Shopping All the Way to the Woods

How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America

By: Rachel S. Gross

Narrated by: Melissa Redmond

A fascinating history of the profitable paradox of the American outdoor experience: visiting nature first requires shopping.

No escape to nature is complete without a trip to an outdoor recreational store or a browse through online offerings. This is the irony of the American outdoor experience: visiting wild spaces supposedly untouched by capitalism first requires shopping. With consumers spending billions of dollars on clothing and equipment each year as they seek out nature, the American outdoor sector grew over the past 150 years from a small collection of outfitters to an industry contributing more than 2 percent of the nation's economic output.

Rachel S. Gross argues that this success was predicated not just on creating functional equipment but also on selling an authentic, anticommercial outdoor identity. In other words, shopping for the woods was also about being-or becoming-the right kind of person. Demonstrating that outdoor culture is commercial culture, Gross examines Americans' journey toward outdoor expertise by tracing the development of the nascent outdoor goods industry, the influence of World War II on its growth, and the boom years of outdoor businesses.

©2024 Rachel S. Gross (P)2024 Tantor

Vote with your dollars

For people who like the outdoors, love to shop, and have noticed more Solomon’s on the J train.

Thoughtful perspective on how nature and consumerism clash

Worth listening to if you are a backpacker or camper. Simple for the history of how gear has changed. Though the author strays from her own path towards the end when talking about inclusive hiking.

Anti consumerism through a critical race theory lense

The author did an ok job explaining how we got from woodcraft to REI, but did not explain many of the major brands we have today. She mostly focused on Eddie Bauer, Abercrombie and Fitch, and LL Bean. The book was also written with a very strong critical race theory view. Where there should be nuance, it was just black and white. She made claims about some groups being under-represented in the outdoors, but never supported those claims. It felt off topic too. The wilderness is over commercialized, and the author did talk about it, but so much of it was off topic that I was left feeling like much more could have been said.