Guides Gone Wild
Guides Gone Wild
New Year, New You, New... Business?!?: GearME is For Sale!
Read more about Emily's decision about GearME:
https://www.gearmeoutdoors.com/sale-of-business
If you or someone you know wants to learn more about the GearME business sale, please contact Michael Hall, Commercial Real Estate Broker with The Jordie Lee Company: 207-773-1111 (office) or email mhall@jordielee.com
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Way back in March 2021, I talked to Emily Kirkton, the owner of GearME, a fabulous outdoor consignment gear and apparel store in Freeport, Maine.
As of this month, after 5+ years of running this awesome business, Emily has made the difficult decision to move on to new challenges (and honestly, more family time), so she is looking for a buyer and starting to plan for a transition toward the end of February.
I would love to help Emily in any way I can - so I’m replaying this conversation in the hopes that I can make one of the following options manifest:
- Someone listening will know someone who would be STOKED to take over this amazing business;
- Someone listening will be STOKED to take over this amazing business themselves; and/or
- EVERYONE listening makes a point of getting to GearME in the next month to stock up on their outdoor needs, support the circular economy, and give Emily the most financially rewarding send-off possible!
Plus, this conversation is tons of fun to listen to - whether you’re a newbie adventurer, a small business owner, or a grown-up trying to get a kid outdoors, Emily shares great tips and tricks that are as applicable today as they were back in March 2021.
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Timestamps for the impatient :-)
0:02 -- GearMe Outdoor Consignment Store Transition
10:15 -- Overcoming Challenges in Becoming a Guide
14:32 -- Starting an Outdoor Retail Store
27:29 -- Outdoor Adventure With Kids
33:30 -- Changing Perspectives and Parenting Outdoors
38:09 -- Gear Recommendations for Outdoor Activities
42:01 -- Consignment and Gear Buying Tips
Enjoy!
Welcome to the Guides Gone Wild podcast. What is Guides Gone Wild, you ask? This is where you'll fill your ears and minds with the stories of everyday, extraordinary women who will inspire you to take your outdoor adventure game to the next level. Whether you're starting your journey from the couch or the trailhead, this is the place for you. So let's get a little wild.
Jen:Hello, happy 2024. Welcome to Guides Gone Wild. Thanks for coming back and joining me. After the little extended break I took in late December, early January, my week's off gave me some extra time to be quiet, do some adventuring and think a lot about what this podcast and all of you listeners mean to me and what I want the future to look like. So stay tuned on that. I'll be sharing new interviews and info about some new and fun community opportunities very, very, very soon. But back to today. I happened to see something while I was doom scrolling last week that I want to share with you all, in case you or someone you know will have specific interest in this Way.
Jen:Back in March 2021, I talked to Emily Kirkton, the owner of GearMe, a fabulous outdoor consignment gear and apparel store in Freeport, maine. Well, after five plus years of running this awesome business, emily has made the difficult decision to move on to new challenges and, honestly, more family time. So she's looking for a buyer and starting to plan for a transition toward the end of February. I would love, love, love to help Emily in any way I can. So I'm replaying this conversation today in the hopes that I can make one of the following options manifest Number one, someone listening will know someone who would be stoked to take over this amazing business. Number two, someone listening would be stoked to take over this amazing business themselves. And or number three, everyone listening makes a point of getting to GearMe in the next month to stock up on their outdoor needs, support the circular economy and give Emily the most financially rewarding send off possible. Plus, this conversation is just tons of fun to listen to, just because, whether you're a newbie adventurer, a small business owner, a grownup trying to get a kid outdoors, whatever, emily shares great tips and tricks that are as applicable today as they were in 2021.
Jen:Apologies in advance for the early podcast. Jen's awkwardness, though Yikes. Emily talks about being happiest in the mountains or on the water, so I really hope she'll be making the mountains and rivers of Maine a much bigger part of her post GearMe life, and I really, really hope she'll be buying a new to her pack or paddle for her adventures from one of you at the new to you GearMe outdoor consignment store in Freeport. And now enjoy this trip in the way back kayak with me and Emily Kirkton. All right, emily Kirkton of GearMe, do you refer to it yourself as GearMe, gearme. How do you refer to your store?
Emily Kirkton:So I call it GearMe. But the pun is on Maine so a lot of people call it GearMe and that's totally fine. But when I answer the phone I say GearMe.
Jen:That's why I love it. It's so funny, like legit punny. So, gearme, welcome to the guys. Going wild podcast. Thank you, glad to be here.
Jen:We kind of jumped the shark there because you know we were already talking and then I introduced you Anyway, but let's dive in.
Jen:So, as we just alluded to, emily has a store in Freeport called GearMe and it does consignment outdoor gear, fitness gear, as well as rentals, and so in my you know, ongoing fascination with how people get into guiding in the outdoors and then outdoor adjacent type businesses, I wanted to bring Emily on to talk a little bit about what she has been doing and also, you know, again, kind of let's talk about what the future is going to hold, because things are starting to loosen up a little bit and getting a little bit more exciting even than they were before, for next summer, for this coming summer. So hopefully we'll go there as well. So, emily, why don't we dive kind of into where we typically start these things? I would love to hear about kind of how you got into being outdoors in the first place. What types of activities have kind of called to you, you know what kind of? What's your background story before you got to the idea of starting GearMe.
Emily Kirkton:Well, I grew up in North Carolina, in like the Raleigh area, and my parents were outdoorsy not like in your face outdoorsy but we traveled a lot because I grew up doing Scottish Highland Dance and so we would travel all over the South going to Highland Games and a lot of times, places we would go, we would end up in the mountains or someplace that we could hike or camp.
