Outdoor gear in short supply in Sonoma County as interest in camping surges

Add camping supplies to the list of items nearly impossible to find during the coronavirus pandemic.

As Sonoma County residents flock to campgrounds for socially distanced summer getaways, outdoor gear has been flying off store shelves. And many specialty retailers are struggling to keep the merchandise in stock.

“People can’t go to the gym or go to pilates class, so they’re hiking and walking in the regional parks and becoming curious about backpacking and camping,” said Greg Peterson, co-owner of Sonoma Outfitters in Santa Rosa.

Backpacking gear in particular has been especially hard for consumer to find, with camping stoves, fuel canisters and freeze-dried meals often selling out, too. Other highly sought-after products include tents, sleeping bags and car racks to kayaks, Peterson said.

Andrew Landeros, 25, of Windsor, recently stopped by REI to replenish his camping equipment for a trip to Oregon. He was able to find a new tent and sleeping bag, but said he’ll probably have to search online for the rest of the items.

“I was looking at portable backpacking cookware, and they were pretty wiped out,” Landeros said. “And bear canisters, too. They’re out of bear canisters. I was like, ’Wow everybody’s on the same page.’ ”

In addition to a growing interest in camping, surging demand for outdoor gear is being driven by customers stockpiling things like freeze-dried food and single canister stoves for disaster preparedness during the pandemic, Peterson said.

Mountain House, one of the largest freeze-dried meal makers in the country, has been so overwhelmed with orders it recently posted a note on its website alerting buyers it’s completely sold out of many products.

“I started looking for freeze-dried food to stock, and they were totally sold out,” Peterson said of Mountain House. “It just got to where everyone’s thinking, ‘Hey, I should get my emergency kit ready.’ ”

Eric Planzer, manager of Sports Basement in Santa Rosa, said employees are frequently calling other local outdoor-gear retailers like REI and Dick’s Sporting Goods to check if those stores have especially hard-to-find items such as water purifiers.

“We’ve almost sold out of those items as fast we get them,” Planzer said, noting he’s having to send customers to quite a variety of places to get everything they need.

Many more people camping, plus a supply chain disrupted by the coronavirus, means it’s taking two to three weeks longer than usual for outdoor-gear manufacturers to fill retail orders, local retailers say.

Christopher Harges, director of marketing at Rohnert Park-based outdoor equipment maker Marmot, said in an email many stores have sold out of the company’s products and the company has spent “much of the past weeks shipping reorders to these dealers.”

Harges said he expected sales of camping gear to remain strong into the fall as many people continue working from home and schools keep resorting to remote learning.

For Sonoma County residents that want to explore the outdoors this summer and fall but may not be keen on spending the night in a tent, RVs and trailers are an increasingly popular option.

Razi Hyder, general manager of Santa Rosa RV Sales, said he normally has around 200 trailers on the sales lot. He’s down to about 20.

“When we were allowed to reopen in the beginning of May, we saw a huge demand from people whose travel plans for the summer changed,” Hyder said.

“There are a lot of first-timers who didn’t even have this as a thought in their mind six months ago,” he said of RV buyers.

Peterson of Sonoma Outfitters said despite record sales of certain products associated with camping and outdoor sports, his overall business is still down from where it would normally be during the summer.

That could be because in recent years he scaled back to focus more on clothing and apparel, as well as specialty gear for serious outdoor enthusiasts, rather than products for casual weekend campers.

“But now, we’re starting to restock our camping and backpacking departments,” Peterson said.

You can reach Staff Writer Ethan Varian at ethan.varian@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5412. On Twitter @ethanvarian