How Parks Project Scaled to Give Back $2 Million to Parks

0:00I just sold a house and used my personal funds to buy about 50 ,000 units of inventory. and a lot of it didn't move. Hello and welcome to Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. I'm Shuang Esther Shan. If you're passionate about a cause, you might volunteer or raise money for a charity. For Keith Eshelman, he wanted to have a bigger impact. So he started a business called Parks Project. The mission is to raise awareness for conservation issues and give money to state and national parks in the United States. Since 2014, the company has given more than$2.2 million to parks by selling outdoor-inspired clothing and gear.

0:44Keith is here today to talk about the importance of preservation, partnering with National Parks on e-commerce, and so much more. Thanks so much for being here, Keith. Yeah, it's great to be here with you. So excited to chat about the journey of building Parks Project. I personally find being outdoors really recharging and a great reset, also a great place for inspiration and clarity. So it was really cool to hear that you actually got the idea for Parks Project while you were hiking. So tell us about that light bulb moment. So yes, it was about 10 years ago. I just had my first daughter. Her name's Everly.

1:20And we were taking paternity leave in Big Sur. during that time, we went to go on a hike and found a trail that was actually closed. And that was my moment where it had me thinking about how I was going to leave the parks and trails for the next generation. From that moment, it kind of ideated and morphed into this concept of building a business with social impact instead of actually starting a charity. Why did you take that approach? I was fortunate to be at Tom's during some big growth years and see how business and good could intertwine. To be honest, Parks Project early on was probably more so a volunteer group and more an idea of how to get more people out to volunteer and fix trails so we could leave them better.

2:11But as we sort of surveyed the landscape of parks, we found, I would say there was a lack of well-designed product. And also you couldn't find many park products outside of park stores. So those were kind of the three things that contributed to the social enterprise idea and said, okay, let's make a better product. Let's distribute it where it isn't being distributed. And also let's get people to gather around the idea of conservation and supporting projects in the parks. So you noticed this gap between having merchandise that also represented different parks. How did you go about sourcing the first set of products?

2:50And what did you learn from your customers in terms of what they wanted in merchandise? Yeah, at that point in time, you're being so excited about the idea. You just sort of make it happen. You figure it out. You make a small batch of product and use every resource you have to try to distribute it and test the idea. We put a small collection of local parks in a retailer and, you know, it was Muir Woods with the storytelling around funding a nursery. It was Yosemite around the story of habitat restoration. And it was Point Reyes with the story of restoring trails. So good graphics with a story behind them fueled an incredible sell-through and queued up me to pursue trying to build it.

3:40While you were expanding and looking for different suppliers that were aligned to your values that are sustainable and ethical, you also learned a lot from your customers in terms of what they wanted and what they valued. So you also pivoted and found different suppliers. How has that journey been? Oh, it's always evolving. I think you try not to get too comfortable in where you are. We started with very small batch production right in our backyard with a close network of suppliers here in Los Angeles. Soon to realize that the whole pricing structure was just not sustainable. We could not build a business contributing money to park projects, really kind of quality material and screen printed here in LA.

4:30So just like any startup, you've got to try something and probably move sideways and then try it a little bit of a different way. Figure out how to get your product margins right so you can sustainably continue to scale a business. The early days is more proof of concept. When you ask a lot of our customers or buyers, does Made in USA matter to you? It wasn't as much of an influence as good design, as the mission of your business, as what are you doing with the proceeds and funds of your business? Why do you exist? So I think we were able to answer those questions very clearly, and then everything else just falls into place.

5:13And speaking to the good design, What were the design philosophies behind your merchandise that really spoke to your customers? You know, we wanted to make gallery-worthy artwork and put it on apparel. We thought if you couldn't make this a poster and want it in your home, then, you know, that wouldn't meet the standards that we wanted to create. A lot of the artwork that we were producing early on were with artists that are out of the outdoor industry. We thought we could bring in something new, fresh, different, almost mash up a little bit of music album art with street art with kind of an outdoor theme.

