Meet the future of the outdoor industry. These four have a fierce determination to create a new path forward for the outdoors, and they’re doing it with a degree of awareness and intersectionality we’ve never seen before.

1. Outdoor Education

Pinar Ates Sinopoulos-Lloyd, 30, co-founder of Queer Nature

Queer Nature, based in Nederland, Colorado, is a 鈥渜ueer-run nature education and ancestral skills program serving the local LGBTQ+ community.鈥� As a queer and trans person of color, Pinar found more connection and empowerment through time spent in nature than immersed in urban queer culture. So Pinar founded Queer Nature to provide space for people feeling similarly marginalized to find healing through wilderness self-reliance skills and ecological literacy.

As one of its participants noted, 鈥淨ueer Nature has changed, shaped, and supported my life in profound ways. It鈥檚 given me a space for my queer soul-searching, which has given me health, passion, and purpose.鈥�

2. Conservation

Agnes Vianzon, 41, executive director of Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps

After experiencing firsthand the liberating and restorative powers of the wilderness on a 22-week backcountry trails program in Kings Canyon National Park, Agnes Vianzon was hooked. But the more she got outside (she worked for the National Park Service for five seasons), the more she realized that there鈥檚 not much diversity in the conservation world. So Agnes founded the Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps, 鈥渁 development and leadership program committed to building a stronger and more inclusive community,鈥� and created backcountry conservation opportunities specifically for women, people of color, and indigenous youth.

Accessibility is at the core of ESCC鈥檚 work, and Agnes is creating a direct pathway to the technical and leadership skills necessary to apply for entry-level corps, state, or federal positions. This provides an economic opportunity for underserved populations while also changing the faces we see wielding those Pulaskis.

3. Politics

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, U.S. Representative of New York’s 14th District

Already leveraging her new position as a Congresswoman behind 鈥淭he Green New Deal,鈥� Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other like-minded representatives aim to cut U.S carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement and increase green energy jobs across the country.

The youngest woman ever elected to Congress and first woman of color to run in New York鈥檚 14th district, Ocasio-Cortez walks the talk. From Flint, Michigan, to pipeline protests in North Dakota, she has a long record as an activist fighting for environmental justice. 鈥淗istorically, people tend to think that the environmental movement is homogenous,鈥� she said in a press conference at the Capitol after she won her seat, 鈥淸but] among black and Latino communities, rates of environmentalism and environmental beliefs are actually much higher than average.鈥� Why? Because communities of color tend to experience the impacts of climate change first.

As an industry dependent on the conservation of natural spaces 鈥淎OC鈥� could become one of our biggest allies in this fight.

4. Design

Khristian Gilham, 25, apparel designer at Topo Designs

鈥淭here isn鈥檛 one type, and we don鈥檛 have to be one thing,鈥� said Khristian Gilham of the 鈥渢ypical鈥� Topo Designs consumer. That鈥檚 why she loves designing there. She鈥檚 had a hand in nearly every product from the Fall 2017 line onward, and is particularly proud of her Sherpa Jacket and Tech Trench 3L.

For Gilham, Topo Designs is the perfect balance of fashion and the outdoors. Because of this 鈥渇luidity,鈥� Gilham believes Topo can reach a聽wider array of consumers and help the industry evolve the narrative of who does what outside. She also wants to see continued growth in sizing options that allow all people to feel and look good on their adventures.

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“I guess…so long as the colors aren’t too, you know, girly. It just contributes to my gender dysphoria*…”

I was exchanging text messages with OUT There 国产吃瓜黑料s’ program alum Zander, regarding gear choices for his upcoming NOLS course. We had discovered that that men’s footwear we needed was not made small enough. This left us with choices only from the women’s line, and I was struggling to come up with color options that didn’t scream femininity. As a mentor to this young person, I was angry at the system but tried to debrief the situation in an optimistic tone. As a person, I was pissed. Yet again, the industry I love and have dedicated my entire career to was letting me down. And it was delivering a crushing blow to my former student.

The idea that gender is a performance, something we 鈥渄o鈥� every day was pioneered by feminist theorist Judith Butler. We take part in gender 鈥減erformativity鈥� by choosing the clothes we put on our bodies, the way we cut our hair, and how we carry ourselves as we walk through the world.

For folks whose gender identity and expression runs counter to our socialized assumptions, this performance is of profound significance, and in certain cases can be the difference between life and death. Anyone who has walked through a clothing store or flipped through a catalog can see that we have chosen as a society to gender everything we wear. The outdoor industry is no exception to this rule; even as we push against the 鈥渟hrink it and pink it鈥� mindset, women struggle to find clothes that aren鈥檛 traditional 鈥済irly鈥� pinks and purples.

My exchange with my former student provides a powerful example of the ways in which our industry perpetuates stale and harmful assumptions of gender. This conversation is pertinent beyond the trans community.

Last year, Salomon was applauded when it created the Constellation ski series. Citing the size and potential of this untapped market amongst women backcountry skiers, the Constellation series was aimed at bringing these women in and ultimately profiting from them. Follow the trajectory of providing an untapped market with gear they love, and at the end you’ll find a growing cadre of outdoor enthusiasts and stewards. In the midst of conversations about shrinking profit margins and also the potential environmental disasters fueled by our Federal Administration, shouldn’t we be clambering for ways to cultivate more stakeholders?

If we take a step back a critically analyze our actions, namely our decision to continue to define the industry in “his” vs. “hers”, what will we discover? To quote Butler again, “gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original…the act of elaborating itself is evidence that it is perpetually at risk…that it 鈥榢nows鈥� its own possibility of becoming undone.” In other words, what are we doing and why? By continuing to codify our gear and clothing as we have, we are reinforcing the notion that only (cisgender, white) women wear purple (or some variation of teal) and men wear blue or black Gore-Tex. This in turn perpetuates the perceived assumptions the industry makes about who ventures outside and how. Through these actions, we are completely erasing the needs and wants of whole segments of the population that fall outside of these categories. While we may think that the multi-racial, queer urbanite isn’t a part of our target market, that鈥檚 simply not true. And it鈥檚 a short-sighted business move to ignore the growing population of queer people if we want to remain relevant the statistics on the future demographics of the United States begs to differ.

鈥淵ou only trust those who are absolutely like yourself,鈥� Butler said. 鈥淭hose who have signed a pledge of allegiance to this particular identity.”

It’s time the industry takes this message to heart when it thinks about how to reach and include more diverse communities. We need more diversity of all types involved in the design process, not just to be more inclusive, but to enable more people to go outdoors and be comfortable and confident. Offering a less gendered color palette and fits for more body types is a smart investment and a first step toward organically growing the outdoor industry鈥檚 base. The industry needs to conduct deeper research, beyond its athletes. It needs to think about why clothing racks are sectioned off by binary gender and what assumptions your sales associates make about customers.

If you truly embrace diversity and think outside of the box, you make us feel welcomed and represented, and we will purchase your products.

If the industry wants to continue to protect wild places, and make money off a growing customer base, the clothes and gear we make, through colors, patterns, sizes, and cuts, must be reflective of more than one archetype.

*Gender dysphoria is the feeling that one鈥檚 biological sex and gender identity are not aligned. Zander, a trans male teen, often finds that men鈥檚 clothes don鈥檛 fit him as well as women鈥檚 clothes鈥攜et women鈥檚 apparel is decidedly feminine, thanks to colors and patterns our society has gendered as strictly female.

Elyse Rylander is the founder and Executive Director of OUT There 国产吃瓜黑料s. OTA is a Puget Sound based non-profit whose mission is to cultivate leadership and build community for queer young people through adventures outside.

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