In Leadville Colorado, county residents have access to a world of outdoor gear riches without having to buy them. The brand new Get Outdoor Gear Library, funded from Great Outdoors Colorado’s Generation Wild initiative, the library offers mountain bikes, hiking boots, snow shoes, hiking poles, camp stoves, ski boots—you get the idea. If you need it for camping or hiking or adventuring, they likely have it.
The whole idea is to make this kind of gear accessible for people who don’t already own it, can’t afford it, or simply just don’t want to buy stuff. Maybe because they only camp or hike a few times per year and can’t justify purchasing gear for that. Maybe because buying too much stuff can be a vice. Or simply because of good ole’ common sense — no need to buy new when you can rent used, inexpensively.
But the focus here is really on providing outdoor opportunities for people who may not otherwise have them because they lack the gear. The base price is $5/month, but if locals can afford to pay more, it’s encouraged.
Via Get Outdoors Leadville! Facebook page
“When I look at the gear library I think about my early experiences in the outdoors and I know what kind of impact those experiences can have,” says the executive director of Get Outdoors Leadville!, Vanessa Saldivar. “Those barriers continue for low income families and immigrant families and families of color. The gear library … is totally addressing some of those barriers.”
The library is on downtown Leadville’s Colorado Mountain College campus. The college offers a two-year outdoor leadership program, and the library offers students in the program hands on experience managing gear inventory, maintaining bikes, and dealing with the public. They also learn how to better support diversity initiatives in the outdoor business world, a potential career path for kids in the program.
In addition, the Get Outdoors Leadville! program offers workshops in Nordic skiing, camping, and cycling, through the library.
Locals can donate gently used equipment to the library too.
Proper gear goes a long, long way to enjoyment outdoors. So too does feeling like you belong there. Gear libraries like this one can address both of those issues. Wouldn’t be a bad thing either to bake the concept of community sharing into outdoor gear at some level. Outdoor towns across the country are loaded with garages and gear sheds overstuffed with outdoor gear. How many people buy skis they use maybe once a year, then eventually just gather dust in a garage somewhere? It’s wasteful, but also locks up the fun that gear can provide, as it sits, idle, while people who would love to use it, but can’t afford it, go without.
Here’s hoping for a renaissance of gear lending libraries.
Top photos: Jasperdo/Flickr
The pure economic greed of my city of Bozeman would Never allow/consider such a wise practice as a gear library. Out leaders want you to spend, spend, spend.
Have you tried? I lived in Bozeman for 6 years, and the locals I know would be pretty okay with this idea. The University offers a rental program to students (or it used to) and with all the hipsters in town, there’d be some nice donations to a gear library. Seems a near perfect location.
Leadville probably prefers spending, too. Leadville/Lake County didn’t fully fund this – its state lottery dollars and partnership with a public university with campuses all around the region. Start a non-profit and develop some creative funding opportunities and Get Outdoors Bozeman! will be around before you know it!
This is totally awesome. What a great idea.
What a great idea – even better than the second-hand store. And so eminently doable (even those second-hand stores could lend gear while waiting for people to purchase it, for that matter). This sentence is SO true: “Outdoor towns across the country are loaded with garages and gear sheds overstuffed with outdoor gear.” Nice going Leadville!
Leadville’s above 10,000 feet. Can I rent one pair of lungs from a fit local? Prefer year-round rental situation. Can someone breath fire into my request?
As a Leadville native who has seen the gear library up close and personal, it is such an amazing addition for our residents to get out and enjoy nature. The snow bikes are awesome!
Hi!
I’m Jackie Radilla, the person who’s been working the Gear Library project since 2017. Just wanted to flag that the $5/month is incorrect.
Thanks for your coverage on this!
Hi Jacqueline, thanks, we’ll correct.
Thanks Jackie! Just emailed you for correction.
FIN’s Gear Library works just like a book library, with the goal of eliminating common barriers that keep people from spending time in nature, camping, hiking, backpacking and more. We loan or rent camping and environmental education gear to schools and organizations with youth and family programs who share our mission to connect children and families to nature. The FIN Gear Library has the capacity to serve at least 100 campers at a time with high quality equipment. Whether you are taking your group of youth or families on a camping trip or out on a backpacking adventure, we’ve got you covered. Our gear library has everything you need for a successful trip, thanks to generous support from Outdoor Empowered Network, our supporters, partners and individual donors. Under-resourced schools and communities can borrow gear at no cost once Guide Development Program training is completed. Schools and organizations with financial resources are asked to pay a nominal rental fee so that our grants and donations can be reserved for groups that do not have the resources to pay for gear. Fence Contractors Denver