February 14, 2025 • 35 mins
What if the unexpected storm of the century could teach us about resilience and community strength? Join us for an extraordinary conversation with Russ Towers, the inspiring co-founder of Second Gear, as he recounts the tumultuous journey of his Asheville-based outdoor gear and consignment shop. From humble beginnings in West Asheville to a major expansion in the River Arts District, Second Gear thrived on blending new and used outdoor equipment. But when Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc in 2024, it threatened everything Russ and his team had built. Discover how they turned disaster into determination, securing a new location and reopening just in time for the holiday season with the help of passionate community support.
Russ shares the emotional aftermath of the hurricane, highlighting the extraordinary resilience and adaptability that emerged amidst chaos. With community allies like Explore Asheville and the Chamber of Commerce, the business found unexpected sources of strength and aid. Learn how the power of teamwork, strategic partnerships, and a successful GoFundMe campaign allowed them to navigate financial challenges and maintain operations. Russ's stories of optimism and perseverance underscore the unyielding spirit of small businesses and the essential role of community support in overcoming adversity.
Amidst the trials, there were unexpected positives that arose from this challenge, including heartwarming tales of generosity and unity. Russ reflects on the profound impact of a simple wooden angel figurine, symbolizing hope and continuity. By embracing their community's support and rekindling their mission to provide affordable outdoor experiences, Second Gear has not only survived but thrived. Let our conversation remind you of the power of local exploration and the solidarity that can help businesses rise above adversity. Join us in celebrating the enduring spirit of resilience and the heart of a community-driven business.
Mike Andress
Host, Exploration Local
828-551-9065
mike@explorationlocal.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
In this episode, I sit down with Russ Towers,
co-founder and co-owner ofSecond Gear, an outdoor gear and
consignment shop with deeproots in Asheville, north
Carolina.
Russ takes us on a journeythrough the highs and lows of
building and growing Second Gear, from its beginnings in West
Asheville in 2004, to itsexpansion into Asheville's River
Arts District in 2021.
But what truly sets this storyapart is the incredible
(00:24):
resilience and perseverance Russand his team demonstrated in
the face of a major catastrophe.
In September 2024, hurricaneHelene brought devastating
floods that decimated theirbuilding, threatening to erase
nearly two decades of hard work.
Yet even in the aftermath ofsuch destruction, second Gear
found strength in theircommunity and, with quick
(00:46):
thinking and strategicpartnerships, they managed to
reopen in a new location just intime for the holiday season.
In this episode, rush shareshow the Second Gear team
overcame incredible challenges,the lessons they've learned and
the unwavering support theyreceived from their loyal
customers.
Unwavering support they receivefrom their loyal customers.
(01:06):
You'll also hear about SecondGear's unique consignment model,
how they've adapted to changingseasons and the stories of
generosity that help themrebuild.
Tune in for this powerfulconversation about the heart of
small business, the importanceof community and the spirit of
resilience that can help yourise above, even in the most
difficult circumstances.
I'm glad you're here.
I'll see you on the other side.
You're listening to ExplorationLocal, a podcast designed to
(01:35):
explore and celebrate the peopleand places that make the Blue
Ridge and Southern AppalachianMountains special and unique.
My name is Mike Andrus, thehost of Exploration Local.
Join us on our journey toexplore these mountains and
discover how they fuel a spiritof adventure.
We encourage you to wander far,but explore local, let's go.
(01:56):
I'm honored to be able to sharea little bit of the story of
Second Gear.
You all do a great job in allyour socials.
Yeah, you're very welcome.
You all do a great job in allyour socials.
Yeah, you're very welcome.
You all do a great job in allyour socials, and I've learned
so much about your story that Ididn't know before.
But I just want to thank youfor coming in and I can't wait
to dive into this.
Russ.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Thanks, Mike.
Yeah, it's amazing how anatural disaster will give you
exposure that you didn't thinkyou'd have or weren't expecting.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So yeah, but we're going to roll with it.
Well, as we get started here,for people that don't know
Second Gear, you are located inAsheville.
You were located in the RiverArch District.
Just for the listeners thatdon't know who you are, a little
bit about the background ofSecond Gear, sure.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Second Gear was started in 2004, and we opened
up in West Asheville on HaywoodRoad.
We were up there for 17 years.
It's a consignment-focusedoutdoor adventure store, so a
little twist on outdoorretailing where we're selling
used gear, equipment, apparel,footwear, along with some new
items as well.
(02:57):
So it's a mix of new and used.
When we first started out itwas kind of all used.
It was a very small footprint.
We were in 1,100 square feet tostart.
We grew into a bigger space2,000 feet, eventually 4,000
square feet, had a downtownstore and a West Asheville store
.
Through the years we had somegreat success on Haywood Road
(03:17):
and really outgrew our space.
Last few years and back induring COVID we kind of reached
a tipping point where we justcan't, it's not sustainable
anymore in this size space.
So we're really attracted tothe River Arts District with all
the energy that was down thereand a mixed event at that point
(03:37):
of breweries and artists andsome restaurants and outdoor
activity and we just thoughtthat would be a great place for
us and we could find a bigenough space.
So we moved, thought that wouldbe a great place for us and we
could find a big enough space,so we moved into that 10,000
square foot building inSeptember of 21.
We spent almost a yearupfitting it, renovating it for
our use, designed everythingdown to the square foot.
(03:59):
I spent 18 months on thatproject.
So we were there three years tothe month when the storm hit.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So I love to just kind of hear your perspective as
a co-founder, a part owner andsomebody who just invested 18
months of your life, like youjust said, right down to every
little detail.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
What was?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
that like Russ.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
My home's nearby.
So I had eyes on what was goingon before, during and after.
We had water up to thatbuilding on Thursday morning
from all the rain Wednesdaynight which we have seen that
before.
I wasn't expecting it Thursdaymorning when I pulled up.
So we had to go to a plan B.
(04:41):
We had planned to get somethings out of the store.
So we had to go to a plan B.
We had planned to get somethings out of the store.
We had a truck rented but wedidn't have time and that U I've
told several people, I've saidthis several times that it was
bizarre.
It was surreal.
It was like watching a disastermovie and you're in the movie,
(05:16):
you're the star of the movie.
You know, by Friday afternoonwhen things had, you know the
weather had cleared and thewater is still rising and it's
almost all the way up to the topof the building and there's TV
crews there.
It was just, it was bizarre.
And then you know seeing, oncethe debris hit and the building
started collapse.
(05:36):
It was hard, it was hard towatch, but at the same time I
was trying to keep perspectiveof, ok, this looks really bad,
but it's just stuff and, uh, alot of the huge stuff that
people have kind of moved onfrom.
It's not anybody's home and atthis point, like on Friday,
saturday, you really don't knowthe extent kind of region wide
(05:59):
about all the the death anddestruction hadn't hurt too much
of that.
But I was again trying to keepperspective that nobody's hurt,
it's not somebody's home, it's abusiness and that hurt from a
business standpoint.
My initial reaction was wow, isthis 20 years of work down the
drain?
Within the first couple of daysor so when I could get cell
(06:23):
service and start talking to mymanagement team, it was also
good news to learn that we had18 employees at the time,
counting myself, and thateverybody was okay.
So nobody had any significantdamage to their homes, so
everybody was safe.
So I don't want to sound like Iwas just focused on the
(06:44):
building.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
What was going on down the river, but then
obviously you're going to go tothe people the people whose
(07:06):
lives are now affected, becauseit's not just yours, it's 18
other people whose lives areaffected as well.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And then comes the new opportunity.
