Dave Chantler knew what individuals wished even earlier than they knew they wished it.
When virtually no person else within the nation was cross-country snowboarding, Dave confirmed them easy methods to ski—scooching round a gravel pit above Seattle, of all locations—and he in some way left them excited to do it once more (and wanting to purchase the skis on which to do it). Later, Dave put mountain bikes beneath of us earlier than they’d scarcely heard the time period “singletrack.” He helped invent one of many earliest gravel bikes. He was the primary man to provide dome tents an opportunity to succeed, in 1972, and he modified tenting within the course of.
Dave labored for REI for 38 years. Most of that point, he was a purchaser. But it’s simply as correct to say he was within the imaginative and prescient enterprise. And Dave had glorious imaginative and prescient.
Dave handed away in early November in Washington’s Methow Valley on the age of 84. He led the type of adventurous life that the majority of us need however by no means obtain. His profession started when founders Lloyd and Mary Anderson nonetheless walked the ground of the co-op, and it stretched till REI had develop into a nationwide retail powerhouse. But for Dave, whose hallmark was generosity, the job was by no means merely about promoting stuff. He shared his enthusiasm. He wished individuals to get enthusiastic about being open air the way in which he obtained excited, and he wished individuals to attempt new methods to do it. And they did, buoyed by his enthusiasm.
Dave found the outside early. He was born October 12, 1938, in Seattle to Cord and Martha Chantler, and he was raised in West Seattle alongside along with his youthful brother, Wayne. When his native Boy Scout troop’s thought of an outing concerned puttering round city, he and 9 different boys fashioned their very own Scout troop. Soon they discovered an grownup to steer them into the Cascades to have actual adventures: backpacking, mountaineering, ski touring.
That ardour for journey continued in faculty in Seattle. Dave was a daily on the co-op’s retailer above the Green Apple Pie restaurant on Seattle’s Pike Street. It was the one place round to purchase good gear. There he struck up a friendship with worker Gary Rose. The two grew to become journey companions.
REI was 20 years previous within the early Sixties. The co-op was nonetheless tiny. But change had begun. The co-op had not too long ago opened a spot the place it may fill orders, so it now not crammed them from the attic and basement of the Andersons’ home. Jim Whittaker, who was the overall supervisor on the time, had simply been chosen to affix the workforce of U.S. climbers making an attempt Mount Everest. With Jim leaving and the store needing extra assist, Gary advisable that the co-op rent Dave in 1962. Both males would work their total careers at REI and develop into lifelong pals.
Dave was drafted into the Army the subsequent yr. When Dave returned to the co-op in 1965, Jim was well-known. Outdoor recreation had begun to growth, and the co-op was rising sooner than ever. The founders had been prepared at hand extra accountability to the subsequent era. REI was at an inflection level, and Dave and Gary stood on the nexus of those currents. The two had been younger, sensible and succesful. Lloyd started grooming Dave to be the international items purchaser, selecting all the pieces from Sigg pots to Edelrid ropes and Raichle boots, as Dave recounted to outside author Bob Woodward in 2007. Gary would develop into the home purchaser.
In the early Seventies, the Andersons returned from a enterprise journey in Finland. They’d heard that cross-country skis had been being imported to the East Coast. They requested Dave if he wished to experiment with shopping for some skis and boots for the co-op to see if individuals wished them. Dave purchased a dozen pairs and bought all of them. He additionally tried cross-country snowboarding, and he fell in love with the game. He ordered extra skis. He bought these too. Soon, eight valuable pages of the REI catalog had been dedicated to cross-country gear. Sales ballooned.
Dave started organizing Nordic ski clinics to the mountains above Seattle. The classes had been fashionable, despite the fact that they had been held within the rear of an previous gravel pit. One ski occasion he organized drew 300 attendees. People clearly wished locations to kick and glide. Dave chaired a fee that finally expanded the state’s sno-parks to accommodate skiers and never simply snowmobilers. Some within the Nordic snowboarding group took to calling Dave “The Grand Poobah” for his affect on the nation’s nascent Nordic scene, wrote Woodward.
Dave additionally would develop into the driving drive in introducing individuals to winter snowboarding in Washington’s Methow Valley, bringing the primary busloads of REI prospects to jap Washington within the early Seventies. Later, he constructed a log cabin within the valley and helped lower among the first ski trails. Today the valley boasts probably the most intensive Nordic trails system in North America. In 1997, the ski business honored Dave with the primary Dagfinn Ragg award for his excellent contribution to the development of cross-country snowboarding.
