Jobs hang in the balance in Asheville.

• Position: REGIONAL REPORT - Eagles Nest Outfitters

Tim Lampkin is proud to promote a great place to hang out--or hang a hammock. "It's cool to see friends from all over the country bragging about their ENOs on social media," says the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce's director of retention and expansion services. ENOs are Eagles Nest Outfitters Inc.'s lightweight, packable hammocks. Though the Asheville-based company won't release sales, a spokeswoman for Valle Crucis-based Mast General Stores Inc. reports that ENOs are flying off the shelves of its eight stores. "Right now, through eight months of the fiscal year, we're already at last year's number," Sheri Moretz says. Like Lampkin says, that's great. But he and Ben Teague, executive director of Asheville-Buncombe County Economic Development Coalition, seek more support--in the form of jobs--than Eagles Nest Outfitters now offers.

Brothers Peter and Paul Pinhol-ster started the company in 1999 in Florida and moved it to Virginia. In 2003, they relocated to Candler--eventually settling in a one-room storage center on the outskirts of Asheville--after a sales rep for another outdoor-recreation business raved about the region. As it prospered, the company traded up, eventually moving into an 18,000-square-foot warehouse and office near downtown Asheville. Though...