Recreational Equipment, Inc.

Lloyd (1902–2000) and Mary (Gaiser) Anderson (1909–2017) founded REI in Seattle, Washington, in 1938. The Andersons had imported an Akadem Pickel ice axe from Austria, for themselves, as part of The Mountaineers Basic Climbing Course; from there, the two decided to set up a co-operative to help other outdoor enthusiasts in the club acquire good-quality climbing gear at reasonable prices. On June 23, 1938, with the aid of Seattle attorney Ed Rombauer, five Mountaineers met at Rombauer's office, and each paid one dollar to join the Recreational Equipment Cooperative.

During its first year, Recreational Equipment was just a shelf at the Puget Sound Cooperative Store, a farmers' co-op near Pike Place Market in Seattle. In 1942, Lloyd moved the business to a new space down the hall from The Mountaineers’ club rooms on Pike Street. Jim Whittaker was hired as REI's first full-time employee in July 1955. In 1956, the Recreational Equipment Cooperative was incorporated. Whittaker served as CEO during the 1960s and was an early board member alongside American Alpine Club president Nicholas Clinch. When Whittaker became the first American to summit Mount Everest in May 1963, it provided REI with so much free advertising that the following year, the company’s gross income topped $1 million for the first time.

Through the 1970s, REI identified itself prominently as REI Co-op, focusing primarily on equipment for serious climbers, backpackers, and mountaineering expeditions. In the 1980s, following changes to its board of directors, REI’s emphasis expanded to include camping, kayaking, bicycling, and other outdoor activities. The company acquired the local outdoor gear firm Mountain Safety Research (MSR) in 1981. MSR later bought tent-maker Edgeworks and began producing tents under the MSR brand. REI retained ownership of MSR until 2001, when it exited the manufacturing business and sold the operation to Cascade Designs, another successful outdoor gear company in the Seattle area. Clothing, particularly "sport-casual" apparel, also became a greater part of the company's product line. Although the company remained a cooperative, providing special services to its members, the "co-op" moniker was dropped from much of its literature and advertising. Beginning in 2014, with the introduction of the REI Co-Op clothing line, REI publicly re-emphasized the cooperative aspect of its business model. In October 2015, the company launched a redesigned logo that included the word "co-op" for the first time since 1983.

Sally Jewell joined the board of REI in 1996 and was named chief operating officer in 2000. She then became CEO in 2005. Jewell remained CEO of REI until she was named United States Secretary of the Interior in April of 2013. She was succeeded by Jerry Stritzke, former president and COO of Coach New York, who was named president and CEO of REI in August 2013. Stritzke resigned in February 2019. Eric Artz, previously COO of the company, was named CEO and president of REI in May 2019. In January 2025, Artz announced his retirement to be effective in March 2025. He was succeeded as CEO by Mary Beth Laughton, who was previously the board director for REI.

After the Parkland high school shooting, REI joined the 2018 NRA boycott and suspended orders from Vista Outdoor, a maker of outdoor products and rifles.

On Black Friday of 2015, REI "did the unexpected" by closing all of its stores and temporarily halting the processing of online purchases, giving all of its employees a paid day off. Although Black Friday has traditionally been one of REI's top-10 days for annual sales, the company abstained from Black Friday and launched an #OptOutside marketing campaign, urging people to spend their time outside. REI is the first major US retailer to forgo operations on Black Friday. They continued the initiative through the 2022 holiday season.

On January 31, 2023, REI laid off eight percent of its corporate staff, eliminating 167 positions. The layoffs were attributed to the need to return REI to profitability amidst a challenging economic environment, with the company experiencing a decline in outdoor gear sales following a pandemic boom.

In January 2025, REI announced that it would lay off 400+ employees, ending its unprofitable REI Experiences classes, day tours, and adventure tourism packages. In October, the company announced it would close three stores in Boston, New York City, and Paramus, New Jersey.

Non-retail diversification

In 1987, REI expanded its business by launching REI Adventures, a branch that managed travel trips for active tourists worldwide. Later, in 2006, the company created the Outdoor School which consisted of one-day local trips and in-store instructional classes.

On June 11, 2015, REI bought Adventure Projects Inc., a Boulder-based company, founded by Nick Wilder and Mike Ahnemann in 2012, which is best known for its climbing website, Mountain Project, with guides to more than 128,000 climbing routes across the world. It has since expanded by creating MTBProject.com, a website for mountain bike trail maps, HikingProject.com, for hiking trails, PowderProject.com, for backcountry skiing trails, and TrailRunProject.com, for cross-country running trails.

On January 8, 2025, REI announced that it was ending the "Experiences" businesses, laying off hundreds of employees. REI’s president and CEO, Eric Artz, said that the Experiences business served only 40,000 customers in 2024, less than 0.4% of all co-op customers, and was unprofitable.

Locations

REI was headquartered in Kent, Washington. A new headquarters campus in the Spring District of Bellevue, Washington, was announced in 2016 and planned to open in 2020. The sale of the new headquarters campus was announced in August 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with REI corporate employees shifting to remote work.