Rachel Gross on How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America

Who Makes Cents?: A History of Capitalism Podcast

In 2022 and 2023, an estimated 50 million Americans went camping. Many others participated in outdoor recreation activities ranging from mountain-climbing to sailing. According to the U.S. Department of Congress, in 2022, the outdoor recreation economy was worth $563.7 billion or 2.2 percent of GDP.

In this episode, historian Rachel Gross takes us on an adventure through the outdoor industry’s rise, from Teddy Roosevelt's famous buckskin jacket to the ascendance of companies like Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean, to the use of synthetic materials like GoreTex, and much much more. Along the way, we discuss an important question: Why is it that so many people’s first stop on the way to the woods is an outdoor store?