Live Out There is one of Ideal Location Gear premier partners
The origin of LiveOutThere.com is full of adventure and excitement, risk and hard work, long days and big mountains. And, on our team, we mean mountains of both the physical and metaphorical variety.
Lear about why we love the Live Out There team.
Our co-founders, Jamie Clarke and George Achilleos, have been friends since grade school in Calgary, AB. As they grew up, each of them had endeavoured to live an adventurous life: George in the field of business and entrepreneurial development, and Jamie in the natural wonders of the world. After many years of individual explorations, Jamie and George began to discuss a new sort of adventure for the two of them. Meeting at their favourite Italian restaurant, and bolstered with the courage that copious amounts of wine is often known to spark, the two buddies mapped out a plan for a future business partnership. Notes on several napkins revealed that after his years as a mountaineer, multiple trips to Mt. Everest, and the balance of the Seven Summits, Jamie had amassed a good knowledge and understanding for quality gear. George, on the other hand, brought the business expertise after being a top-performer at IBM Canada. Together, nothing could stop them… at least that’s what the Chateauneuf-du-Pape suggested.
Fortunately, the dream didn’t fade with their hangovers and George and Jamie began to map out plans for their business. They combined their resources and skills to conceptualize the Out There Adventure Centre in downtown Calgary. It took three years to figure out the plan, finance the project, procure a location, find suppliers and hire a team of gear experts and enthusiasts. At last, in 2003 the doors opened.
The Out There Adventure Centre, our “bricks and mortar store”, has become the go-to place to shop for top-end outdoor gear and apparel in Calgary.
Through the store’s success Jamie and George built strong relationships with the executive teams of the best outdoor gear manufacturers in the world. Encouragement from these execs to expand to new store locations brought the two of them back to the drawing board to begin the commensurate research and some big thinking. Instead of more stores, E-commerce seemed the better option. Going online was a logical extension of the original store as a web site would allow the team to not only inspire and enable Calgarians, but all Canadians, to get out and find their own adventures.
In the spring of 2010, Jamie would make his fourth trip to Everest and once home, his next major “mountain” would be the success of Live Out There. The small team had grown from just Jamie and George to include Drew Gillson and Dave Nagy who had also joined Jamie on the trek to the Everest’s base camp.
On a beautiful day in May the three teammates in Base Camp, George, Dave, and Drew, turned on their radio to have a broken conversation with Jamie who was calling from the Top of the World. The four explorers had to pause and marvel at the shared experience, the challenges they had all overcome on their recent travels, and the goals that still lay before their feet. That was when the clouds parted at last and the pathway up the peak stretched out in front of them. That was the moment that LiveOutThere.com was truly born.
Since then LiveOutThere has expanded rapidly to just over 20 employees on staff and an always expanding list of the top suppliers in the outdoor and active lifestyle industry.
As our team grows so do our goals; we strive to be Canada’s leading active lifestyle E-commerce company.
We are always looking to expand our site to offer a wide range of gear and apparel to our customers, and to share our knowledge and experience. Our site will soon offer an even greater selection of gear for running, biking, ski/snowboarding, and fly-fishing. For us, the most important thing is that no matter what activity we expand into, we are always looking to find the brands and suppliers who are leading their industry, pushing new innovations, and providing the best gear and apparel.
The LiveOutThere team started with a few friends standing at The Top of the World and has grown into a widely varied crew of passionate people who love the outdoors and genuinely believe in the mission of our company. We set high goals and work our way up the mountain one step at a time (well, sometimes we leap and skip as well – we firmly believe that it is always a good idea to stop and frolic along the way) but there are always more peaks to climb, always more challenges to overcome, and new ways to develop and improve, and we relish the challenge!
We continue to climb and we invite all our customers to join us in our pursuit of inspiration, passion and joy, and most of all, adventure!
Onward!
The LOT Team