So it's not all lost.
There are a lot of companiesand businesses who have lost and
they're still not open.
But it sounds like you wereable to kind of move along and
you had some things that justcame to be sort of kind of fell
in your lap, just some reallygolden moments here.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yes, yeah, and pretty quickly right off the bat.
If there's a silver lining tothe amount of damage that the
building sustained was that itwas very apparent right off the
bat Once the water went down youcould see all the debris that
hit and the collapse that youknow, even before I could get on
the ground to see it that we'renot going to be able to go back
(07:51):
in some debt that we had from,you know, a COVID EIDL loan, and
so just a lot of momentum going.
So it never really.
There was never really thethought of, well, I guess we're
(08:13):
going to close.
It was well, how do we find thepath forward?
I went to that mode prettyquickly and I think that also
helped me not grieve and not gettoo bogged down with oh, woe
was me, woe was second gear andI guess, in an also strange way,
being down on that bridgeinitially and seeing the extent
(08:35):
of the damage and realizing,okay, it's not just us or you
know it's how extensive thedamage was, that there were a
lot of businesses that weregoing to be impacted and so it
kind of didn't in some ways feelas bad like we were the one
victim.
It was there going to be a lotof a lot of pain here with a lot
of businesses.
(08:55):
So I think all of that kind ofhelped me and my team to move
forward.
We pivoted really quickly and Iright off the bat, you know,
thought about the former FrugalBackpacker space up in the
Westgate Shopping Center andthat had been vacant since COVID
and Will Gay, the owner ofFrugal Backpacker, has been a
(09:17):
longtime consigner with SecondGear.
So it's very Asheville howAsheville's interconnected in
supporting different businesses.
So through an investmentpartner that I have, austin
Walker, who's a broker, we werereal estate brokers together.
We started looking atproperties and looked at that,
really kind of zeroed in on thefrugal backpacker space and that
(09:38):
location was particularlyappealing because, as I
mentioned, we have hundreds ofconsignors that are coming from
all over.
So it was really important forus, I thought, to stay centrally
located and not too far fromwhere we were so it would be
accessible for people comingfrom all different directions.
Also wanted to be not too farfrom the downtown area and a lot
(10:02):
of visitors stay downtown andknew that eventually tourism
would come back.
It would be back, yeah, and wewanted to be accessible to those
folks because a lot of peoplewould find us.
Even though they would drive byand find us, whether it was
Haywood Road in the past orRiverside in the last three
years, a lot of people stillfind us through just a Google
search or they're visitingfriends and family.
(10:23):
So we knew we were going to begiving up some of that drive-by
tourist exposure but trading itfor being centrally located,
being in a shopping center,being accessible, being near
Earth Fare and other businessesin that shopping center.
I think most people in theAsheville area know that
shopping center pretty well, soit felt very very comfortable
(10:45):
going there.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
What was the support that you were experiencing
throughout the community alongthis time?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yes, yeah.
Well, right off the bat, vicIsley and the Explore Asheville
team opened up their offices tosmall businesses to operate
because they had internetservice, they had electricity,
they had port-a-johns.
The Chamber of Commerce alsoopened up their space and SBA
came in.
They were housed there withsome of their disaster support.
(11:17):
So those two organizations,particularly right off the bat,
were critical.
I didn't have power or internetat my home so I was able to
really get the ball rolling onour you know path forward
working out of there and mystaff was able to.
The recovery team was able.
We were able to meet there.
So we did that for the firstcouple three weeks working out
(11:40):
of Explore Asheville.
As I mentioned, we started aout of Explore Asheville, as I
mentioned, we started a GoFundMeaccount and raised over several
weeks.
$40,000 was our goal.
We hit that.
We reached out to our consignorsbecause you know we had sold
stuff in September but we didn'thave revenue coming in after
that and we gave consignors theoption of maybe either foregoing
(12:04):
their payment for Septemberthat we owed them or donating it
back, or foregoing it ordeferring it.
A lot of people donated it orjust said don't worry about
paying us.
Some people deferred.
And then same way with itemsthat were lost.
Because we lost 100%, mike, ofeverything.
We lost all of our fixtures,inventory, equipment, supplies
(12:28):
100% loss, including all theconsigned items.
And so we also reached out tothose consignors and many of
them said you know, don't worryabout it, just as a side note, a
lot of businesses in the quitea few businesses I've read did
not have flood insurance.
We had flood insurance on ourcontents.
You had to balance what's, whatcan you afford?
(12:50):
How much do you think you needwe?
We lost twice as much as we hadcoverage for and that that
claim is still outstanding.
Okay, and you know, I I wasalso fortunate we have six own,
six shareholders, six owners inthe business that we put some
capital in and basically made aloan to the business.
If it weren't for that, wewouldn't have been able to
reopen.
(13:10):
If we were waiting on thisinsurance claim to get back on
our feet, we wouldn't be openright now.
And I've heard that otherbusinesses are in the same boat,
that they have outstandingclaims, and the adjuster we were
working with was working onover 150 claims.
So, it's frustrating, but I alsokind of understand that they're
probably overloaded with theamount of claims because of the
(13:34):
extent of how big this disasterwas and how widespread.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, before we get into your new space, I'd love to
kind of stay here just a littlebit longer.
I'd like to kind of talk aboutthe mindset a little bit.
I know you had the infusion ofthe cash and you had the other
co-investors that were able tohelp bolster and shore up a
little bit, but just the mindsetin general, because it takes
more than just the money.
There's got to be the mindsettoo, I think and I don't want to
(14:00):
project anything on you thatisn't real but how important was
that?
How important was your mindsetof saying we are going to be,
this isn't the end, we are goingto move forward?
I just to give them theconfidence that we don't have
all the answers right now.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
We don't know how this is going to play out, but
we're going to figure out a pathforward.
This business is too wellsupported, too strong and too
well loved and you all likeworking here and I want to
support you.
I want to support this business.
We're going to figure out a wayto do this and we did so, and
(14:48):
it wasn't just me figuring thatout.
That was, you know, vendorsworking with us.
That was guys on our team.
You know that was other peopleon our team reaching out to all
those consignors and doing theGoFundMe, doing all those things
that made it work.
But just having confidence,because I guess also 20 years in
business, I felt like there'sno reason this shouldn't
(15:09):
continue on.
And also being inspired byother businesses, whether
they're in Asheville or otherplaces in the outdoor industry,
that have been around 30, 40, 50years, why not us?
I mean, why I'm not going tolet it in this way.
I'm not going to let a disasterin this.
People are going to want tocome back to Asheville.
Asheville is very outdoor,focused Western North Carolina.
(15:29):
There's no reason not to moveon, so we're going to figure out
a way to do this.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I love that, yeah, yeah that.
I mean you're speaking of thatreally, that spirit of
resiliency, and I've seen thatso much in the last.
Well, since the fall I meansince the hurricane came you see
these stories of resiliencies,and so that's very encouraging
to hear you say that and to knowthat you have your heritage to
rest on, you have yourexperience to rest on, and you
(15:54):
also have the future customersin mind, too that say we want
them to experience some of thevery same stuff that people have
been experiencing for the last20 years.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, and on a personal level, Mike, it was
like, well, if I didn't dosecond gear, I'm not ready to
move on quite yet.
I'm kind of getting into thetwilight of my career Maybe.
What am I going to do if I'mnot?
I love owning a business.
I love, you know, the team thatI'm with and it's a fun
business because it's about theoutdoors.