5:59We have proven to just bring something new to an industry that was producing a lot of kind of sameness. Did you also find there was almost a butterfly effect to the merchandise itself? Because I think when someone sees a great piece of merchandise, they also wonder about the actual park and then in return brings more people into the realm of Parks Project. Yeah, that was absolutely the original intention to say, if we can make stellar product that stirs up conversation, A, wow, I love that T. We got a lot of that. The graphic attributes to the original connection. Hopefully that'll create some conversation about, hey, this is a really cool Yosemite graphic.

6:43Have you been to Yosemite? we do have people that buy the products with the intention of trying to go there to motivate them. So they wear it, i.e. Yosemite in this case. So they'll wear it to help them plan their trip and to go there. And hopefully after those visits, the mission and purpose of Parks Project will resonate with them and trying to leave it better for future generations. That's kind of the full circle of what we're all about is can we inspire you to go explore? And then after, hopefully have you think about how you can protect, how you can preserve, and maybe make contributions in whatever way is right for you to the sustainability of our parklands.

7:24So your business in the early days, you really bootstrapped and you had to really invest in your inventory and make sure that you had enough cash on hand to have a runway, which I think is something a lot of product-based founders had challenges with. Can you share some of the learnings you had from those early days? Yeah, there's no right or wrong way to do it.

7:51I remember talking to everyone I knew in the apparel industry, asking for some sort of playbook on growth, right? That's what you want as a startup, as an entrepreneur. You want some guidance. Like, how am I supposed to do this? How did you do it? And for everyone, it's different. We had a really tight supply chain, so it was almost like cut to order. We were able to not tie up too much cash with inventory, but you use all the resources you've got. And that evolved over the first five years, and then it changed over the last three years. That's the bigger challenge is when you're doubling a business, is that sustainable?

8:31Can you buy more inventory, hire more people, give more money back to funding projects in the parks all at the same time? And there's a certain extent where you leverage all your credit facilities and it's possible, but then you end up, you can almost grow to death if you don't watch out. So the early stories were we started in the back house just with all the savings I had and bought inventory to kickstart the business and then started applying for credit facilities anywhere and everywhere from credit cards, banks, and all sorts of solutions that are out there. You flex them all until they break.

9:08That was our approach. It was very bootstrapped. It was very organic. Not to say that taking investment isn't the right way, but we were able to maintain control of the business. while we doubled for the first years and then had to find more money to support the further scaling of the business. A lot of businesses see a seasonal increase and also a growth during holiday sales period. But for you in the early days, you actually had sales periods where it was really challenging when you invested in a lot of inventory in the holiday period. What did you learn from those early years? We do have a big seasonal business.

9:47We found several holidays. You sort of wonder, what is the ceiling? How much inventory do you buy? How much business do you want to be in one quarter of the year? And the more inventory we'd buy, the better we would perform over the holiday season. And people loved giving the gift of parks. It came with a story, came with hopefully some intention. And maybe if you and a partner or somebody else had gone to a park, you know, it was a commemorative moment. And that's pretty cool. It's a very meaningful gift. So with a big ramp up, you're going to need a lot more money to buy a lot more inventory because Shopify is so in tune with the cycle of our business.

10:29They would just present the grand total available for us to pull. And I remember kind of zooming in on it and saying, wow, is there an extra zero in there? It was in sync with the business. Shopify and Capital knew that we were going to need that much money to fund the inventory to continue with scaling the business and having a big seasonal business. So yeah, we used it twice and helped us get through some big moments. In contrast, you also mentioned the earlier holiday seasons where you invested in certain designs and the sales weren't moving as you desired. What changed in your business or your design or operations that really got you to be in a business where you were having successful sales and holiday periods?

