Lure of the North Closing Their Retail Store

Lure of the North announced this week that they will be closing their retail store…

This year has been an opportunity for introspection. When we started this business over a decade ago, fresh out of university, we really didn't know where it would take us. We knew that we loved this more traditional approach to winter camping in the northern forests that we were learning about, and that we wanted to share it with lots of people. We started learning to craft our own clothing and gear, and we started guiding trips and teaching workshops. We wrote free instructional booklets and shared them online. Before long we had trip and workshop participants asking if they could take kits with them to continue crafting at home. And before we knew it, we were retailers! And we started receiving orders from all over the world! It has been an absolutely amazing journey that has allowed us to meet and interact with hundreds of incredible customers.

BUT we never set out to be retailers. And as the business has continued to grow, it has meant less and less time to do all the other things that we've always dreamed of pursuing in our lives. What we've always wanted to do is guide people on amazing wilderness adventures, increase their self-sufficiency, help them on their homesteading journey and continue exploring and learning about the natural world ourselves. So to that end we've made the difficult decision to close down Lure of the North's manufacturing and retail arm. This will be a slow shutdown, so you can still purchase your gear this fall to get it for this winter, and we'll return to selling off any last goods next spring after our 90-day crossing of Ontario(!). After that, it'll be gone, gone, gone! Who knows, one day we might bring it back, but for now, it feels to both of us that there's lots of other trails that need exploring!

This is a hard choice for us, but an important one, and we're both incredibly excited for the next step of our journey. This is going to give us so much more time to offer some of the other adventures that we've been wanting to share with you for so many years, and so we hope that you're going to find the next few years really exciting as we transition more fully to the life we've always dreamed of!!

Ps. 8km way back in the woods, off a flooded, muddy ATV trail, or across a lake and up a creek is a terribly inefficient (but fun!) place to run a retail operation from. Enjoy some of the pics of us dealing with a few of the many hurdles we faced

Pps. This operation would never have been possible without a TON of help from friends and business associates, but most importantly from family, so a huge thank you to them!

Please share with all your friends with gratitude,

Kie, Dave, Hank and Lenny

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