You know, we, we try to run itprofessionally and take it
(16:22):
seriously, but not takeourselves and not take it too
seriously.
You know that at the end of theday, it's about getting
outdoors and enjoying theoutdoors.
So, yeah, I wanted to continueto do that.
I enjoy it.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I love that Most days , I love it.
Yeah, that's right, it's likeany business.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, there's stuff that you have to deal with a lot
.
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Well, it kind of sounds like your.
Why is what keeps you going?
Something you said earlier waspeople that want to get into the
outdoors, and you want to seethem getting into the outdoors
and be able to do that moreaffordably through the products
that you guys are selling, thatyou're co-signing, I think, is
just a wonderful way to do it.
I know that's been true of ourfamily.
I know it's been true of ourkids.
There's things and pieces ofgear that you can just get there
(17:00):
, that you don't have to makethese huge investments in a
brand new piece of product.
So, yeah, well, let's talkabout the transitioning in.
So now you're in the WestgateShopping Center.
You opened this store up rightbefore the holidays and in the
beginning of December, and itseems like when you opened up
you were stocked full.
How do you go from havingnothing to having a store full
(17:23):
of product that people can comeand shop?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Several factors that played there.
We did have a few weeks that wewere preparing for this.
So again, it was being able tokeep that team together.
So Peter, our buyer, he was intouch with vendors and we were
putting together, you know,orders.
Those vendors a lot of themgave us extended terms or gave
us discounts right off the batfor this pre-opening order,
(17:46):
which was awesome.
And then somebody else on theteam you know Chris, he's
ordered fixtures before.
So he had to order all brand newfixtures and we had to make
that decision.
You know, do you, do we go outand try to buy, get a bunch of
used stuff to save money, or dowe just make the decision we're
going to buy it and make it looklike it did before?
And we just made that decisionlike, okay, we don't want it to
(18:06):
look hodgepodge and we want tomake it look like it had before.
So we had fixtures ordered andwe had to go out and buy all new
computers.
And I had worked with the samegeneral contractor that we had
worked with down in the RiverArts District and up on Haywood
Road, and that's ElmConstruction, and Trey, his crew
(18:28):
, jumped in and helped us openup quickly.
So it was that support fromkind of, I guess, already being
in business, having connectionsand having those relationships
established that really made itpossible to make it allow us to
open up so quickly.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
That's great, and you continue to thrive.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, we made the business decision that, knowing
that February, january are notgoing to be awesome, but we're
going to get a little bit ofDecember in, we're going to get
established, we're going to keepmomentum going.
And we're going to getestablished.
We're going to keep momentumgoing, we're going to be, I hope
, very established, ready to gocome March, april and we won't
have lost staff and people startto know, you know, we'll know
(19:11):
where we are, I hope, and thatwhen spring gets here and people
are ready to get back out, thatwe're already there and known.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Oh, that's great, and I notice you're already kind of
beginning to wind down yourwinter consignment, especially
some of the fleece.
You guys are running some greatdeals right now, some extra
stack-on discounts, and thenyou're ready to transition into
the spring products.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah, historically, part of the way that we try to
get a little boost in Februaryis to start doing a winter
clearance in February, becausewe opened in December and it's
been particularly cold.
We've pushed that back a littlebit.
So yeah, that's kind of aroundthe corner that we'll start
winding down winter and starttaking in spring.
(19:54):
You know we've never had anissue with getting consignment.
The community is just so awesomeabout supporting us and that's
what the whole business is basedon is community to provide
product for the store andthey've never let us down.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And they're not going to let you down now.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I'm super positive about being in Westgate.
I'm really, really fortunatethat we found a space that is
working.
But it's got some challengestoo and I'm not going to
sugarcoat everything.
It hurt from going fromsomething that was designed and
that we intended to be there for15 years or more to something
(20:32):
that we had to kind of make apivot and have to adjust to.
It's not ideal, but we've gotsome flexibility there to adjust
to.
It's not ideal, but we've gotsome flexibility there and I
think we'll outgrow that spacebecause we were operating in
something, like I said, a thirdbigger than what we're in now.
So we'll see how it all thatplays out over the next few
years.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Besides the, obviously the location, River
Arts into a strip shoppingcenter, which is still nice and
it's still convenient and it'sstill very easily accessible.
What are some of the otherobstacles, or what are some of
the other things that are justgoing to be different for the
people that haven't been able tocome visit you yet?
What should they expect asthey're walking in the doors?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I think what they're going to find is that it's just
a slightly smaller version ofwhat we have.
We really haven't changed themix.
You know we've been for thelast as long as I can remember
last 10 years or so at least amix of about 70% used consigned
items and 30% new accessories,and that's still the case.
(21:33):
We have the same lookingfixtures.
You know, we're really, I guess, one of the big differences.
It was really fun that we hadtwo other businesses down the
River Arts District with us.
We had Asheville AdventureCompany they were doing their
electric bike tours and we had alittle cafe, sugar and Snow
Gelato.
So we don't have them anymore,but we have Earth Fare.
However, sugar and Snow has alittle cooler or freezer in our
(21:55):
store.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Oh good.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So you can still get Sugar and Snow Gelato pints.
And they're selling online aswell, so customers can pick up
their online purchases in thestore as well.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Generally speaking, what would some words of wisdom
be for other companies, otherbusinesses that haven't been
able to quite get to the pointwhere you are, of sort of
reopening and recovering,regardless of whether or not
they're brick and mortar?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
what are some of the words of wisdom and some
encouragement that you mighthave for them?
You know, believe in yourself.
If you believe in yourself andyour business, you can make it
work.
I feel like you can make itwork with support.
You know there's a lot ofsupport right now, whether it's
oh, I didn't mention, we alsogot grants.
We had, you know, so far, fourgrants.
So I would recommend to thosebusinesses it's not too late and
(22:46):
there are still more grantscoming online.
You know, a lot of businessesnot just Second Gear have COVID
debt, and so there are SBA loansthat are available and those
loans are very attractive, andso a lot of businesses didn't
want to take on more debt,including mine.
But if you don't have a SBAloan, whether it's coaching or
(23:25):
helping you kind of navigate thehorizon right now of recovery,
stay strong.
You know, if you believe inyour business and you've got
good support for your business,just keep at it and reach out
for that support within thecommunity, cause you'll, you'll,
you'll, you'll find thatsupport and that that path
forward.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
What about some unexpected positives that came
from this transition?
I mean, I know that, you know,sometimes we we see the silver
lining, um, whatever phrase wewant to use there, uh, and
sometimes we don't.
But what are some of thepositive, the unexpected
positives that came from thistransition?
Russ.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, just the, particularly after we reopened
the first week or so just peoplebeing genuinely, sincerely
grateful and excited that wehave reopened, because it's
partly their business as well.
But I think they they were happyfor us and and because of the
(24:24):
service we provide and theproducts we provide, that we
were able to to find that pathforward and that was just really
gratifying.
You know, I get a little chokedup over it because it's
hundreds of people that werecoming in and those same people
that said that, that said, youknow, I don't need my payment,
you need it more than we do, andso just that, that support and
(24:46):
just, you know, as I saidearlier, it's, it's amazing how,
how, uh, the attention that you, the unintended intention that
you get from a disaster.
But when you see the love fromthe community and the you know,
uh, you see the love from thecommunity and the you know,
(25:10):
friends and family andsupporters from all over the
country that donated significantmoney to our GoFundMe, or just
a little amount, just anywherefrom a few dollars to a few
thousand dollars, was just, Iwas just blown away by that.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I love that I was just blown away by that.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I love that, and even people donating to our GoFundMe
whose own businesses had beendestroyed or significantly
damaged.
