'Craft gear from here': How B.C.mountain towns are growing a recreation-based manufacturing industry

From Revelstoke to Fernie, Golden to Kimberley, the communitiesthat make up the Kootenays region of southeast B.C. have long beenmeccas for wilderness lovers.

Now the mountain towns in this rugged area of the province areseeking to establish themselves as a destination for entrepreneurs,designers and innovators as well.

From ski and bike manufacturers to makers of boats andgluten-free energy bars to fashion designers specializing in outdoorapparel for pregnant and postpartum women, small businesses thatcreate gear for all types of outdoor recreation activities areblossoming throughout the region.

"We'll have one or two [new businesses]joining us now everyweek. It's massive growth that's happening now,'' said MattMosteller, chair of Kimberley-based non-profit group KORE, whichdescribes itself as Canada's first outdoor craft gear-makersalliance.

KORE, which in October will host what it says will be thesecond-ever Canadian conference for the outdoor recreationtechnology (rec-tech), manufacturing and product design sector,hasgained more than 100 small business members across the Kootenaysregion since launching in 2020, Mosteller said.

"In the beginning, it was people who were already here, but nowwe're finding people are moving here just to make gear,"he said.

'Overlooked economic driver'

The Kootenays region of southeast B.C. has a hardscrabblehistory and wasfirst settled by loggers, miners and railway workers. Coalmines and sawmills still dot the landscape, with natural resourceextraction still at the core of the area's economy.

But the region has also long been one of Canada's topdestinations for outdoor activity. It'sfamed for the ski resorts locatedalong the so-called "Powder Highway,"as well as for mountainbiking, hiking, fishing, boating and snowmobiling.

Mosteller, who is known by many locals simply as "Powder Matt"because of his love of the slopes, said while the tourism benefits of such activities are well known, not enough has been done to calculate the dollar value of other parts of the so-called outdoor recreation economy.

"Outdoor recreation need not involve overnight travel. Amountain bike purchased to ride on close-to-home trails has economicimpact, as does the ski boat used to wakeboard at local lakes,"hesaid.

"We think it is a massively overlooked economic driver for theprovince of British Columbia."

One example of thistype of company isDark Horse Innovations. The business specializes in sustainableproduct development for the outdoor industry and is based in Nelson,B.C., an eclectic town of 11,000 people nestled in the SelkirkMountains on the shores of Kootenay Lake.

Founder Cameron Shute, who left an 18-year career withVancouver-based G3 Genuine Guide Gear to start his new business,said physical proximity to the places products are used is a hugeadvantage for gear-makers.

"In Nelson, I can leave my house and be skiing within 20minutes,"Shute said.

"If I'm working on a ski binding project that I'm developingmyself, I can go out and test it in the morning and come back andmake a change to the design that same day."

Traditionally, small-town entrepreneurs such as Shute would face challenges related to the size of the local labour pool and access to talent, he said. But that has changed dramatically in recent years as working from home has gained wide acceptance.

"During COVID ... people left the cities in massivenumbers and moved to places like Nelson, and the demographics arereally changing here because of that,'' Shute said.

"I think with the ability to move your job, there's all sorts ofbusinesses that are possible on a different scale than what waspossible before.''

In the U.S., the outdoor recreation economy is already a driving force in states such as Washington and Oregon. A recent government report suggested $21.6 billion is spent annually on outdoor recreation in Washington state, and 42 per cent of that total was spent specifically on gear and equipment.

Another U.S. community, Asheville, N.C., has reinvented itself from a centre for heavy industry to a hub for outdoor recreation, in part due to the presence of the Outdoor Gear Builders of Western North Carolina, a consortium of more than 80 businesses that produce gear for river paddling, hiking and biking.

In Canada, the concept of outdoor recreation as its own industry,separate from tourism, is still relatively new. But communities beyond the Kootenaysare also sensing the potential.

Squamish, B.C., for example, is seeking to make a name for itself asa centre for high-performance apparel and sporting goods design.

"Tourism is part of the outdoor recreation economy, but theoutdoor recreation economy's a bit broader,'' said Ximena DiazLopez, project officer for the Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C.

"When it comes to makers and manufacturing, KORE is the first ofits kind, at least in B.C., but they're inspiring similarinitiatives in other areas.''

'Rec-tech'

Mosteller said KORE would like someday to see one of North America's larger, well established outdoor companies set upa product testing centre or manufacturing facility in the Kootenays, bringing jobs and growing the region's reputation as a "rec-tech'' centre.

"Ultimately, we want to gain the clout that the forestryindustry has in this province,'' he said.

But he added that, in the end, the outdoor recreation economy isless about visitors and more about the people who already call theKootenays home.

"It's a community-first approach,'' Mosteller said.

"We have gear-makers who are retirees to stay-at-home moms toeverything in between. And, ultimately, they're all doing it becausesomewhere in their past they had this incredible connection with theoutdoors, and they found their way here."