Over the Atlantic and most of the way across the USA, in an underground bunker (secure area of the basement of Utah State University’s Merrill-Cazier Library) lies the most comprehensive collection of outdoor industry catalogues we know to exist. 

Chase Anderson is a professor of Outdoor Product Design & Development and Clint Pumphrey is a Manuscript Curator of the special collections and archives. Both at the Utah State University. Together they compile the Outdoor Recreation Archive, to preserve the history of outdoor gear for all to reference and enjoy. 

As long time followers of their top knotch Instagram feed we were very pleased to quash our curiosities and put some questions to them… 

**Note** - This interview was first published in 2021. Following the release of The Outdoor Archive book we thought it worthwhile to re-share it.

Sam: The very notion of outdoor recreation as an activity for all is a relatively new concept within the tiny timeline of human existence. It can be traced back to a post-industrial lust for the wild and green amongst the public of economically developed nations. However, with the explosion of media, sports, widely accessible information on literally any subject and of course, the industry of "Outdoors'' products and equipment,  it can feel like it's always been there. I love the photos of Victorian women in skirts, petticoats and bonnets scaling icy peaks in the Swiss Alps. What's the first reference of outdoor recreation in your archive?

Clint: This is a very thoughtful question and there’s just so much to unpack, but I’ll try to keep it catalog-related. It’s hard to say what the first reference is in the archive, but in the United States, I think the idea of outdoor recreation for all really grows out of post-World War II prosperity when a growing middle class with more disposable income and vacation time was looking for new ways to experience leisure. The way this is borne out in the catalogs is that you see companies that traditionally catered to the upper crust of society, like Abercrombie & Fitch, begin to fade in the 1950s and 1960s, while companies striving to bring outdoor gear to the masses, like REI, take off during this time. There’s also a change in the way people experience nature and the outdoors in this post-war era: while historically people largely saw nature mostly as a resource, there was a new movement by some to preserve nature and enjoy it for its own sake. The catalogs reflect this in a way, too, as early camping catalogs mostly featured people hunting, fishing, and even exploring and prospecting, while more modern camping catalogs focus on landscape photography, essentially making nature the focus rather than the people. The hunting and fishing industry is still thriving of course, but it was during this time that you began to see the divergence of this industry from what we think of as the outdoor recreation industry--hiking, backpacking, climbing, mountaineering, etc.

Sam: Do you draw a line behind whether something is "too modern" to be archived?

Clint: Absolutely not. I always remind potential donors that today’s “modern” is tomorrow’s “historical”--100 years from now, today’s materials are 100 years old, right? With materials like catalogs it’s especially important that you capture modern material now because it’s so ephemeral--it’s the kind of thing people usually just throw away and that could make it hard to find down the road.

Sam: How much physical space does the archive currently take up/how big do you see it growing? We have reason to believe it's contained within a lead lined bunker deep underground or in a climate controlled concrete dome out in the desert. Will you confirm or deny these rumours? 

Clint: Wow, that description makes my job sound like a role in an action movie where I’m obviously played by Chris Hemsworth. But in reality, the collection is housed in a secure area of the basement of USU’s Merrill-Cazier Library. So, yeah, I guess it is underground, we do actively control temperature and humidity in our collection area, our building is made mostly of concrete, and Utah is one of the driest states in the U.S.--but it’s a little more mundane than what you describe. Currently, the collection consists of approximately 2,800 catalogs and 2,300 magazines filling about 120 boxes, as well as six manuscript collections containing sketchbooks, patents, unpublished reports, and other materials related to the outdoor industry and outdoor gear. I expect it to get much larger--we could easily double or triple the archive’s size just with the leads we are working on now.

Sam: More and more brands are ditching printed media, choosing digital methods of marketing instead, essentially archiving themselves in the process within the bottomless void of the internet. Do you see a future for your archive when this is where the industry is headed?

Clint: We’ll always retain the print materials, which will remain valuable in telling the history of the outdoor industry in the 20th century. But the issue you bring up--that everything is increasingly moving to digital platforms--is a problem that archives are facing in all areas of collecting. Ensuring that digital content is captured and maintained will require us to develop relationships with donors as the records are being created, rather than after-the-fact when hard drive crashes, website redesigns, and other issues may have erased important information. It’s a new way of collecting that we as a profession are still grappling with, but is certainly something we’ll need to pursue if we want to continue adding present-day content to the archive. Part of what I hope comes out of this project, though, is for the outdoor industry to start thinking about its legacy and working internally or with people like me to make sure important materials are being captured and kept so that people will be able to look back with nostalgia at materials that are currently being created in the same way they do with the print materials we have archived.

