Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2020 - 40

Feature .01

The steep trail up to Camel's Hump,
Vermont's highest undeveloped
peak, is peppered with roots and
rocks made slick from a misty rain.
Mike Donohue is hiking as if he's late for a very
important meeting. All the while, he's talking in rapidfire staccato about his iconic shop,
Outdoor Gear Exchange. It's like listening to audio playback on high speed. I'm trying to keep
up with the pace of both hike and conversation.
At 4:30 p.m. in the parking lot, as we were about
to head up, a young girl had asked, "Are you going to camp at the top?"
Say what now?
"How long is this hike?" I asked.
"I think we can get it done before it gets dark,"
Donohue assured me.
Later, I would check the trail stats: five miles
round-trip, 4,083-foot vertical, 2,300-foot elevation gain, five hours estimated hiking time.
At the top, we scan the 360-degree views of Lake
Champlain and the Adirondacks tumbling
across the horizon. It's windy and wet, but gossamer rays of sun breaking through in the distance make it worth the race up. On the descent,
it does indeed get dark. After half an hour of feeling our way down, Donohue asks me if I'd like a
headlamp. "I like to hike in the dark," he says. I
opt for the headlamp.
All of this is to say, Mike Donohue is one hardcore, high-adrenaline outdoorsy guy. And he's
bent on making sure everyone else is outside getting after it, too. Not just me, but all 130 employees of Outdoor Gear Exchange-OGE for short.
OGE has been a triumph of outdoor retail in
Vermont, growing from a concept focused on
making outdoor gear accessible through a small
consignment-based model to a 48,000-squarefoot shop on Burlington's busy pedestrian mall.
It's become a must-stop shop for skiers, hikers,
bikers, and paddlers.
Owned by Donohue and his partner, Marc
Sherman, OGE's runaway success has been
part situational, part philosophical. Location
is key: OGE sits in the center of an outdoorsy
college town. But more important, Donohue

40 OUTDOOR RETAILER

/ Winter 2020

and Sherman have created an atmosphere that
retains employees for decades despite modest
salaries in an industry where turnover can often
be measured in months. Collectively, the shop's
four buyers have 54 years on the job. So, what's
the secret sauce? It's a slurry of things, from the
built-in friend network and "adulting" clinics to
staff retreats and a robust benefits package designed to get employees outside with sabbaticals
and stipends. But it all goes back to the indefatigable passion of the owners.
THE MANAGEMENT OFFICES AT OGE ARE A CLUSTER OF

cubbies two steps up from the sales floor, behind a single wooden saloon door. A laminated
sign reads: "Office Space: No more shopping up
here, just boring old TPS Reports" alongside a
picture of Milton Waddams' Initech badge. The
lack of separation is intentional. "Any employee

HUMPING IT
"When we go on
retreats, we take
turns hiking with
Mike. No one can
keep up," says
Sherman, following
Donohue up the
Camel's Hump Trail.

can walk up and talk to the owners anytime," says
Donohue. And you know the guy from HR is in
if the chili pepper lights strung across his corner
space are glowing.
Sherman and I leave the bustle and buzz of
the shop to grab a coffee at nearby New Moon
Cafe so he can share OGE's origin story. In
1993, four 20-somethings hatched the idea for
OGE over nips of Dr. McGillicuddy during a
Thanksgiving camping trip in the Adirondacks.
"We loved getting into the mountains, but the
gear was so expensive," says Sherman, an avid
telemark skier and surfer. "We wanted to build
a gear shop we'd want to shop at. Not too core.
Not too intimidating."
They wanted a place where educating customers was more important than doing a
sales job. It would have a fun vibe, with James
Brown, Bob Dylan, and the Grateful Dead piped

Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2020

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