THE FUTURE IS NOW
ethic. Outdoor shops have long hosted trail-building days and have helped organize groups to preserve access to public and private open space. “In a time when so many people don’t trust the media and corporate brands, that authentic human connection at an outdoor shop is more important than ever to spread the conserva- tion message,” Luis says. “It’s the first point of contact to the outdoors experience for most people. It certainly was for me.” As an outdoor rec sales associate, Luis had an educa- tion that was not only ethical, though. It was also practical. A shy kid, he honed his social skills on the sales floor. While he was in college, his boss Lou English encouraged him to make his marketing class project about outdoor retail, suggesting he interview the
sales reps who visited the store. “Don’t just see this as a retail job,” English told Luis. “Think of this as your learning lab.” Luis has seen that kind of men- torship is more common than not in specialty outdoor retail. “I doubt many other types of businesses give their young employees that kind of empow- erment,” he says. “I always say that the first MBA you can get is in outdoor retail.” That’s certainly the point, says Sunlight’s Wes Allen. “We always want our people to be equipped to go out and do something great in the outdoor industry,” he says. “I think a lot of small business owners get upset when they lose the em- ployees they invest so much in. For me, I’d much rather have someone great working here for two years than have some- one here for a decade who is just biding their time.”
“The business runs better when more people know how to drive it.” —WES ALLEN, SUNLIGHT SPORTS
society, says Luis Benitez, the former Everest guide who led his younger brother David into retail. Luis also worked at St. Louis outdoor shop Out- doors Inc during high school, but he also spent his child- hood knocking around the boys’ grandfather’s outdoor specialty shop, Kelly’s Sport- ing Goods. There, he helped stock the shelves and sell hunting licenses, but mostly soaked in the atmosphere at a shop best known for the sitting area furnished with leather couches, a woodstove, a small library, and even a pocket bar for the locals who gathered there to tell fish- ing stories. “That’s where I learned that the specialty shop is the gathering place for our community,” says Luis, who these days works as the VP of global government affairs at Lululemon after a similar stint at The North Face. As the person at Lulu- lemon tasked with building sustainability not only in the company’s supply chain but also within its workforce, Luis says that the outdoor industry has a built-in advantage with its focus on fitness, adven- ture, and community. “Any good company encourages its employees to stay physically and mentally healthy through recreation and community connection,” he says, echoing Shiers’ point. “In outdoor busi- ness, that ethic comes straight from the retailer level.” The other thing that rises from the grassroots level of retail in the outdoor industry is the advocacy and stewardship
small firm, repping up-and- coming brands like Chaco, Smartwool, and Arc’teryx. Three years later, that gig led to a conversation at a dealer event where the Patagonia in- house rep told Shiers he was leaving and that he should throw his hat in the ring. “You don’t say no to Patagonia,” says Shiers. His time at Nestor’s provid- ed him with the connections to get his current job, but also the skills he uses. Like Benitez, he learned how to talk to anyone about anything and “how to pair a customer up with something they don’t even know they need,” he says. Shiers describes the experi- ence of customers returning to the shop and sharing photos of their vacation and that the boot-fitting he’d provided had made all the difference. That gratitude—the sense of making people’s lives better— is what has kept him in the outdoor recreation industry. That and the perks: the great people who work in outdoor recreation, the emphasis on having the free time, and the knowledge to undertake the adventures he loves. “Most of us could be making more mon- ey doing something else, but we’ve decided that the tradeoff is worth it,” says Shiers. That work-life balance is what makes work in the outdoor industry not just attractive, but a model for our
Kodiak Cakes’ Meguire Broersma (left) and Pata- gonia’s Naomi Rutagara- ma sit down to connect at a Futurist Project event.
GRASSROOTS STORIES 15
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