Built for the Job at Hand: Geoff Rowley and Civilware Join the Toor Kn

Some partnerships begin in a meeting room.

The best ones begin with shared experience, mutual respect, and a common belief about how products should be made.

Toor Knives is proud to welcome legendary professional skateboarder, hunter, outdoorsman, product designer, and Civilware founder Geoff Rowley into the Toor family. Together, Toor and Geoff are building the next chapter of **Civilware by Geoff Rowley**, an ongoing collaboration focused on American-made performance, functional design, and dependable tools developed for real use.

This is not simply a licensing agreement or a name placed on a product. It is a working partnership between people who understand that useful equipment must be shaped by experience, tested under pressure, and manufactured without compromise.

A Career Built on Commitment

Geoff Rowley first became known around the world through skateboarding.

Originally from Liverpool, England, Geoff moved to the United States at 18 with little more than a commitment to skate. His aggressive, fast, and progressive approach quickly set him apart. Rather than waiting for the perfect conditions, Geoff became known for confronting difficult terrain, committing to bigger obstacles, and finding a way to make the seemingly impossible work.

That approach earned him a place among the most respected skateboarders of his generation. In 2000, Thrasher Magazine named Geoff its Skater of the Year, one of the highest distinctions in skateboarding. Throughout his career, he has also contributed to signature footwear, skate films, video games, skatepark design, and the development of products used by skateboarders around the world.

What made Geoff successful was not simply talent. It was his willingness to put in the work, study every detail, and repeatedly test himself in an environment where failure had immediate consequences.

That same mentality would eventually guide him into the outdoors.

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From the Streets to the High Country

Geoff’s connection to wild places began while growing up near the rural landscapes of North Wales, the Lake District, and the high country of northern England. Early experiences with wildlife and the outdoors created an interest that stayed with him even as skateboarding took him around the world.

As his professional career developed, Geoff continued reading hunting biographies, conservation studies, wildlife research, and stories of the American West. He eventually began spending significant time hunting across North America, learning from experienced houndsmen, guides, wildlife managers, and outdoorsmen.

Today, Geoff’s outdoor background includes years of hunting, guiding, scouting, wildlife observation, and navigating difficult terrain. His outdoor life is not separate from his performance background. It is another expression of the same mindset: preparation matters, experience matters, and equipment must work when conditions become unpredictable.

The Civilware Story

Geoff founded Civilware on July 4, 2013, with a commitment to producing high-quality outdoor products and content inspired by hunting, conservation, and an active outdoor lifestyle.

From the beginning, Civilware was shaped by people who spend real time outside. Designers, knife makers, guides, hunters, anglers, conservationists, photographers, and filmmakers all contributed to a brand built around direct experience rather than theory.

Civilware products are tested throughout the year, across changing terrain, weather, and working conditions. The purpose is simple: create equipment that solves problems and earns its place in the field.

That philosophy immediately connected with the way Toor Knives approaches design and manufacturing.

Why Toor and Civilware Belong Together

Toor Knives and Civilware share a belief that good products begin with a clearly defined purpose.

For Geoff, that purpose is shaped by decades of performance experience, time in the field, and an understanding of what hunters, guides, cooks, travelers, and everyday users need from their equipment.

For Connor Toor and the Toor manufacturing team, it is shaped by American manufacturing, precision knife making, material knowledge, and a commitment to building tools capable of performing under real-world conditions.

By bringing those strengths together, the Civilware by Geoff Rowley partnership creates a direct line from field experience to product design and from product design to manufacturing inside the United States.

Like Toor’s established relationships with Haley Strategic and Ocaso Knives, this partnership is intended to extend well beyond a single product. It is an ongoing development relationship centered on collaboration, testing, refinement, and American-made production. Toor’s existing collaborative programs demonstrate how outside expertise and Toor’s San Diego manufacturing capabilities can be combined to create products with a clear identity and purpose.

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The First Two Blades

The first products produced by Toor for Civilware reflect the range of Geoff’s experience and the broader Civilware philosophy.

The Petty

The Petty is a culinary knife created for the preparation work that happens every day, whether that is in the kitchen, at camp, or while preparing food after a long day in the field.

Its inclusion in the partnership reflects an important reality about useful tools: performance is not limited to one environment. A knife designed with proper control, balance, and cutting efficiency can become an essential part of daily life.

The Petty brings the Civilware design perspective together with Toor’s knife-making and manufacturing experience to create a culinary tool intended to be used regularly, not stored away.

The Striker

The Striker comes from a much different environment.

Geoff first began developing the concept after an experience while hunting in Colorado. The design was later influenced by stories of legendary houndsman and mountain man Ben Lilly, whose handmade knives reportedly featured distinctive wavy blade shapes.

Geoff developed that traditional influence into a modern outdoor profile. The Striker’s recurve, pronounced belly, and strong pointed tip create a blade capable of producing leverage and effective cutting performance across a broad range of field tasks. Its geometry was created around utility, control, and the realities of working outdoors.

It is a design shaped by history, personal experience, and a clear understanding of why a capable fixed blade remains one of the most valuable tools a person can carry.

Built Through Experience

Skateboarding and hunting may appear to exist in two very different worlds, but Geoff Rowley’s career demonstrates how closely they can be connected.

Both require awareness, preparation, commitment, adaptability, and the ability to make decisions when the outcome is not guaranteed. Both expose weak equipment quickly. Both reward people who understand that experience cannot be replaced by marketing language.

Those principles are at the center of the Civilware by Geoff Rowley and Toor Knives partnership.

Together, Geoff and the Toor team will continue developing purpose-built products informed by the field and supported by American manufacturing. Every product will begin with the same questions:

What job does it need to accomplish?

How will it be used?

What could cause it to fail?

How can we make it better?

The answers will come through design, testing, manufacturing, and time spent using the products where they were intended to perform.

Because the goal is not to create tools that merely look capable.

The goal is to create tools that prove it.