With some schools moving outdoors, retailers follow
AmyJackson, anearly-education instructor at the Center School inGreenfield, Massachusetts, remembers one rainy day a few years ago when she was outside with her students.
They thought they were prepared. Everyone was wearing rain gear, and ropes and tarpswere used to erect amakeshift shelter. But soon the childrenwere “cold, wet, droopy,” and heading back inside became inevitable.
“The only child in good spirits was the one wearing the Oaki one-piece rainsuit,” Jackson said, referring to the company that makes outdoor apparel for children.
The Center School has committed to an all-outdoor curriculum this fall to guard against the spread of the coronavirus among its students and staff. Tents and outdoordeskshavebeenprocuredto create al fresco classrooms. The school has also recommended that parents buy their children Oaki rainsuits, priced at $60 to $70. They are not the only ones. With a number of U.S. schools opting for outdoor education over the potentially germier confines of their traditional indoor spaces, demand for Oaki’s rainsuits and related gear “has been overwhelming,” said Sam Taylor, chief executive of the company, which is based in the Salt Lake City area. It is a sentiment echoed by other outdoor-oriented companies, some of which are launching new product lines or repurposing existing ones to capitalize on how the pandemic has changed the education experience.
Taylor said demand for Oaki products has increased 60% this year, a challenge becausethecompanyisexperiencing pandemic-related delays with its manufacturers in India and Mexico. As a result, Taylor has “prioritized individual schools or parents” over warehouse and retail orders. He has also rushed to market a line of fleece andwool socks that don’t need to be washed every day, in response to a request from a Vermont school.
“There’s been a ton of research that’s shown how productive being outside is,” Taylor said. “There’s no reason a little moisture or rain should stop that. If anything, that should be a positive if you’ve got the right gear.”
Thosesearching forweatherproof supplies have also turned to Rite in the Rain, a century-old company based inTacoma, Washington, that sells waterproof products including notebooks and printer paper.
“We start with a wetstrength, virgin-grain paper, then we coat it using a proprietary machine and process and formula,” saidRyan McDonald, its director of marketing. Fifty percent of Rite in the Rain’s business comes from the government, mostly the military. But aside from “pretty decent business with college bookstores,” McDonald said, it hadn’t focused much on students until recently, with an increase in orders from elementaryandhigh schools.
Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds has also shifted its focus. Bienenstock, a Canadian business that has an office in the Denver area, designs and builds school playgrounds, but when the pandemic shut schools in March, “thatwas the end to that side of the business,” said Adam Bienenstock, the company’s founderandprincipal designer.
But Adam Bienenstock was prepared because of an “ace in the hole”: his father, mucosal immunologist Dr. John Bienenstock.
“We started our conversation around Christmas, about howour immune systems were going to react to this; howthiswas ‘the one,’” Bienenstock said.
So Bienenstock began creating log-basedoutdoor classrooms, called OutClass, that schools can set up in less than a day. He said year-overyear inquiries for his products from school administrators are up about 600%.