Emily Kirkton:So it just became something that our family did kind of casually, and I don't ever remember having like an interest in the outdoors when I was a kid, except that it's just what we did. So I think when I got to call, when I was trying to choose a college, I was, you know, looking at different schools and I landed at the University of Tennessee because I loved how close it was to the Smokies and had that kind of mountain vibe to it and it was great. You know, right when I got there I joined the outing club, the canoe and hiking club there, and that's where I really got to expand some of what I was doing. So I was trying more things like climbing or canoeing although I had done some canoeing as a kid, but whitewater kayaking is another one I'd never done that and so I got to work on learning how to roll a kayak, which I never mastered ever.
Jen:Well, in whitewater it's pretty high stakes, so I would think that would take a lot of work and would not necessarily come naturally, especially to some of you hyperventilates when they're upside down on water, like I do.
Emily Kirkton:Totally. Yeah, I have a. I mean I'm not going to call it a phobia, but I'll say it's like close to a phobia of being trapped underwater, and so you know, I can go over and I can try it once, and if I don't get up I'm out, I cannot try it again. And so it really it's just a lot of work to try to learn how to roll when you're too scared to keep trying. So, anyway, I spent most many, many times throughout my life trying to roll either a whitewater boat or a sea kayak, with lots of great instructors. I still can't do it.
Jen:Yeah, I'm thinking that maybe like a year of therapy or two will be the next thing I need to do. Yeah, exactly.
Emily Kirkton:Well, I have an instructor that I can refer you to if you ever decide. He is absolutely the best at you know, at talking you through these things, but I just I couldn't, couldn't, master it.
Jen:So you try all kinds of new stuff at the outing club and then you know, then adulting kind of smacks you in the face. What happened next?
Emily Kirkton:Right, when I graduated and so throughout college I had a summer job working at a theme park in North Carolina running rides and kind of each summer I went back, I was getting promoted and by the time I graduated from college that was the direction I wanted to go in and so I went, you know, full on into a career running ride operations at theme parks. So I traveled around a few different states as I worked at different parks and I just really didn't have time to do much in the outdoors, and not just time, but the places I was going weren't especially like inspirational in terms of outdoors, because I love the mountains, that's really that's where I feel the happiest. But I was going the places that were not mountainous or a little more beachy or just the city. So I kind of let a lot of that go and then moved to Florida in 2006 to work at one of the parks down there and pretty much from the moment I got there I knew that it was a mistake and I had to get out of Florida. It was not for me, just too flat, too dry, too hot, no mountains, not even mountain. I couldn't even like drive to the mountains.
Emily Kirkton:So pretty much when I got there, I said I was married at the time and I had said to my husband that we knew we were going to try to move to Maine because he had family up here. And I said I want to work for Ella Bean, I want to run their kayaking schools. That's the job I want. And I honestly don't remember how I even knew they had a kayaking school. But I did. And I remember a year and a half later he was online looking at jobs and he was like your job just got posted. So I came over and, sure enough, the supervisor of the LLB and Outdoor Discovery Schools kayaking program was available. I applied and interviewed and got it. A few months after that we were all moved up to Maine and settling in and I had this job that I had created in my own mind.
Jen:That's pretty bonkers to go from the flume ride to running paddling school or LLB.
Emily Kirkton:I don't know how I know the interview. I can't imagine how I even convinced these people that I was qualified for this, because I did have paddling experience and just general outdoor experience, but I never once ever taken a class on technique or how to do this stuff. So what I was coming to it with was 10 years of management experience and program running and managing people and training. So I had all of the skills needed for the job I was applying for, but really not the skills to do the job that my people that were reporting to me. I couldn't do what they were doing.
Jen:Well, but I think I'm pretty impressed.
Emily Kirkton:They made the leap.
Jen:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but from a I would say from a business management perspective. Being able to handle all the operational minutiae, the hiring, firing, the, you know, putting teams together, managing that type of stuff effectively, that's stuff that is much, much harder to teach somebody than how to paddle properly or the J stroke or whatever. I would imagine that that's what they saw is like here's somebody who's got, you know this, the soft skills and the business skills that we need, and we'll figure out how to get her into a kayak upside down.
Emily Kirkton:Right, Right, yeah. And so I think the management that brought me in like that's, that was their perspective. And then the next challenge was trying to convince the instructors that that it was okay that they were better at this thing than I was, because I had something else that I did really well and I think they had kind of been through a lot of. There was some turnover and turmoil in the years prior to me coming there and I actually had one instructor who I ended up like we had a great relationship, but the first thing he said to me was that I wasn't going to make it six months. I was like, okay, Great yeah.
Jen:Most of the people I talk to on this podcast they're like yeah, that, that that's like a call to action more than a insult. I would imagine. I would imagine you treated it the same way, like oh yeah.
Emily Kirkton:I'll show you. Well, yeah, it was more like you know nothing about me, like, because this was like this is what I want to do right now. So so it was really good. I mean I did. It was a huge learning curve and I did take, you know, as many classes as I could and practice as much as I could, and I had about a year I guess a year after I had been there is when I really started working towards my guide's license, and it was something I wanted to do to, I mean for myself. I wanted to have that achievement, but I also knew it would go a long way towards helping them understand that I understood their work. So I did that. I got my C-Cite Guide license about a year into that job and then a little while later I don't remember I got my rec license as well and that. So that was really really good and I learned so much going through the class and the reading and the instruction, trying to learn how to do that. So it was, it was a great experience.
Jen:Yeah. So did you take a training course just as a sidebar? I did, yeah, I mean we offered it through the discovery schools.
Emily Kirkton:Oh nice, and so I just I sat in on all of those, and the instructors are fabulous, like they. They're so good at what they do. So it was really I was very fortunate to have that opportunity to be just be immersed around those people.
Jen:It was a good it was very good for me, absolutely. And did you, did you perceive there being kind of a change in tenor as to how you were kind of treated within that the group you were running at that point, because of that?
