A new consignment store in Bentonville is making high-quality outdoor gear more affordable.

Sturdy Used Gear, at 3406 SE J St., Ste. 2, gives local residents another option for buying and selling used outdoor gear, which is still largely done through Facebook Marketplace and other online listings.

For sellers, Sturdy Used Gear is less work. Residents can bring their outdoor gear to the store to have it assessed and priced by store owner Kelsey Miller. When it sells, they'll receive a payout.

And buyers no longer "have to message someone on Facebook and meet up in a parking lot and hope the shoes fit," Miller said.

The gear in the shop is secondhand, not second-rate, she said.

"It's not a thrift store, so you're not going to come in here and find stuff for $1, but it's all been vetted, all of the stuff works, all of it is of a certain caliber of product," Miller said.

After a public opening on Saturday, June 20, Miller is still filling out the shelves.

In addition to clothing, the shop carries gear across the board: mountain and gravel bikes, paddle boards, kayaks, tents, sleeping bags, camp stoves and more.

For now, Miller is focused on summer stock. A winter parka, she said, is a tough sell in June.

Because this is Bentonville, much of the inventory will be bike-related, but "it's not a bike store," she said.

The shop is meant to cover the full range of outdoor recreation, from camping and hiking to paddling and climbing.

After studying at the University of Arkansas, Miller worked in coffee shops, at the cycling advocacy group Trailblazers, in a bike shop and for a bike parts distributor.

She’s an avid mountain biker, but she has also seen firsthand the barriers people can face when getting into the outdoors.

For one, there are the cost-of-living increases that Miller, a Bentonville native, has witnessed as the city's profile as an outdoor destination has grown.

"A lot of people can't afford to access the outdoors, because our outdoors have become so desirable," Miller said.

Getting involved in outdoor recreation can also be intimidating in ways that have nothing to do with money.

"I am just kind of getting tired of this, like, language that it feels like you have to speak, or this knowledge that you feel like you should know in order to get outside," she said.

That experience shaped the tone she's after: knowledgeable, but unintimidating.

"If you have 'stupid' questions about anything, this is the place to bring them," Miller said. "There's not one shred of cool outdoor person ego in this place."

Sturdy Used Gear’s initial hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Learn more about the consignment process on Sturdy Used Gear’s website.