Boise store among businesses that changed names after pressure from outdoor retail giant
After learning that a popular outdoor gear retailer filed multiple lawsuits against small businesses with similar names, the outdoor community launched a massive boycott of the site. Two weeks later, that retailer has issued an apology, but for business owners caught in the trademark kerfuffle — including one in Boise — that may be too little, too late.
According to a Colorado Sun report published on Oct. 31, online gear store Backcountry.com sued multiple small businesses in the past year over trademarks on the word “backcountry.” That included Boise-based Backcountry Pursuit, which has since rebranded as Boise Gear Collective.
Tyson Stellrecht, who opened the store at 671 S. Capitol Blvd. in 2012, started the trademark process for Backcountry Pursuit in 2016. When his application was up for public comment in 2017, Backcountry.com, LLC, filed a notice of opposition. In its notice, the Park City, Utah-based company said Stellrecht’s trademark would create confusion with its own since both prominently featured the word “backcountry” and both companies sold outdoor gear — though at the time, Stellrecht sold only used items as a consignment store.
Rather than risk going up against the online giant, Stellrecht agreed to change the name of his business. At the same time, he closed the Eagle branch of his store, expanded the Capitol Boulevard location and began offering bicycle repair services, selling new gear and more.
“I ended up closing Eagle pretty much as a direct result of that (dispute),” Stellrecht said in a phone interview. “It worked out timely. It was kind of a rebirth of the store anyway, but it cost a lot of money and a lot of heartache.”
That was in April 2018. Since then, Backcountry.com pursued actions against more than a dozen other businesses it said too closely resembled its name or logo. When it sued Michigan ski-maker Marquette Backcountry Ski in September, the company’s owner vowed to fight back.
A “Boycott BackcountryDOTcom” Facebook group has amassed nearly 22,000 members since it was created on Nov. 1. The hashtag #BoycottBackcountry was used hundreds of times on Twitter.
“The outdoors community, which is passionate and a bunch of activists, they took up this cause ... and all of a sudden, I find myself in the middle of this,” Stellrecht said.
On Wednesday, Backcountry.com CEO Jonathan Nielsen issued an apology to the “Backcountry Community.”
“We have heard your feedback and concerns, and understand we fumbled in how we pursued trademark claims recently. We made a mistake,” Nielsen wrote. “In an attempt to protect the brand we have been building for nearly 25 years, we took certain actions that we now recognize were not consistent with our values, and we truly apologize.”
He said the company will withdraw its legal action against Marquette, the Michigan ski maker, and re-evaluate how it handles trademarks. Nielsen did not say whether the company will reach out to the small businesses it already settled with, such as Boise Gear Collective, though he noted “that we tried to resolve these trademark situations amicably and respectfully, and we only took legal action as a last resort.”
Stellrecht said Wednesday that he had not heard from anyone at Backcountry. The company did not respond to the Statesman’s request for comment as of Wednesday afternoon.
“If they make it right with me financially ... I’ll go all over the place and tell everyone they made it right,” Stellrecht said.
Nielsen said in his apology that his company “has never been interested in owning the word ‘backcountry.’” Stellrecht said he doesn’t know how anyone could possibly encompass what the term means to outdoorsmen and women.
“It’s just so broad,” Stellrecht said. “It’s so many places on the face of this planet. It’s what we’re all passionate about and what we all believe in.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 4:43 PM.
