Most of us know something about REI. Some of us may know a bit of the history, or think that we do. Some of us have heard about how it all started with an ice axe, etc.
Some of us have been members for years, can recite our membership number (203xxx), bought our first backpack and hiking boots from Jim Whittaker above the Green Apple Pie and delight in regaling the cashiers who ring us up about our long association with the Co-op. Some of us have been employees (#14xx). Some of us may complain about the changes over the years or high prices, or Yuppie-gear, blah, blah, blah. This post isn’t about any of that so no need to go there.
It is about a critical bit of REI history that I bet you don’t know. It’s about how the Co-op almost never came to be. It’s about how 85 years ago a Montlake business deal-gone-bad set everything in motion so that today, in spite of Covid-19, REI is serving 5.5 million active members and how those members and guests open the doors to the stores by grasping handles made of ice axes.
That’s right. It all started with an ice axe in Montlake.
Symbolic Door Handles
What is well-known and undisputed is that Lloyd Anderson and his wife, Mary, were members of “The Climbers Group”, an offshoot of the “Mountaineers”. In 1938 they founded Recreational Equipment Cooperative using the Rochdale Principles. The purpose of the co-op was to provide a source of quality outdoor gear for their friends and fellow climbers.
Mary and Lloyd Anderson