Emily Kirkton:Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think it started prior to that, as they could see that I was trying to learn some of these paddling skills and just as we all kind of got to know each other, I think, you know, there were the really and there wasn't like any like conflict or anything like that, it was just it was eyeopening to me when I got there to realize how little I actually knew. So, yeah, I think it was absolutely helpful for them to see me go through that journey of trying to learn and trying to be better.
Jen:That's good. And how about did you pass the test the first time around?
Emily Kirkton:So I passed the Sika guide test the first time around and then, however, many months later, when I took the rec guide test, I did not pass the map and compass portion of it, and I really wish that there was like a recording of this, because, you know it was, it was something about the elevation of a lake and so it had something to do with which way the river was going. I don't remember what exactly I got wrong, but afterwards he called me in and he was showing me we'll see, this says this and that's why the river goes this way. And I said but this number here says this, and that's the one I was looking at. And he said, oh well, that's a typo.
Jen:No way.
Emily Kirkton:Wait, what? What? Yes, I swear, oh my God. But then his point was like well, there's all this other information I should have been looking at. Like I can't just rely on that one number, because it was wrong and you know I really should have been paying more. So I was like all right, all right, I got it, I got it.
Jen:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's interesting, that seems to be yeah, that seems to be the section that everyone fails the first time.
Emily Kirkton:Oh it always this might. I think it's because Go ahead.
Jen:No, I was just going to say this might warrant some investigative reporting on my part. But you're about to you're about to tell me that it doesn't, so go ahead.
Emily Kirkton:Well, no, I just think it's legendary for how hard it is and how many people don't pass it, and so then you get so amped up and so worried about it, but it becomes the thing that you don't pass. So I don't think it's it's, we've developed our own monster. Yes, yeah.
Jen:Well, it's funny that you mentioned that, because we're I'm going to, at the end of April I'm going to host a little live Q&A with some new, new guides to kind of try to take that mystique away and get everybody talk, everybody off the ledge so that they can actually talk to somebody through it and be like all right, this is what's scary, this is what's not scary Most of it. So, anyway, we'll see.
Emily Kirkton:I'll.
Jen:I'll. I'll promote that again at the end of the episode, but anyway. So now you're a main guide in your rec guide and a paddle guide, and so where did you go from there?
Emily Kirkton:Well, you know, I didn't specifically use my guide license all that much other than that I then had the ability to fill in when needed to take over if someone couldn't make a shift or something like that, and so I did use the license to a degree, but really I just kept kept going at my job and, you know, kind of my favorite part of the job was creating new programs and thinking about you know, how else can we bring people in, what else do they want to experience? And my absolute favorite thing about the job was that we were providing this opportunity for people to come do this outdoor activity that they might otherwise never have done or been too scared to do or not have the skills to do alone, and it was just a really rewarding job. And so I was always looking for well, what other new program can we do for them and what? What can we create now? So that was kind of my focus for most of my time there.
Jen:Yeah, I'm curious about like I would perceive kind of as a you know some I mean, certainly I've been to beans a billion times, but I've never I don't think I've ever actually taken a class through them, although I almost went to one of their you know, demo paddling days once. I would perceive it from my end as being kind of a very unscary place to go Like. Is that the role they see for themselves is like okay, well, you can hire like this small guide service to take you out, you know, hunting or fishing or paddling or whatever that you know. You may or may not know these people or whatever. Do they kind of position themselves as like the everyman solution? Or if you're kind of afraid of your fitness level and you want to try this, come with us. Or how do they kind of spin their offerings and or think of it internally that way?
Emily Kirkton:Yeah, I think it's exactly that and it kind of matches their model of retail as well. You know, like they really try to be a resource for just like the normal person to be able to come in and buy some good equipment, and so same thing with the outdoor schools. I think the idea was there's, you know, millions of people who already have this trust in LLB and so it's an easy enough leap for them to be able to say, well, I trust the equipment, so I'm going to trust these guides versus, like you said, like the smaller guides, which I think it's easier now because there's so much of the internet that you can learn and read reviews and learn about, you know, guide services. So I think that's better for those smaller businesses, I think, you know, because it's less scary now. But yeah, beans was trying to just kind of take average person and give them a little bit of time on the water and just introduce them to the sport, yeah, which is good.
Jen:I mean, I think it's definitely. They've definitely done a lot to expand kind of awareness of a lot of these activities. And I would imagine even with COVID, you know they have the benefit of being a larger retailer and now they're all over the place. So you know, I'm sure they were like the last people to run out of canoes and kayaks this past summer.
Emily Kirkton:And SUVs and everything else, that nobody else could get their hands on.
Jen:So the paddle school was not. You didn't. That wasn't all you wound up doing for Bean, right, you did kind of move up the ranks. You continued to move up the ranks.
Emily Kirkton:Right, and before I made my cycling instructors mad at me, I also ran the cycling school. We did some bike tours and it was a much smaller portion of the program but I don't want to forget them because they were awesome, nice, but yeah. Then after that I got, I moved up to taking on all of the main programming. They had programming outside of the state as well, but that included the fishing school, the shooting school, so archery and clay shooting and just kind of all the general outing stuff that we did kind of fell into my umbrella at that point and so that move was more of an umbrella position. I wasn't as hands on, I wasn't as involved in what was going on day to day. So it was a very different kind of role and it was good. I liked it, but I definitely did miss the. I like the instructors were the reason that I went to work every day and I wasn't seeing them all the time. So that was a little bit of a tricky challenge, but I still enjoyed what I was doing Right.
Jen:So let's fast forward to now. You're running your own little retail establishment literally in the backyard of the flagship store. So what the heck happened there?
