Pack Rat Outdoor Center

Selling sports bras can be thought of as a women-only sell, but it doesn’t have to be a mythological category in an outdoor shop that some floor warriors shy away from. With SNEWS’ Retail College: How to Sell Sports Bras online course, sales associates will dive into the ...read more

Non-profit outdoor alliance Maine Outdoor Brands announced that it has elected Jenny Kordick as full-time executive director. Kordick comes from The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C. and Maine, and will officially start the week of Outdoor Retailer. Scott W. Crook, ...read more

Scott W. Crook, outdoorsman, limerick enthusiast, and co-founder of Pack Rat Outdoor Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, passed away on June 10, 2019. He was surrounded by those he loved as slipped from one adventure to the next. The byproducts of his kindness, honesty, and ...read more

President Rich Hill kicked off the evening by explaining the Grassroots History Project, which was started a few years back to trace the arc of the group’s growth as a powerful collaboration of retailers and brands. Through hundreds of hours of interviews with members—both from ...read more

Leading up to the first Outdoor Retailer Winter Market held in November, Jetty Founder Cory Higgins was nervous. Retailers he was hoping to meet with were skipping the fall show to attend the January Snow Show instead, causing him concern that he wouldn’t get to meet with key ...read more

Not long after Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario wrote a blog post in June about the value in giving employees time off to vote—something she did in November 2016 and is doing again this year on Election Day—she started talking to other company executives on both sides of the political ...read more

While lounging at a picnic table outside of Pack Rat Outdoor Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, I’m distracted by a woman tossing out a garbage bag. When I ask the store’s Sustainability Director, Faebyan Whittle, if it’s the day’s trash, she replies, “No, that’s the recycling; ...read more

A Grassroots Outdoor Alliance award is a very big deal. The group, which is a consortium of 64 independent outdoor specialty retailers and 68 vendor partners, represents the best of specialty retail. The awards, which will be given out on June 13, 2018 on night one of the ...read more

Many couples share a love for the outdoors, but these six are taking it to the next level. In some ways it makes perfect sense – they love each other, they love the outdoors, so why not turn a passion into a career? But working together has it's down side, and it isn't always ...read more

Half-Moon Outfitters doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to being an environmental steward in the outdoor industry. The chain’s owner, Beezer Molten, walks the walk by incorporating eco-friendly initiatives in eight stores scattered across Georgia and South Carolina. He ...read more

** To watch more episodes of The Innovation Project, click here. For Carolyn Crook, owner of Pack Rat Outdoor Center, reducing her store's carbon footprint has always been a concern. To curb it, she recently had solar panels installed to nearly cover their roof. "It's been ...read more