11:17Yeah, there's a whole sequence of failures with any startup, right? And if you're not failing, you're not trying. If you're not trying, you're probably not bringing anything new. There was one holiday in particular where we just said, okay, last year was perfect. We nailed it. Let's do it again. Look at our customers are 80 % new customers. So wow, if there's that many new customers, we don't really have to create a whole new business, whole new product offering. Let's just do it again. What's working is working and it'll kind of snowball effect to reaching more people. But it was a wake up moment where, you know, we, we didn't refresh some of the artwork.

11:55We didn't refresh trying new product categories. We didn't come with a new look and feel for the go-to-market. And it coincided with a really big inventory buy. And at that point in time, I just sold a house and used my personal funds to buy about 50 ,000 units of inventory. And a lot of it didn't move. And you get a good learning lesson in buying inventory and wanting to bring in experts to do so on your behalf. In looking back, there's a whole sequence of trying and failing that I attribute to us discovering new product categories, to us discovering new customer cohorts, to Parks Project, discovering what can be, how big can the business grow to be.

12:39Well, very excited to touch on those different pivotal moments and strategies that you've tried. I'm chatting with Keith Eshelman, co-founder and CEO of Parks Project. I hope you're enjoying our conversation. And if you haven't already, please subscribe or follow Shumfly Masters wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review or feedback for the show. Thanks. So one of the early milestones that you've mentioned before for Parks Project was actually also going to your first trade show, Outdoor Retailers in 2015, where you strategize and you also lucked out where your booth was located. Tell us what you learned from attending those trade shows.

13:20Yeah, some of the first trade shows, a lot of the strategy was positioning of the brand. Do you position yourself to be next to bigger companies, new companies? The way we did it is that we were part of a small group of cool and hip outdoor brands called Venture Out. I think that positioning really supported Parks Project first go to market because if we were next to a lot of the other outdoor brands, it may kind of be perceived as you know something not that new and fresh but it helped us be next to the cool kids plain and simple but i think another attributing factor for that first trade show was that we got positioned right next to a coffee cart and with a coffee cart at a trade show you know that means the big long line and we had a big long line snaking in front of our booth and it gave us a perfect opportunity to just pick people off and storytell they had time right most of, I think, what you're up against in building a brand and communicating a mission to people is that they don't have enough time in their lives.

14:24There's a lot going on. And how do you capture somebody in the right moment at the right time with the right product and the right message? So it turns out next to a coffee cart line is the perfect way to let people know why you exist. We've just racked up business cards from buyers, from press, from other industry friends and potential collaborators. So that first trade show definitely sparked the growth and gave us a confidence that there was demand in the industry for our story and for our products. Subsequent to that, another better story that taps into things that don't work. We got positioned by the bathroom once, like, oh, well, everybody goes to the bathroom, right?

15:09So this would be good because we're going to get so much traffic and we can pick people off like we did at the coffee cart. Turns out people want to get in and out of the bathroom. They do not want to stop and chat in that location. So you win some and you lose some, but you learn along the way. Amazing learning. I think another funny part of the ebb and flow of your business was you mentioned the first trade show. You felt like you talked to so many people. It was such a success, but there was no actual purchase order that solidified from the trade show. And then you end up having conversations with REI and Urban Outfitters very early on, and they're still partners to this day.

15:50So how did you turn lots of conversations and realizing you're not having any orders and then actually getting those relationships developed with those large retailers? Yeah, I would say that happened for both wholesale and DTC over the years. You get this high of exposure and connection. We've gotten some really big press pieces with Fast Company and Fortune and you get a lot of traffic, right? Just like we did with the wholesale channel as well. But sometimes it doesn't stick and you got to fall back on, was it the right product for the right customer? And what you do is you rework it and you say, okay, we'd had interest.

16:34Was it the right product because the product's got to sell. The product has to pop off the shelf and sell through. And when you buy it for your e-commerce channel, it's got to move. At that first trade show, we did have some amazing conversations with REI and Urban Outfitters and some other big retailers. It took a long time to really land those relationships and rework some product categories and graphics, et cetera, is you have to keep moving and probing and pitching until you find the right mix. Unfortunately, both Urban Outfitters and REI, that represents our distribution, which is a little bit of outdoor and a little bit of fashion and streetwear.

