Skip to main content

Why Buy Local?

I never thought I'd be hitting the trail in a pair of pink hiking shoes. Let me explain. (And tell you what that has to do with buying local.) Late this fall I was at the New River Gorge, hiking and taking photos for the second edition of Hiking West Virginia (FalconGuides, on the shelves in 2013). I stopped in at Water Stone Outdoors to buy a new pair of hiking shoes that I hoped would see me through the next two years of writing HWV and then the second edition of Hiking Ohio. All told, I plan to put well over 1,000 miles on these shoes. I selected the stiffest pair of hikers I could find, a pair of 5.10 brand Camp Four women's approach shoes.

Soon the trouble started. At first, the shoes weren't comfortable, but hey, I needed to break them in, right? Then my left foot started hurting when I wore them. Then my left foot started hurting when I wasn't wearing them. Turns out, there was a small crevasse (okay, maybe a quarter inch doesn't count as a crevasse) in the ball area of the left shoe. Next problem? I'm traveling all winter with no permanent address. Once I nested with a friend for a couple of weeks, I sent the shoes back to 5.10. To their credit, they replaced them in a day. Next problem? The replacement shoes didn't quite fit. I thought they had sent a half size smaller, but no.

So I decided to call Maura at Water Stone and see if she could help. I had a new pair of shoes, the receipt (at home!) and, most importantly, a longstanding relationship as a customer at Water Stone. "This is where the rubber meets the road," Maura told me, explaining that a destination shop like hers can't compete with the big guys ... except by being local and having real relationships with their customers. As we talked on the phone, Maura perused her inventory and found three options for exchange. After I selected my new shoe, I offered to have a friend scan the receipt (not necessary) and mail them right away so she could mail out my new ones as soon as she received them. She did one better: she mailed them to me straight away, trusting that I had, in fact, purchased the shoes there and that I had, in fact, mailed them. Which I did. So now I have a pair of hiking shoes. End of story.

Except for one thing: buying local goes both ways. More than once I stood in front of a $200 climbing rope or $65 cam and thought, "I'll just order it online when there's a sale." But I didn't. You know why? Because I want to support a local store so that it will be there when I shred my rope and need a new one today; when forget my helmet and need to rent one; when I want some beta on a climb, a hike, a restaurant; when I get a bum pair of new shoes and need a replacement when I'm across the country.

That's why I buy local. And why you should, too. And those pink shoes? They're really gray with a bit of pink trim. If you see me on the trail, I'll be wearing them.

Comments

ksabbir said…
Normally I don’t learn article on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very pressured me to take a look at and do it! Your writing style has been surprised me. Thanks, very nice article.
Intervention Specialists
January 29, 2012 at 7:26 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spark Birds - and Other Sparks

I was trolling through some of the regional outdoor blogs I post on getoutzine.com and came upon this one, from Bird Watcher's Digest: Spark Bird . It's a great concept: what bird sparked your interest in your lifelong pursuit of bird watching ? I knew my answer immediately. When I lived in Colorado, I spent many an afternoon cycling on the roads where the high plains meet the Rocky Mountains. I wasn't a birder at all. Nor was I much interested in the world around me except to play in it. But there was this beautiful - beautiful! - bird song that demanded I listen. Now I am demanding, or at least requesting, that you listen . Every time I jerked my helmeted head around to see where this song was coming from, a bird with a yellow breast with a big black V was sitting there on the fence. Could spotting it get any easier than that? I borrowed a friend's Peterson's Guide to Western birds and there it was - the Western meadowlark. Now I am only a backyard birder, but the...
10 comments
Read more

Gear a Year Later

The problem with gear reviews is that, with a brand new piece of gear, you can’t apply perhaps the most important test: the test of time. I’d like to re-review a selection of products from the last couple of years to report how they’ve fared: The Good MBT anti-shoe . After a year, this shoe looks practically new and still provides a supportive, comfortable stride for my (often aching) back. Worth the $250 you’ll have to kick down if you’re willing to take care of these shoes. Sierra Designs Spark 15 sleeping bag . I had sworn off Sierra Designs after purchasing a raincoat from the company that was neither waterproof nor breathable – in fact, it was the first thing to get soaked and the last thing to dry out – which I found out the hard way, hiking the Colorado Trail. But the Spark was the only 800-fill down bag I could find at the time of purchase, so I went for it. Turns out Sierra Designs knows what they’re doing with sleeping bags. This bag is so warm I’ve dubbed it The Furnace. ...
9 comments
Read more

What's in a Name?

Note: Material this entry refers to might offend. One of the small pleasures of rock climbing is coming across that perfect climb name – one that cleverly describes the route (Totally Clips, Handsome and Well Hung) or the experience you can expect to have on the climb (Just Say Yo to Jugs, Not on the First Date, Mid-Height Crisis) or just has a fun reference (Where’s the Beef and Where’s the Bolt, Jimi Cliff, etc.) One of the not-so-small displeasures is coming across the far too many misogynistic names of climbs. So what to do? I’ve begun renaming these climbs – I just cross out the old name in my book and my friends and I come up with a new name – and I invite you to join me. And be sure to tell other climbers, guidebook authors, publishers and especially the dudes who names these climbs that it’s not funny to name a climb that attempts to degrade half of the world’s population (although the name really reflects on the person who named it that). Funny is funny, even when it’s s...
4 comments
Read more