About Us
ShelterCart is the product line of the company Rising Sun
Design-Solutions, LLC (RSDS). RSDS is a socially oriented design and manufacturing company located in Salida, Colorado, USA.
Founded in 2005 on the belief that innovative and effective design offers solutions for many of the world’s pressing problems,
RSDS is committed to benefiting the human condition through social entrepreneurship, appropriate technology, and inventive design-solutions.

The mission of RSDS is to design, manufacture, and market innovative and environmentally responsible human shelter products to positively impact the lives of recreation users, global refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced and homeless persons, and those seeking simple living solutions. Whether for recreation, humanitarian relief or simple living, RSDS is committed to designing and building the world’s best truly portable shelters.

Sheltergroup
RSDS is supported by a twelve-member advisory board, sheltergroup. These advisors bring expertise and a depth of experience in the fields of business, marketing, engineering, philanthropy, health, and social justice. Collectively, sheltergroup members have traveled to over sixty-five countries, and have witnessed first hand the conditions in developing countries where this product is most needed.

Danish by design
In keeping with his Danish ancestry, founder and product designer Craig Soren Nielson has an innate and unwavering passion for design and human shelter. At age 8, he borrowed his father’s tape to measure his childhood home and create a scaled set of plans for a remodel project. He’s been designing human shelters ever since. Craig’s great grandfather Soren Nielsen, a Danish immigrant, pushed a wooden handcart 1400 miles across the American heartland on the Oregon Trail in the 1850s. Craig’s grandfather (also Soren) was a remote sheepherding homesteader during the Depression in the American West. Inspired by both of these family figures and borrowing from the time-tested handcarts and sheep wagons of the day, Nielson created the modern hybrid design used for ShelterCart. You might say this sort of thing is . . . well, in his blood.

With a background in architecture and green building, Nielson has worked as a green building designer and consultant, and holds a LEED-AP certificate. He has over 25 years experience in the affordable housing industry. Combining his great passion for innovative design with his lifelong pursuit of adventure and outdoor recreation, Nielson has been designing and testing versions of ShelterCart since 2001.

Manufacturing
Key ShelterCart components are fabricated by local and regional manufacturing partners, with the balance of components hand made in our shop in Salida, Colorado, by folks who live and play in the Rocky Mountains. Because our focus is on premiere design, quality parts and fail proof construction, you are unlikely to find a better built product of its kind anywhere. No functional obsolescence here, just the finest of raw materials, expert craftsmanship, and the best hardware and parts on the planet.

Our manufacturing partners include:

Colorado Yurt Company 
Johnny Berndt and Sons, Incorporated
River Boat Works
A.C.R. Machining, Inc.

Corporate responsibility
ShelterCart is committed to social responsibility in both its mission and business practices.

Supporting domestic and international relief
Five percent of all sales proceeds from ShelterCart units sold in the Recreation and Simple Living markets are used to support our efforts to place this product in the humanitarian relief field where it is needed most. Your purchase helps support this effort. Thank you.

Sustainability
RSDS is committed to the following green business practices in its manufacturing process, administrative and office functions, and community relations:
• The use of recycled and recyclable materials
• A commitment to high quality parts to reduce replacement and   material impacts
• The use of local and regional labor, fabrication, suppliers and   business service providers to support the local economy and   reduce transportation impacts
• Support for simple living solutions that lessen the carbon footprint   associated with housing
• Promotion of human powered recreation for better health and   cleaner air