REI is shutting down its classes, tours, and events business, collectively known as Experiences. The outdoor retailer announced the end of Experiences on Wednesday, laying off hundreds of employees in the division.

Experiences have been a signature tenet of REI’s mission to get connect customers with the outdoors, but in an email to employees, CEO Eric Artz said the company had to shutter the division to return to profitability.

REI has been on the ropes financially for years, reporting losses since 2021. In his email, Artz said the company was close to breaking even in 2024 but “we still have more work to do to return the co-op to sustainable, profitable growth.”

Experiences guide Emily Burchett said REI is missing the bigger picture. She was one of 428 employees laid off on Wednesday.

“People who take an REI class will spend a certain percentage more at REI than even our REI members,” she said. “And the likelihood of them turning into REI members after taking a class is much higher. So Experiences may not be making the money, but we’re bringing the money into the stores.”

But Artz noted that less than 1% of REI customers use Experiences, and the division loses millions of dollars every year.

“We have gone through many iterations and explored multiple options to keep this business up and running and to preserve jobs,” he said in the email. “We’ve held out as long as possible, but the fact remains that Experiences is an unprofitable business for the co-op, and we must adjust course.”

REI told KUOW that 67 employees were laid off in its home state, Washington. Of those, 32 work at REI’s corporate headquarters in Issaquah.

Burchett is based in Chicago, where she led kayaking tours of the Chicago River every summer. Last year, she was awarded Guide of the Year for her region. She spent Wednesday afternoon trying to download customer reviews from her work phone before losing access to it.

“The ones that I love reading are the ones where people are discovering the outdoors for the first time, or discovering their outdoors for the first time,” she said. “And now REI has completely shut that off. There’s no place that an REI customer can do that.”

This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

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