And we're kind of all in that.
That was like just you know,mind blowing.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And just so humbling.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, did it kind of make you feel like you weren't
in this alone, when you'reexperiencing that for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, yeah, right from, like I said earlier, from
you know that first few daysbeing on the bridge and seeing
the extent of the damage andseeing, wow, this is really
going to impact.
And then you start learningabout, you know, biltmore
Village and Swannanoe and allthese other places of businesses
that have been impacted as well, that yeah, this is a long haul
and and everybody's kind of inthis together very different
(26:04):
feel from covid.
You know, this covid was sodifferent because for our
business in particular, once wewere able to reopen after nine
weeks, everybody wanted to getoutside, be away from each other
and we I I felt guilty.
How good business was back thenand but now everybody was kind
of, you know, really out ofbusiness for Quite a while.
(26:25):
Even businesses like downtownAsheville that weren't flooded
but because of the watersituation couldn't open.
That just it was reallydifficult for everybody or, you
know, and their insurancewouldn't cover cover it because
it was all related to a floodbut they weren't flooded.
So, yeah, just all theseramifications that came out of
(26:47):
it that you wouldn't expect.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Well, so there's one little story that I was
following on social media.
Oh this little angel.
Oh wow, I'd love to hear thatfrom your perspective.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I hope I can keep it together, because so you want
the whole story, the whole angelstory whatever you want, okay.
You can.
You can pare it down if youneed to.
So the first year we were inbusiness on haywood road, there
were four apartments above us.
We were at 415 haywood road andthey're, you know, little
mailboxes out front.
And one day I came in, I waspulling the mail out of the
(27:21):
mailbox and this little figurineangel this was around christmas
was in our mailbox and uh,let's use uh wooden figurine and
about six or seven inches tall,and I held on to her for a
couple of days and thought, well, maybe somebody meant to put
her in one of the othermailboxes and so nobody claimed
her and so she was kind of aguardian angel or she's been
(27:44):
called angel of the counter.
She lived on our counter and shewas on the counter at 415
Haywood.
She moved across the street,she's gone through renovations
and she's always just been thereat the counter and we've never
made a big deal of it.
So she moved down to Riversidewith us and a few nights you
(28:06):
know, like one of the firstnights after the storm I'm
laying in bed and you know I betother people went through the
same thing.
I just couldn't sleep and justyou just, and I I had kept it
together and I realized I wasthinking about oh, that angel's
gone.
We've had her for 20 years onthat counter.
(28:26):
She's gone Now.
At this point I have not beenin the, I can't get in the
building but I'm thinking she'sgone.
And that's when that was my cry,that was my like oh man, the
(28:49):
full weight of it, yeah, fullweight of it, very symbolic.
Is my business gone?
Is that it, even though I'mkeeping the brave face of we can
find a path forward?
I don't even know if we'vegotten there yet, a path forward
, but that's kind of when theemotion hit me.
So, you know, a few weeks later, when I'm able to get in the
store and get in the building,and you know it's really
(29:09):
dangerous to be in there becauseit's collapsed and I'm looking
around, kind of looking wherethe counter area, you know
there's this mud and the roofshave collapsed and I searched
around and you know there'sstuff from all these other
buildings in there.
There's a dumpster from arestaurant, you know, half a
mile away, you know.
So it's like literally theneedle in the haystack and I
(29:32):
couldn't find her and I thought,well, okay, that's, that's
unfortunate.
So a couple weeks later again,kind of one of these you know
beautiful things that's happenedthrough.
This is Bob.
I've forgotten Bob's last name.
Bob, who does video, does shortdocu-films.
He reached out to us to do alittle documentary film on
(29:53):
Second Gear, so we're filminginside the building.
Chris and I are there with Bobone morning in November I guess
it was November, december andBob's filming and Chris is
walking around and Chris foundthe angel.
Chris is walking around andChris found the angel.
It was not, you know, it was ityou would watch.
You would think like oh, thisis reality TV, it was staged
(30:16):
right.
No, it was not staged, and sothat was just such a a win, such
an amazing like wow.
She survived.
So I took her home, cleaned herup and she is now protected now
protected in one of the displaycases at 52 Westgate Love that.
They had a really happy endingand it was really just so ironic
(30:41):
how it played out like thatWhile he happened to be filming.
We found her After I had lookedfor her.
She was kind of near where thecounter had been, but the whole
counter was the counter, thebase, you know.
It was a concrete.
It was all gone.
There was nothing there or verylittle there.
It was.
You know, most everything gotblown out and washed down river.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
So wow, yeah, and at that point was that just more of
reinforcement.
Oh, absolutely, absolutely yes.
This is yes, we've got her.
We've got her.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
She's with us.
This needs to continue.
She's.
She's behind us, she's got us.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah, I love it, brother.
Well, listen man.
Uh, I know that's tough to tokind of go back and relive, but
hopefully in some ways that itjust kind of continues to
strengthen you too andstrengthens your resolve and
your resiliency to know thatwe're doing the right thing for
the right reasons and peopleneed this.
They want this and they'vesurrounded us and we're going to
(31:37):
keep doing this for as long aswe possibly can.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Yeah, we're so grateful for the support.
We're so fortunate to be ableto reopen, to have the resources
to do it.
I don't know not all businesses, small business can do that
resources to do it.
I don't know not all businesses, small business can do that.
But again, try your hardest, ifyou're a small business, to
find those resources, to findhelp.
You'd be surprised how manypeople really want you to be
around and you know best to youout there if you're trying to
(32:04):
climb back out of this.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I love that.
All right.
So last before I let you go,what is the website for Second
Gear?
What are your socials?
And also, how can people whowant to now come, if they
haven't ever consigned with youbefore?
What's the best way for them todo that?
Speaker 2 (32:18):
an Instagram.
Our inventory is online.
Not everything in the store isphotographed, but we put
consigned items, consignmentselects, as well as our new
things, so you can previewonline as well.
(32:39):
In our newer space we takeconsignment now every day, but
Tuesday.
That's kind of new.
But because we have a smallerspace, we've had to kind of drop
the maximum amount of itemsthat people can bring in at a
time.
I would recommend to folks, youknow, check out our website,
because we're constantlyupdating that on things that
(33:00):
we're taking.
We take items seasonally, butsometimes during the season we
get too much of one thing.
So, you know, check the website.
We also, you know, do a lot ofemailing.
We have a newsletter that goesout, so you know just kind of
check beforehand before you comein to see what's hot and what's
not hot at the time.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Nice.
Yeah Well, Russ, thanks so muchfor just spending a few minutes
with me.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Absolutely.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this.
I wish you all nothing but thebest.
It's a great store serving agreat cause.
Yeah, just, I'm so, so happyfor the direction that y'all are
moving in and so happy youfound your angel.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Appreciate it, thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Thank you, brother, story with us and for offering
such a candid and inspiring lookat the highs and lows of
running a business, from thestruggles of a flood and a
hurricane to the triumphs ofrecovery.
Second Gear's story is atestament to the incredible
power of resilience, communitysupport and thoughtful decision
(34:01):
making.
What stood out most was Russ'sbelief in the heart of his
business the people, from thepatrons who supported Second
Gear during its hardest times tothe team that never gave up.
It's clear that community iswhat has kept this business
alive.
The recovery journey wasn'tjust about getting back to
business, but about connectingmore deeply with the people that
(34:22):
they serve, and Russ's storyreminds all of us that no
challenge is insurmountable whenyou have the right mindset and
support system behind you.
