VÅGA Bricks & mortar series
10 Questions With
ADapt Outdoors
For the third edition of the bricks & mortar series, we travelled down to liverpool to catch up with city centre outfit, adapt outdoors. In business at the heart of liverpool’s high street for over 25 years, adapt outdoors is a vibrant, independent hub of outdoor activity that serves both function and fashion inside its two eclectic stores. mixing a keen eye for the latest trends with a practical, utilitarian ethos, adapt outdoors is a true shop of the people. We caught up with james, a director and son of the founder of adapt, to chat all things style and city.
who are you and how did you start Adapt outdoors?
I’m James and Adapt Outdoors was started about 25 years ago by my dad, so we’re a family business, there’s myself, my dad and my two brothers that help keep things turning over here. How it came about? My dad was working for a friend’s store, which was more of a military/bushcraft store, he fell into that in the early 90’s after working in a factory - he got made redundant and was looking for work, so his friend invited him to work for his store. In 2001, his friend decided to move on so he got the opportunity to take the store over; he was more interested in the outdoors side of things than the military side and noticed there was a demand for good outdoor gear in Liverpool, there were’t really that many outdoors stores or, certainly independent outdoor stores in the city at the time. So he took the store over then and started moving it into that outdoor market. (John: I suppose those outdoor shops have only historically featured in places like the Lake District or the Peak District, you might not expect to see an outdoor store in central Liverpool, so I bet it was a niche market at the time?) Being a city centre, there weren’t that many about, I think there were some of the big multi-chains you get in every city but nothing independent. So he spotted the opportunity and just went from there. It was difficult to start off with, it was a new venture, a new challenge and it probably wasn’t the best time to be starting a new business, it was in the midst of the foot and mouth crisis and with all that going on, you know, it was a difficult start but we got there in the end.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH running?
So I’m a late starter to running to be honest. Being from this city, it’s a big football city so football has always been the thing for me. Running came a bit later on, although growing up in this city I was football mad and ran a bit for my local boy’s club, a bit of track and entered a few competitions, I was half decent and used to run the cross country too but back then I used to look at running as the punishment for football training if you were late, I just saw it like a bit of a chore. I was lucky enough to live in South East Asia in my late 30’s and I got more seriously into running there, entering some 10k ‘fun runs’. I was still playing football at the time but I tore my cruciate ligament - the Doctors said no more football with all the twisting and turning so I said, ‘what about running?’ and they gave me the all clear. So I took up running and fell in love with it, I started realising the benefits it gave me, not just physically, I suppose I was going through a bit of a turbulent time in my life and I realised running was giving me so much more than just the physical, it was getting me into some kind of meditative state and I noticed when I’d finished my run how relaxed I’d feel and how much of a high I’d feel. Now it’s an essential part of my day, I get a bit ratty if I don’t get out for a run, even if it’s just a mile or so. (John: So, is it your interest in running that’s influenced it becoming a bigger presence within the store?) It is, yes. It’s me that’s pushed it because I’m passionate about it and since I’ve got into running it’s one of those things, I’ve got the bug. First it was a couple of 10km’s, then a few half marathons, marathons, and then I’ve just done my first 50 miler a month ago. So, I’m looking at 100 miles now! That’s the beauty of running, there’s always a challenge there and when you get to these big distances, you want to do them faster. The potential is limitless.
It’s become an essential part of my well being. We’ve always had a presence here at Adapt Outdoors, being a multi-sport outdoor store there’s always been that trail running kind of presence but we’ve never had a real focus on it. I realised the demand was high because I’m always looking for the kit myself and I was realising there was kit I was looking for that we didn’t have ourselves, things like VÅGA.
how would you describe your relationship with the people that come through your door?
Being a city centre store, we’ve got a huge range of customers that come through the door. Liverpool’s quite a unique city, we’re very well located. Just to the North we’ve got the Lake District, to the East the Peak District and Snowdonia down to the South - you can get to each within an hour or two. So, we’ve always had a big outdoor community, Liverpool has always had those people who are into the outdoors, climbing, hiking and running. We get serious outdoor enthusiasts coming in but we also get people coming in that, because it’s a city, just want a good waterproof jacket to get to work in, stuff like that. We get a lot of tourists and football fans too. (John: Your social media has been growing too, has that played a part in bringing more people to the store?) Yeah, we’ve been really working on that and using it to build on the relationship with our cusomters, we’ve never had any snobbery as a store so if you’re coming in here to get kitted out for Kilimanjaro, or if you’re just after a jacket to walk the dog in or watch the footie in at the weekend, we’ll treat you with the same respect and we’ll listen to you and really get to know what you want.
What do you look for in a brand when stocking your store?
That’s a good questions. We like to look at the whole ethos of a brand, we like brands that are authentic and have their roots in a passion. Brands that have been designed by real end users of the stuff, rather than someone who has some fancy design skills and wants to jump on a band wagon. We love brands, even some of the bigger brands, that have decent people in the background that genuinely use the product rather than sitting behind a desk and trying to copy others. If you’re a user yourself, you can often spot the real deal, you can spot the legitimate, authentic products. Quite a few new brands have started up with the rise of technology and social media but, when you look at the brands, you can see it hasn’t come from a place of authenticity. I like to go for brands, whether they’re small or huge firms, that you can tell are passionate about what they design.
