Backcountry.com
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Ecommerce, Outdoor Industry |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | West Valley City and Park City, Utah |
| Products | Outdoor gear |
| Owner | TSG Consumer Partners (81%) |
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Number of employees
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1200+ |
| Website | Backcountry.com |
Backcountry.com is an online specialty retailer that sells clothing and outdoor recreation gear for hiking, camping, road biking, mountain biking, rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, skiing, avalanche safety, snowboarding, fly fishing, kayaking, rafting, road and trail running, and more.
Backcountry.com was founded in 1996 with a $2,000 out-of-pocket investment by lifetime friends Jim Holland and John Bresee. The two started the online business with a sparse collection of avalanche gear and began selling gear from their garage in Park City, Utah under the domain names BCstore.com and BackcountryStore.com. The store's first sale, a Pieps 457 Opti-finder avalanche beacon, happened in February 1997. The company purchased the domain name backcountry.com for $75,000 in 2004.
Backcountry.com grew at an astonishing rate for its first 15 years. It quickly became one of a very few profitable retailers and competed with REI for the lead in this category. REI never lost the lead. After rapid product growth Backcountry began to court other categories including discount and One Deal At A Time (ODAT) In an attempt to regain focus and target bargain-seekers, the company added niche websites such as SteepandCheap.com and outlets such as the now-defunct BackcountryOutlet.com and Tramdock.com. Deeply discounted product was eventually moved to an Outlet section accessible from the Backcountry.com homepage.
On May 7, 2007, it was announced that a controlling stake in Backcountry.com was sold to Liberty Media Corporation, which also controls QVC and other e-commerce companies. This transferred effective ownership of the company to billionaire John C. Malone.
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