Moosejaw outdoor retailer connects with young shoppers online Jewel Gopwani March 22, 2007 Need some dating advice? Ever try the store where you bought your hiking boots? Moosejaw Mountaineering Inc. wants you to. The Madison Heights-based outdoor retailer offers advice to lovelorn customers every day. Moosejaw also wants to play Rock, Paper, Scissors with you and find out what you like for lunch. This is a store that sells kayaks. From the hundreds of random quips in its mail-order catalog to the constant conversation the retailer has with its usually young customers, 14-year-old Moosejaw has built an outrageous personality that aims to take the seriousness out of buying tents, sweatshirts and, yes, kayaks. The company's culture, which has taken on a life of its own online, has helped Moosejaw's sales take off, despite a struggling state economy and competition from bigger companies. The company's Web sales, which make up more of Moosejaw's revenue than store stales, is one reason the business attracted a new investor offering money to help Moosejaw expand beyond its six Web sites and six stores in metro Detroit and Chicago. "People buy it because they sort of want to be a part of the fun. So we spend a lot of time trying to create that fun," said Robert Wolfe, who founded Moosejaw when he was 22 with a fellow University of Michigan graduate. Now Wolfe, 36, owns the company with his brother Jeffrey, sister Julie and, as of January, a Dallas-based investment firm. On Friday, the fun Robert Wolfe is talking about was a mime coming into the Birmingham store. The next gag might be a little louder. "We're tying to get a musical, a high school musical, to perform in the store all day," he said. "It's totally stupid and idiotic. Hopefully, customers will like it. If nothing else, it will be memorable." Moosejaw, a private company, won't disclose its revenue. Last year, its sales grew 40%. That's in a $7-billion outdoor sporting goods industry dominated by names like REI and Eastern Mountain Sports, which has been growing by 9% for the last two years, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. Neither Moosejaw nor its new investors, Dallas-based Parallel Investment Partners, would say how much new money Moosejaw will get. But Parallel, which manages $400 million, typically puts between $5 million and $20 million into a company. Moosejaw's product line is expanding so quickly that last fall it had to remove office space and the drop-down ceiling in its Birmingham store for more display and wall space. The company wants to at least triple its 16,000-square-foot warehouse to handle online sales, which Robert Wolfe expects to make up more than 65% of Moosejaw's revenue this year. Moosejaw's customers, who tend to buy more apparel than gear, are looking for a company that's different, said Jeffrey Wolfe, 31, who oversees the online operation and accounting and runs Moosejaw's marketing with his brother. That's one reason Moosejaw's Web site offers dating tips instead of hiking tips, or asks people to choose rock, paper, or scissors to see if they can win a coupon. "Our competitors will write about how to fit a backpack, which no one reads. Our approach is the exact opposite. People call up and will just say 'scissors' into the phone," Jeffrey Wolfe said. Most of the jokes are on a Web page the company calls Madness, dedicated to the silly. After its homepage, that's Moosejaw's most-visited page.It's not just that Moosejaw makes its customers laugh. The company has become a part of their lives. At 8 a.m. every day, those who have subscribed get an e-mail with Moosejaw's blog entry full of random musings, movie lines, a trivia question and links to Moosejaw's multiple Web sites and myspace page. "They're talking to the general audience. But they make you feel like they're talking to you. They act like they don't really care what you think of them. But in doing that, it makes you want to read more," said Alyssa Skon, 27, of Mesa, Ariz. She found Moosejaw a few years when looking for a present for her boyfriend. Now, it's the first thing listed on Skon's myspace page, because she knows her friends will find it funny. "It's because they're so funny, that's where I go to," Skon said. "That's where I always buy North Face." Skon's sentiment hones in on what has worked for Moosejaw. "It's like your own club," said Ed Nakfoor, a Birmingham-based retail consultant. "Consumers like to feel like they're helping this brand."

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