Switchback Spring, May 22-24, 2027 in New Orleans, LA
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Switchback at TRE, December 1-3, 2026 in San Antonio, TX
Mike Turner, owner of the outdoor specialty shop Foster Outdoor in Portland, OR, basically grew up in the ski shop where his mom worked, at first in western New York then out west when he was a teenager. From his vantage point, it looked like the coolest gig ever.
“At that time, I thought it was just hanging out and talking about skis with friends,” Turner says. “I thought, I want one of these for myself one day.”
That’s the beauty of an independent outdoor shop. It’s a place full of cool gear that people use when they’re having fun. You go there to buy gifts for a loved one, to grab something before a big adventure, or just to get motivated or ask for advice from staff. But that sense of a place that is welcoming, comfortable, trusted, and inspiring doesn’t come from the hanging sleeping bags or the racks of ski bibs. It comes from the staff and the vibe created by the owner. And because they aren’t investment banks paying Wall Street salaries, that chemistry can’t be bought. It has to be carefully curated and tended to by management.
Hiring and retention of staff is an issue for every sector of the economy. For outdoor retailers, there is generally a balance of full-time staff with a rotation of seasonal employees. Now, stores also have social media and marketing roles and, for many brick-and-mortars, an e-commerce presence for the increasing demand for new and second-hand inventory sold online. It’s a layered mix that can make staffing more complex than how it might appear to customers.
Since the 1990’s, East Lansing, MI’s running specialty shop, Playmakers, has built itself into an institution by emphasizing customer care and education, in addition to premium merchandise. The business grew from a small shop in East Lansing’s Meridian Mall into a 20,000 square-foot hub for shoes, apparel, and racing events, with an emphasis on biomechanics like gait analysis, community outreach, and a philanthropic foundation.
For staffing, the store’s proximity to Michigan State University helps with seasonal student employees, but Jake Crowe, co-owner of Playmakers, has found that the pre-retired crowd is also a great resource. And having built the shop into such a respected community hub with an education core element is a huge draw to potential employees.
“We get a lot of interest from community members ready to turn the page and try something different,” says Crowe, who worked his way up the store ranks to become a co-owner. “Salary is not that important to them. It’s being part of the team.”
Crowe said Playmakers usually sends management to about four trade shows per year. For Switchback Spring last month, he brought John Schopp, their sales manager and staff trainer. It’s Schopp’s first trade show and he went to learn and connect with people more than shop as a buyer. An unexpected connection happened at the Black Men Run (BMR) – TURF presentation, where Crowe and Schopp learned that one of the BMR leaders was a high school gym teacher for a Playmakers’ floor manager. Unexpected connections like that are a major draw for national gatherings where attendees—both owners and staff—can build and renew relationships.
“I’m walking away from this show with management strategies that I could implement next week on the Playmakers’ floor,” says Schopp. “I might check in with staff at the end of the shift and be like, tell me something you learned or an observation you made today. It’s fun being here, and it absolutely makes me feel like I’m seen as a leader and a core member of the team back home.”
As a way to share insights from industry veterans, Switchback Spring featured an educational session, led by Chris Frangiosa, titled “The Philosophy Behind a Team That Stays: Hiring and Retention Strategies for Independent Retailers.” Frangiosa was hired in 2006 to manage a TCO Fly Shop location, a fly-fishing shop and guide outfitter with six employees in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. TCO now has five stores, an online shop, and 65 employees, 50% of whom have been with TCO for more than ten years. Frangiosa also runs VILD, a consulting group that supports outdoor retail shops. Trailheads gathered insights on best practices for building a team that stays from Frangiosa and Mike Turner.
“We don’t sell a corporate ladder situation,” says Frangiosa. “Hire someone who wants the job you’re offering, not a promise of some future position. If we grow, then they grow, and that’s great.”
“It can be intimidating to interview a customer who’s interested in a position: What if I don’t hire them, will I lose a customer?” says Frangiosa. “But they often know the store well and want to work there because of the culture so give them a shot.”
Frangiosa likes to keep a full roster of potential candidates and will interview interested people even if there’s no opening. For good candidates, he tells them he wants to keep them on file for when something opens. Occasionally, he’ll suggest that the person learn a couple things in the meantime to make them even more hirable when the time is right.
It can be easy to ignore an open position for a while, especially if the previous employee caused problems or had a troubling departure. But Frangiosa encourages employers to hire immediately (back to the previous point of maintaining a deep bench of resumes), so you and the remaining staff aren’t burdened with excess responsibilities and possible burnout.
This can seem like a hurdle too high for some businesses, but Mike Turner at Foster Outdoor has found great value in providing 75% coverage of health care for full- and part-time staff. “It’s an obvious benefit for the employee to have solid health care,” Turner says, “but it also reduces the temptation to spontaneously just get up and leave. They have to really think about it.”
Turner strongly believes in leading by example and being present, not in an overbearing sense, but to set an example. “Staff see me working just as hard as they do. Often when they come in in the morning, I’ve been there for a while, setting up the team for success.”
Teach them how the business works. Let them see how the sausage is made, whether that’s online processing, marketing, purchasing. Give them a new responsibility like developing a second-hand inventory section to your store.
“This is a great way to incentivize employees, whether they are running the e-commerce side, or working the floor sales,” says Frangiosa. “They get some ownership stake with the liability. Also, if they quit, they lose it.”
Scheduling flexibility, gear discounts, the chance to potentially travel to trade shows or on outfitter trips can be a big bonus and just add a sense of pride in where they work. “One of my goals is for the employee to be proud enough to tell the millionaire they’re sitting next to at the bar that they work at this cool outdoor shop in town,” Frangiosa says.
To learn more about how to hire, support career development and hold on to the best outdoor industry employees, check out Switchback’s upcoming August 5 webinar at 2:00 PM EST: Investing in Outdoor Industry Talent.
