If tariffs, fluctuating consumer demand, and too much inventory already seem like enough problems, spare a thought for the outdoor community in Western North Carolina (WNC), which is dealing with all of those same issues while still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which flooded the area in late September 2024.
That said, WNC is very much back in business.
“We are in the throes of communicating that as much as possible in a tide of confusion around what is open while some trail construction is still ongoing,” said Joanna Brown, brand and communications manager at Made by Mountains, which works to celebrate and support the outdoor recreation industry in the area. “Some areas of town are still facing that infrastructure devastation and are very much rebuilding from the ground up. But then there are also businesses who are just absolutely crushing a wonderful summer.”
Made by Mountains recently launched the Waypoint Resilience Program in collaboration with Mountain BizWorks, the Outdoor Business Alliance of WNC, and the NC Outdoor Economy Office, which will help 20 local entrepreneurs rebuild post-Helene. Normally, Waypoint is an accelerator program.
“A couple of years ago, the focus was, how are we going to grow? And right now, it’s how are we going to come back,” said Noah Wilson, the director of sector development at Mountain BizWorks.
This year’s cohort in the Waypoint Resilience Program. Photo courtesy of Made by Mountains.
The fourth quarter, which is traditionally the biggest for the entirety of the region whether they’re in manufacturing, retail, or tourism, was basically a write-off for most businesses, Wilson said. Ever since, local businesses have worked tirelessly to bounce back. The program is designed to provide opportunities for collaboration, brainstorming solutions, and skills training for every facet of the business.
“We can dig into marketing. We’re getting to operations. We’re going to talk about how to plan effectively and prioritize when you have a million things on fire at the same time,” Wilson said. “And we’re going to celebrate together. That’s the cohort’s overall trajectory.”
Brands and Retailers Bounce Back
Russ Towers, a facilitator with Waypoint and the founder of Asheville’s Second Gear, a beloved outdoor shop that partially collapsed from the flood, said he was able to pivot fairly quickly once he realized that the building wouldn’t be salvageable.
The store has multiple owners who were able to help fund the shop’s relocation to a shopping center across the river from its former site, up 150 feet or so at the highway level. The team signed a lease on Nov. 15 and opened on Dec. 10, so Second Gear was able to capture some of the holiday season, and ironed out kinks in January and February. By spring, they were fully ready.
“I didn’t want to wait a few months and restart and lose staff, lose momentum – maybe somebody comes in and starts a business like ours,” Towers said. “I wanted to protect our place in the market.”
After the shop was destroyed by Helene, Second Gear relocated and was up and running in time for the holidays. Photo courtesy of Russ Towers.
Being consignment-based – approximately 70% of its products are consignment, the rest new accessories – was helpful because the community was already invested in the shop. Vendors extended open invoices and some even cancelled them entirely. Around 400 donations came in through a GoFundMe fundraiser, and Second Gear also received several grants totaling approximately $110,000 to help it recover.
The new space has plenty of parking and it’s centrally located, which is key because 700 to 800 consigners come each month. The store has 33% less space than it did on the riverside, but Towers said revenue per square foot is about 33% more than it was before.
Pirani, a member of the Waypoint program and the maker of reusable cups, shut down for two months because of eight inches of flooding and no electricity in the community building it’s located in.
“A lot of what we were doing was just trying to survive the literal event,” said Brandegee Pierce, co-founder of Pirani. “Everybody in Asheville was like, ‘How do we actually survive?’”
Pierce temporarily relocated to Atlanta, but survivor’s guilt sent him back to Asheville to help and eventually start manufacturing again, which couldn’t happen until Thanksgiving – a delay that had a significant impact on holiday orders, and Pirani’s ability to continue to do business in the ensuing months.
“We had some products that were supposed to launch in March of this year, and they still haven’t launched,” Pierce said. Pirani’s warehouse was operational by Dec. 5, but two staff members weren’t able to return to Asheville until January because it didn’t have running water, which meant the company had to scramble to find new employees and train them in the post-Helene chaos.
