(Image: Gearhouse)

Come May, if you are looking for well equipped outdoorsy types with a taste for Pacific Northwest adventure, Capitol Hill will have a hangout spot where hikers, bikers, kayakers, and climbers meet to gear up, team up, maybe do a little email and enjoy a coffee or a beer before heading out for the mountains, trails, and waters of the Puget Sound.

“You never want to have gear regret,” Gearhouse founder Evan Maynard tells CHS.

CHS reported here in March on the plans for Maynard to bring his growing outdoor gear rental and community company to his home neighborhood to E Thomas just off Broadway as Gearhouse marks its first expansion from its South Lake Union birthplace. There, Gearhouse has grown as “Seattle’s only social club for outdoorsy people” with a unique mix of hiking, camping, and adventure gear rental, events and education, and community.

“Gearhouse turns a chore into a social experience,” Maynard said this week as the new E Thomas location is geared up for a May 18th grand opening on Capitol Hill.

When it opens next month, Gearhouse Capitol Hill will mark the next step in Maynard and the small company’s efforts to make Gearhouse more than just a place to rent snowshoes or a tent. The subscription service’s expansion to Capitol Hill will be an even more social location with coffee and beer designed to make the new Gearhouse a neighborhood destination to also get some work done or meet with friends to plan your next hike.

If nothing else, the new cafe work space, gear rental space, and hangout will give Maynard a place to work near his Capitol Hill apartment. It could all just end up being that he is creating a really expensive “working from home” office space, Maynard quips.

But that seems unlikely. Gearhouse and the thousands of nearby Capitol Hill apartment dwellers and the thousands more people traveling through nearby Capitol Hill Station seem like a natural fit.

A stop for Metro’s seasonal Trailhead Direct bus service is also nearby.

Maynard says Gearhouse solves many of the challenges of city living and finding your place in the Pacific Northwest’s outdoor culture. Membership provides access to the full Gearhouse gear library which can be rented piecemeal but can also be curated based on what adventure you have planned. Maynard says Gearhouse is set up to provide personalized recommendations and gear packages — describe an adventure you’re about to take, and they’ll recommend a gear set to suit your needs.

The space was formerly home to a cafe/retail experiment from AT&T

Classes and clinics will also help inspire and inform while organized trips and outings are also popular, Maynard says, giving members a “safe space” to try new things and new places without worrying about your coworker’s questionable wayfinding skills.

Gearhouse is also ready to lend a hand to more advanced adventurers with classes and outings designed to help those who may have “plateaued,” Maynard says, with finding the next levels of adventure and outdoor satisfaction.

As for the gear, Gearhouse prides itself on its growing library of high quality items and also tries to make the gear available on the most convenient schedule as possible with six-day rentals that allow plenty of time to pick up what you need beforehand without requiring you to rush back after the end of a long hike. Meanwhile, this being Seattle and a bastion of Pacific Northwest mildness, members tend to return Gearhouse’s gear in mostly pristine condition, Maynard says.

With growth and the expansion to Capitol Hill, the Gearhouse library is also always growing. Getting bigger has its advantages.

“We are always looking to expand,” Maynard said. “The bigger we get, the more we can support niche items.”

Next season, Maynard said Gearhouse is planning a major addition to its library with downhill ski and snowboard equipment rentals joining the offerings.

Growth has also meant prices have risen over the years. Currently, joining Gearhouse comes in around $90 a month if you sign up for a full year. The company also offers gear rentals for non-members. Want to balance out the investment? You can borrow tools and more — for free plus a little volunteer time or sweat equity — from the Capitol Hill Tool Library.

Maynard at work — and play (Image: Gearhouse)

By mid-May, the 2,800-square-foot E Thomas Gearhouse will be a new outlet for unlimited gear rental to members along with access to events, classes, and resources like repair, maps, and guidebooks, plus the new coffee and beer cafe.

For Maynard, it is the next step in shaping Gearhouse into the full “social experience” concept the former Blue Origin rocket engineer envisioned when he started the company three years ago. The new Gearhouse will also have one more exciting new feature — windows. The first Gearhouse has grown into window-less space down a South Lake Union alley where the parade of people carrying around packs and loading up kayaks has still managed to draw notice from plenty of passersby. On Capitol Hill, the new Gearhouse will be even more on display as people gear up for weekend hikes and camping.

It will also put that growth closer to home without a trek to South Lake Union. “I-5 is like the Grand Canyon,” Maynard says of the hike.

But opening Gearhouse here is really about putting the business closer to the people he thinks need it the most.

“I’m excited because I love Capitol Hill and I don’t think it is really heavily using us,” Maynard said.

The Gearhouse project is located at 800 E Thomas. Learn more at joingearhouse.com.

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