Emily Kirkton:All right. So in the spring of 2018, ll Bean went through a downsizing, and they had several hundred positions that they eliminated, and one of them was my position, which I, honestly, totally understood, because, after I had moved up and I was less hands on, I felt like I wasn't as effective as I had been when I was working on the ground, and so my position was eliminated. And I'd been there long enough like they took good care of me and I had some time to just figure out what was next, and I had spent 10 years in the Freeport community, working there, but also living there, and I was just really comfortable with that community, and so I kind of wanted to stay somewhere near there. So most important to me, though, was I wanted to stay in the outdoor industry, and I realized that I had been very lucky to have a career job at a high level in the outdoor business that was year round and salaried, and I mean, those are not things that are easy to come by in the outdoor industry, and so, as I was kind of looking for what was next, I really wasn't finding anything that really kind of spoke to me. A lot of the things I was finding was working for a great outdoor organization but the positions were about like fundraising and things like that, and I'm just that's not my specialty at all. So the other thing kind of at the same time I was missing my pro deal and missing out on the employee store and things like that and realizing that I just didn't have a resource anymore to get outdoor gear other than just like going into a store and buying it. And I wish I remembered like an aha moment when I kind of realized my next career path.
Emily Kirkton:But at some point I just kind of realized that maybe I could take this opportunity to just start my own e-store and have it be an opportunity for other people in the community that didn't work for beings to be able to still achieve great equipment at a good price and, more importantly, to reuse this stuff. And there were many times when I would walk through really any retail store and look around at the thousands of identical shirts and think why is this here, like we don't need this stuff? There's just so much stuff in the world already and I for many years had been a passionate advocate for secondhand shopping and I really don't buy anything new if I can help it. And so all those just kind of things came together in my mind and I realized like okay, north of Portland at that time there really wasn't anything like that where people could buy outdoor gear and secondhand.
Emily Kirkton:And so I just started kind of doing a business plan and messing around with numbers and trying to convince my partner that this was something that I could do, and he was super supportive for the whole thing. And so then in October of that year I was able to open up, hear me and kind of start down this journey and it was so funny, like I have no idea what I'm doing, but I just, you know, you go into work every day and you just try and you try something new and some of it works.
Jen:So did you start it as an online retailer or did you start it as a brick and mortar?
Emily Kirkton:Brick and mortar. One of my primary goals like missions for the store is to create a community around this and to be a part of the community, and I built the store in Crete for it because of that. Like I was already comfortable there and so, yeah, it was very and I had no real interest in doing anything online because what I wanted was that face-to-face interaction with people. So now I do sell online because it's just kind of necessary part of the business, even like not related to COVID, but certainly the core of my business is the community and the face-to-face with people.
Jen:Yeah, absolutely. Well, it was funny. I was thinking when you started talking about that. I don't know if it's still the case because I haven't gone in there lately, but I mean, there was a time in my life where almost everything I owned like backpacks and all this stuff were things from the bean like overflow store that they had taken back as a return Right. So, like you know, I had Ava on my back for a while. I just I didn't care.
Jen:I'm like, if the gear still works, I am all about it, and most of the time you could get like this brand new stuff or something with just a teeny, tiny hole in it that you could fix in two seconds and you had like amazing stuff.
Jen:So I am a huge proponent of the whole circular economy thing and have always, have always, especially with outdoor stuff. I feel like you know, especially if you're just gonna dabble in something, I'm like why am I gonna go out and invest like thousands of dollars in some new sport that I'm not even sure I'm gonna like? And so this is why one of the reasons I wanted to have you on because not only are you doing consignment stuff, which I already love, you also are doing rental stuff, which I think is just Broncker's awesome idea, because so many people like for things like camping and hiking and whatever they just you know. Or paddling great example, like okay, I did it a few times so I know how to do it, but so I don't want to like pay to take a tour or a you know lesson or whatever all day, but I don't have the gear, so how could I ever keep doing it? And so tell me about that piece of it, like how did you kind of get into that as well?
Emily Kirkton:Well, I knew from the beginning of opening the store you know, that the consignment was the main portion of the business, but same motivation for rentals.
Emily Kirkton:I wanted another avenue for people to be able to do these things without having to really shell out any serious money to buy new equipment. But you know, the store is just me, and so what I found was that I was not able to put a lot into the rental program at first because I was so overwhelmed with running my own business. But you know, that's gotten better and better a couple years into this and now, going into the summer, I really plan on pushing the rental business to a new level, and one of the things that I've been doing the last few weeks is acquiring a lots of camping and backpacking equipment. So I'll have up and running pretty soon camping and backpacking rentals in addition to right now. I do canoes and kayaks in the summer and snowshoes in the winter, and I'm gonna invest in a new online booking system to make it easier for people to book. And I'm just I'm really excited about this kind of Little detour I'm taking. Yeah.
Jen:Yeah, no, that's super awesome and I think you know, especially like you're right in the 95 quarter, it's like people heading up to any number of places you know Even further upstate can can absolutely pop in, get what they need, you know, take it for the weekend or whatever, which I think is just amazing. So a couple things you were talking about how it's just you and you know, in some ways I feel like the consignment as a business model is Probably like a thousand times more complicated than just like buying stuff from an OEM and reselling it. So I can imagine that was crazy to begin with, like how did you even kind of learn how to do that? And then, yeah, like layering on top of that, oh, and I'm gonna rent stuff too. Like all of these seem very, very kind of high-touch, very involved kind of business transactions for a one-woman show. So how?
Emily Kirkton:are you managing to do it? It's, I don't it's. You manage it by not thinking about it and by not over, not over a thing you are a logistical goddess.
Jen:That's why that's what L beans on you. You're an organizational powerhouse. I don't know.
Emily Kirkton:I talked to my partner because I tell him he has analysis paralysis, where he wants to think about everything, like all the different things that could happen and and how to handle all those, and I'm like I just do it. Just do it and see what happens. So I think that's kind of that's what's gotten me this part. It doesn't mean that I'm gonna have a successful business, it just means that's why I've gotten to where I am. But I'm sorry, I actually don't remember what you just asked me.
Jen:Oh no, I was just. I just commented on the fact that you know like a consignment business model is much harder than just, you know, getting pro-deal because you're buying something from manufacturers. So you know how do you sell anything that you do, sell any lines that are new, or is it literally a hundred percent Consignment?