If you're in the Asheville areaor just looking for top quality
outdoor gear, make sure tocheck out Second Gear.
Not only will you find greatproducts, but you'll also be
supporting a business that givesback to its community and is
(34:43):
committed fully to its community.
Before we wrap up, I'd love tohear from you, whether it's your
thoughts on today's episode oryour own stories of overcoming
adversity.
I always love connecting withour listeners.
If you've enjoyed theconversation.
Don't forget to rate andsubscribe so you never miss an
inspiring story.
Thanks again for tuning in.
(35:04):
Until next time, stay resilient, stay grounded and remember, no
matter how tough the journeygets, community and perseverance
will always light the wayforward.
Wander far, my friends, butalways explore local.
In this episode, I sit down with Russ Towers,
co-founder and co-owner ofSecond Gear, an outdoor gear and
consignment shop with deeproots in Asheville, north
Carolina.
Russ takes us on a journeythrough the highs and lows of
building and growing Second Gear, from its beginnings in West
Asheville in 2004, to itsexpansion into Asheville's River
Arts District in 2021.
But what truly sets this storyapart is the incredible
(00:24):
resilience and perseverance Russand his team demonstrated in
the face of a major catastrophe.
In September 2024, hurricaneHelene brought devastating
floods that decimated theirbuilding, threatening to erase
nearly two decades of hard work.
Yet even in the aftermath ofsuch destruction, second Gear
found strength in theircommunity and, with quick
(00:46):
thinking and strategicpartnerships, they managed to
reopen in a new location just intime for the holiday season.
In this episode, rush shareshow the Second Gear team
overcame incredible challenges,the lessons they've learned and
the unwavering support theyreceived from their loyal
customers.
Unwavering support they receivefrom their loyal customers.
(01:06):
You'll also hear about SecondGear's unique consignment model,
how they've adapted to changingseasons and the stories of
generosity that help themrebuild.
Tune in for this powerfulconversation about the heart of
small business, the importanceof community and the spirit of
resilience that can help yourise above, even in the most
difficult circumstances.
I'm glad you're here.
I'll see you on the other side.
You're listening to ExplorationLocal, a podcast designed to
(01:35):
explore and celebrate the peopleand places that make the Blue
Ridge and Southern AppalachianMountains special and unique.
My name is Mike Andrus, thehost of Exploration Local.
Join us on our journey toexplore these mountains and
discover how they fuel a spiritof adventure.
We encourage you to wander far,but explore local, let's go.
(01:56):
I'm honored to be able to sharea little bit of the story of
Second Gear.
You all do a great job in allyour socials.
Yeah, you're very welcome.
You all do a great job in allyour socials.
Yeah, you're very welcome.
You all do a great job in allyour socials, and I've learned
so much about your story that Ididn't know before.
But I just want to thank youfor coming in and I can't wait
to dive into this.
Russ.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Thanks, Mike.
Yeah, it's amazing how anatural disaster will give you
exposure that you didn't thinkyou'd have or weren't expecting.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So yeah, but we're going to roll with it.
Well, as we get started here,for people that don't know
Second Gear, you are located inAsheville.
You were located in the RiverArch District.
Just for the listeners thatdon't know who you are, a little
bit about the background ofSecond Gear, sure.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Second Gear was started in 2004, and we opened
up in West Asheville on HaywoodRoad.
We were up there for 17 years.
It's a consignment-focusedoutdoor adventure store, so a
little twist on outdoorretailing where we're selling
used gear, equipment, apparel,footwear, along with some new
items as well.
(02:57):
So it's a mix of new and used.
When we first started out itwas kind of all used.
It was a very small footprint.
We were in 1,100 square feet tostart.
We grew into a bigger space2,000 feet, eventually 4,000
square feet, had a downtownstore and a West Asheville store
.
Through the years we had somegreat success on Haywood Road
(03:17):
and really outgrew our space.
Last few years and back induring COVID we kind of reached
a tipping point where we justcan't, it's not sustainable
anymore in this size space.
So we're really attracted tothe River Arts District with all
the energy that was down thereand a mixed event at that point
(03:37):
of breweries and artists andsome restaurants and outdoor
activity and we just thoughtthat would be a great place for
us and we could find a bigenough space.
So we moved, thought that wouldbe a great place for us and we
could find a big enough space,so we moved into that 10,000
square foot building inSeptember of 21.
We spent almost a yearupfitting it, renovating it for
our use, designed everythingdown to the square foot.
(03:59):
I spent 18 months on thatproject.
So we were there three years tothe month when the storm hit.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So I love to just kind of hear your perspective as
a co-founder, a part owner andsomebody who just invested 18
months of your life, like youjust said, right down to every
little detail.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
What was?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
that like Russ.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
My home's nearby.
So I had eyes on what was goingon before, during and after.
We had water up to thatbuilding on Thursday morning
from all the rain Wednesdaynight which we have seen that
before.
I wasn't expecting it Thursdaymorning when I pulled up.
So we had to go to a plan B.
(04:41):
We had planned to get somethings out of the store.
So we had to go to a plan B.
We had planned to get somethings out of the store.
We had a truck rented but wedidn't have time and that U I've
told several people, I've saidthis several times that it was
bizarre.
It was surreal.
It was like watching a disastermovie and you're in the movie,
(05:16):
you're the star of the movie.
You know, by Friday afternoonwhen things had, you know the
weather had cleared and thewater is still rising and it's
almost all the way up to the topof the building and there's TV
crews there.
It was just, it was bizarre.
And then you know seeing, oncethe debris hit and the building
started collapse.
(05:36):
It was hard, it was hard towatch, but at the same time I
was trying to keep perspectiveof, ok, this looks really bad,
but it's just stuff and, uh, alot of the huge stuff that
people have kind of moved onfrom.
It's not anybody's home and atthis point, like on Friday,
saturday, you really don't knowthe extent kind of region wide
(05:59):
about all the the death anddestruction hadn't hurt too much
of that.
But I was again trying to keepperspective that nobody's hurt,
it's not somebody's home, it's abusiness and that hurt from a
business standpoint.
My initial reaction was wow, isthis 20 years of work down the
drain?
Within the first couple of daysor so when I could get cell
(06:23):
service and start talking to mymanagement team, it was also
good news to learn that we had18 employees at the time,
counting myself, and thateverybody was okay.
So nobody had any significantdamage to their homes, so
everybody was safe.
So I don't want to sound like Iwas just focused on the
(06:44):
building.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
What was going on down the river, but then
obviously you're going to go tothe people the people whose
(07:06):
lives are now affected, becauseit's not just yours, it's 18
other people whose lives areaffected as well.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And then comes the new opportunity.
So it's not all lost.
There are a lot of companiesand businesses who have lost and
they're still not open.
But it sounds like you wereable to kind of move along and
you had some things that justcame to be sort of kind of fell
in your lap, just some reallygolden moments here.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yes, yeah, and pretty quickly right off the bat.
If there's a silver lining tothe amount of damage that the
building sustained was that itwas very apparent right off the
bat Once the water went down youcould see all the debris that
hit and the collapse that youknow, even before I could get on
the ground to see it that we'renot going to be able to go back
(07:51):
in some debt that we had from,you know, a COVID EIDL loan, and
so just a lot of momentum going.
So it never really.
There was never really thethought of, well, I guess we're
(08:13):
going to close.
It was well, how do we find thepath forward?
