Dave Chantler knew what individuals wished even earlier than they knew they wished it.
When virtually no one else within the nation was cross-country snowboarding, Dave confirmed them how you can 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 people 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 surely’s simply as correct to say he was within the imaginative and prescient enterprise. And Dave had wonderful imaginative and prescient.
Dave handed away in early November in Washington’s Methow Valley on the age of 84. He led the form 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 grow to be a nationwide retail powerhouse. However 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 outdoor the way in which he received excited, and he wished individuals to attempt new methods to do it. And so they did, buoyed by his enthusiasm.
Dave found the outside early. He was born October 12, 1938, in Seattle to Wire and Martha Chantler, and he was raised in West Seattle alongside together with his youthful brother, Wayne. When his native Boy Scout troop’s concept of an outing concerned puttering round city, he and 9 different boys fashioned their very own Scout troop. Quickly they discovered an grownup to guide them into the Cascades to have actual adventures: backpacking, mountain climbing, ski touring.
That keenness for journey continued in school in Seattle. Dave was an everyday on the co-op’s retailer above the Inexperienced Apple Pie restaurant on Seattle’s Pike Road. It was the one place round to purchase good gear. There he struck up a friendship with worker Gary Rose. The 2 turned journey companions.
REI was 20 years outdated within the early Sixties. The co-op was nonetheless tiny. However change had begun. The co-op had not too long ago opened a spot the place it may fill orders, so it not crammed them from the attic and basement of the Andersons’ home. Jim Whittaker, who was the final supervisor on the time, had simply been chosen to affix the staff of U.S. climbers trying Mount Everest. With Jim leaving and the store needing extra assist, Gary beneficial that the co-op rent Dave in 1962. Each males would work their complete careers at REI and grow to be lifelong buddies.
Dave was drafted into the Military the subsequent yr. When Dave returned to the co-op in 1965, Jim was well-known. Out of doors recreation had begun to increase, and the co-op was rising quicker than ever. The founders have been prepared at hand extra duty to the subsequent technology. REI was at an inflection level, and Dave and Gary stood on the nexus of those currents. The 2 have been younger, good and succesful. Lloyd started grooming Dave to be the overseas items purchaser, selecting every little thing from Sigg pots to Edelrid ropes and Raichle boots, as Dave recounted to outside author Bob Woodward in 2007. Gary would grow to be the home purchaser.
Within the early Nineteen Seventies, the Andersons returned from a enterprise journey in Finland. They’d heard that cross-country skis have 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 offered all of them. He additionally tried cross-country snowboarding, and he fell in love with the game. He ordered extra skis. He offered these too. Quickly, eight treasured pages of the REI catalog have been dedicated to cross-country gear. Gross sales ballooned.
Dave started organizing Nordic ski clinics to the mountains above Seattle. The teachings have been well-liked, although they have been held within the rear of an outdated gravel pit. One ski occasion he organized drew 300 attendees. Individuals 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 grow to be the driving power in introducing individuals to winter snowboarding in Washington’s Methow Valley, bringing the primary busloads of REI clients to jap Washington within the early Nineteen Seventies. Later, he constructed a log cabin within the valley and helped lower a number of the first ski trails. At present the valley boasts essentially the most intensive Nordic trails system in North America. In 1997, the ski trade honored Dave with the primary Dagfinn Ragg award for his excellent contribution to the development of cross-country snowboarding.
Additionally within the early Nineteen 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 known as JanSport. Dave had spent a number of moist nights in saggy A-frame tents, and he sensed that folks would possibly love the dome tents. “He was deeply revered by individuals within the trade as a result of he had this sense of what individuals would need subsequent,” stated Ben Johns, who thought of Dave a mentor at REI, and a buddy. As REI later turned bigger and extra advanced, Ben was one in all many workers who took over tasks for what Dave alone had as soon as dealt with in a youthful, smaller co-op.
Dave additionally liked to experience bikes. He’d taken epic rides with buddies throughout the Canadian Rockies. Beginning 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. Additionally, some manufacturers wouldn’t promote to REI. “Dave was struggling to supply bikes within the amount and high quality that he wished,” stated Ben. “So Dave stated, ‘We’re gonna create a model, and we’re gonna be masters of our personal future.’” By this time, REI had grown sufficient that the co-op had the clout, and the checkbook, to attempt one thing large.
Dave teamed up with “Cozy” Yamakoshi, a well-regarded product improvement guru and bicycle sourcing professional from Japan. Novara started in 1982. And the 2 males would grow to be quick buddies, bonding over the intricacies of bicycles. At first, the co-op merely purchased bikes from a manufacturing unit and branded them Novara. Shortly, although, they positioned a manufacturing unit in Asia, and the fitting elements, 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 improvement, retiring after 29 years.) Dave didn’t design the bikes’ structure, however he ceaselessly had the imaginative and prescient for what a Novara bike ought to be and do. “He conceived it. He constructed 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 motorcycle that might 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 form of bike: a strong machine however with huge, smoother tires, and handlebars for cozy, all-day driving. Referred to as the X-R (for “crossroads”), the bike was a mutt. At present, we’d maybe name it the primary gravel bike. “It was so forward of its time,” stated Steve. “It wasn’t a high vendor, nevertheless it was form of a visionary product.” The bike received Novara its first nationwide award. Individuals nonetheless write to REI saying they purchased an X-R at a storage sale and find it irresistible, they usually ask for details about it.
Novara ended about 4 years in the past. However Co-op Cycles stands on the shoulders of its legacy.
“Dave was a personality,” stated Steve. That character was marked by generosity and graciousness. He relished the function of mentor. However “he may have a really sharp tongue,” Steve added. “And he didn’t put the filter on fairly 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 would possibly discover him frequenting varied 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 international locations and had a life listing that stretched to almost 7,000 birds.
Dave didn’t marry. He’s 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 day by day, whether or not they understand it or not.