17:18And they are continued to be distribution partners ever since. So from year, what I call zero to current day, We've partnered with them to bring freshness every season and bring something unexpected and innovative and super cool. I want to ask how long between that initial trade show conversation to actually that first commitment of Northern, how long and how many pitches did it take? Usually it's just under a year. The wholesale world operates with a lot longer lead time. So we've been able to create two channels that move at two very different paces. And with our e-commerce, we almost drive the future of product, right?

18:01And we know the success of it from our D to C and can share that as useful data to buyers and say, okay, we launched this capsule collection and these two things moved really well. And they'll appreciate those sort of insights because everybody's looking for more safe inventory buys. That's for sure. What I love about your answer here is it might sound a little counterintuitive to direct-to-consumer founders because often they find having their own channel might hurt their relationship with retailers. But what you're saying is actually having your own online store provides the data and proof points for retail relationships.

18:45So I guess in a sense, they kind of also help each other grow. Yeah, that's an omni-channel business. You develop some special things for wholesale that may not even see the light of day for e-commerce. You try to keep that style count tight because you can only make a certain amount of things before you clog up your systems and complicate your RPL. But each channel has a different tempo, maybe even a different customer. You think through your D2C that you're talking to the whole world, but you're not. It's a small subset of the world. Some of the retail partners are probably talking to a much bigger subset of the world.

19:24We're probably talking to a domestic market. And some of our urban outfitter is talking to an international market. So just got to keep it fresh and keep trying. Listen to your customer. Listen to your buyer. Use all that to further accelerate your business forward. Yeah, it can be two different timelines. It can be two different audiences. And I think that's OK. Another partnership that definitely made sense is National Parks, which you get to work with. Tell us how that partnership came to be. The National Park brands, i.e. Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Joshua Tree, all these grand destinations that we all travel to to fill up, were part of the early story of the brand.

20:08How do we better represent, maybe even rebrand some of these parks to make them cool and hip and bring in that next generation of visitor? That was a big goal for the National Park Service when we were getting going is they were trying to find creative ways to connect with the next generation. So we were part of a solution there. Early days, we actually were pitching this idea to national parks and wanted to make sure we had the security of being a partner before we left everything and dove in head first to build this business. And through all the pitching, we actually ended up becoming a supplier and a business partner to national parks around the 2016 National Park Centennial.

20:52And that event required us creating a whole kind of white label assortment and another Shopify shop that would hold the inventory. We would design, develop, go to market, hold the inventory for the National Park Centennial, which was themed Find Your Park. So we had another business early days that brought us very close to national parks. And I think it's part of the value-add service that we could bring because, A, we could make product quickly. B, we were scrappy and could launch a site. C, the proceeds were going back to the parks and we felt good about that. And that was additional storytelling for us to say, hey, we're in this for the right reasons.

21:36We want to support parks. And one of the ways that we can do that was by being a part of a big nationwide campaign, which fueled the most visitation that national parks had ever had in history. So much of the centennial celebration is event-based, and I feel like that's like holiday sales period times two where you really have to understand the timing and logistics. What have you learned from making event-based merchandise? Well, you learn that you don't really want to be in that space, honestly. You look at brands that have those evergreen assortments, right? And you make, let's say, what if 30, 40, 50 % of your business was evergreen and people came back for that product through that desire to have evergreen products?

22:23We did look around and say one example were candles. It's like, let's bring scents of the national parks to people's homes with a story. That was the first product that we launched that ended up being more evergreen because people burn a candle. You know, it's a consumable good. versus, say, a T-shirt or a sweatshirt. If you're really passionate about Yosemite, you might only need one, right? So you can burn a candle in a couple of months, and they're amazing. They're soy-based wax, and they just really bring you to the park. The fragrances are spot on. I remember spending a lot of time testing them out.