Emily Kirkton:I do a little bit, and only in that like coming into this summer I know about there's gonna be a few key high demand areas and so I look for, you know, closeouts in certain areas. I don't I still don't buy new, but I will buy closeouts and things like that so that I can kind of supplement the business. And then the other thing I do is try to buy little things from local people, so Like flowfold wallets you know they're a local main business, so I have them and I have some really nice like outdoor themed wooden magnets from a local couple, and so I do want to do some of that wholesale business but to try to keep it as local as I can.
Jen:Yeah, that's awesome. So let's talk a little bit about community, because Obviously you've got to have a pretty robust one if you're gonna do consignment, because you have to be getting stuff from good places and sources that you trust and people you know, and then you know turning back around and creating kind of an outbound community as well for all this stuff. So let's talk a little bit more about that. Like how did you kind of you know, leverage what you had into success for the stores launch, or you know, kind of, what are types of, what are the types of things that you have been doing, especially since COVID hit, to kind of keep that robust?
Emily Kirkton:so you know, the the beginning was Rough and I had my, you know, I had a pretty good collection of my own stuff that I was ready to part with, and then some friends stuff and things that I was acquiring, stuff like Facebook marketplace. And then, prior to opening, I had several weekends that I had advertised, as you know, bring your stuff in for consignment, and I had a few people you know do that. And so when I opened the store I did have some stuff but I actually had even blocked off the whole back of the store. It's a small store but I'd blocked off the whole back half of it because I didn't have enough to fill the store. And I, when I was doing my planning for the business, I was trying to plan like how much of my marketing is going to go to Recruiting sellers and how much is going to go to recruiting and buyers, and I thought it might be kind of equal and just pretty quickly Figured out that people want to get rid of their stuff, like that's not the problem. So then it became Getting better and better at making good selections, like when people bring stuff in, making sure I was taking the best of the best and Getting comfortable with saying like this is not something that we're going to sell right now and I'm still not really there but but Significantly better than when we started two years ago.
Emily Kirkton:The stuff in the store, the quality I'm just blown away by the stuff that people bring in that they've used once or never you know there's tags on them stuff that's in really just fabulous condition. It's far beyond what I had expected. I was expecting lots of like beat-up stuff that still had life left, but what I'm finding is lots of really good quality stuff that has its entire life left. So it's been interesting. I don't. The only thing I, the only like marketing I have to do to sellers now is to get them to bring it in before the season, because a lot Of times people don't start going through their stuff until like halfway through the season and by then it's it's a lot harder to sell.
Jen:So yeah, balancing out, yeah, and if you don't have much, you don't have anywhere to store it. Then it's kind of like, yeah, yeah, that's so interesting. I my guess is I keep telling, talking to my husband, I'm like, yeah, when are we gonna be able to get? You know, I all these people that that Ran to the store and bought, you know, an SEP or a fat bike or all that stuff last spring. I'm like, when is that stuff gonna come up? A pill, ski equipment, yeah, so yeah, hopefully you'll have a very robust business in another 18 months when everybody's back to watch a Netflix.
Emily Kirkton:Yeah, I'll need the bias. But yeah, you know, we'll see, I don't. I don't know yeah.
Jen:I can't even plan.
Emily Kirkton:I don't plan like which whatever happens is what I'm gonna do.
Jen:Yes, that, that is the takeaway of 2024 sure like I'm just rolling with what is getting thrown at me next. That's already been lit on fire. All right, cool, so what? Another thing I love that you've done on your site and I want to talk a little bit more about this is you have a really cool section that's all devoted to things to do with kids in the outdoors, and I you know to the point where you've taken pictures, you've done these little write-ups. I mean, that's something that I aspire to doing for my property in Western Maine, because there's so many cool spots and people don't know about them really, and you have a lot of really fun ones on there. Some of them I've been to, some I haven't, and kind of they've been on my list for a while. So, kind of, where did that idea come from? And you know, kind of, how old your kids, what do they like to do, you know?
Emily Kirkton:yeah, tell me more, yeah so I really got started when my my daughter was born in 2011 and I Didn't want to stop doing the things that I like to doing, and so I tried to keep, you know, keep hiking and keep paddling, and it's it's definitely hard. I mean, it's it's really hard and it's not it's like not that much fun sometimes, but to me it was really important that I keep going outdoors and that they go outdoors too. I know when my daughter was three, she and I had adventure Tuesdays all summer long and we would go and I would pick some other destination. That was gonna be like a real challenge and, you know, I would bring a kayak, buy myself trying to get this boat on the car and off the car and, you know, put her in the in the, you know, in the seat with me and we'd paddle a little bit on the hair secret river or something.
Emily Kirkton:So I was really pushing myself to just keep doing things that were hard and and I still do that now and so that over time, the kids just got better and better at just being outside and I got more and more confident with it, and the one of the things that really helped me was Wilderness first aid classes, as I wanted to go further and further out, knowing that I had at least some basic skills to be able to handle this. And then I met my partner Hayes. I met him and he has two kids as well, and he's also very like connected to the outdoors. And so between the two of us and the four kids now, we're trying to find things that all the kids want to do, and at the moment the range is seven at the youngest and fifteen at the oldest.
Emily Kirkton:So it's always interesting trying to find what we have to say but as long as two or fewer children are crying at a time, then we feel like we're we're doing alright, like this is okay. Any more than two crying, then we've done something wrong.
Jen:I love that and actually I'm glad you, I'm glad you're talking about this, because I do think you know to your point, like when, when we had our kid and we were older and really used to doing things the way we wanted to do him, and it was just like Like totally different experience and a lot of resetting, a lot of expectation setting on our part, and, you know, making it more about the journey than the destination and Learning when to turn back and learning which snacks to bring, and, like you know, learning that you can't do five things in one day. You do one thing for an hour and go to the pool or whatever. You know. So, like I'm glad you're bringing that up and you know, give me maybe Can you think of any you know either aha moments or like things that you came to over time, of like this is how this is going to be better all the time.
