The outdoor industry lost one of its pioneers last month. Rodney Johnson, who founded Minneapolis-based outdoor store Midwest Mountaineering, passed away at the age of 76 on October 26.
Johnson operated the store for over 50 years, helping an untold number of folks enjoy the great outdoors.
Who Was Rodney Johnson?
Johnson was an avid outdoorsman, climber, hiker, and paddler. In emails with GearJunkie, longtime store manager and friend, Randy “Rudi” Hargesheimer, recounted that Johnson was a true outdoor fanatic.
“Rod was a gear-head and an adrenaline junkie, like so many of us outdoor-loving adventurers. He did everything his way, not the established universally accepted proper way,” he said.
He was a diehard ultralight backpacker who wasn’t afraid to do it on the cheap; his favorite sleeping pad was just plain old bubble wrap.
In an interview with Paddle and Portage, Hargesheimer shared that Johnson loved extreme paddling and took on the Grand Canyon and the Nile. He did the Canadian Ski Marathon (a 100-mile race from Montreal to Ottawa) three times.
An avid mountaineer, he scaled big mountains like Denali and Rainier.
Midwest Mountaineering
Johnson got his start by selling climbing gear to college students. Soon, he left school and began operating out of his kitchen. In 1971, he opened Midwest Mountaineering on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis, before moving to West Bank in 1976.
Hargesheimer described Johnson as a quirky character. He hand-wrote a newsletter for the store, which highlighted products and even had an advice column. He said that Johnson also loved a coupon; he’d try anything to get people into the store. Once, he advertised in the newspaper that if you came to the store, you’d get a $1 bill. Over 400 people showed up.
A creative marketer, Johnson was unafraid to be counter-cultural, or just plain weird.
“One Minnesota Daily ad they did was trying to sell a used army surplus gear, and the headline was ‘Absolutely no rat boogers.’ An odd marketing strategy, but it worked,” Hargesheimer said, referring to the University of Minnesota newspaper. “They sold a lot of that stuff.”
Johnson focused on working with people who loved the outdoors just as much as he did.
“He was very liberal with us employees, giving us time off we wanted and huge discounts on gear so that we could actually do what we said we were experts at. And of course that worked. Our slogan became ‘Ask us, we’ve been there,’” Hargesheimer said.
In addition to their hourly wage, employees also received a portion of profits from the store. They would also regularly vote on which outdoor and nature nonprofits to help support.
AllGear Digital’s very own Editorial Director, Sean McCoy, worked at the shop in his early 20s, and it proved to be a formative experience.
“Working at Midwest was a major stepping stone in my outdoors career. It taught me the value of great gear, but more importantly, how to connect that gear with the right user. That became a cornerstone of customer service, and a guiding light of what GearJunkie is today,” McCoy said.
Midwest Mountaineering survived the initial e-commerce revolution of the early 2000s, but times got tough during the pandemic. In 2023, Johnson decided to permanently shut the store.
“I figured, it was better to quit ahead and go out with a stellar reputation than slowly bleeding to death,” he told MPR News at the time. “I am very sad that our mission of helping people have more fun outdoors will not continue.”
Johnson and the Community
Johnson’s passion for getting people into the outdoors was evident in how he interacted with the community. He started a local Boy Scout troop, which had its headquarters in the store. Hargesheimer recounted that he’d take local kids from the Somali immigrant community on kayaking trips to try to expose them to the outdoors.
McCoy recalled how important the shop, with its bouldering area, was for local climbers at the University of Minnesota. “It was really the only game in town, with indoor climbing just becoming a thing. It’s where we trained, learned new skills, and tried out new gear. The bouldering cave, dusty, dingy, and smelling of BO. I loved that spot,” he said.
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