relationship — giving Tent Clearance consistent inventory and deeper discounts than any competitor.
A family from San Bernardino becomes our 10,000th customer. We send them a year's worth of camping gear. They still shop with us every season.
We move into a dedicated SoCal warehouse with an in-house testing lab. Every tent is now inspected before shipping — a standard we've maintained ever since.
Over 500 tent models, 10,000+ happy customers, and a team of 14 outdoor obsessives — all still guided by the same two California co-founders who started it on a handshake.
Meet the Crew
A small team with enormous passion. We're all campers first — and that shapes every decision we make.
Former software engineer who traded Silicon Beach for clearance auctions. Marcus grew up camping the Santa Monica Mountains and Angeles National Forest, and has personally slept in over 200 tents while building this company.
Supply chain expert and lifelong San Diego outdoorsman. Danny's connections with manufacturers are the backbone of our clearance pipeline. He discovered Anza-Borrego at age 9 and hasn't stopped exploring since.
Former REI gear buyer with 12 years of industry experience. Sarah oversees every tent we carry and won't approve anything she hasn't personally tested. Her standard: if it won't hold up in the San Gabriel Mountains, it doesn't ship.
Rooted in Southern California
Our main operations, leadership team, and customer support hub are based in Los Angeles. Marcus and Sarah lead day-to-day operations from our SoCal warehouse, surrounded by some of California's best camping terrain.
Danny runs our manufacturer relationships and sourcing operations from San Diego — California's gateway to the desert Southwest. Our supplier network stretches from Baja to the Pacific Northwest thanks to connections built over a decade.
We've Got Your
Adventure Covered
Whether it's your first tent or your fifteenth, we'll help you find exactly what you need at a price that keeps you coming back. That's a promise we've kept since 2015.