GEAR:30 Podcast - Episode #1

Welcome to the GEAR:30 Podcast! 

This daily podcast explores outdoor adventure gear, trip reports, and interviews with athletes and industry professionals. 

Episode 1: Welcome to the GEAR:30 Podcast

Hosted by: Greg, Brandon, & Chase

This episode introduces the podcast hosts and sets the stage for upcoming daily shows. 

Greg [00:00:00] This is episode one of the Gear 30 podcast. On today's show, we talk a little bit about Gear 30, what it is, who we are and what this podcast is all about. 

 

[00:00:23] You're listening to the Gear 30 podcast community. You could even call it a support group for people addicted to outdoor adventuring and all the gear that goes with it. There is no shame here in spite of what your spouse or partner may say. 

 

[00:00:38] We believe it's OK to own 5 tents, 7 backpacks, and 18 jackets. Our slogan, inspired by the great explorer, sir Ranulph Fiennes is "there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate gear." So if you're an aspiring outdoor adventure, a mountain guide, or anyone in between, you're in the right place. 

 

[00:01:24] So welcome to the first episode of the Gear:30 podcast. We are excited to be able to talk to you today about outdoor adventuring in general and the gear that goes with it. 

 

Greg [00:01:34] We I'm joined today by Chase and Brandon. We are. 

 

Brandon [00:01:41] Well, how are you guys? A little nervous. It's okay. We'll help him out a little bit. Yeah. 

 

Greg [00:01:48] So we're, we're in the gear 30 store in the lounge of our gear 30 store in Ogden, Utah, right at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. And so you'll hear a little bit of sound in the background. That's just customers shopping store, singing music store. 

 

Brandon [00:02:05] Store Sound. 

 

Chase [00:02:08] Nothing says gear through like a phone ringin. 

 

Greg [00:02:12] Yeah. So. So this podcast is essentially just gear talk. You've got a bunch of guys that are avid outdoor adventures who love gear and have been working in the gear, the outdoor industry for quite a few years. And we're just going to talk gear. The new gear that's coming out. The gear that we love to use on on our adventures. We're also going to talk about different adventures that we have. We've got a bunch of other employees here that are very avid outdoorsmen. We've got some semi-pro snowboarders working for us. We've got a guy who a year or two ago, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. He's going to hike the Continental Divide Trail this week. Actually, he's taken off to do that. Got some ladies that are hardcore climbers, mountaineers, mountain bikers, road bikers, trail runners. I mean, we've got quite the crew here. We've got some competitive trail runners. So between all of us . . . 

 

[00:03:11] Did chase tell you he's going to be a competitive trail runner, an ultra- runner soon?. 

 

Chase [00:03:15] I just joined this clan. I'm one week, too, right now. Oh. 

 

Chase [00:03:20] Which one of you don't sell? First up is the Crimson Canyon Ultra. Going to do the 50 miler. Then next spring I'm shooting for the Scout Mountain entree. One hundred miler. 

 

Greg [00:03:29] Wow. 

 

Chase [00:03:30] Yeah, I'm experiencing the first pains of running this week, so IT bands are not loving me but . . . 

 

Greg [00:03:38]  When is the Crimson? 

 

Chase [00:03:40] September 28. I got some time. 

 

Greg [00:03:42] Yeah. Get some, get some good base mileage and don't go off the couch. 

 

Brandon [00:03:47] He's on a . . . Well, we know that story. Chase is on a regimented schedule though. Training schedule. 

 

Greg [00:03:52] Is he? 

 

Brandon [00:03:53] Yeah, that's for a different show. But Chase is getting into it. So. 

 

Chase [00:03:57] I'm trying. 

 

[00:03:58] Yeah. I think there's a I think there's a podcast about what not to do but not today. Yeah. 

 

[00:04:04] How not to do what Chase does. 

 

[00:04:06] Now, Brandon interviewed me years ago and I I decided I signed up for the bear one hundred about three weeks before the race started and I hadn't been running. And Brandon's like, you sure that's a good idea? I don't know. And my knees blew up at about mile 70. I finished, but I was like hopping on one leg for about the last twenty five miles with hiking poles. It was nasty and didn't. I don't know. I didn't walk for months afterward or I hobbled,\. 

 

Brandon [00:04:33] But no lingering injuries three or four years later? Uh oh. He's thinking about it. Bad sign. 

 

[00:04:40] Just, just men. Just mental just mental injuries as the PTSD. Yeah. 

 

Greg [00:04:47] So but actually, no. But for about a year afterward, I was having tons of problems, knee pain galore. Anytime I'd start running, I would have IT band issues. 

 

Brandon [00:04:56] So. So Train. 

 

Greg [00:04:58] So train. Yeah. And get a good base. Don't make up the miles too quickly. Get a get base. Let your body adapt to it. But I did a 50 miler the next year with my wife. She destroyed me. She just like I got thirty five miles into it and my knee was just killing me and she. But she's kind of does that. I introduced her to road biking. I'd been racing competitively. Her first year, road biking, she goes out and takes first in the big local 200 mile race here, the Lotoja. And she takes first to her age group and destroyed me. I mean, so that's that's kinda how she does things. 