Emily Kirkton:I think I don't know about an aha moment, but I kind of this is gonna sound so negative but I realized that going outdoors with the kids was not about me enjoying going outdoors with the kids. It was about creating an environment that I wanted them to be raised in, and so once I took it, more it's like a job and I had less expectation that I was gonna like stop and look at tree bark for a while, like that was just not gonna happen, and so I think changing my perspective a little bit helped to where now I feel like I'm. I actually I feel like I'm a guy, like I take them out with the mentality of a guy Like I'm gonna, I'm gonna show these people all these interesting things that they might not otherwise see, and it has nothing to do with me, it's about educating them. So that I think that probably helped a lot and just continuing to look at like to really think about risk and Evaluate the risk of things and say, okay, like this thing that I want to do with them Sounds really scary, but when I really think about it, like what is the risk? And a good example is we're gonna the summer, we're gonna do the alley gosh and we've done canoe overnight with them, but never a river trip like a point-to-point river trip, and the logistics are just like shocking.
Emily Kirkton:Think about doing this with all these kids and you know you're out in the middle of nowhere and there's no communication and you know there's a lot that could go wrong. But when I think about it and I think well, the the actual chance of things going wrong is like very low and and we do have the ability to handle most of the things that might actually happen, that are most likely to happen, we can handle that. And so you know we go into prepared and I I'm the planner, he's the, he's the one that wants to just walk out the back door and wander into woods for a couple hours. I'm the one who wants to have, like, I have Excel spreadsheets for everything and you know plan out exactly what we're gonna do when. But it's a good partnership because he convinces me to walk away from the spreadsheet and go outside. But we just try to think through all that and then just go for it and know that it's not as scary as it seems.
Jen:Yeah, I love what you said about I've taken it on as if I'm a guide, because it is true, like it can't be about you and your enjoyment anymore. I mean, sometimes you have fantastic trips and you have a lot of fun and everything comes together. But you also can't take it personally when it doesn't, or when more than two of the kids are crying at the same time, and or when the weather messes things up or whatever you get to the parking lot. I do feel like I've just kind of. My kids are two teen tween girls and they don't want to do anything right now, and so I just keep reminding myself just set the example, create the opportunity, and maybe someday they'll look back and be like oh you know what, this isn't something I want to do at the time, and most days when we do get out there and do something, by the end of the time you can tell it hasn't been a total disaster.
Jen:You know they do enjoy elements of it. They do feel more energized. It makes them feel better. You know, I mean getting outside and getting some exercise always does, even if they're going to roll their eyes the whole time. So you know, I think that's awesome and it is, it gets. It's hard because when you enjoy the outdoors a lot, or when you enjoy a certain activity a lot, there's just this little bit of yourself that gets crushed. When you try to share that with somebody and they just, you know, tell you to talk to the hand, I like, I hate that yeah, yeah.
Emily Kirkton:Yeah well, it can't be about me anymore Exactly. And I was listening to one of your previous interviews and I know her name is Emily, but I don't remember her last name but she was talking about how she had grown up as a kid doing lots of outdoor stuff and then, as she got older and a teenage years, kind of rebelled against that and pushed back and didn't really want any part of that. But then later in life kind of came back and realized that that's where her happy place was and so and that really struck me like yeah, that's that's kind of the goal here. Like the oldest now is pushing back on, you know, going on these big trips and like what's the point of all this? And we're having to learn to just kind of accept that that's where they are right now, and but also have it in the back of my mind like this, this could come back around, like we've done what we can do at this point and it can come back around.
Jen:Well, and if I'm, if I'm honest with myself, I think back to being that same age and I'm like, yeah, you know what, I didn't want to do a damn thing with my parents back then either, and I just wanted to read my book and be left alone. And so it's like it really wasn't until I was in college and got, you know, taken kicking and screaming every on a few trips with some friends and just was like, oh, this wasn't so bad and, you know, got much more into stuff later on, you know, when I just needed to get away from the city or get away from whatever. And so, yeah, I think, just just my ideas, you know, plant the seed and sounds like yours is too, and yeah, and that's cool, but I love. I will encourage everybody to check out the gear me site, even if you aren't necessarily looking to buy and or rent anytime soon.
Jen:There are some really great suggestions of things to do that are very manageable, and you even take the extra time to like kind of classify them as like epic adventures versus. You know, anyone can do this. And and the contextual information that you give is so useful, because that's what is hard about guidebooks is like you read. But you know, ok, well, this is an easy hike, well, what does that actually mean? And you know when you're like I wouldn't have taken my kids on this when they were seven, but I did take my kids on this when they were 12. You know, that's kind of stuff is super helpful, I think, for people. So thank you for that service and and reading more of them, because they're just very much, very fun. So what? What in particular, are your kids favorite activities outside? Let's see.
Emily Kirkton:That's a that's a tricky one to answer. I think hiking is the easy answer because everybody likes to go out into the woods and especially likes to get to a waterfall or get to a summit canoeing for some of them I think my daughter really is into canoeing they all camp very happily and you know they're also responsible enough kids that like when we go camping they can just kind of go off on their own and go down the path to the lake or whatever. We give them a lot of freedom in the woods because they have earned that, and so I think everybody really likes the freedom that they get outside, that maybe they don't get so much when we're all just in the house together. But hiking and canoeing my big thing is canoeing and so that's, that's kind of where my love is and so that's kind of what we do a lot in addition to hiking, just because that's as easy as walking out your door. So I think that's it.
Emily Kirkton:My seven year old did a big, big hike Well, I don't know a big, big hike. It was Tumble Down Mountain last summer and we talked that up a lot because I wasn't sure if he was going to be into that. You know it's a lot more work than the smaller hikes that we had done, and but we talked it up and we had a lot of like fun things to do along the way. And then we had, of course, whoopie pies at the summit. If you want your whoopie pie, you got to get to the top. Yes.
