Site Visit: REI Store, Seattle

When the IF team visited Seattle last week, we knew we had to pay a visit to the REI flagship store located a little outside downtown. OK, so it’s been open for over 6 years now – but it still contains so much energy, you just have to check it out if you visit the area.

And when you do visit it, you’ll feel guilty. Guilty and ready. Guilty of all that slouching about and inactivity. Ready to start a new life of outdoor adventure. It’s amazing. Even the most urban of IF contributors (me) felt like strapping on a kayak and storming towards the nearest mountain to splash through some violent white water rapids.

Before you even enter the store, you can feel the energy. First, you notice a track for folk testing mountain bikes that laps around the store. Then you notice a chain of clocks that feature the time in various mountain locations. Even as you reach for the door handle you are reminded of the great outdoors: it’s a climbing axe.

Not only is the place is jam-packed full of outdoors kit, but it’s also jammed full of brand experience. A 65 foot climbing tower stands proud in one corner, but if that’s a little excessive for you, you can try a mini trail to check your new walking shoes, or you can climb a boulder for your climbing shoes.

The staff, it appears, truly live and breathe the great outdoors (they even test all the equipment before they sell it). There’s even a library and information desk to help you plan your next adventure.

If there’s a city that this REI store should sit, it would be Seattle with its natural surroundings. The store is extremely authentic, you can sense the owner’s vision, and you just lap it up.

222 Yale Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109. (206) 223-1944

btw – Do visit the new Seattle Library if you are in the area too. Simply perfect.