Backcountry.com

Backcountry.com

Type	Private company
Industry	Ecommerce, Outdoor Industry
Founded	1996
Headquarters	West Valley City and Park City, Utah
Products	Outdoor gear
Owner	TSG Consumer Partners (81%)
Number of employees	1200+
Website	Backcountry.com

Backcountry.com is an online specialty retailer that sells clothing and outdoor recreation gear for hiking, camping, road biking, mountain biking, rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, skiing, avalanche safety, snowboarding, fly fishing, kayaking, rafting, road and trail running, and more.

History

Backcountry.com was founded in 1996 with a $2,000 out-of-pocket investment by lifetime friends Jim Holland and John Bresee. The two started the online business with a sparse collection of avalanche gear and began selling gear from their loft in Park City, Utah under the domain names BCstore.com and BackcountryStore.com.^[1] The store's first sale, a Pieps 457 Opti-finder avalanche beacon, happened in February 1997.^[2] The company purchased the domain name backcountry.com for $75,000 in 2004.^[3]

Backcountry.com grew at an astonishing rate for its first 15 years. It quickly became one of a very few profitable retailers and competed with REI for the lead in this category. REI never lost the lead. After rapid product growth Backcountry began to court other categories including discount and One Deal At A Time (ODAT) ^[4] In an attempt to regain focus and target bargain-seekers, the company added niche websites such as SteepandCheap.com and outlets such as the now-defunct BackcountryOutlet.com (see Other Backcountry Stores below). Deeply discounted product was eventually moved to an Outlet section accessible from the Backcountry.com homepage.

On May 7, 2007, it was announced that a controlling stake in Backcountry.com was sold to Liberty Media Corporation, which also controls QVC and other e-commerce companies.^[5] This transferred effective ownership of the company to billionaire John C. Malone.

On Dec 5, 2013, Backcountry announced its acquisition of German online outdoor retailer Bergfreunde.de.^[6] An established and quickly growing presence in the European outdoor market, Bergfreunde was founded in 2006 in Kirchentellinsfurt, Germany where the business first sold clothing and gear for climbing and mountaineering. Bergfreunde has since expanded its product selection to include gear for hiking, camping, snowsports, and avalanche safety.

On July 1, 2015, TSG Consumer Partners purchased Liberty's stake in Backcountry.^[7]

On December 11, 2015, Backcountry CEO Jill Layfield resigned from her position as Backcountry.com CEO after working for the company in various capacities for 11 years.^[8]

Backcountry Athlete Sponsorship

Backcountry.com launched a non-traditional athlete sponsorship program in 2008, which requires that the athletes promote themselves and the brand they represent through social media.^[9][10] Backcountry.com-sponsored athletes are responsible for actively driving traffic to Backcountry.com through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and blogs.

In an interview on Climbing.com, backcountry.com's pro team manager, Jon Atencio, said: "Athletes will have new motivation to participate in community, write product reviews, and make their presence known however they can — and we plan to do everything we can to leverage their community action."^[9]

The program also acts as an affiliate marketing program in which Backcountry.com provides athletes with tools to track and measure their online impact and athletes get a percentage return on each sale that is referred through their community presence.^[9]

Sickbird Award

Backcountry.com uses the Sickbird belt buckle to recognize standout athletes at the Mountain Sports International/Subaru big Mountain Freeskiing World Tour. The Sickbird is awarded to one athlete at each Freeskiing World Tour destination.

References

External links

• Backcountry.com