There’s nothing like moving into a Toyota Corolla with two people and a 60 pound dog to make you take a careful look at how much stuff you have. Last May my fella, our pup, and I did just that as we left Boston to spend 4 months traveling and exploring the West. Our plan was to spend the time camping, hiking, running, fly fishing and biking as we wandered around, visiting old friends and family, and seeing places we’ve always wanted to go. Fitting everything we’d need to do those things, along with food, water, computers and books into a roof box, small trunk, and 1/3 of the backseat forced us to look at the utility of everything we have. Was it necessary? Does it do more than one thing? How much space does it take? It was a pretty grueling process, especially for a sentimental person like me, though luckily we were able to put a few boxes of art, pictures and the like in storage in Maine. Regardless, we sent box after box of stuff to Goodwill.
As we settled into the routine of traveling I was amazed by how little we needed. Not only were we living with a fraction of the stuff that had filled our house, but after a while it started seeming like we had too much stuff in our car. The shoes were ridiculous. We’re both runners, and if you’re a runner or if you’ve ever had the great fortune of sharing a closet with a runner, you probably understand. Our shoes alone easily took up a third of the trunk.
Since then we’ve settled here in Whitefish, and suddenly our stuff has a house, including a gear drop to sprawl out in. It reminds me of one of those things that come in a little egg that you soak in water overnight that turn into a big foam dinosaur. Now that we have all this space to put stuff in, its hard not to feel like we need more stuff.
Since then we’ve settled here in Whitefish, and suddenly our stuff has a house, including a gear drop to sprawl out in. It reminds me of one of those things that come in a little egg that you soak in water overnight that turn into a big foam dinosaur. Now that we have all this space to put stuff in, its hard not to feel like we need more stuff.
There’s a lot of talk during the holiday seasons about #optoutside and Don’t Buy This Coat in the outdoor sports industries. I’m sure that we could all debate whether it’s genuine or just brilliant marketing, but it, along with fitting our lives into a Corolla, has got me thinking about the role that gear plays in how we get outside. There’s a Henry David Thoreau quote that I’ve always loved: “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes”. (I wish I could program my computer so that every time I go to order something online this would pop up.) Other than for the sake of my bank account, I love it because I worry about how the idea that we need all this stuff to get outside is keeping people from doing it. Of course there’s some stuff you can’t really do without—you need skis to ski, a bike to bike, and gear to be safe. But I worry that there are people out there who are sitting there thinking to themselves: “I’d really like to try [insert outdoor sport] but I just don’t have the right stuff for it”. And I worry that these mountains of gear that we’re convinced we need are driving a deeper wedge of elitism through our outdoor communities. It’s one more thing to add to the voices in our heads that say “Maybe I’m not fast/extreme/good enough to go try to climb that mountain/ride that trail/run that race, because I don’t have the things that I see the fast/extreme/good people having”.
Of course the things that help us get outside can be powerful tools: they can make us feel more safe, they can motivate us, they can be a way to express ourselves and our style, and they can be a way to connect to other people interested in the same pursuits as us. But for all the time spent talking about gear, it seems a lot more rare that we have conversations about what made us want to get into the sport in the first place, how it helped us to get through a rough patch in our lives, or how it’s changed how we see ourselves. I should mention that those are all three conversations I’ve had with the ladies of Outsiety recently (y’all are amazing!) These are the things that will inspire us, encourage us, and include us, not make us feel excluded or like we’re not enough.
Post by Margosia Jadkowski, BadAssador
