Though they shared a vision for a community hub that would work to make experiencing the outdoors more accessible for people of color, each founder took a different path to jobs in the outdoor industry. Williams was raised in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where he’d often hike with his dad. Bernard, who grew up in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, only hiked for the first time in high school.
To make sure they could work well together, Williams moonlighted under Bernard at the footwear department of REI for roughly three months in 2022. By the end of the experience, the pair were locked in and ready to get going on their plans for Outlandish, which opened in January of 2023. In the years since, the store has become a welcome local alternative to big box stores like the one Bernard used to work for, especially as it has become an anti-union machine.
We recently caught up with Bernard and Willams to reflect on two years in business, the response to their Brooklyn outdoor store, plans for the future, and how they connect with the founders of the other two Black-owned outdoor shops in the U.S. (Spoiler: they have a phone call once a month.) An edited version of our conversation is shared below.

Photo by Sam McKenna for Outlandish
How did your first experiences hiking ultimately influence your career trajectory and decision to open Outlandish?
Williams: For me, the absence of nature influenced my career. I was in Pakistan for seven years before founding Understory, a forest restoration startup, in 2020. I did that for two full-time years while moonlighting at REI. I lived in the city of Lahore, which has 12 million people. I know New York is the concrete jungle, but this was just the concrete, concrete. There was hardly any nature around except for these two parks I visited. It was like being removed from access to nature, which caused me to realize how much I missed it and how unbalanced my life felt without that connection.
Bernard: I grew up in a very academic and church-focused home, without folks who knew what nature was. I have family from Texas and Oklahoma, where nature is more like everyday life. Folks weren't trying to embrace that space in the form of hiking; they were farming and just living. In my early adult years, after being exposed to hiking, I didn't love it. I didn't know why people did it as much as they did, but I enjoyed it enough to try it again later. That was crucial.
Over time, I became obsessed with not just the hiking part of it, but with the product part of it. Eventually, I took a part-time role at REI. I enjoyed being around like-minded folks, and applied for a leadership role in the flagship store and got it. I was excited to dive in full-time and to be able to share my newfound joy for nature with those I was meeting. I was getting to outfit both first-time hikers and those hiking since I was born.