In 2022 and 2023, an estimated 50 million Americans went camping. Many others participated in outdoor recreation activities ranging from mountain-climbing to sailing. According to the U.S. Department of Congress, in 2022, the outdoor recreation economy was worth $563.7 billion or 2.2 percent of GDP.

The industry has come a long way since the days when Teddy Roosevelt and other outdoor enthusiasts donned buckskin shirts, in an effort to signal themselves as rugged frontiersmen. In this episode, historian Rachel Gross takes us on an adventure through the outdoor industry’s rise, charting the ascendance of companies like Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean, to the use of synthetic materials like GoreTex, and much much more. Along the way, we discuss an important question: Why is it that so many people’s first stop on the way to the woods is an outdoor store?

Check out the episode here!

Rachel S. Gross is a historian of the outdoor gear and apparel industry and an outdoor enthusiast. She is an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Public History Program the University of Colorado Denver, a history tour guide, and a curator of museum exhibits. She is the author of Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America.