Back 40 Outfitters is the summer hack you need to get outside

Female entrepreneur Shannon Jephson-Hernandez is passionate about getting everyone outdoors.

She has created a unique storefront business in downtown Kent that has been operating for about five years. She intentionally chose the Kent valley when she relocated from California 22 years ago due to the proximity to great camping and hiking. She discovered that many others want to have the same experience but found barriers, in cost, knowledge gaps or even the time it takes to plan and organize gear, not to mention the clean up and storage afterwards. Inspired to dismantle these barriers, she created a model where people can simply reserve pre-packed kits of gear for a simple fee, pick it up, go have a blast and drop it off when they’re done. That’s it! No cleaning, repacking or putting everything away.

Perhaps you want to get out into the beautiful PNW forests, parks and beaches but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you have friends coming into town and they don’t want to lug gear cross-country? Or maybe you don’t even know if you like camping? You can try it out without doing a lot of research on gear and investing a chunk of money. Maybe you just want a concierge service rental experience? (who wouldn’t?) No wonder she likes to say “We make camping fun again!”

She and her team define the ‘Back 40’ as the explorable wilderness beyond the city and they want to help you explore the outdoors in a more convenient and less intimidating way. They want you to try before you buy and feel empowered to use top quality equipment without the need to own it, maintain it, and store it.

One of the most interesting segments of her business is equipping folks to enjoy the many music festivals out at the Gorge. She is one of the only services who is catering to this need. As she says, “We understand what it takes to have a comfortable festival experience.” This has led to her popularity with out-of-state festival goers, from coding festivals in the San Juans, to the aforementioned Gorge adventures.

Shannon seems to have endless energy as she pursues her other passion as a middle school teacher who has the additional responsibility as the curricular leader for elective programs. She works hard to bring a strong career tech focus to her students, affording many opportunities for them to explore diverse career paths and interests.

As if this wasn’t enough she carved out time in January of this year to travel to Tulsa Oklahoma to represent Back 40 Outfitters in the largest live-in entrepreneur competition for television.

Entitled “BetaBlox,,” the show takes entrepreneurs and provides an educational experience to accelerate success. It is an 8 episode series which is in its 12th season!

According to Jephson- Hernandez:

“Being a part of this show changed my life on a million levels.“

She is celebrating the beginning of Season 12 and invites you all to meet some amazing businesses by tuning into the show for free on Facebook, or on the BetaBlox website, mobile apps, and eventually on Prime Video.

Here are a few other links to discover this series:

Or, click the link below to learn more about this season, specifically more info on the judges:

This is it! Summer is here and the great outdoors is calling, make it easy by checking out a gem of downtown Kent. Back 40 Outfitters is ready to help!