 

Brandon [00:05:38] As she should. 

 

Greg [00:05:41] So anyway, I bet everybody that's listening is now quite impressed by my . . 

 

Brandon [00:05:46] By your skills, particularly. 

 

Chase [00:05:48] They have lots of trust in what we have to say. 

 

Greg [00:05:50] Right. 

 

Brandon [00:05:51] But you should mention you should talk about, though, like why? I mean, there's gear, but people who love gear. But then there's Greg Craig who can explain gear in ways I never knew. Gear could be explained like you you. It is not just the passion. It's something you study and even design. Like, it is something that you are very much into. 

 

Greg [00:06:12] Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm really good at making a short story long. So we'll see how this goes. You know, when I was. I was about, I don't know, six, seven, eight years old. The obsession started and, you know, some kids did like 10 years old, some boys would hide magazines under their mattresses or whatever. 

 

Brandon [00:06:35] No idea what you're talking about . . . 

 

Greg [00:06:39] I would go to bed and I'd pull Mountain Hardwear catalogs out from under my mattress and North Face. And I was memorizing gear as memorizing the weights and the fabrics. 

 

Brandon [00:06:49] That's when we knew you were different. 

 

Chase [00:06:52] Early warning signs. If you do this, you might be like Greg in the future. 

 

Greg [00:06:59] So it's it's just kind of been an obsession. I started designing my own gear as a teenager and making some of it and got a job at 16 at the local gear shop. And it pretty much worked in a gear shop ever since. Other than I spent a couple of years in Europe not working in a gear shop. But other than that, I've just always been working in a gear shop or teaching outdoor stuff. I worked with you up the university in a rental shop and taken people on trips, guiding trips and different things. And so it's just always been my my love and passion. And so, now Chase, though, chases the head buyer gear 30. And so he's actually probably a little bit more up to date on that brand new stuff that's coming out. I've I've been around gear for the last 30 years and know the last 30 years of gear pretty well. But really, it's been about the last two years that I have been out of the loop a little bit as far as that, the latest and greatest. 

 

Chase [00:08:01] So you don't pull magazines out at night anymore? 

 

Greg [00:08:03] No,. 

 

Chase [00:08:04] OK

 

Brandon [00:08:06] You might have to start because you gotta get back into the industry. 

 

[00:08:09] I do, really. But I found that there's there's gear that I really, really like. And there's a lot of new innovative gear out that I look at it. And I think, well, that's great, but that's not I like my gear for these reasons. And I can tell this is probably not going to be for me, might be for other people. But I found that there's certain gear that I just I always look at the new gear that's coming out. And if I see something I think might be better than what I'm currently using, I'll go after it. But otherwise I'm kinda a little bit set in my ways. That's not a good thing. 

 

Brandon [00:08:44] Well, I should say I won't chime in much because I am not gear officionado auto as much I do. I do have a nice appreciation for good gear. But the how it became good or why it's good goes way over my my head. And so if I make your comments, it's purely on a usage basis. I've used it. It works, right. Or I like it. That's about as deep as it gets. I like it? Yeah, it works. 

 

Greg [00:09:12] But you have a good foundation for gear use because you've been an avid marathon runner. You go to take your family camping into Yellowstone and all this stuff like six times a year it seems like. You're always, you're always out in the mountains, whether it's camping or hiking or something. You've got your own outdoor podcasts you've done for many, many years. And oftentimes you're out hiking somewhere and doing the podcast and different things. I mean, you're out doing gear demos all the time. 

 

Brandon [00:09:43] So I don't just sit home, right? Yeah, I do that too. But yeah. 

 

Greg [00:09:48] And you've worked in a rental shop and you've taught you've taken people on outdoor trips, you've guided trips and all that stuff. So you've got a great background. You may not have every detail of the gear memorized, but you know your stuff. 

 

Chase [00:09:59] Well there is a picture upstairs on Brandon's desk with him pulling a roof in, I think, American Fork Canyon. And so sometimes I question, "is, is Brandon a climber?" And I look at that and see his rippling body and say, yep, I know he climbs.. 

 

Brandon [00:10:12] That was a couple days ago, actually,. 

 

Chase [00:10:14] I think he was like, what, last year? 

 

Brandon [00:10:18] Oh. So I used to could. Yeah, I got to take that. It's embarrassing. It was so long ago. But we've been, I've been outside for long. Yeah. Playing outside for a long time on a recreational basis. So anyone that's very serious in the mountains and serious about their gear. That's Greg Maybe more where you chime in on usage over time, which is heavy duty situations where I don't even like to put myself in those situations like that. I'm a fair weather person. So, yeah, like we're so lucky here in Ogden where we'd like to go skiing if it's like puking snow. It's like, oh, wait for a bluebird. It's cool. Yeah. And there's there's some of those out there. 

