4 ms·

Responding specifically to the point on glamour hiking/camping: REI definitely puts a huge focus on growing the outdoors activities market by being attractive

Responding specifically to the point on glamour hiking/camping: REI definitely puts a huge focus on growing the outdoors activities market by being attractive to newcomers. And a large part of that is offering fashionable clothes and convenience options, and marketing hiking as a social-media-friendly lifestyle. On balance, I think this is a good thing for the future of outdoors sports. The downside is an increase in unprepared hikers (dangerous) and overuse of easily accessible trails (unpleasant). But there’s a lot of pluses: 1. I can more easily convince my friends and coworkers from the city to go hiking with me. 2. I’m confident that the parks and trails that are popular and widely used will continue to exist for future generations. 3. This is a subtle point, but I think it’s very important: if you are someone whose parents never took you hiking/camping, and you don’t know how at all, then the combination of a) hiking being fashionable/cool and b) easy to learn about and buy gear for is critical to convince you to try it. Historically, camping in the US has mostly been a white activity. I am white, and to be clear there’s nothing wrong with that, but I like that many of my non-white friends whose parents never took them camping as kids are now interested in hiking and camping. (I personally think the camping meals and $100 pants are silly, but that’s consumer capitalism for ya. It is what it is)

senkora 3y ago
I’ll also point out amateur radio as a counterpoint, since that’s another activity that I have tried where the story looks very different: 1. There’s no way I could ever convince my friends to try it. 2. There is a very real chance that it will disappear in a generation under pressure by corporate interests who would like to utilize the spectrum. 3. There’s barely any young people joining the community for a variety of reasons. Amateur radio is a dying activity. I’m grateful that the future of hiking and camping is much brighter, because I can imagine a world where it was also in decline.

senkora 3y ago

I’ll also point out amateur radio as a counterpoint, since that’s another activity that I have tried where the story looks very different: 1. There’s no way I could ever convince my friends to try it. 2. There is a very real chance that it will disappear in a generation under pressure by corporate interests who would like to utilize the spectrum. 3. There’s barely any young people joining the community for a variety of reasons. Amateur radio is a dying activity. I’m grateful that the future of hiking and camping is much brighter, because I can imagine a world where it was also in decline.