BIDDEFORD – Backpacks have been around since ancient hunters needed a way to carry game. In modern times, large companies have formed around refinements that connect two straps to a sack.

Dick Kelty took World War II parachute pack fabric and made the modern hiking pack in California in 1952. Murray Peltz promised to marry Jan Lewis and name a company after her if she helped sew a prototype bag in an old Seattle transmission shop. She did, and JanSport was born in 1967.

This history forms a backdrop for the dreams of Mike and Dan St. Pierre, two brothers who are turning durable, featherweight fabrics into backpacks and tents at Hyperlite Mountain Gear.

Their five-year-old company is expanding at the Pepperell Mill Campus, in the brick factory where thousands of textile workers once created blankets and clothing. From here, products with a red-white-and-blue tag with a Maine-shaped flag reading “made in Maine USA” are shipped across the country and around the world.

Hyperlite is an example of how entrepreneurs can use Maine’s manufacturing heritage to bring new designs to a global market and create local jobs.

But Hyperlite faces challenges to become another Kelty or JanSport, and to keep its roots in Maine.

Already, economic development officials in Texas and Colorado have been tempting the company to move west, with incentives that include subsidized wages and rent. Deals like that could free up capital, says Dan St. Pierre, the chief financial officer.

“If you just look at the numbers, it could skyrocket the growth of this company,” he said.

Then there’s labor. Setting up shop in the city’s mill district, which is in the midst of an economic renaissance, seemed like the right place to tap into the legacy of sewing and stitching. Turns out, most of those people are dead or gone from the area.

“It seems like this is a lost art,” Mike St.Pierre says of industrial sewing.

Hyperlite has 16 workers on the floor, including three older ones who once worked in the mills. The rest are 20-somethings who were trained on the job. Wages start at between $11 and $13 an hour, with health care and paid holidays. In the past year, the workforce has gone from a total of 14 workers to 21.

“The most important factor for us is the ability to find relevant skilled labor,” Mike St. Pierre said.

Hyperlite is capitalizing on a growing niche in the outdoors recreation world. Its gear caters to climbers, adventurers and hikers who want to move fast with minimal gear and fewer pounds. They’ll spend $675 for a waterproof two-person tent that weighs 29 ounces, less than half that of a typical shelter.

Hyperlite is at the break-even point, the owners say. It has strong support from local investors, led by the Maine Venture Fund, which provides capital for early stage companies with high growth potential.

But Hyperlite is at a pivotal time in its evolution. To succeed and stay in Maine, it needs to grow market share in a very competitive sector, find the right people to make its products and keep the investment money flowing.

“We’re the new kid on the block, but we have the potential to be a household name brand,” Mike St. Pierre said.