Endurance adventurer Jamie Ramsey has called Outdoor and Social essential for retail staff.
Outdoor and Social is a three-day outdoor learning event which began on Tuesday, March 12, at Newfold Farm, Edale, in the Peak District.
It is an outdoor trade event providing workshops and practical sessions designed to increase knowledge and confidence in outdoor products and skills through experience.
Delivered under the guidance of brands, experts, and professionals it is completely free of charge to all retail staff and aims to help all retailers and their staff deliver better information to the consumer.
Jamie is an award-winning endurance adventure athlete, presenter, public speaker and brand ambassador. He has completed over 54,000km of human-powered adventuring in 32 countries and 35 different adventures. He is a runner, cyclist, hiker, ski tourer, paddleboarder and mountaineer.
He was a guest speaker on the opening evening of the event, entertaining attendees with stories of his adventures around the world, from Vietnam to Iceland.
Speaking about the outdoor learning event, Jamie said: “I think this is essential. It’s that marrying up of the expertise and the knowledge of the designers and the marketing teams at brands with the people who actually sell the equipment.
“Most retailing is people selling clothes or products to people and that’s the end of it. But, when you’re working in an environment where people are going into places which are potentially dangerous, the person selling you the kit can’t just sell you by the knowledge of what’s behind what they’re selling. And I think any event that brings the knowledge to the people selling the kit is only going to benefit the customer. Yeah. When you see the real genuine excitement of people here, learning, then it’s something that needs to be done.”
Jamie, whose adventures have taken him into perilous situations, believes that not having the right kit, could in certain circumstances, put your life at risk.
Jamie added: “In the extreme, not having the right kit could be fatal. If you go up into the mountains and you have the wrong tent, sleeping bag, backpack or clothing then something really bad could happen.
“But, on a more basic level, if you’re just entering into camping for the first time and you get sold bad kit you’re going to have a bad time and you’re not going to do it again.
“So, that customer has suddenly disappeared because they didn’t enjoy the experience. If they get the right kit they’re going to think this is wonderful and they’re going to come back to the place where they bought it. And that way retailers and their staff builds trust with the customer and the outdoor community. It’s really important.”
Jamie’s next big adventure is running the Ulta X Jordan, a 220km race over five days, in December. But, he will be having many adventures before that event. So how does Jamie prepare for these events and select his kit?
He said: “I normally just run through a checklist, which is like, where am I going to sleep? How warm do I need to be? Also, what’s the weather going be like? What am I going to eat? How small do I want to pack everything, I kind of just build up the fundamentals. I normally have a favourite tent for a specific thing. So, I’ll start with a tent. And it’s like, how am I going to pack that? How big a sleeping bag do I need, then that decides what kind of backpack I need. You kind of build out from there I guess you start with the weather, the distance and the speed you want to go. You put that into the into the magi-mix and then you blend it all together and this is the kit I’m going to have.
“But I love making lists. So, if you look on my website, I have lots of kit lists for every time I do a different adventure. I map out the whole kit list so you can see what I’m taking. Everyone thinks the adventure is the fun bit but it’s not. The adventure starts from the moment you come up with the idea at conception and then it’s planning the kit. If you’re doing a big adventure, then you need to do test adventures to go and see which tent I like.
“I’m that weird person you see sometimes in a park where I’ve got three tents set up and people say, ‘why is this guy putting up that many tents in the middle of the day?’ It’s because I want to see which one’s easiest to put up. Which one’s going to have the most space which one’s going to pack down smallest. And by doing all that prep work, it means you have a better time on the actual adventure.”