I went to that mode prettyquickly and I think that also
helped me not grieve and not gettoo bogged down with oh, woe
was me, woe was second gear andI guess, in an also strange way,
being down on that bridgeinitially and seeing the extent
(08:35):
of the damage and realizing,okay, it's not just us or you
know it's how extensive thedamage was, that there were a
lot of businesses that weregoing to be impacted and so it
kind of didn't in some ways feelas bad like we were the one
victim.
It was there going to be a lotof a lot of pain here with a lot
of businesses.
(08:55):
So I think all of that kind ofhelped me and my team to move
forward.
We pivoted really quickly and Iright off the bat, you know,
thought about the former FrugalBackpacker space up in the
Westgate Shopping Center andthat had been vacant since COVID
and Will Gay, the owner ofFrugal Backpacker, has been a
(09:17):
longtime consigner with SecondGear.
So it's very Asheville howAsheville's interconnected in
supporting different businesses.
So through an investmentpartner that I have, austin
Walker, who's a broker, we werereal estate brokers together.
We started looking atproperties and looked at that,
really kind of zeroed in on thefrugal backpacker space and that
(09:38):
location was particularlyappealing because, as I
mentioned, we have hundreds ofconsignors that are coming from
all over.
So it was really important forus, I thought, to stay centrally
located and not too far fromwhere we were so it would be
accessible for people comingfrom all different directions.
Also wanted to be not too farfrom the downtown area and a lot
(10:02):
of visitors stay downtown andknew that eventually tourism
would come back.
It would be back, yeah, and wewanted to be accessible to those
folks because a lot of peoplewould find us.
Even though they would drive byand find us, whether it was
Haywood Road in the past orRiverside in the last three
years, a lot of people stillfind us through just a Google
search or they're visitingfriends and family.
(10:23):
So we knew we were going to begiving up some of that drive-by
tourist exposure but trading itfor being centrally located,
being in a shopping center,being accessible, being near
Earth Fare and other businessesin that shopping center.
I think most people in theAsheville area know that
shopping center pretty well, soit felt very very comfortable
(10:45):
going there.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
What was the support that you were experiencing
throughout the community alongthis time?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yes, yeah.
Well, right off the bat, vicIsley and the Explore Asheville
team opened up their offices tosmall businesses to operate
because they had internetservice, they had electricity,
they had port-a-johns.
The Chamber of Commerce alsoopened up their space and SBA
came in.
They were housed there withsome of their disaster support.
(11:17):
So those two organizations,particularly right off the bat,
were critical.
I didn't have power or internetat my home so I was able to
really get the ball rolling onour you know path forward
working out of there and mystaff was able to.
The recovery team was able.
We were able to meet there.
So we did that for the firstcouple three weeks working out
(11:40):
of Explore Asheville.
As I mentioned, we started aout of Explore Asheville, as I
mentioned, we started a GoFundMeaccount and raised over several
weeks.
$40,000 was our goal.
We hit that.
We reached out to our consignorsbecause you know we had sold
stuff in September but we didn'thave revenue coming in after
that and we gave consignors theoption of maybe either foregoing
(12:04):
their payment for Septemberthat we owed them or donating it
back, or foregoing it ordeferring it.
A lot of people donated it orjust said don't worry about
paying us.
Some people deferred.
And then same way with itemsthat were lost.
Because we lost 100%, mike, ofeverything.
We lost all of our fixtures,inventory, equipment, supplies
(12:28):
100% loss, including all theconsigned items.
And so we also reached out tothose consignors and many of
them said you know, don't worryabout it, just as a side note, a
lot of businesses in the quitea few businesses I've read did
not have flood insurance.
We had flood insurance on ourcontents.
You had to balance what's, whatcan you afford?
(12:50):
How much do you think you needwe?
We lost twice as much as we hadcoverage for and that that
claim is still outstanding.
Okay, and you know, I I wasalso fortunate we have six own,
six shareholders, six owners inthe business that we put some
capital in and basically made aloan to the business.
If it weren't for that, wewouldn't have been able to
reopen.
(13:10):
If we were waiting on thisinsurance claim to get back on
our feet, we wouldn't be openright now.
And I've heard that otherbusinesses are in the same boat,
that they have outstandingclaims, and the adjuster we were
working with was working onover 150 claims.
So, it's frustrating, but I alsokind of understand that they're
probably overloaded with theamount of claims because of the
(13:34):
extent of how big this disasterwas and how widespread.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, before we get into your new space, I'd love to
kind of stay here just a littlebit longer.
I'd like to kind of talk aboutthe mindset a little bit.
I know you had the infusion ofthe cash and you had the other
co-investors that were able tohelp bolster and shore up a
little bit, but just the mindsetin general, because it takes
more than just the money.
There's got to be the mindsettoo, I think and I don't want to
(14:00):
project anything on you thatisn't real but how important was
that?
How important was your mindsetof saying we are going to be,
this isn't the end, we are goingto move forward?
I just to give them theconfidence that we don't have
all the answers right now.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
We don't know how this is going to play out, but
we're going to figure out a pathforward.
This business is too wellsupported, too strong and too
well loved and you all likeworking here and I want to
support you.
I want to support this business.
We're going to figure out a wayto do this and we did so, and
(14:48):
it wasn't just me figuring thatout.
That was, you know, vendorsworking with us.
That was guys on our team.
You know that was other peopleon our team reaching out to all
those consignors and doing theGoFundMe, doing all those things
that made it work.
But just having confidence,because I guess also 20 years in
business, I felt like there'sno reason this shouldn't
(15:09):
continue on.
And also being inspired byother businesses, whether
they're in Asheville or otherplaces in the outdoor industry,
that have been around 30, 40, 50years, why not us?
I mean, why I'm not going tolet it in this way.
I'm not going to let a disasterin this.
People are going to want tocome back to Asheville.
Asheville is very outdoor,focused Western North Carolina.
(15:29):
There's no reason not to moveon, so we're going to figure out
a way to do this.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I love that, yeah, yeah that.
I mean you're speaking of thatreally, that spirit of
resiliency, and I've seen thatso much in the last.
Well, since the fall I meansince the hurricane came you see
these stories of resiliencies,and so that's very encouraging
to hear you say that and to knowthat you have your heritage to
rest on, you have yourexperience to rest on, and you
(15:54):
also have the future customersin mind, too that say we want
them to experience some of thevery same stuff that people have
been experiencing for the last20 years.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, and on a personal level, Mike, it was
like, well, if I didn't dosecond gear, I'm not ready to
move on quite yet.
I'm kind of getting into thetwilight of my career Maybe.
What am I going to do if I'mnot?
I love owning a business.
I love, you know, the team thatI'm with and it's a fun
business because it's about theoutdoors.
You know, we, we try to run itprofessionally and take it
(16:22):
seriously, but not takeourselves and not take it too
seriously.
You know that at the end of theday, it's about getting
outdoors and enjoying theoutdoors.
So, yeah, I wanted to continueto do that.
I enjoy it.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I love that Most days , I love it.
Yeah, that's right, it's likeany business.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, there's stuff that you have to deal with a lot
.
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Well, it kind of sounds like your.
Why is what keeps you going?
Something you said earlier waspeople that want to get into the
outdoors, and you want to seethem getting into the outdoors
and be able to do that moreaffordably through the products
that you guys are selling, thatyou're co-signing, I think, is
just a wonderful way to do it.
I know that's been true of ourfamily.
I know it's been true of ourkids.
There's things and pieces ofgear that you can just get there
(17:00):
, that you don't have to makethese huge investments in a
brand new piece of product.
