Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2020 - 48

Feature .02

SMILES, EVERYONE
Troy Leach, Paige Pridmore, Bradley
Walters, and Chase Cannon feel the
love at Rock/Creek Paddlesports.

Wheeler and Webb, the owners prioritize community over financial security.
"We knew we could go outside the market
and find a much better deal that would minimize our risk," says Webb of the initial sale. "But
[Wykle and Scott] had the Rock/Creek DNA.
Our first pick was always them. We really put
everything at stake to keep it in the family so
to speak."
For Rock/Creek, the year 2017 signaled the
end of an era and the beginning of a new chapter. It was the outfitter's 30th anniversary and
the year Wheeler and Webb sold to Wykle and
Scott. It was also the year REI set up shop less
than a mile from Rock/Creek's Hamilton Place
location. By then, however, Rock/Creek was so
entrenched in the Chattanooga community,
business hardly wavered.
Still, Wykle and Scott felt a tremendous
amount of pressure to not only sustain Rock/
Creek's legacy but to also grow it. Not long into
their ownership, Wykle and Scott started researching what it would cost to open several
new storefronts in the area.
"We felt like the only way for us to continue
to be successful was to not take our foot off the
gas," says Wykle. "We saw Camping World as an
opportunity to secure Rock/Creek's position.
We believed in what they were trying to do. It
seemed like a clear path for us."
Within 16 months, Wykle and Scott went
from employees to owners to sellers. Initially,
the Camping World acquisition seemed like a

48 OUTDOOR RETAILER

/ Winter 2020

good move for Rock/Creek. Floor staff received
better benefits. Hourly wages increased. And
while it wasn't exactly the new storefront Wykle
and Scott imagined, a new Rock/Creek did
open in Atlanta, at the end of 2018. At 17,000

Creek-er. Additionally, Wykle created a mandatory dawn patrol one day a month, where each
Rock/Creek manager is required to recreate
outside with his/her staff before store hours.
Now under Gearhead ownership, Wykle
doesn't seem as concerned about losing the
Rock/Creek identity. The culture at Rock/
Creek is alive and well, and though the Camping
World era didn't go exactly as planned, Wykle
says there's no road map for what the future of
specialty retailers will look like.
"For retail, it's not plug-and-go like it was 10
years ago," he says. "Is Gearhead the answer?
Maybe. Camping World wasn't, but it was an
idea. We're in an age where we have to be experimenting. The industry is growing. The question
is, how do we continue to make brick-and-mortar be a part of that growth?"
For Rock/Creek, the answer has been, and always will be, to meet the needs of its community
as an omnichannel retailer. In November, the
outfitter launched its very own guide service.
Rock/Creek has already started a new monthly
nonprofit speaker series to better educate the
community about the needs of local conservation groups. In early 2020, Rock/Creek will add
yet another event to its ever-growing schedule,

"I WAS AFRAID OF LOSING THINGS, OF LOSING OUR
CULTURE. WE SAW THE WRITING ON THE WALL AND THE
NEED TO DOUBLE DOWN ON WHO WE ARE." - CHAD WYKLE
square feet, the store was more than double the
size of its sister Rock/Creek stores.
Wykle started to feel uneasy about the new
owners. Within the first 40 days of Camping
World's ownership, Jonathan Scott had been let
go. During the merge, Camping World's team
had absorbed Scott's responsibilities, making
his position obsolete. Between that and the
new products Rock/Creek was being required
to carry, Wykle was concerned that the reality of
corporate ownership would jeopardize the trust
of longtime customers.
"I was afraid of losing things, of losing our culture," says Wykle. "We saw the writing on the wall
and the need to double down on who we are."
So Wykle did what Wheeler and Webb had
done for 30 years: He put the Rock/Creek family first. Over the course of two months, the
Rock/Creek team crafted a manifesto, a pledge
that outlines exactly what it means to be a Rock/

this one an endurance challenge modeled after a similar race Herget and Gearhead host
in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Rock/Creek has even
dived into the world of content creation, overseeing a special quarterly inside the pages of Get
Out Chattanooga.
These days, Wheeler and Webb are retired
(mostly). They agree that the return to private
ownership feels like the best move for Rock/
Creek. There's no doubt the three brands will
have some logistical kinks to work out, but
Webb says if there's one piece of advice he can
offer to Herget and the Gearhead family, it's to
always stay true to the customer.
"To maintain that magic, money cannot be
your target," he says. "That cannot be what
rules your day. That's a secondary goal. If you
do all of the other things right, and your heart
is in the right place community-wise, the
money will be there." O.R.

Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2020

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