Vermont’s Outdoor Gear Exchange has been the poster child of how to do independent retail right. Founders Mike Donohue and Marc Sherman, prioritize retaining employees with programs that make sure they can take time off to follow their outdoor dreams (and test gear while they are out there). At the same time, they running a business that brings customers in to both a beautiful brick-and-mortar location (that’s become a cool visitors’ destination in downtown Burlington) and operate a healthy online business. Donohue took the time to talk to us—while planning a bike trip to Croatia—about trends he is seeing develop in the store.
What’s hot for you in the shop right now?
We are seeing a strong early bike and camping season. Bike usually starts before camping for us but people are psyched to get outside and we’re seeing family camping, especially continue to be popular. Car camping, two burner stoves, furniture—that whole category has been doing well.
What outdoor trends do you see developing that you are excited about?
For a variety of reasons, COVID slowed down R&D or slowed down R&D getting out to consumers. A lot of times it was easier for manufacturers to just try and chase the supply chain to make what’s already being made. But there is a bunch of new innovation that’s hitting now and coming down the pike. It’s really cool to see things continue to improve. The SRAM transmission drive train is pretty exciting and it definitely falls into that category of “just when you thought bikes couldn’t get any better, here’s something that’s gonna be a big improvement.”
Are there any challenges in the shop that you are working to mitigate?
We ended the year substantially over inventory so we are trying to rebalance our stock in a healthy way. I think the whole industry has been doing that, so it’s very price-competitive right now. So we are trying to work on being profitable so we can stay around, but also moving through inventory.