So, yeah, well, let's talkabout the transitioning in.
So now you're in the WestgateShopping Center.
You opened this store up rightbefore the holidays and in the
beginning of December, and itseems like when you opened up
you were stocked full.
How do you go from havingnothing to having a store full
(17:23):
of product that people can comeand shop?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Several factors that played there.
We did have a few weeks that wewere preparing for this.
So again, it was being able tokeep that team together.
So Peter, our buyer, he was intouch with vendors and we were
putting together, you know,orders.
Those vendors a lot of themgave us extended terms or gave
us discounts right off the batfor this pre-opening order,
(17:46):
which was awesome.
And then somebody else on theteam you know Chris, he's
ordered fixtures before.
So he had to order all brand newfixtures and we had to make
that decision.
You know, do you, do we go outand try to buy, get a bunch of
used stuff to save money, or dowe just make the decision we're
going to buy it and make it looklike it did before?
And we just made that decisionlike, okay, we don't want it to
(18:06):
look hodgepodge and we want tomake it look like it had before.
So we had fixtures ordered andwe had to go out and buy all new
computers.
And I had worked with the samegeneral contractor that we had
worked with down in the RiverArts District and up on Haywood
Road, and that's ElmConstruction, and Trey, his crew
(18:28):
, jumped in and helped us openup quickly.
So it was that support fromkind of, I guess, already being
in business, having connectionsand having those relationships
established that really made itpossible to make it allow us to
open up so quickly.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
That's great, and you continue to thrive.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, we made the business decision that, knowing
that February, january are notgoing to be awesome, but we're
going to get a little bit ofDecember in, we're going to get
established, we're going to keepmomentum going.
And we're going to getestablished.
We're going to keep momentumgoing, we're going to be, I hope
, very established, ready to gocome March, april and we won't
have lost staff and people startto know, you know, we'll know
(19:11):
where we are, I hope, and thatwhen spring gets here and people
are ready to get back out, thatwe're already there and known.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Oh, that's great, and I notice you're already kind of
beginning to wind down yourwinter consignment, especially
some of the fleece.
You guys are running some greatdeals right now, some extra
stack-on discounts, and thenyou're ready to transition into
the spring products.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah, historically, part of the way that we try to
get a little boost in Februaryis to start doing a winter
clearance in February, becausewe opened in December and it's
been particularly cold.
We've pushed that back a littlebit.
So yeah, that's kind of aroundthe corner that we'll start
winding down winter and starttaking in spring.
(19:54):
You know we've never had anissue with getting consignment.
The community is just so awesomeabout supporting us and that's
what the whole business is basedon is community to provide
product for the store andthey've never let us down.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And they're not going to let you down now.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I'm super positive about being in Westgate.
I'm really, really fortunatethat we found a space that is
working.
But it's got some challengestoo and I'm not going to
sugarcoat everything.
It hurt from going fromsomething that was designed and
that we intended to be there for15 years or more to something
(20:32):
that we had to kind of make apivot and have to adjust to.
It's not ideal, but we've gotsome flexibility there to adjust
to.
It's not ideal, but we've gotsome flexibility there and I
think we'll outgrow that spacebecause we were operating in
something, like I said, a thirdbigger than what we're in now.
So we'll see how it all thatplays out over the next few
years.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Besides the, obviously the location, River
Arts into a strip shoppingcenter, which is still nice and
it's still convenient and it'sstill very easily accessible.
What are some of the otherobstacles, or what are some of
the other things that are justgoing to be different for the
people that haven't been able tocome visit you yet?
What should they expect asthey're walking in the doors?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I think what they're going to find is that it's just
a slightly smaller version ofwhat we have.
We really haven't changed themix.
You know we've been for thelast as long as I can remember
last 10 years or so at least amix of about 70% used consigned
items and 30% new accessories,and that's still the case.
(21:33):
We have the same lookingfixtures.
You know, we're really, I guess, one of the big differences.
It was really fun that we hadtwo other businesses down the
River Arts District with us.
We had Asheville AdventureCompany they were doing their
electric bike tours and we had alittle cafe, sugar and Snow
Gelato.
So we don't have them anymore,but we have Earth Fare.
However, sugar and Snow has alittle cooler or freezer in our
(21:55):
store.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Oh good.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So you can still get Sugar and Snow Gelato pints.
And they're selling online aswell, so customers can pick up
their online purchases in thestore as well.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Generally speaking, what would some words of wisdom
be for other companies, otherbusinesses that haven't been
able to quite get to the pointwhere you are, of sort of
reopening and recovering,regardless of whether or not
they're brick and mortar?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
what are some of the words of wisdom and some
encouragement that you mighthave for them?
You know, believe in yourself.
If you believe in yourself andyour business, you can make it
work.
I feel like you can make itwork with support.
You know there's a lot ofsupport right now, whether it's
oh, I didn't mention, we alsogot grants.
We had, you know, so far, fourgrants.
So I would recommend to thosebusinesses it's not too late and
(22:46):
there are still more grantscoming online.
You know, a lot of businessesnot just Second Gear have COVID
debt, and so there are SBA loansthat are available and those
loans are very attractive, andso a lot of businesses didn't
want to take on more debt,including mine.
But if you don't have a SBAloan, whether it's coaching or
(23:25):
helping you kind of navigate thehorizon right now of recovery,
stay strong.
You know, if you believe inyour business and you've got
good support for your business,just keep at it and reach out
for that support within thecommunity, cause you'll, you'll,
you'll, you'll find thatsupport and that that path
forward.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
What about some unexpected positives that came
from this transition?
I mean, I know that, you know,sometimes we we see the silver
lining, um, whatever phrase wewant to use there, uh, and
sometimes we don't.
But what are some of thepositive, the unexpected
positives that came from thistransition?
Russ.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, just the, particularly after we reopened
the first week or so just peoplebeing genuinely, sincerely
grateful and excited that wehave reopened, because it's
partly their business as well.
But I think they they were happyfor us and and because of the
(24:24):
service we provide and theproducts we provide, that we
were able to to find that pathforward and that was just really
gratifying.
You know, I get a little chokedup over it because it's
hundreds of people that werecoming in and those same people
that said that, that said, youknow, I don't need my payment,
you need it more than we do, andso just that, that support and
(24:46):
just, you know, as I saidearlier, it's, it's amazing how,
how, uh, the attention that you, the unintended intention that
you get from a disaster.
But when you see the love fromthe community and the you know,
uh, you see the love from thecommunity and the you know,
(25:10):
friends and family andsupporters from all over the
country that donated significantmoney to our GoFundMe, or just
a little amount, just anywherefrom a few dollars to a few
thousand dollars, was just, Iwas just blown away by that.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I love that I was just blown away by that.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I love that, and even people donating to our GoFundMe
whose own businesses had beendestroyed or significantly
damaged.
And we're kind of all in that.
That was like just you know,mind blowing.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And just so humbling.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, did it kind of make you feel like you weren't
in this alone, when you'reexperiencing that for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, yeah, right from, like I said earlier, from
you know that first few daysbeing on the bridge and seeing
the extent of the damage andseeing, wow, this is really
going to impact.
And then you start learningabout, you know, biltmore
Village and Swannanoe and allthese other places of businesses
that have been impacted as well, that yeah, this is a long haul
and and everybody's kind of inthis together very different
(26:04):
feel from covid.
You know, this covid was sodifferent because for our
business in particular, once wewere able to reopen after nine
weeks, everybody wanted to getoutside, be away from each other
and we I I felt guilty.