“It goes back to the fashion thing with Liverpool and its unique culture which you don’t really find anywhere else, Manchester a little bit too, but it comes from the football days. So, apparently the sports casual/ gorp core fashion came from the football terraces, so when Liverpool used to play European football away in France, Italy, Germany, fans would bring back things like Adidas trainers, Lacoste and brands like that.”
what do you look for in specific products and how does this relate back to your audience?
Again, being a city centre store, we try and look at products that get worn day to day in terms of styles and colours. (Morgan: It’s that utilitarian element to it) Exactly, yes, you know a lot of people can’t afford to have multiple jackets for different things, they want something they can go to work in, walk the dog in and go up Snowdon at the weekend in too. So, we have to look at that. We can get carried away sometimes looking at all these amazing colours but we have to reign ourselves in and look at it objectively and ask ourselves whether everyone is going to want a fluorescent jacket? We have to cater for everyone.
Being an independent store, we have the luxury of being able to meet our audience and have a chat with them. Even some of the young lads who come in and are more lifestyle orientated, we’ll chat with them and there’s no judgement if they say they like a colour or don’t, we’ll listen to them, it’s good feedback. We’ve got that luxury where I suppose bigger multi chains don’t, if a customer gives feedback in one of those stores, it’s probably not going to get back to the buyers or anything like that. That was something that initiated our new running section, we were getting asked for more running stuff, packs, race packs and things like that that we didn’t stock.
and How do your products connect you with your local environment?
It goes back to the fashion thing with Liverpool and its unique culture which you don’t really find anywhere else, Manchester a little bit too, but it comes from the football days. So, apparently the sports casual/ gorp core fashion came from the football terraces, so when Liverpool used to play European football away in France, Italy, Germany, fans would bring back things like Adidas trainers, Lacoste and brands like that. Before then, in the late 70’s, football fans were still wearing the jeans and the parkas, then it suddenly changed to brands like Berghaus and Sprayway. There’s a few local stores around Liverpool that specialise in that football casual kind of scene. People from Liverpool are always looking for the next big brand. We try and stay up to date with it by chatting to the customers, Arcteryx are a great example, we had lads coming in asking for it because they’d seen people wearing it (some of them didn’t even know how to pronounce it at the time), so on the back of that we got it in. We’re not blowing our own trumpet, but we’re probably quite influential on the lifestyle scene, certainly for some of the younger guys wearing this kit purely for fashion. Certainly if you go to Anfield or Goodison in the winter time, I’d say a good percentage of the crowd there are wearing stuff that they’ve bought here.
why is vÅGA a great fit for Adapt outdoors?
Well, I suppose that goes back to the whole ethos of how we pick product and brands. We like brands that we can work closely with, we don’t want to just be thrown a digital workbook and expected to put an order in, then not hear back off them for a year. So we like brands that we can build a relationship with and work closely work. We also want brands that understood our independent ethos and the challenges that come with that in a big city. We’re surrounded by quite a lot of big chains but the best brands understand that our needs will differ from these huge stores. Certainly brands that like to help independents and VÅGA are a great example of that, you like to be stocked in bricks and mortar stores because at the end of the day, independents are where most outdoor people tend to navigate to. Most outdoor people like to go to independents and support that kind of thing.
The brand’s got a lot of appeal, I love them myself so we’ve been pushing them and we’ll continue to push them.
What’s your vision for adapt outdoors’ future?
Just to keep doing what we’re doing really and to expand on all of the niche areas that feature inside the outdoor umbrella, like the running, road running, trail running. We’re looking to expand into the climbing space too, that’s exploded over recent years - there are so many indoor climbing walls popping up and there’s a couple of climbers who work here that help us with the buying decisions for that kind of kit. We’re trying to grow the social media too, grow that side of things and still appeal to the whole wide range of customers - your outdoor people as well as your city based lads. We’re also trying to encourage some of the people who do come in and wear the outdoor gear as fashion to get out and explore the mountains, we’re trying to educate them and tell them what their jackets do and why they’re made that way.
If you could give one message to our audience, what would it be?
Shop independent and support your local. If you’re serious about your outdoor gear, support your local independents because we can always work on things like price and give you that hands on experience with expert advice.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone looking to take on a new challenge?
Whether it’s running your first ultra like I’ve just done or doing something like setting up a business, the thing I’d say is have a plan. Be self aware enough to know what your strengths and weaknesses are and don’t let your ego get in the way of taking advice from other people. Always think about the things you don’t know and try and learn from others. Other than that, go ahead and do it. I’m a big believer in imperfect action rather than non action, I think it’s always good to just go for something and try it rather than talking about it but not doing it. Try it and if it doesn’t work out, sit down, reassess and go again. Be a doer, not a talker.