Jen:Yeah, but it went great. It was going to be my next question. Yeah, that was going to be my next question is like what you found your go to sugar and said sorry, because it seems like they're always sugar.
Emily Kirkton:Well, we go, we go down to Wicked Whoopies and Freeport and they get to pick whichever you know whoopie pie. They want the big ones, not the little ones. They get to pick a big one and then we pack it up to the top and that's that's what they get. We're going to attempt Katahdin with the two middle one, the two girls this year, and I don't know if we'll some. That we may not, and that's part of the lesson is that we might not be able to do this, but we'll have our whoopie pies just in case.
Jen:Yeah, for sure. So which? Which route would you take if you were going to do that?
Emily Kirkton:We never really talked about it. Hey, my partner Hayes, he drew Hike to the AT some years ago and has had a long time love of Katahdin, and so this is kind of I'm leaving it up to him to kind of think about what would be the best. I've only, I've only done it once and I did Cathedral and there's no way we're going to take a lot of Cathedral. So, ok, that makes me feel better because I was.
Jen:I'm like from a mother's standpoint, like I hyperventilated on the ledges or the chimneys and I'm like I could not possibly watch a child like do that. I would lose my mind.
Emily Kirkton:So, like we won't do, I can breathe easier now and, like I said, this is an attempt and if at any point we're not feeling it, then we are out of there.
Jen:So yeah, but you know, like camping at Chimney Pond, I mean, there's so many beautiful things to do up there too, so it'll be so fun, that's awesome, that's very cool, all right, well, let's see, I'm going to, I'm going to land this plane here, but I want, before we go, I would love to have you tell me what, in your opinion, are the one or two pieces of outdoor gear or clothing or whatever that someone should always buy consignment, and then, if there's anything that jumps to mind, that you should always buy new.
Emily Kirkton:Hmm. So buying consignment, I think of things that are going to be less specific. So if you want to go canoeing with your family, you know, go find a canoe second hand somewhere. You know, if you're going to be a canoe racer and you're going to do the kandesque, then you might need some specialty. Think about what you need. But you, just for the average person, I think you can buy things like boats and paddles and that kind of stuff can can always just be second hand, easy.
Emily Kirkton:Buying new, I think, of things Well, like a PFD, is a good example when I think about the kids, like one of the best ways to get the kids comfortable in the water is to make sure they're comfortable in the water, and so buying a PFD that really fits a kid well and you know I always look for ones that are shorter so that when they're sitting down in the bottom of this canoe they don't have this PFD, like sitting up around their ears so I think finding the right one whether it's new or not, but like finding the right one, I think is really important. So a new stuff like I was thinking about. I was thinking about my, um, my canoe paddle is a fiberglass canoe paddle and that was not something I was going to find second hand Like I knew that I canoe enough. It's really important to me, this was something I wanted to invest in, and so I went and bought it new and you know that was fine. Yeah, that makes sense.
Emily Kirkton:I always tell people like just just check it, hear me first, like check us first, and if we, maybe we will have what you need, and if not, then okay, then you might need to go elsewhere, but at least you, you know, you've looked.
Jen:Yeah, I have it, I. So then I have another question which is like related to the whole politics of consignment. So do you uh like, so check, hear me first, but if you have something that you really, really, really want to get, you know second hand, but you don't necessarily have a timeframe and you're like just the minute this comes in, I want you to like I will give you my first born child. Please take her in return for a you know a new old tongue canoe or whatever, a you know fat bike or something. Do you ever like do those little things on the side where you're kind of like yeah, I've got this list of people that want X, y or Z, or do you just don't go down that slippery slope?
Emily Kirkton:I do, I do do that. It is really tricky to keep up with and I actually, going into the summer, I have a new system that I'm going to use to try to keep track of that stuff and I'm going to put some more parameters around it, like like a timeframe, like if I see this thing come in in the next, you know, four weeks, then I'll let you know that it's here. But I can't just, you know, keep her running for months and months and months list of who needs what. But no, I don't mind doing that at all, and it's not a, it's not like a, it's yours if you want it. It's like, hey, this thing just came in just letting you know, so people have the opportunity to know that it's there. Yeah, I don't mind doing that at all. I think that's. I think that's just kind of part of the business, is part of being part of the community, is working with the people in the community to get them what they need.
Jen:Yeah, that's cool. And I suppose if you're like, okay, I'm letting you know, you know I'll hold a few for 24 hours, but then you have to pay and pick it up, and otherwise it's like free for all, yeah, yeah, okay, cool, that's good to know, Because I'm kind of like there's just a few things that I would love to get some time, but I just don't know if it's ever going to happen. So I don't know, we'll see, maybe I'll have to get myself on some, a few hot lists here and there. Yeah, it's hard, I mean it is. Yeah, I know, because everybody wants the same stuff. It's just crazy. And how about favorite piece of gear that you sell, the cost less than 50 bucks, and then maybe your favorite piece of gear you've ever acquired and used that cost you less than $50.
Emily Kirkton:Ooh, okay, favorite piece of gear that I sell under $50. I think I'll come back to my my paddle. I just have such a love of paddles and especially like a good wooden paddle. I think it just it feels so good to hold on, you know, hold on to a wooden paddle and and go out on the water and secondhand you could easily get them for under 50 bucks. So I'm always so excited when, when paddling stuff I just put all my paddling stuff out two, three days ago in the store and it just brightens my day when I walk in and see it. So I think that's that's kind of where my my love is. Yeah, and then personal gear for under $50. I don't I don't know if I have a real specific answer for that, mostly because I've gotten almost all my stuff secondhand, so a lot of it is under 50 bucks, whether or not which one is which one is the thing that you're like oh, that was a steal.
Jen:I use this thing all the time.
