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Outdoors Shop Brings Wilderness Survival and Free Yoga to Utica Avenue

By Sonja Sharp | November 15, 2013 10:28am
Brooklyn Outdoor Provisions
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Brooklyn Outdoor Provisions

CROWN HEIGHTS — They're bringing the Adirondacks to Utica Avenue.

The team behind Brooklyn Outdoor Provisions wants to urge their neighbors into the great outdoors, offering top-of-the line adventure gear, wilderness survival classes and free community yoga in Crown Heights. 

"It’s really about building a community here in Brooklyn that’s engaged and really wants to get out," manager Avi Edelson said of the new shop, which will open to the public on Nov. 18. "There’s no group of people who more needs to get out than people who live in New York City." 

Owner Yehuda Solomon, who previously ran an online store for outdoor gear, said he hopes the 198 Utica Ave. shop will serve a previously untapped market of would-be urban adventurers far from Lululemon-clad Manhattan. 

  The team behind Brooklyn Outdoor Provisions   wants to urge their neighbors into the great outdoors, offering top-of-the line adventure gear, wilderness survival classes and free community yoga in Crown Heights. 
Brooklyn Outdoor Provisions Comes to Utica Avenue
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"Brooklyn in general is very underserved in the outdoor industry," Solomon said. "I don't believe that the outdoors is for one specific group or another specific group — the outdoor industry is for everyone." 

The store will carry a variety of athletic and camping apparel, wilderness gear and everyday accessories — from trendy Fjallraven backpacks to MSR IsoPro fuel and Marmot tents — in an effort to cater to outdoor novices as well as adventure enthusiasts. 

"We probably have over 40 different companies that we’re working with in the store," said business development coordinator Matthew Birko. "We wanted to put up a place that offered all the different components of the outdoor experience to the Brooklyn community."

In addition to its selection of camping, running and yoga gear, the shop will feature introductory classes ranging from basic yoga poses to how to start a fire in the wilderness. 

"Part of the reason we’re doing these classes is because you’re not going to go out for a long hike or an overnight or just start doing yoga unless you have some help and assistance along the way," Edelson said.

"It’s something you can do really well in a small shop, get to know your neighbors, get to know your local community really well, and really outfit someone head to toe."