Erica South joined the Outdoor Industry accidentally, working retail at Eastern Mountain Sports in Colorado as she attended college. She quickly fell in love with the process of helping folks to find their best gear and moved to Oregon after graduation to continue her retail career. After a stint in the tech world in the late ‘90s, she came back to the Outdoor world as a rep, working for two agencies representing legacy brands such as Smartwool, MSR, Sugoi, New Balance, Granite Gear, and Lole. Cascade Designs called and she became the International and Key Accounts Manager, learning the ways of large budget forecasting, and international exchange rates, as well as creating strategic plans for key account growth. Her son arrived alongside a break from traditional work to focus on mothering, and the Outdoor rep world called her back in 2013. She currently resides in Bend, Oregon, and runs her agency with her husband, Mike. When she’s not behind the wheel, visiting stores, or at a desk, Erica enjoys spending time with her family which includes her teenage son and her silly dog as well as her husband Mike, running, camping, hiking, skiing of all kinds, and exploring remote rivers by raft.

A native Oregonian, Mike grew up climbing trees and adventuring in the forest.  While at the University of Oregon he took a rock climbing class in 1996 that hooked him for life. He began his career in the Outdoor Industry in 1997 at Peak Sports in Corvallis, Oregon, where he met his wife, Erica. In 2000 Mike moved to Eugene to take a job at Backcountry Gear, a then-fledgling catalog/e-commerce company. After 17 years driving incredible growth as the General Manager at Backcountry Gear, he joined Erica’s independent sales agency, and together they formed South Sales NW. Mike brings his broad experience managing a thriving outdoor retailer, his passion for outdoor adventure, and almost 20 years of buying and managing retail to the table.  When not passionately serving the great accounts across Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and Washington, Mike can be found floating some river out West, free-heeling on the local hill, or wandering the sticks with their 13-year-old son and the bearded animal Stanley.

Gus grew up the son of an Air Force veteran where moving across the globe every two years was the norm. Living overseas gave him the opportunity to develop a worldview on life. During a break between career jobs as a wildlife biologist in Washington, Gus decided to work a short stint on the retail floor for REI in Seattle, WA where he discovered his passion for the outdoors. After a two year break as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador, South America where Gus spent every weekend scaling Andean peaks and exploring the Amazon jungle he came back to REI. His next stint at REI was as the international customer service rep in charge of REI accounts south of the border. Following REI, Gus has spent over 25 years in the outdoor industry in many aspects, from a manufacturer’s operations manager to sales rep. In his spare time Gus worked as a whitewater river guide, played outdoors in his sea kayaks, on his tele and AT skis, taking climbing trips to Canada, canyoning the water filled canyons of the Pacific Northwest, and Nordic skiing instructing in the famous Methow valley of Washington State. These days Gus can be found hiking the desert SW, floating rivers in Utah, and backcountry skiing near his home in Wenatchee, WA.