Word to the Outdoor Stores: Gialdini Store
The natural habitat of The Pill is certainly an Outdoor Store, hence the need to constantly compare ourselves with the shops to know and understand the dynamics and directions of the market. Gialdini Outdoor is the first Outdoor Store in Italy, its history is very old and dates back to 1860. Family-run, it has changed according to the evolution of going into the mountains and supporting, but also creating, the desires of its customers. It has never stopped, not even during the Covid-19, offering a presence both online and in their shop in Brescia. Gialdini Outdoor is the reference point for those who know about mountains and want quality products.
Tell us the story of your shop. How it started, what you specialise in and how it has changed over time. What did consumers look for yesterday and what do they want today?
We started a long time ago, back in 1860 when we were a hardware store. Later we incorporated the world of camping, caravans and roulettes. In the 1980s, together with a friend, we added everything related to the mountains, combining camping and the outdoors. This is how the first outdoor shop in Italy started. Those who went camping could now have adventures in nature. We found a very large area, 1300 m, and there has always been an increase in accessories, following the evolution of going into the mountains from the 1980s to the present day.
The mountain has changed a lot, or perhaps it is better to say that its imagination has changed over time. For example, ski mountaineering used to be practised only by the hiker who walked in the summer and didn’t know what to do in the winter. Now the ski mountaineer is extremely technical. Thanks to government restrictions due to Covid-19, people have fallen in love with hills, mountains and nature in the last year. You don’t have to be a competitive athlete to do outdoor activities.
A holistic but necessary question, what does Outdoor mean to you?
The word ‘outdoor’ has been on our shop logo for a very long time. For us it means living in nature, from when we are free until just before we enter normality, the world of work. Selecting a place and entering it. Sleeping in a tent, in a bivouac and getting there on foot and getting back there on foot too. Get out of the car, into the woods and experience the outdoors. In the shop we have a large selection of tents, stoves, sleeping bags, mattresses, backpacks, clothing, everything you need to have a holiday without using hotels.
Given the period we’ve been/are going through, how has your shop reacted to the pandemic? Does it also have an online dimension? Was it a necessary and complicated step or a simple evolution of the nature of a shop in adaptation to modern times?
The shop is run by our family, once there was my father, now it’s me – Paolo Massardi – and my brother Matteo. We work together with many colleagues who are our family. I manage the online part, sales, communications and social media. We were already on the web before Covid-19. It’s important for us and for the customer, so before you come to the shop you can have a look online. Being outdoor lovers, you want to go and taste the product in the shop and as soon as it was possible, we had an increase in visits to our physical shop.
Outdoor sport was one of the few activities still allowed. Maybe you couldn’t do downhill skiing, but cross-country skiing or mountaineering, for example. How have sales been? What are the most popular products and those that remain in the boxes?
The winter was absurd, luckily it snowed, otherwise we would all have been left in the lurch. Mountaineering has been the most popular, but trekking has never stopped working, as has the footwear sector. Clothing, as well as equipment for all the sports banned due to the pandemic, has suffered greatly. We were lucky, because we managed to stay open all the time, even when everything was closed, selling exclusively sports products. Now, thanks to the resurgence of hiking, we also sell a lot of backpacks.
In recent months, outdoor clothing has also become cool for city dwellers, not least because of the collaboration between North Face and Gucci. Who are the customers of your shop?
Our main target group is the technical customer, the customer who knows about the mountains. We are considered a very technical and specialised shop. With the help of restrictions and the good fortune of showing the outdoor world with a fashion-oriented eye, the market has opened up and from a restricted niche reaches more people, especially for footwear and clothing. You look at the technical product and when you have a choice, the choice falls on aesthetics.
One last personal question, where would you go to train, go on a nature trip or an outdoor trip?
I am a mountain biker. As a destination I would definitely go to the Dolomites, Canazzei, the three peaks of Lavaredo. The heart is always in the Brenta Dolomites. I used to hate it because I thought it was too fancy, but when I started working there six months out of the year, it became part of my heart. It may be fancy because it’s spectacular. If I don’t go to Campiglio once a month, I miss it. For a trip of several days, however, I am always very attracted by the Via del Sale in Piedmont.
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