Outdoor Recreation Archive

Hey Clint and Chase! To start with, could you tell us a little about the Outdoor Recreation Archive?

Clint Pumphrey: In 2017, a professor from USU’s Outdoor Product Design and Development program approached the library about assembling a collection of historical gear catalogues that the professor could use in his History of Outdoor Products class. The project was passed along to Chase and me, and Chase soon identified a group of collectors who were looking for a home for their materials. This initial donation, which came in 2018, contained about 1200 catalogues from around 200 brands and dated from the 1960s to the 2010s.

We have since grown the catalogue collection to more than 6,000 catalogues from over 900 brands dating from 1900 to the present. We have also expanded our collecting into outdoor recreation and gear related magazines, which number around 10,000 across 250 titles and date from 1907 to the present. Additionally, we are collecting original materials from brand founders and gear innovators like sketchbooks, correspondence, business records, etc. Together these materials constitute the Outdoor Recreation Archive.

How important is the collection in preserving the history of the outdoor clothing industry? What is it that you are doing to maintain and reflect the industry as a whole?

Chase Anderson: Clint can speak more broadly to why archives matter in general, but I’d say in regards to this collection, it’s important because nobody else seems to have been preserving it to the degree we have. As our industry matures and grows in influence nationally and internationally, it’s important to understand how we got to this point, who the keep players and brands were and understand the highs and lows of our industry in order to hopefully make a better industry moving forward. 

From looking on the ORA Instagram account, there is a lot of love and nostalgia for vintage outdoor books and magazines - print definitely isn’t dead! What was the motive behind starting up the Instagram account, and what impact do you think it has on the archive, but also the outdoor community?

CA: I started the Instagram account after seeing people like Brian Kelly use IG to promote his @npsmaps project. I don’t know if I had expectations other than sharing cool imagery with people in our program and maybe others who follow OPDD. We quickly realized there was a bigger audience for the archive than just our students when we started getting followers from London, Paris, Tokyo, LA, and NYC. The impact of the Instagram account is huge. It’s the gateway to the rest of the archive. If we want people to access archives, it’s important to go where the people are. Platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok, are where many people are looking for this kind of imagery, so it makes sense to go where the eyeballs are and introduce new audiences to archives. I’d like to think that we are having an impact on designers, creatives, and brands moving forward, whether it’s re-releasing old silhouettes, embracing a vintage logo as a brand, or incorporating retro aesthetics into a marketing campaign.

Thinking about the entire catalogue as a whole – oldest to newest – what has stayed the same, and what has changed?

CA: A focus on outdoor spaces is certainly common among all the catalogs across the decades. Whether it’s the highest resolution image of a mountain climber summiting a peak or an illustration of an outdoorsman on the cover of a 1940s LL Bean catalog, they seem to mostly center on accessing beautiful spaces, no matter the sport.

When would you pinpoint the outdoor industry’s golden era, and why? 

CA: I think you have to point to the 1970s. A lot of the modern outdoor brands we know today were born during this decade or shortly before. The rise of The North Face and Chouinard and eventually Patagonia would eventually dominate and define the outdoor industry in many ways. The backpacking boom, the rise of the environmental movement, the creation of more synthetic materials, would all contribute the this decade setting up the the industry for the next 50 years.

Are there any catalogues which you don’t have and are eyeing up? Do you have a full collection of any one brand? 

CA: We always have some gaps in our collection. We’d love to get complete runs of brand catalogs. There are also smaller defunct brands which can be harder to find. I don’t know if there’s a specific issue we are looking for, but there are categories we are expanding into. I’d love to see us build out more robust mountain biking collections as well as trail running. The archive also includes more than just catalogs/magazines. We collect original documents and photographs from brands. We’ve collected sketchbooks from designers, corporate records, correspondence, and more. I’d love to see us continue to build out these types of collections made up of these one-of-a-kind type documents.

Do you have a few favourite catalogues or brands which have created unique and interesting catalogues over the years? Any interesting collaborations to note?

CA: My favorite covers have to be from Summit Magazine. Summit ran for 50 years, and was recently revived after going dormant. Each cover is an absolute work of art including illustrated covers, collage, highly processed photography, and more.

Would you be able to discuss more about the Highlander Podcast?

CA: The Highlander Podcast was originally just an excuse for me to learn how to podcast. I’d partnered with our USU Student Media group that runs a radio station to create a podcast focused on local outdoor recreation and the industry here in Cache Valley. It quickly turned into an Outdoor Product Design & Development podcast as we brought on designers, developers, and others from the product and gear side of the industry to speak to our program. Eventually, during COVID, I started doing Zoom interviews with gear pioneers. The podcast now focuses on the outdoor industry and includes conversations with people about the past, present, and future of the industry. History guests have included founders of outdoor brands, gear innovators, early employees of iconic companies and more!

Who uses, and who is allowed to use the archive? How could readers see more of the collection?

CA: The Outdoor Recreation Archive (and Special Collections & Archive at USU more broadly) is available to the general public. We see a lot of enthusiasts, creatives, designers, historians, and researchers that use the collection. We’ve hosted a number of brands in person on campus for design retreats as well as provided scans for researchers and outdoor enthusiasts doing academic or personal research.

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This interview was undertaken as part of New Mountain Magazine Issue 01.

See more of the collection here: ORA Utah State University