The Pirani crew from left: Customer Success Manager, Carrie-Ann Bentham, Warehouse Associates Corey Ballentine, Justine Verse, and Quinn Gibson; E-commerce Fulfillment & Customer Experience Supervisor Bo Joshua Averette, Lead Warehouse Associate Anna Mead, co-founder Brandegee Pierce, Warehouse Associate Smittie Smith, and co-founder Danielle Del Sordo. Photo courtesy of Pirani.
Pierce said he felt guilty for applying for grants to help because of the level of devastation he knew others were going through, but mentors encouraged him. As a member of the Waypoint group, he said he’s already learning a lot, particularly around financial planning for the future.
“It’s been a different journey, but it’s definitely been a challenging one,” Pierce said.
Tourism Still in Recovery
WNC’s tourism operators are taking lessons from New Orleans and Katrina, said Shelton Steele, the co-owner of Wrong Way River Lodge and Cabins.
“We pulled a lot of data on post-hurricane economies, and it takes anywhere from 12 months to four years for economies to recover,” Steele said. Tourism has been inconsistent – those that have returned are what Steele calls “intentional” travelers. Now it’s up to them to spread the word that they had a great time in Asheville.
And some brands are holding events in the area to raise awareness about Asheville’s rebuilding. On Running, for example, rented the entire Wrong Way property and held running clinics with Fleet Feet store owners.
“They were very intentional about selecting Asheville. And we felt really fortunate that they picked our property,” Steele said. “Companies typically have these remote workers, or they have sales areas, and being able to come to Asheville and plant your dollars on the ground here brings some focus to the area and revitalizes it by patronizing the businesses that are here. That had a big impact on us – it was our biggest event for the month of July, and it made a difference.”
Wrong Way River Lodge & Cabins co-owners Joe Balcken and Shelton Steele. Photo courtesy of Wrong Way River Lodge & Cabins.
Nicole Will, owner of Asheville Wellness Tours, said her business is still down 60% from previous years, and that a lot of the usual tours her business would operate have been impacted by the hurricane. But that’s given her space to take time to get creative and collaborate with other local businesses to come up with new tours for 2026 and 2027, she said.
“We’re sort of excited and having fun and also really stressed out,” Will said.
New tours will feature the region’s blue ghost fireflies, which glow instead of blink for just a two-week period each year.
“The place that we traditionally would have taken our guests, there were too many unknowns, and so we’re now in partnership with a private 900-acre piece of conservation land and they’re inviting our guests out during this incredibly special time period,” Will said. “Nobody else is out there. It’s just us and these incredible, magical beings.”
Another tour is the “Detox to Retox,” which will feature yoga and hiking followed by a tour by Asheville Brewery Tours.
North Carolina’s governor is also promoting the area after spending some time there this summer, rafting and cycling, Brown said.
An active yoga hike offered by Asheville Wellness Tours. Photo courtesy of Asheville Wellness Tours.
How to Help
The WNC outdoor community has always been tight-knit, said Dorene O’Malley, the board chair and interim executive director of the Outdoor Business Alliance (OBA). Large outdoor businesses have also shown support for WNC, too, such as REI’s recent grant that will in part support local businesses’ membership fees for the OBA.
“I asked for $5,000 and they gave $10,000,” she said.
But because the outdoor industry as a whole is facing a long list of challenges, such as tariffs, she said, that support is sometimes waning.
“There are a lot of businesses that used to be bigger supporters that can’t, at this particular moment in time, be bigger supporters because of things outside of hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina,” O’Malley said.
That’s why Steele, Will, and the rest of the group are encouraging people not just to visit and stay in local accommodations, but also to book tours, visit local stores, and really try to patronize the area in meaningful ways – even if it’s different from the last time you may have been there.
“Our message to folks is, the terrain might look a little different,” Brown said. “It might not be exactly how you remember it. But this is time to explore and find new experiences.”
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
