Clint Pumphrey slid open a gray filing case in the basement of Utah State University’s Merrill-Cazier Library, as fluorescent lights hummed softly overhead. Metal shelves with decades of outdoor recreation memorabilia lined the room.
“Here it is,” he said, as he pulled out a small, square box. It was an unconventional 1970 North Face product catalog with a black-and-white logo on its spine.
Inside was a folded black-and-white sheet highlighting the company’s new approach to ski gear. Advertised as a “skier’s start kit,” it included tickets for ski lifts, lodges and lessons. The catalog was the first time The North Face used only the “waterfall” side of its logo — inspired by the granite “Half Dome” in Yosemite National Park — without the company’s name.
It’s Pumphrey’s favorite piece among the thousands in the Outdoor Recreation Archive, a carefully gathered trove that documents decades of outdoor gear and the industry’s evolution. To him, it stands out from the sleek, glossy North Face catalogs seen today.
“It takes the idea of a catalog and reimagines it in a really interesting way,” said Pumphrey, the manuscript curator for the archive. “It represents a really interesting time in the outdoor industry, when there were a lot of new ideas and a lot of innovation.”
Over the past seven years, Pumphrey has developed an eye for unique outdoor product memorabilia while collecting and curating the archive alongside Chase Anderson, industry relations manager for USU’s Outdoor Product Development and Design program, who stood next to him, admiring the collection the two have built.
In 2017, Pumphrey said, USU Special Collections and Archives partnered with the program to create a collection of books, catalogs, photos and documents that tell the story of outdoor gear, people, and brands — with the goal of inspiring students preparing for the outdoor industry’s biggest names.
“The idea was they could look at these old catalogs and do some assignments,” Pumphrey said, “and reflect upon where the industry has come from.”
Anderson found the collection’s first donation, from a group of catalog collectors who had worked in the industry — about 1,200 product catalogs dating from the 1960s to the 2010s, representing about 250 companies. After the catalogs arrived, Anderson posted photos of them to an Instagram account for the collection.
Turns out, there was huge interest in them — not just from design enthusiasts, but from all outdoor lovers.
“We were having people from all over the country,” Pumphrey said, “all over the world, reaching out, asking what this collection was, how they could access it, how they could see more of it.”
Saving thousands of global brands
They seemed to be the only ones in the world collecting these materials, he said. And as they kept digging, the catalogs proved not only fascinating to look through but full of historical and design value.
Building the collection is an ongoing effort. Currently, there is a whiteboard in Anderson and Pumphrey’s office with more than 50 brand names they’re actively speaking with about potential donations.
What began as a small teaching resource quickly grew into a global project. Today, the archive includes around 7,500 product catalogs from more than 1,000 brands — from well-known names like Patagonia and Sierra Designs to more obscure ones like Snow Lion and niche Japanese labels.
The collection also holds 10,000 magazine issues, rare books, vintage VHS tapes, photographs, and personal papers from pioneering figures in the outdoor industry — all items Anderson and Pumphrey feel should be preserved, with stories worth holding onto and telling.
“This is really fun for me, because I wonder if we weren’t the ones to reach out and preserve the history of this company, who would have?” Anderson said. “I think about that every day.”
And now, he added, outdoor brands from around the world visit the archive for inspiration, off-site design sessions and product development research. During the first week in June, Nike ACG (All Conditions Gear) spent a morning in the space with about 20 of its designers.
The archive also has been showcased internationally, including an exhibition in Tokyo — and most recently, the team published a book featuring catalog and magazine cover imagery from the collection.
“It captures what the outdoor industry was like at the time,” Anderson said, “like, maybe a little less corporate, more brands out of their garage. People in their garages starting a brand, users of the products making them better.”
Inspiration from the past
Given the global interest it has received, Pumphrey said the archive is already accomplishing what he hopes it will over the next 20 to 50 years — shaping the future of outdoor gear and apparel design.
At Utah State University, students in the Outdoor Product Design and Development program learn core design principles, sketching techniques and digital tools, along with how to turn their ideas into fully developed products ready for the market. As part of their coursework, students are assigned projects that draw directly from the archive’s materials.
When Sydney Lenssen, who graduated from the program this year, started working on her senior capstone project to design and develop her own outdoor recreation clothing brand, she turned to the archive for inspiration. She spent dozens of hours sprawled across the floor, flipping through decades of gear catalogs and brand histories.
“Time goes so fast down there,” Lenssen said. “It’s like a time vortex.”
She was inspired by the vintage outdoor clothing she discovered and decided she wanted her brand to bring personality and bright colors back to women’s technical apparel.
The brand she created, called “Rewind,” included five physical prototypes: a pair of pants, a fleece, a tank top, a crossbody bag, and a wrap skirt. While sourcing materials, she said, she made sure to keep what she learned from the archive in mind, choosing fabrics that performed well but had a vintage look.
“When you look at it,” she said, “it looks like something that you would see in early Patagonia stuff.”