 

Greg [00:11:01] Yeah. And then Chase of course he's a again he's our head buyer. He's he knows all the latest and greatest gear that's out but also a very avid outdoorsman. I was trying to get out at a time. I was just talking to you like two weeks ago and you told me about that like ten or fifteen thousand miles you put on your truck and like three weeks or two weeks of  adventuring, just traveling all over the West. I mean, you're up in Glacier, up and and up into Canada, you're down in southern Utah, you're climbing your skiing, you're climbing and skiing in the same day. You betcha. So you're quite oh, how how it is to be single and not have kids. 

 

Chase [00:11:43] Yeah, basically what Greg is trying to say say, Chase is very single and likes to go out the village. 

 

Brandon [00:11:51] Ladies, if you like Chase's voice, you should see it's hair. Come check out gear 30. Yeah. 

 

[00:11:57] Yeah. I'll be here podcasting from time to time. 

 

[00:12:00] Now, what's the benefits of a shop doing a gear podcast? 

 

Greg [00:12:05] Well, I mean, for one, we see all the new gear that's coming out a year in advance. So we know really what the latest and greatest is. And and so and we get to see not only the gear that we carry, but all the other brands that are contacting us, that want us to carry their brands. We get to pick and choose what the greatest gear is, what we think is the best gear. We also get a lot of feedback from our customers as to what gear they like and what they don't. When I was the head buyer here at Gear 30, because I like really techie gear, I brought a lot of tech gear in. And one of the feedback from a lot of the guys is I love this stuff. And the feedback from the ladies is, "this isn't very cute." And so then Sarah took over for me and now Makell, she's doing the buying and stuff and they've got the perfect balance between techie and cute. I mean, the clothes fit just right. They look good, but then they also perform in the outdoors. And so we've really got a good balance between the male buyers and the female buyers that really know what works, first of all, what looks good, what fits well and, and all the new stuff that's coming out that we're really excited about. 

 

Brandon [00:13:20] Yeah, I should mention just two previous four because the gear 30 buys a certain way over in the other shop. I'm the marketing person here. So we do buy for what people in and around Ogden are doing and some of the adventures that are close to Ogden. And we're lucky to live where we live because you can run south to Moab and play in the desert. You can run north to the Tetons and get some epic alpine. You can play in our own backyard and just have a ball. And so we sell gear that users around here will, will want and need. So, no, we don't sell like Himalayan suits. And this kind of because not very many people out here are doing that type of thing, nor do we sell Surf Gear. You know, we have a few stand up paddle boards, but sort of surf shop. So most of the gear that we will preview is gear that is used in a shop that services the Wasatch Front. 

 

Greg [00:14:07] Right. Yeah. As far as winter gear, we do wear big into the back country skiing, back country skiing and snowboarding, sporting. We've got amazing back country skiing here in the Ogden area and in Salt Lake. And so we cater to that. We also have some resort skiing gear and stuff we get to to see all that. Snowshoeing, of course, there's tons of great snowshoeing around here, cross-country skiing, do backpacking, climbing, mountaineering, trail running, general hiking, generally just outdoor sportswear, everyday wear. 

 

Chase [00:14:41] Eating outside can forget that one. One of my favorite parts.

 

Brandon [00:14:48] He eats a lot. 

 

Greg [00:14:51] Oh, to be young again, young and single. 

 

Chase [00:14:53] Let's just keep bringing that one up.  

 

Greg [00:14:56] So anyway, we we do have amazing gear, amazing access to a lot of great stuff. I'd say probably the one sport that we won't touch on as much as I think most of us would like to, we'll be biking. We're surrounded by like four really good bike shops. So we don't we don't do a lot of cycling gear, bikes and biking gear and stuff like that, unfortunately, because we all like to bike. We all like mountain biking. We like road biking and stuff like that. But we probably won't have quite the insight as some of the bike shops will do, although we could bring definitely bring in some bike shop people in for some interviews and hear about what the latest and greatest is there. So but yeah, like you said, we're an Ogden shop. We buy stuff for Ogden people. You know, you get a lot of information on backpacking and camping gear because that's kind of the big summer thing that everybody around here seems to love to do from the families to single people and single people. Chase.

 

Brandon [00:16:02] Chase is the only single person in Ogden. That's kind of weird. Yeah, that's why I'm here. But if you follow his because he is wearing a piece of tech gear that he uses every day, sometimes twice a day. And that's his Suunto on his wrist. And you can follow Chase because all of this stuff is public on the Suunto app. You can see how much he gets out, which is quite a bit. 

 

[00:16:23] Yeah. It doesn't like to brag either. Well, we'll put his is info in the show notes or something. 

 

[00:16:33] Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea. And if you're curious as to what we carry www.gearthirty.com. 

 

[00:16:37] Gear 30. Yeah. And that's spelled out GEARTHIRTY.com So anyway. So that's what you can expect from this podcast and we will see you on the future episodes we see out there. Was the slowest. 

 

[00:16:54] Thanks for joining us today for the Gear 30 podcast. GEAR:30 is a specialty outdoor retail store at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains in Ogden, Utah. Like us on Facebook, follow and interact with us on Instagram @gear_30 and visit our Website. Gear thirty dot com for amazing deals on the best outdoor gear around. That's gear 30 spelled out gearthirty.com. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. Leave us a review comment, ask questions and participate. 

 

 

 

 

Next Post →