{"id":87079,"date":"2021-05-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-amazon-of-used-outdoor-gear-2\/"},"modified":"2021-05-09T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-09T17:00:00","slug":"the-amazon-of-used-outdoor-gear-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-amazon-of-used-outdoor-gear-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Amazon of used outdoor gear?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Chap
Chap Grubb, right, founder of Rerouted, and Brian Schoening, vice president of human resources, organize outdoor gear Wednesday in Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Chap Grubb\u2019s idea to create an online exchange for used outdoor gear came about 2\u00bd years ago when his wife asked him to clean out the garage.<\/p>\n

Getting rid of his accumulation of 20 years of equipment from backpacking, rock climbing, cycling and other pursuits seemed overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat am I supposed to do with all this?\u201d he asked himself.<\/p>\n

Grubb and his wife, Samantha Grubb, were living in Taos, New Mexico, at the time when the idea for his business, Rerouted, sprouted from his garage cleaning chore.<\/p>\n

Grubb realized no great, smoothly-functioning website existed to easily buy and sell used outdoor gear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was going to be difficult to be able to sell it online,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd even if I did, it was going to take driving, meeting strangers, doing all sorts of inconvenient stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d spend a month of my time make 250 bucks off of a whole garage full of gear. It just wasn\u2019t worth my time, energy or effort,\u201d he said. \u201cThen it\u2019s like, \u2019Well, great. My other choice is the landfill.\u2019 And that seems outrageous; it\u2019s perfectly functional gear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience led him to take the first steps to create Rerouted, an online exchange that would easily link buyers and sellers of used outdoor gear.<\/p>\n

Rerouted not only aims to serve individuals looking for used gear, but also to provide the best online option for used gear stores across the country, like Durango Outdoor Exchange.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Grubb said he tried to sell his toys at rock climbing and skiing events, basketball tournaments, basically any sporting-related gatherings across the West, but it took COVID-19\u2019s arrival in March 2020 for him to realize the answer: It wasn\u2019t a physical interaction or even a warehouse-type business where he should store and sell the used gear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized the problem was so much bigger than just my garage,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody has used gear sitting around, and it\u2019s so hard to get any real value in reselling it. There\u2019s no way to make it cost-effective and efficient for the seller.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chap
Chap and Samantha Grubb relocated from Taos, New Mexico, to Durango so Rerouted could take advantage of SCAPE\u2019s resources. (Courtesy of Rerouted)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Instead of the flea market model, what was needed was an easy-to-use website that provides shoppers with accurate specifications about the used gear and sellers with an easy-to-use platform to sell their no-longer wanted gear.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially, we want to be the Shopify for used outdoor gear stores,\u201d Grubb said.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Marsh, director of the Southwest Colorado Accelerator Program for Entrepreneurs<\/a>, said Rerouted is a scalable solution to a problem that many people can identify with \u2013 either finding specific outdoor gear they need, or finding a new home for equipment clogging their garage.<\/p>\n

\u201cSCAPE is impressed by the experienced and dedicated team of Rerouted, and their understanding of the market and how to be a valuable platform,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

About two months ago, Grubb and his wife moved to Durango, where they plan to locate Rerouted as its permanent home. The prime reason Grubb chose Durango was to participate in SCAPE.<\/p>\n

Rerouted currently has 10 employees, largely for developing the technology \u2013 refining and streamlining entry of outdoor gear on the website.<\/p>\n

Grubb said SCAPE has been especially helpful in boosting the firm\u2019s technology capabilities. Also, the ability for the company to make pitches to regional investors will aid its growth, and it is something that would have been difficult for Rerouted to organize on its own.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast month, we literally listed our house in Taos to move here because of SCAPE,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said, \u2019Do you want to be part of our program?\u2019 We said, \u2018Sure thing; we\u2019ll move up to Durango.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Marsh said SCAPE was introduced to Rerouted by a partner group, the New Mexico Angels<\/a>, a group of statewide investors in startups.<\/p>\n

\u201cChap relocating his business to Durango is a great testament to the entrepreneurial community,\u201d she said. \u201cBusiness founders are looking for industry advisers, active investors and local resources to help them succeed and we are honored he saw the offerings of Southwest Colorado as conducive to his needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seasoned business executives offering mentoring in areas from finance to marketing and technology are a big reason startups find SCAPE valuable, Marsh said.<\/p>\n

SCAPE has seen its mentor network and its investor network grow by 25% per year, Marsh said.<\/p>\n

\"Chap
Chap Grubb tries on a coat for sale as Brian Schoening looks on. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rerouted has an early version of its website up<\/a>, and it is currently offering listings of used gear for free without taking commissions on items sold. But as the website is refined and a good inventory of gear is registered, Rerouted will begin charging a 10% commission on sales.<\/p>\n

Grubb said the problem with selling used outdoor gear is that the buyer wants specific information about skis or a kayak or rock-climbing gear.<\/p>\n

Grubb wants Rerouted\u2019s website to house a database of outdoor gear so a seller can enter an item, its make and model, and Rerouted\u2019s software will automatically provide accurate specifications and details about it for sellers.<\/p>\n

Selling used clothing online, Grubb said, is fairly easy \u2013 take a picture of it and let people know its size.<\/p>\n

But with outdoor gear, detailed information readily provided with a photo ensures confidence with buyers that they are getting the right product with the right performance attributes to meet their needs.<\/p>\n

Rerouted currently has an \u201cuploader\u201d with which sellers can enter detailed information about their used gear.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Grubb wants Rerouted\u2019s uploading software to recognize makes and models to automatically provide detailed product specifications to minimize data entry for a seller.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re having all of our users upload as much information as they can get, then we\u2019re going and we\u2019re filling in what we can. In the long term, the software will do that for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Skateboard
Skateboard decks for sale sit within Rerouted\u2019s headquarters. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As more gear is entered into Rerouted\u2019s website, Grubb wants the software to be able to recommend a price for an item based on past sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs more and more gear goes through our system, the more and more we will learn, and we can say: \u2019Hey, guess what you don\u2019t need to price. We can tell you how much this is going for,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can take a picture of the item and maybe check a few boxes, and we can tell what make and model it is, what its weight is, what the dimensions of it are. We can kind of fill in all these information gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, Rerouted is emphasizing individual listings on its website. But it also would like to begin working with used outdoor gear stores across the country \u2013 to boost their online sales.<\/p>\n

Grubb said most used gear stores currently sell only a small portion of their items online. He wants Rerouted to provide a platform that makes it efficient for them to use and worth listing even if they pay a 10% sales commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole idea is empowering any person or any business to easily sell used gear on the internet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Catch 22 is building the information, to get more people using the site so we learn more and more \u2013 so we get people what they are looking for. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever used Craigslist to buy a bike or a pair of skis; 9 out of 10 times, you\u2019re not going to find what you\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durango transplant seeks to become the go-to website for secondhand adventure trip toys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[338,551,28,275,976,500],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-87079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-enterprises","tag-frontpage-feature-box","tag-headlines","tag-internet","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-retail"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87079"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=87079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}