Breaking Barriers and Building Community: How Three Gear-Sharing Organizations Help Mainers Access the Outdoors

Maine offers outdoor enthusiasts countless avenues for exploring the many bodies of water and public land throughout the state.

Yet, many Mainers experience significant barriers to safely experiencing all that the state’s environment has to offer. High-priced outdoor gear and sociocultural disparities mean that some residents are simply left out of enriching environmental activities.

Gear-sharing organizations throughout the state are working hard to change that.

These organizations democratize access to outdoor gear and equipment through low- or no-cost gear-lending libraries. Their goal? To ensure every Mainer — no matter who they are or where they live — can access the state’s vibrant outdoor environment.

Equity, Access, and Gear-Sharing Efforts

When most things shut down during the pandemic, many people across the country responded by heading outdoors. In fact, participation in outdoor recreation hit an all-time high in 2022, with more than 168.1 million people — a staggering 55% of the U.S. population over six years old — joining outdoor activities, according to the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA).

Despite the influx in outdoor enthusiasts in recent years, not all people experienced or continue to experience the outdoors equally. One study found that communities of color not only have fewer park areas than predominantly white neighborhoods, but the quality of existing parks and programs are often subpar, as well.

The National Health Foundation notes that our country’s racialized and gendered history of land occupation and ownership has reverberations today, causing many communities to lack opportunities for safely accessing the natural world. Similarly, the OIA identifies one key barrier among many that most communities face: the high cost of outdoor gear and equipment.

That’s why the work that gear-share organizations do is more than just resource sharing: It’s an equity-driven effort. By offering programming, workshops, and low-cost access to tents, hiking equipment, canoes, bikes, backpacks, and much more, these organizations:

• Reduce economic barriers to accessing the outdoors

• Provide safe spaces and opportunities for women, people of color, and others historically left out of programs to experience the natural world

• Encourage people to try new activities and find new hobbies outdoors

• Motivate communities to better understand and participate in sharing and recycling initiatives

• Help all participants realize the mental and physical benefits of connecting with nature

Three Exemplary Gear-Share Organizations in Maine

Maine’s gear-sharing organizations are leading the way toward more equitable and affordable environmental access, providing underserved communities with the tangible and knowledge-based resources that make outdoor exploration possible.

We’re proud to provide grant funding and technical support to a number of these groups, including the following three lending organizations that are at the forefront of this work.

1. The Katahdin Gear Library

In 2018, the Millinocket Memorial Library extended its offerings to outdoor adventurers by creating the Katahdin Gear Library. The gear-lending library offers:

• Cross-country skis, snowshoes, and fat tire bikes in the winter

• Mountain bikes, canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards in the spring, summer, and fall

• Backpacks all year round

Renters can become registered members to use gear for free for the first 24 hours, or they can “check out” equipment for a daily or weekly fee. All proceeds go back into the library to sustain the high quality of its equipment and services.

But the library’s mission extends beyond gear rentals alone. The Katahdin Gear Library strives to be a hub for the Millinocket community by offering education, volunteer opportunities, workshops, and community-building gatherings. Community members can attend sessions like local windjamming workshops and community bird walks to learn about the environment they live in.

Most recently, the gear-lending library used grant support from the Onion Foundation to expand its outdoor programming and sustain its Gear Library Assistant role, a position that’s central to community engagement. With its ambitious schedule of activities and extensive lending library, the Katahdin Gear Library serves as a true outdoor adventure hub for Northern Maine.

2. Maine GearShare

Like other gear-share organizations, Maine GearShare focuses on one core goal: expanding access to outdoor gear and equipment to ensure more people can connect with nature. The organization amplifies its impact, however, by lending directly to trip-leading organizations throughout Maine.

In fact, since its incorporation in 2021, Maine GearShare has lent gear and equipment to dozens of the state’s burgeoning and staple outdoor organizations, including MountainSea Expeditions, Teens to Trails, Queerly ME, and many others.

The organization’s mission is full-scale transformation. The current way gear and equipment circulate among communities benefits neither individuals nor groups, it argues, as both end up bearing a significant financial burden. Instead, Maine GearShare is committed to transforming these siloed retail operations into a collaborative sharing economy based on flexibility, trust, and convenience.

And equity is central to advancing that mission — so much so that the organization has created an equity-focused pricing plan in which historically marginalized groups can get first-tier memberships for free.

With Onion Foundation funding, Maine GearShare is set to expand its work even further by increasing:

• Overall membership by continuing to provide high-quality and timely services

• Gear repair capacity, including launching pop-up repair events

• Gear deployment capacity

Maine GearShare recognizes that connection to the natural world is essential to developing joy, resilience, and overall well-being — and it’s on a mission to ensure all people throughout Maine can access these benefits.

3. Kindling Collective

Connection to nature has been shown to help improve cognition, reduce stress, increase feelings of happiness, and decrease mental distress, according to the American Psychological Association.

For members of the queer community — who experience mental health struggles at higher rates than their non-queer peers — these benefits aren’t just nice to have. They’re critical to the physical and mental well-being of the community.

Kindling Collective, based in Portland, Maine, is committed to eliminating barriers to the outdoors for this community — who comprise more than 6.8% of Maine’s population. It offers a three-tier membership program aimed at building economic justice, through which members can access both gear rentals and a welcoming community of outdoor enthusiasts. Members can also get:

• Comprehensive packing lists geared toward their trip of choice

• Discounts at other organizations like Portland Yoga Collective

• Guidance from experienced staff

• Access to outdoor events and programs, including queer-only and queer BIPOC-only activities, as well as programs broken down by activity level

Through Kindling Collective’s packed calendar of events, Maine residents and visitors can try their hand at things like white water floating, foraging, backpacking, orienteering, herbal first aid, and much more. Backed by Onion Foundation funds, Kindling Collective works to reduce the economic and inequitable barriers that the queer community — as well as other marginalized groups and their allies — face when accessing these types of activities.

Gear for All

In a very tangible way, these and other gear-sharing organizations provide the fundamental resources that make it possible for people to experience nature.

But they also represent much more than gear lending alone. By advocating for key principles that help our communities thrive — access, compassion, equity, collaboration — these groups bring out the best in Maine’s people and enable them to enjoy the best of Maine’s environment.

The next time you’re itching to take a canoe out on the water, test your stamina on a long snowshoe hike, or backpack with friends through Acadia National Park, consider participating in the sharing economy by renting your equipment from one of these organizations.