23:03The idea of an event-based retail solution will be quite exhausting, right? Because we did a couple of events early on. There was big spikes. If you have a big spike in your business, you're going to churn a lot of resources, including your own well-being, because you're all in on a big high and then you're going to fall and build it again. Well, I think it all goes back to the idea of believing in your own possibilities, because those events will bring in a lot of new customers. Then you've got a new project in the sense that what are you going to do with all those customers? How do you bring them in for retention and how do you keep the messaging hot?

23:41And we had a back in stock app has been super instrumental because we would make small batch products, limited edition and sort of sell through it. And then see, you know, we get hundreds of people signing up when it's going to be back in stock. It almost gives you an indication of how many you need to buy. So, you know, a couple hundred more and the back in stock app just pings everybody and it'd be almost gone just as fast as it came in. But those were kind of successful events in themselves as you make a really hot product and it's gone. And then what are you going to do with it? If your lead times are getting longer, you've got to make smarter buys and you find every solution you can.

24:20So we started the show by mentioning how Parse Project originally started almost like a volunteer group. And the Volunteer Alliance is very much integral to the business. Tell us how you manage that aspect of the business today. It's always fun to go back to your origins. You can get all caught up with everything we've mentioned in this conversation so far, but you go back to why do you exist? What made you stand out to get a business off the ground? Reflecting on your purpose and why you exist. Go back to why you exist. You exist because people want to support a good business. People want to talk about someone doing good in the world.

25:00I think there's a lot of heavy things going on in the world and people love glimmers of hope. They want to be part of solutions. And Parks Project is hands-on in restoring habitats. And we will continue to be, and that's what I'm very passionate about doing. A couple weekends ago, I'm in my backyard, Santa Monica Mountains, restoring some trail and hopefully leaving it better for my next generation. So the Volunteer Alliance has seen a huge amount of inbound interest. And a lot of that has to say, okay, how do we systematize this? and really embrace all the love that's out there that people, you know, want to be hands-on and leaving it better and restoring habitats because they hopefully feel a connection with them.

25:48And this whole journey from start to end is a little bit of my life story. So I've got to reflect on where did I start and where am I now? And how can I succinctly communicate that with our audience so hopefully they can start a similar journey because I'm a lot better for it. If I can bring you in through some fashion to discover your relationship with parks and then get you out to explore more, which hopefully will settle you into a better headspace. We all know the outdoors can support mental health in a major way and then develop a connection with parks. Maybe get your hands dirty and plant some trees or remove some invasive species.

26:34And then that's going to bring you a more fulfilling relationship with the outside and with the planet. And hopefully if we all have a better connection, we're going to make change in the world because we care about it too. Amazing. And it's such a great impact that you and the team are building. I understand that there's always new projects and initiatives. You've just launched the new California Dreaming line. What are some other projects that you're really excited about for this year? We always have a really big lineup of collaborations. That was part of our business model. We have a really amazing mission and approach to product that has brought in a lot of interest from bigger brands who want to do something special for some parks.

27:20So really cool roster of collaborations right around the corner. We have a capsule collection coming soon that speaks to how we're not apart from nature as disconnected from it, living our city lives. We're actually a part of nature. We're part of the ecosystem, right? So hopefully changing minds on where you sit in the world and the relationship you have with the outdoors can create change. That's all we're trying to do is we've gotten hyper-focused on supporting parks and bringing people into our mission and my vision. And the more people that join, the more word of mouth. As the business grows, the impact grows.

27:59And that's, I think, the best part of what we're out to do. Scale a business. And in turn, you're going to scale your impact, too. Very excited to see how the journey continues. Thanks so much for being here, Keith. Yeah, absolutely. Fun conversation. That's Keith Eshelman, co-founder and CEO of Parks Project. And thank you for joining us on Shopify Masters. Our show is produced by Megan Coyle and Gogo Zoger. Our engineers are Matt Schwartz and Miku Betlam. Benjamin Gottlieb is our supervising producer. And I'm Shuang Esershan. And we will see you next time.