Also within the early Seventies, Dave took an opportunity and ordered a newfangled tent for REI’s cabinets. This “dome tent” was primarily based on the design of an igloo, and it stood by itself. He purchased 50 of them from its designer, a small Seattle backpack firm referred to as JanSport. Dave had spent a variety of moist nights in saggy A-frame tents, and he sensed that individuals may love the dome tents. “He was deeply respected by people in the industry because he had this sense of what people would want next,” stated Ben Johns, who thought of Dave a mentor at REI, and a good friend. As REI later grew to become bigger and extra complicated, Ben was considered one of many staff who took over duties for what Dave alone had as soon as dealt with in a youthful, smaller co-op.
Dave additionally cherished to experience bikes. He’d taken epic rides with pals throughout the Canadian Rockies. Starting round 1980, he sniffed a rising starvation for bicycling. And he wished the co-op to promote bikes. There was an issue, although: demand outstripped provide. Also, some manufacturers wouldn’t promote to REI. “Dave was struggling to source bikes in the quantity and quality that he wanted,” stated Ben. “So Dave said, ‘We’re gonna create a brand, and we’re gonna be masters of our own destiny.’” By this time, REI had grown sufficient that the co-op had the clout, and the checkbook, to attempt one thing huge.
Dave teamed up with “Cozy” Yamakoshi, a well-regarded product growth guru and bicycle sourcing skilled from Japan. Novara started in 1982. And the 2 males would develop into quick pals, bonding over the intricacies of bicycles. At first, the co-op merely purchased bikes from a manufacturing facility and branded them Novara. Quickly, although, they situated a manufacturing facility in Asia, and the correct parts, to make bikes to their specs, stated Steve Gluckman, a longtime REI worker who thought of Dave “my sensei.” (Steve later took over Novara product growth, retiring after 29 years.) Dave didn’t design the bikes’ structure, however he regularly had the imaginative and prescient for what a Novara bike must be and do. “He conceived it. He built it. He named it. He nurtured it,” stated Ben, who not too long ago retired from the co-op after 32 years.
One visionary bike specifically is price mentioning. Dave knew from his personal driving that cyclists may use a motorbike that would go anyplace—from pavement to tough dust roads. He recruited Scot Nicol, founding father of Ibis Cycles and already a revered bike designer, to design a unique type of bike: a sturdy machine however with huge, smoother tires, and handlebars for cozy, all-day driving. Called the X-R (for “crossroads”), the bike was a mutt. Today, we’d maybe name it the primary gravel bike. “It was so ahead of its time,” stated Steve. “It wasn’t a top seller, but it was kind of a visionary product.” The bike gained Novara its first nationwide award. People nonetheless write to REI saying they purchased an X-R at a storage sale and adore it, they usually ask for details about it.
Novara ended about 4 years in the past. But Co-op Cycles stands on the shoulders of its legacy.
“Dave was a character,” stated Steve. That character was marked by generosity and graciousness. He relished the position of mentor. But “he could have a very sharp tongue,” Steve added. “And he didn’t put the filter on very often.”
Dave retired from REI to the Methow Valley in 2001. Even in retirement, although, he couldn’t resist sharing his enthusiasm or his urge to be a purchaser. He satisfied the proprietor of his native grocery retailer to hold a startlingly intensive cheese and charcuterie choice, utterly surprising on the time in such a rural place. Dave himself curated the choice; you may discover him frequenting numerous fromageries of Seattle, his glasses perched on the tip of his nostril, as he sussed out critically smelly Camembert or salt-flecked Gruyere. Don Portman, who Dave taught to ski in that gravel pit and who went on to be a godfather of Methow snowboarding, dubbed Dave the Cheez Whiz. (Dave himself most well-liked Freddy Fromage.)
Few know that Dave had been a gifted pianist who had performed on public radio. He additionally was an avid birder who traveled to 60 nations and had a life record that stretched to just about 7,000 birds.
Dave didn’t marry. He is survived by that cosmopolitan cheese case and its myriad followers, and by admiring former REI colleagues, and by many, many grateful lovers of the outside who take pleasure in his legacy each day, whether or not they understand it or not.