Emily Kirkton:I'll say some of the canoe tripping stuff that I have acquired when, when I was at Beans and you know East or employee stale stuff, so I ended up with like a boundary bag and a big like waterproof box, water coolers and things like that that I got like dirt cheap from these sales and that, like that, allows me to go out and do these big multi-day trips, you know, without having to spend a fortune trying to acquire all that stuff. So I think that's probably the most important thing for me was that I acquired a lot of that tripping gear at a low cost, so that that was really helpful.
Jen:Yeah, that would be because that that's definitely. We did a little point to point just just one night out kind of on a canoe last summer and it was definitely kind of like oh you know we camp a lot but we don't canoe, and it was like oh we well we got to, we got to put our stuff like we had a few little dry bags that we've used in kayaks but nothing that was going to hold.
Jen:You know the tent and the sleeping bag and you know all that other stuff that we were bringing to make it a comfortable trip for the kids. And yeah, that's, that's cool. A big waterproof box, that's pretty. That's pretty money, because you just never know, even if it just gets splashed, which it's going to. You know it's helpful to have something like that.
Emily Kirkton:I'll tell you one trick that I learned from a friend of mine who's a guide and he we actually hired him to guide us on the Allagash a few years back because he's such a good guide. But one of the tricks that he does is on the coolers. He has a wet towel over the top of the cooler and so when it's a really hot day, you know the sun evaporates that water on the towel but it doesn't heat up your cooler, and so you just keep that towel wet and keep it on top of your cooler all the time and you'll keep your fruit in there a lot colder longer, and I thought that was such a simple, like genius solution, so I like to share that little tip.
Jen:That is an amazing tidbit right there. That's, that's awesome. That was worth the price of admission there. Listeners, all right, cool, that, that is very cool. So, emily, if people would like to get in touch with you, learn more about gear me, gear main, get you know the four one one about all the rentals and things that you've got coming in where. Where's the best place to find you?
Emily Kirkton:So, for you know, just straight up information, my website is gearmeoutdoorscom, and that is where I'll have rental availability soon the kids in the woods kind of information that you were talking about earlier. I'm actually changing that into a blog with more information and more detail, so that's a project for down the road, but that's on there and information about how to consign, what our policies are and what that whole process looks like, and you can also shop online there as well, although, again, being a one person show, I cannot keep up with my online inventory the way I want to, but I am working on hiring somebody to help me with that, so so that should get better.
Emily Kirkton:So, if you're in the free, port area and you want to work with a really kick butt woman at this store get in touch.
Jen:Yeah, yeah, and I will say that I noticed the kids in the woods piece. Like you won't necessarily find it up top right now and that's probably why you're kind of going to reoriented into a blog, but if you just go down the page a little bit, it's its own little little feature. So click through, learn more about all those fun trips that you've got going on. Cause cause. I thought that was a really, really valuable segment of the site. So, gearmeoutdoorscom, go there, apply for a job, rent some stuff.
Emily Kirkton:And Facebook. We're. You know we're on Facebook most actively Facebook Instagram, I think.
Jen:Okay, cool, and are you posting some of the stuff for sale on Facebook as well, or is that? Is it primarily through the site?
Emily Kirkton:It's probably more on Facebook, just cause it's a lot easier to just take a picture and throw it on Facebook. But even that I'm not. I'm not very good at. It's definitely an area that I want to, I need to help with. I just it's, I don't have time.
Jen:Yes, yes, there's. You've got a lot going on, young lady, so I can? I can completely.
Jen:All right, yeah Well, thank you. So so so much for this. This has been really fun and I loved kind of hearing the backstory because it's always interesting to me. But I guess I the one question I didn't ask you like what, where do you see? I mean, you've got a lot of irons in the fire right now. Like what do you see this summer being like versus last summer? Or are you not even looking into crystal ball right now?
Emily Kirkton:No, I mean, I I'm really, really optimistic about this summer and you know we're two years in the business. Some of that time we were shut down early, covid and, you know, still being a new business, I just don't know if this is really going to work for the longterm. Like, am I really going to be able to make this into my career? And my plan had been this this this summer of 2020, that was going to tell me a lot about you know where we were going and, of course, all that just kind of went out the window. But I've been really encouraged by how how many people are finding us and how many new people are finding us, even in the midst of all this chaos. And so I'm really optimistic that this summer things could really really take off. So I'm expecting it to be kind of bonkers for for the next few months.
Emily Kirkton:And again, like expanding the rental thing I think will be a lot of work but a good new avenue as well. And then in the store itself like, honestly, I ran out of hangers. I have so much stuff in the store I don't have to. I don't have any code hangers left and I had to roll a rack in front of my storage room door, like I have to part the wetsuits to get through to the back room, so like we have a lot of stuff in the store. So in terms of that I can't really grow that until I can grow into a new space. So for now it's just, you know, getting that stuff in the door and getting it out the door and then working on rentals is kind of my plan to try to keep up with all that.
Jen:Yeah, wetsuits. Look at this, this is amazing. So, yeah, you've got a lot of good stuff.
Jen:So I would yeah, everybody, get your get now, especially even the. Even the Massachusetts people are welcome in May. Now get the heck up to free ports, do some shopping, get Emily some floor space so she can put some more stuff out for this busy summer we're about to have. So awesome, awesome. Well, thank you again. This has been fun and I would encourage everybody to check out Gear Me, check out Emily, and, and and make it the best summer yet. Thanks so much. Well, I really appreciate the opportunity.
Emily Kirkton:Thank you for for a good conversation.
Jen:Oh my gosh, it has been my pleasure. Hey, in case you thought I was kidding, I wasn't. If you or somebody you know might be interested in this business, please, please, please contact commercial real estate broker Michael Hall with Jordy Lee. His office number is 207 773 1111 or you can email mhaul mhall at geordyleecom, which is J O R D I E L E E dot com, and keep me posted. Thanks.