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Partly cloudy skies. Low 63F. WNW winds at less than 5 mph, increasing to 10 to 20 mph.
Partly cloudy skies. Low 63F. WNW winds at less than 5 mph, increasing to 10 to 20 mph.
Plentiful sunshine. High 87F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Sisters Kayce Bartlet, left, and store owner Kelsey Rathjen assist customers during WYLD Adventures grand opening Friday, July 1, 2022.
CJ Rathjen, center, talks with a visitor at WYLD Adventures grand opening Friday, July 1, 2022.
WYLD Adventures is the newest business to open on Sheridan's historic Main Street Friday, July 1, 2022. WYLD Adventures is a retail shop with a focus on casual wear tailored for outdoor enthusiasts.
Sisters Kayce Bartlet, left, and store owner Kelsey Rathjen assist customers during WYLD Adventures grand opening Friday, July 1, 2022.
CJ Rathjen, center, talks with a visitor at WYLD Adventures grand opening Friday, July 1, 2022.
WYLD Adventures is the newest business to open on Sheridan's historic Main Street Friday, July 1, 2022. WYLD Adventures is a retail shop with a focus on casual wear tailored for outdoor enthusiasts.
SHERIDAN — WYLD Adventures, a new outdoor equipment and apparel boutique, opened its doors Friday on North Main Street. The owners of the new shop, Kelsey and CJ Rathjen, hope the store will invite Sheridanites to explore the outdoors, with their own or rented gear.
In its spacious 35 N. Main St. location, WYLD Adventures offers all kinds of apparel, from branded T-shirts to luxury outdoor apparel, camping stoves to water bottles, jewelry to all sizes of backpacks. As customers inspected racks of clothing and perused tables of goods, the Rathjens took turns staffing the cash register and answering questions during the store’s opening day festivities Friday.
Although owning their own business is new for the Rathjens, they decided to set up shop as a way to channel their passion for outdoor adventures into a family business, CJ Rathjen, an avid backpacker and fisherman, said.
The shop’s merchandise demonstrates the owners’ ties to the Sheridan community. The couple moved back to Sheridan from elsewhere to raise their family here, CJ Rathjen said. Now, WYLD Adventures has been working with local businesses and organizations to incorporate uniquely Sheridan-based items into its inventory, Kelsey Rathjen explained. The store currently features a canvas tent from Sheridan Tent and Awning, for instance, and all of the shop’s branded T-shirts were printed by Kilpatrick Creations.
The shop will also operate a rental program, through which it will lease out outdoor equipment, CJ Rathjen explained, from sleeping bags and tents to kayaks and paddleboards. Rentals will come in packages — bundles of items for a particular type of excursion — or individual units and will be available for rentals in-store or online soon.
“We try to make it easy for the consumer to get outdoors,” CJ Rathjen said.
The Rathjens have two groups of target consumers in mind: local families and young folks. CJ Rathjen said WYLD Adventures’ ultra lightweight gear will allow anyone, including families hoping to welcome young children into the outdoors, to pack all the necessary gear in a relatively lightweight pack. Meanwhile, the couple said the store’s relatively affordable rental prices will allow Sheridan’s young people to enjoy the outdoors without the investment required to purchase their own gear.
The rental program, Kelsey Rathjen said, is intended to account for Sheridan’s relative lack of equipment rental options for summer sports and camping equipment.
“Our main reason [in founding WYLD Adventures] is we really wanted to fill a void here in Sheridan,” Kelsey Rathjen said. While other businesses rent out some winter sports equipment, the Rathjens said they hope to do the same for summertime gear rentals.
As she perused WYLD Adventures’ stacks of products during the shop’s opening day celebration — a brown paper bag with a WYLD Adventures cardigan tucked in it under her arm — Sheridan business owner and outdoor enthusiast Emily Dilloway said she was delighted to support the new shop. During a time when shopping online can be as easy as a single click, Dilloway said more local businesses on Main Street translates to more Sheridanites spending their earnings in town — and lifting the local economy in the process.
“We were really excited that Sheridan had a new outdoor retail business…” Dilloway said. “When we have more options here, we’re more likely to stay here and to spend our money here.”
Margaret O'Hara is a reporter at The Sheridan Press.
Margaret O'Hara is a reporter at The Sheridan Press.
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