Lake State’s Local Vibe

Lake State Mountaineering’s opening in May of 2025 in Minneapolis’ North Loop marked not just a new retail storefront, but the filling of a void in the Twin Cities’ outdoor scene left by the closing of Midwest Mountaineering. When store owner Steve Schreader moved into the second floor of a glassy brick building featuring a two-story high mural of Prince, he accomplished a dream years in the making.

“One of the biggest visions I have is that we get folks from all over the country, and when they come into the shop, I want them to be transported into what makes Minnesota Minnesota,” Schreader said. “Everything in the store represents Minnesota in some way. It shows off what’s cool about the outdoor experience here.” He sells all the quality local gear he can find, including, in addition to the big global brands, locally made equipment from Cook Custom Sewing (Lino Lakes, MN), Northstar Canoes (Princeton, MN), Bending Branches (Osceola, WI), and Wintergreen (Ely).

For more than fifty years, Midwest Mountaineering was a fixture at Seven Corners in Minneapolis’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Home to the state’s best selection of climbing gear, canoes, and kayaks, as well as a free bouldering cave, the store sponsored a biannual outdoor expo that brought in locally and internationally renowned adventurers, like Alex Honnold and Jimmy Chin. Schreader worked at Midwest Mountaineering for a decade and hoped to take over the store from its owner, Rod Johnson, who died late last year.

Midwest’s closing in late 2023 left the Twin Cities without a homegrown gear shop. Bear Paulsen, general manager for Northstar Canoes, is another alum of Midwest Mountaineering. When asked why local retailers matter, Paulsen said, “Local gear shops build community. They serve as educational hubs. They help educate and inspire new paddlers and climbers. They serve as gathering and hangout spots for like-minded outdoorsy people. They are aspirational places. Unlike the internet, they allow new entrants a place to see, touch, feel, and especially ask questions,” Paulsen said Northstar doesn’t sell canoes directly to consumers because selling through local retailers: “creates a staff of excited and passionate paddlers in the local community, and keeps the money there, too.”

By spring of 2024, several months after Midwest’s closing, Schreader had opened an online store out of his East St. Paul home. Twice a month, he did pop-up shops at the Minneapolis Bouldering Project—an indoor climbing gym. To support himself, Schreader, who has a master’s degree in social studies education, substitute taught high school and worked in a woodshop. Finding a physical location for a permanent store that he could afford was a challenge, and after one suburban building fell through, he eventually landed on the Kildall Building, which in a past life was home to the world’s largest producer of lutefisk.

In his years working at Midwest Mountaineering, Schreader steeped himself in the store’s vibrant community of outdoor enthusiasts and came to believe it was essential. The store had long been the Twin Cities’ independent source of high-quality outdoor gear. Before it closed, owner Rod Johnson announced he was looking for someone to take over the store. “My desire was to take over Midwest, work alongside Rod for a few years before taking over,” Schreader said. “I put my name in the ring. For whatever reason, he didn’t take me up on that.” In the end, Johnson shuttered the store. “Rod was a true entrepreneur,” Schreader recalled, before conjecturing why Johnson closed the store: “A lot of true entrepreneurs have a feeling that nobody can do it as well as they can. Rod was ready to move on and be done after 54 years, ready for the next thing to stir him on. Because of that, and that vibe of nobody can do it as good as I can, he wanted to go out on a high note.”

Schreader rescued much of the Midwest’s décor, including wooden signs, the Minnesota Explorer’s Hall of Fame, and vintage posters and photographs. “Rod also gave me the name Thrifty Outfitters,” Schreader said. Thrifty Outfitters was the upstairs portion of Midwest, which repaired gear and offered discount clothing and gear. “I was the main Thrifty buyer before they closed,” Steve said. “It was easy for me to bring that aspect back.” Instead of doing repairs, however, Schreader refers customers to the Repair Lair, run by another Midwest alum, Nancy Ford. For canoe and kayak fixes, he sends customers to another friend who specializes in such. He sharpens knives and axes, and has someone who comes in weekly to fix tent poles. Schreader will wax cross-country skis, which he doesn’t sell, instead referring ski shoppers to local shops, but he plans to stock backcountry and alpine touring skis at some point.

“I’d rather send folks to a place that already carries cross-country skis and focus on things people can’t find,” Schreader said. “There’s no other local shop that carries a really good selection of ice climbing stuff and boots. I’m it. I’ve sold more ice climbing boots this year than all the years I was at Midwest.” An avid ice climber, Schreader climbs weekly in season and guides. He’s also the chair for the local chapter of the American Alpine Club, a national climbing advocacy nonprofit.

“I was just ingrained in the climbing community,” he said. “I was so ingrained with the paddle sports community. I had established many good relationships with both communities and the individuals themselves. I’m out there side by side with folks doing this stuff. This is what I do in my off time. I knew that without a shop like Midwest, no place would have that local vibe. The only way to have a shop like that was for me to take on the mantle and get it going.”

“One thing we didn’t do at Midwest, I have all this wall space that I could blast with brands that I carry, but I can also turn it over to a local artist. We have a featured artist of the month every month that people can come and see, and it helps enhance the shop.” February’s monthly artist was Twin Cities watercolorist Allie Rykken, who works for the Loppet Foundation and started Minnesota’s Ski North Ultra 100-kilometer race.

She paints scenes like Boundary Waters vistas and idyllic ski trails. “I was welcomed into the shop with the opportunity to share my art story with the community,” she said. She hung out in the store and listened to adventure stories from people who had recently rafted the Grand Canyon and hiked Europe’s Mont Blanc. It was reminiscent of the Midwest, with a big world map on the wall where employees left pins for the many places they’d adventured.

“I left inspired and feeling like I not only made multiple friends but was excited to come back to a space that made me feel comfortable about things that were unfamiliar. It made me want to see more of the world,” Rykken said. “I see local gear shops not only as experts that hand-select gear for you, but as community ambassadors, conveners, and communicators. I’m grateful for shops that go the extra step to engage and educate their community, and Lake State is absolutely one of them.”

“This is a community shop. Not just mine,” Schreader said. “I’m the owner, the steward, but it’s not my shop, it’s Minnesota’s and the community’s.” He summed up his first year of business: “There’s definitely been peaks and valleys, but overall it’s good. Once we opened the doors last year, things picked up significantly. I couldn’t have asked for a better first year. People are still finding me, which is great.” He recently hired a general manager, growing Lake State’s staff to six.