How good business was back thenand but now everybody was kind
of, you know, really out ofbusiness for Quite a while.
(26:25):
Even businesses like downtownAsheville that weren't flooded
but because of the watersituation couldn't open.
That just it was reallydifficult for everybody or, you
know, and their insurancewouldn't cover cover it because
it was all related to a floodbut they weren't flooded.
So, yeah, just all theseramifications that came out of
(26:47):
it that you wouldn't expect.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Well, so there's one little story that I was
following on social media.
Oh this little angel.
Oh wow, I'd love to hear thatfrom your perspective.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I hope I can keep it together, because so you want
the whole story, the whole angelstory whatever you want, okay.
You can.
You can pare it down if youneed to.
So the first year we were inbusiness on haywood road, there
were four apartments above us.
We were at 415 haywood road andthey're, you know, little
mailboxes out front.
And one day I came in, I waspulling the mail out of the
(27:21):
mailbox and this little figurineangel this was around christmas
was in our mailbox and uh,let's use uh wooden figurine and
about six or seven inches tall,and I held on to her for a
couple of days and thought, well, maybe somebody meant to put
her in one of the othermailboxes and so nobody claimed
her and so she was kind of aguardian angel or she's been
(27:44):
called angel of the counter.
She lived on our counter and shewas on the counter at 415
Haywood.
She moved across the street,she's gone through renovations
and she's always just been thereat the counter and we've never
made a big deal of it.
So she moved down to Riversidewith us and a few nights you
(28:06):
know, like one of the firstnights after the storm I'm
laying in bed and you know I betother people went through the
same thing.
I just couldn't sleep and justyou just, and I I had kept it
together and I realized I wasthinking about oh, that angel's
gone.
We've had her for 20 years onthat counter.
(28:26):
She's gone Now.
At this point I have not beenin the, I can't get in the
building but I'm thinking she'sgone.
And that's when that was my cry,that was my like oh man, the
(28:49):
full weight of it, yeah, fullweight of it, very symbolic.
Is my business gone?
Is that it, even though I'mkeeping the brave face of we can
find a path forward?
I don't even know if we'vegotten there yet, a path forward
, but that's kind of when theemotion hit me.
So, you know, a few weeks later, when I'm able to get in the
store and get in the building,and you know it's really
(29:09):
dangerous to be in there becauseit's collapsed and I'm looking
around, kind of looking wherethe counter area, you know
there's this mud and the roofshave collapsed and I searched
around and you know there'sstuff from all these other
buildings in there.
There's a dumpster from arestaurant, you know, half a
mile away, you know.
So it's like literally theneedle in the haystack and I
(29:32):
couldn't find her and I thought,well, okay, that's, that's
unfortunate.
So a couple weeks later again,kind of one of these you know
beautiful things that's happenedthrough.
This is Bob.
I've forgotten Bob's last name.
Bob, who does video, does shortdocu-films.
He reached out to us to do alittle documentary film on
(29:53):
Second Gear, so we're filminginside the building.
Chris and I are there with Bobone morning in November I guess
it was November, december andBob's filming and Chris is
walking around and Chris foundthe angel.
Chris is walking around andChris found the angel.
It was not, you know, it was ityou would watch.
You would think like oh, thisis reality TV, it was staged
(30:16):
right.
No, it was not staged, and sothat was just such a a win, such
an amazing like wow.
She survived.
So I took her home, cleaned herup and she is now protected now
protected in one of the displaycases at 52 Westgate Love that.
They had a really happy endingand it was really just so ironic
(30:41):
how it played out like thatWhile he happened to be filming.
We found her After I had lookedfor her.
She was kind of near where thecounter had been, but the whole
counter was the counter, thebase, you know.
It was a concrete.
It was all gone.
There was nothing there or verylittle there.
It was.
You know, most everything gotblown out and washed down river.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
So wow, yeah, and at that point was that just more of
reinforcement.
Oh, absolutely, absolutely yes.
This is yes, we've got her.
We've got her.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
She's with us.
This needs to continue.
She's.
She's behind us, she's got us.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah, I love it, brother.
Well, listen man.
Uh, I know that's tough to tokind of go back and relive, but
hopefully in some ways that itjust kind of continues to
strengthen you too andstrengthens your resolve and
your resiliency to know thatwe're doing the right thing for
the right reasons and peopleneed this.
They want this and they'vesurrounded us and we're going to
(31:37):
keep doing this for as long aswe possibly can.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Yeah, we're so grateful for the support.
We're so fortunate to be ableto reopen, to have the resources
to do it.
I don't know not all businesses, small business can do that
resources to do it.
I don't know not all businesses, small business can do that.
But again, try your hardest, ifyou're a small business, to
find those resources, to findhelp.
You'd be surprised how manypeople really want you to be
around and you know best to youout there if you're trying to
(32:04):
climb back out of this.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I love that.
All right.
So last before I let you go,what is the website for Second
Gear?
What are your socials?
And also, how can people whowant to now come, if they
haven't ever consigned with youbefore?
What's the best way for them todo that?
Speaker 2 (32:18):
an Instagram.
Our inventory is online.
Not everything in the store isphotographed, but we put
consigned items, consignmentselects, as well as our new
things, so you can previewonline as well.
(32:39):
In our newer space we takeconsignment now every day, but
Tuesday.
That's kind of new.
But because we have a smallerspace, we've had to kind of drop
the maximum amount of itemsthat people can bring in at a
time.
I would recommend to folks, youknow, check out our website,
because we're constantlyupdating that on things that
(33:00):
we're taking.
We take items seasonally, butsometimes during the season we
get too much of one thing.
So, you know, check the website.
We also, you know, do a lot ofemailing.
We have a newsletter that goesout, so you know just kind of
check beforehand before you comein to see what's hot and what's
not hot at the time.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Nice.
Yeah Well, Russ, thanks so muchfor just spending a few minutes
with me.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Absolutely.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this.
I wish you all nothing but thebest.
It's a great store serving agreat cause.
Yeah, just, I'm so, so happyfor the direction that y'all are
moving in and so happy youfound your angel.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Appreciate it, thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Thank you, brother, story with us and for offering
such a candid and inspiring lookat the highs and lows of
running a business, from thestruggles of a flood and a
hurricane to the triumphs ofrecovery.
Second Gear's story is atestament to the incredible
power of resilience, communitysupport and thoughtful decision
(34:01):
making.
What stood out most was Russ'sbelief in the heart of his
business the people, from thepatrons who supported Second
Gear during its hardest times tothe team that never gave up.
It's clear that community iswhat has kept this business
alive.
The recovery journey wasn'tjust about getting back to
business, but about connectingmore deeply with the people that
(34:22):
they serve, and Russ's storyreminds all of us that no
challenge is insurmountable whenyou have the right mindset and
support system behind you.
If you're in the Asheville areaor just looking for top quality
outdoor gear, make sure tocheck out Second Gear.
Not only will you find greatproducts, but you'll also be
supporting a business that givesback to its community and is
(34:43):
committed fully to its community.
Before we wrap up, I'd love tohear from you, whether it's your
thoughts on today's episode oryour own stories of overcoming
adversity.
I always love connecting withour listeners.
If you've enjoyed theconversation.
Don't forget to rate andsubscribe so you never miss an
inspiring story.
Thanks again for tuning in.
(35:04):
Until next time, stay resilient, stay grounded and remember, no
matter how tough the journeygets, community and perseverance
will always light the wayforward.
Wander far, my friends, butalways explore local.
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