Sam: You're surrounded by a wealth of beautiful imagery and information spanning decades on a subject you're clearly very passionate about. Do you have a favourite era of outdoors recreation? For me, I think it's somewhere between the ‘60s and ‘70s before things became all Red Bull and extreme. 

Chase: I personally have a few eras that I really love. It’s hard not to love Eddie Bauer and LL Bean catalogs from the ‘30s and ‘40s. Most of them have beautiful covers that were clearly hand painted. Each is a beautiful vista or features wildlife. It’s a common theme across the decades, the use of outdoor imagery, aspirational images of these pristine places we want to explore.

I also enjoy looking at the ‘60s / ‘70s / ‘80s. It’s clear that you can see the technology being used to create the catalogs beginning to change as well as the art style. There’s a lot more experimentation when it comes to catalog design and layout which is probably reflective of larger changes happening in the culture and society.

Sam: Is there a particular brand or moment within the archive that strikes you as being way ahead of its time or massively forward-thinking?

Chase: I’m interested in the brand Frostline Kits. This was a company founded in the ‘70s and grew pretty large at one point, being acquired by a publicly traded company at one point. Frostline Kits created pre-cut products that customers would purchase and sew themselves. Products included sleeping bags, down jackets and vests, and more. With a growing DIY / MYOG (make your own gear) community, I could see a space for a company like this today. Consumers seem to value something that is handmade, custom, or unique. There’s a push / pull between buying a name brand and having a unique product. Frostline Kits could satisfy the need for both in today’s culture.

Sam: Looking at all the photography, illustration, and artwork in the archive I wonder if there's space for a secondary archive for the names and details of the creatives and artists behind the work. A lot of it is far more than just stagnant product shots or flat commercial imagery. Is this something you have considered?

Chase: That’s a really interesting idea. Each catalog was clearly given a lot of time and attention. The covers, whether illustrated or photography were created by artists and deserve to be recognized in some way. I know many unfortunately don’t give credit to the creators of the cover art while others do. In either case, that could be a great way to lift up and recognize those creators.

Clint: I think there is a tremendous amount of talent that went into creating these catalogs and we would be happy to work with those responsible for the layouts and designs. You could also argue that the equipment itself is an important part of the artistry in these catalogs, and in fact, we are starting to collect some design journals and sketchbooks for the products themselves which offer an incredible insight into the design process.

Sam: What you've built is obviously now an important reference point for the industry to look at for inspiration for new ideas and I'm sure in some cases, what to never ever do again!! Do you work with any brands/companies in this way? 

Chase: We had some pretty big plans pre-COVID with a few large sportswear brands expressing interest in bringing their design teams out for design exploration / inspiration trips.

Our goal is to be a resource for brands and researchers. Our hope is that design teams can visit the collection, get inspired, and hopefully use the collection to inform future designs, campaigns, and products.

Clint and I have also been helping companies looking for specific information about their products that can be found in early catalogs or trade magazines of the time.

We hope to do more of this in the future.

Sam: Being a professor of Outdoor Product Design & Development at Utah state University you must be able to cast your net far and wide in the hunt for archive material amongst your students and staff at the college. Do you have any stories about a whopper of a donation or stumbling upon a motherlode of artefacts? 

Chase: Surprisingly, we don’t see much in terms of donations from faculty or students or anyone who had a prior affiliation with Utah State University or Outdoor Product Design & Development (OPDD). In my role doing Industry Outreach for the OPDD program I’ve connected with our existing industry partners and network to find key donations of materials. The first donation to the collection, almost 1200 catalogs, came from an individual we had a prior connection with through the OPDD program.

We’ve also been talking with early employees from key outdoor brands across the industry that still have materials. We are excited by the prospect of building out the collection in this way to expand from just a catalog / magazine collection to also include some of the minutiae of working for these key brands including sketches, journals, company correspondence, photographs, and more.

Sam: Finally, we’re still seeing too many issues around representation within the outdoor industry. Gazing at the material in your archive from years gone by, how clear are the industry's efforts to change? Would you say it has come far, or not nearly far enough? 

Chase: I’d say it’s probably never enough to be honest, but with that said, at first glance it seems like the industry has really doubled down and is making some earnest strides towards positive change. It was mentioned recently that REI would hold brands they carry accountable and hold them to a certain standard in terms of equity in their catalogs and marketing materials.

In terms of the collection, we haven’t done a comprehensive study to track representation in these catalogs. We’ve wanted to bring this collection together into one publicly accessible place so researchers / journalists can access the materials in order to study and tell those stories. 

At first glance though, as you’d expect, there isn’t a lot of racial diversity in the catalogs. I did recently look at our collection of The North Face catalogs and noticed what seemed to be a concerted effort to increase representation in their catalogs during the ‘70s. 

We’d love to work with a researcher who would like to engage in a more in depth study on this topic in the future!