Consumers of outdoor industry products don’t typically get the chance to meet the people working behind the scenes to bring them the gear they wear. Now, thanks to the internet, they can at least watch them do cool stuff and rest satisfied knowing that these strangers are indeed good, active folk.
In this video, Pro kayaker Corey Volt joins Keen Corporate Social Responsibility and Non-Profit Management director Chris Enlow on a longboard ride that takes them down a two-mile ditch and a 13-mile descent in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area outside of Vegas. The music in the video is a little reminiscent of Excite Bike and the general danger factor is far below that of the ubiquitous SoCal longboarding pornos lurking all over the internet. If you’re looking for a wow factor, this video doesn’t have it. This is just a couple of dudes hanging thirty miles off the strip, doing what they love. And the vistas are gorgeous enough to make you want to get outside and go on a ride of your own.
You might be thinking: Isn’t this shameless promotion for Keen? Couldn’t you write this same blurb about any employee for any outdoor brand? Well, so what? Due to its proximity to Wend HQ (Keen headquarters is less than a mile from ours), your humble Wend team has taken advantage of many opportunities to clink beer classes with Chris and the rest of the good folks at Keen. The company is currently sponsoring one of our contributing editors, Rick Olson, on his Playground Tour. They send us a never-ending supply of awesome socks. Last year they teamed up with Wend and Surfrider by donating their huge event space for a party to support the effort to ban plastic bags in Portland (300 people + the mayor showed up). Their Hybrid Life program is emblematic of the lifestyle we push on Wend readers every day. And Keen always, always has good beer at Outdoor Retailer. What more could we want from a neighbor?
When you get past the products and start meeting the people who make the outdoor industry, no matter which brand, you find that they are more-often-than-not, active, environmentally savvy, beer drinking, fun people – the kind of people you would actually want to hang out and go on an adventure with.
Beyond many of the shoes and the sandals and the backpacks at your local outdoor outlets are companies with a socially responsible, environmentally proactive ethos that really does trickle down all the way into the products they make. These companies see the value in environmentalism. They see the value in inspiring people to get off the couch and develop a relationship with the outdoors. It’s pretty simple math, actually. If there is nowhere to go outside to play then people are going to stop buying outdoors gear. If consumers fall in love with outdoor recreation then they will start buying products that enable them to recreate safely. But the industry, regardless of how arguably self-serving its motives, is promoting a healthy, responsible lifestyle.
Getting people outdoors to recreate, which leads to an appreciation for natural places and the need to protect them, is not just a novel idea. It’s the culture of the better part of an entire industry. And you don’t always get that from the sandals on the shelf.
