What We Do

Switchback Gear Collective is actively reducing the barriers that prevent people in our community from recreating outside by: 

How We Do It

Switchback starts and ends with our community. From the generous in-kind gear donations from our community members, we are able to bring secondhand gear pop-up sales to the area. These pay-what-you-can sales redistribute key outdoor recreation resources to our community, while also helping us raise funds for our Switchback Gear Libraries. We then use our library model to get outdoor gear back into the hands of community members.

Switchback also relies on the financial contributions of grants and individual donations to ensure we can continue to offer gear to our community at low- to no-cost.

Switchback Dictionary

What do all of these things mean?!

Gear: any resource someone can use for outdoor recreation. This includes (but is not limited to) camping equipment, hiking equipment, sports equipment, exercise clothing, water bottles, outdoor cooking equipment... the list goes on! Secondhand gear is any gear that has been used already.

Gear library: this is a place where you can borrow outdoor gear just like you would borrow a book.

Pay-what-you-can: a business model that does not require set prices for goods. Customers are able to pay what they are able to pay.

Pop-up: since we don't have a brick-and-mortar store yet, all of our outdoor gear sales are held on a single day at varying locations, multiple times a year.