Close your eyes and imagine what a typical hiker looks like. Do the words “rugged” and “Ford rugged” come to mind? Are they wearing khaki shorts? Is the tube attached to the CamelBak stuck in your mouth?
Whatever you imagine, that hiker is probably using the AllTrails app. In fact, almost everyone does. Even those who don't know what CamelBak is or have no idea what the term “out-and-back” means. In the world of AllTrails, hikers of all skill levels are still hikers.
Many people find apps the same way.
“I was Googling how to start hiking and AllTrails came up a lot,” said Jessica Wood, who co-owns French Custard, an ice cream shop in Kansas City, Missouri. “Because it's a free app, we're like, 'Let's download it and see what happens,'” she said. We never deleted it.”
Of course, this is by design. What started as an idea backed by a seed accelerator (Silicon Valley refers to an incubator program) in 2010 quickly became a behemoth that swallowed up many of its competitors. Three years later, AllTrails has raised nearly $4.5 million in funding. In 2018, the company raised $75 million, dwarfing previous funding rounds.
But like many pandemic-prevention companies, the app, which provides details on hundreds of thousands of hiking trails around the world, has truly become a star since COVID-19.
“Even before the pandemic, we were still seeing very high growth rates,” said Ron Schneidermann, who took over as CEO of AllTrails in 2019. (Company founder Russell Cook left in 2018.) “But suddenly in 2020 we had triple-digit growth during the lockdown, and there was nothing else to do.”
Ms. Wood, who described herself as a “new hiker with absolutely no experience,” used AllTrails “almost every day” during the summer of 2022, working with her husband, Alex, as they waited out the headache.
“It really felt like an expert hiker was showing us how to hike,” she said, referring to other users’ frequently updated trail reviews, including updates on the condition of the trail and whether it is a safe place to take animals or children. I have mentioned the details. .
“My toxic trait is that I read reviews very avidly,” says Eva Jee, a food writer and restaurant expert in Denver. “If you’re planning a big hike, especially an overnight hike in an area you don’t know or on a trail you’ve never hiked before, scroll down and read trail reports from the past few weeks.”
Ji, 41, often uses these reviews to decide what shoes to wear, whether the trails have enough shade to avoid wearing a hat, and the best time of year to see aspen trees change color. They say it will. Wildflowers are blooming.
“You can get so much information.” she said
Gabby Rumney, a 28-year-old project coordinator for the National Grocers Association Foundation in Philadelphia, said she used the app before and after hiking all 2,193.1 miles of the Appalachian Trail in 2021. (“That 0.1 is really important,” she added.)
“It was a good introduction to understanding the trail, reading maps and understanding the differences in terrain,” Mr. Rumney said.
She prefers the FarOut app for more challenging hikes like the Appalachian Trail or Pacific Crest Trail, but said AllTrails is much more accessible to a wider range of hikers.
“I think there’s often an implication when it comes to hiking, ‘Oh, you have to be physically fit and you have to have all this expensive gear,’” Mr. Rumney said. “Some of that is true because it makes things easier. But at the same time, we are all walking, as long as we are free of disabilities, which should be accessible.”
At AllTrails headquarters in San Francisco, the word “accessibility” comes up often. “A lot of people came to us or were interested in the outdoors, but didn’t consider themselves outdoorsy people,” said Carly Smith, who joined the company as chief marketing officer in 2021.
Mr Smith's arrival comes after achieving two major milestones at AllTrails. In January 2021, the company reached 1 million paid subscribers to AllTrails+, which allows users to download maps for offline access. (The trail maps and basic aspects of the app's search functionality are completely free.) And in November of that year, AllTrails announced that it had secured $150 million in additional funding.
Under Mr. Smith's watch, AllTrails has become more sophisticated and lifestyle-friendly. Where once hikers were given the opportunity to “find your next favorite trail,” now they are given the opportunity to “find your outdoor adventure.” In the app, users can check their stats for the year and track how long it took them to complete their hikes, using an interface not much different from fitness apps like Peloton or Strava.
Now redesigned to appeal to your Gen Z cousins as well as your crunchiest, most outdoors-loving uncles, AllTrails is Apple's 2023 Year of the Year designation for fostering “community through comprehensive trail guides and outdoor exploration for everyone.” was selected as an app.
“There aren't many awards ceremonies in software development,” said Schneidermann. “This feels like our Pulitzer Prize.”
And like other 21st century companies, AllTrails has doubled down on expanding its network of brand ambassadors and influencers. For example, during Black History Month, the company unveiled an apparel and accessory collaboration with three Black artists to support the nonprofit Vibe Tribes Adventures. Last March, AllTrails highlighted products from six female-led brands.
Evelynn Escobar, founder of the nonprofit Hike Clerb, said she recently approached AllTrails about a potential partnership. Although she doesn't credit AllTrails with introducing her to the joys of hiking (that credit goes to her aunt, who used to hike around LA when she was younger), the app is “the core of my outdoor lifestyle.” she said. “I start my hike based on what I find there.”
So Mrs. Escobar gave each member of Hike Clerb's first hiking guide class an AllTrails+ subscription so they could better plan hikes aimed primarily at “black, brown and indigenous women and gender-diverse people.”
“The outdoors is still a very homogeneous space,” Mrs. Escobar said, referring to her first trip to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. She said, “I realized that literally in the hub of outdoor recreation, there were still only white people.”
But if AllTrails gets its way, the national park system could soon be populated by a younger, more diverse user base. Last March, the company unveiled its Public Lands program, partnering with land managers at 270 parks across the U.S. to access real-time data on trail activity and send real-time alerts about trail conditions to AllTrails users. Participation in the program is free.
According to AllTrails, a 2023 pilot test in Olympic National Park in Washington resulted in a 66% reduction in search and rescue incidents on two of the park's most popular trails, and a 62% reduction in such operations across all trails in the park compared to previous years. year.
Connecting users directly with park rangers can help avoid negative press, such as an incident last fall when SFGate reported that AllTrails was giving users directions to a dangerous tourist attraction on the Hawaiian island of Kauai that had been closed for more than a month . In response, the company encouraged users to “help us maintain accurate, up-to-date trail information by suggesting corrections or leaving a review.”
AllTrails relies on its users for advice on adding trails as well as edits and alerts. The company's 'Data Integrity' team investigates and either approves or rejects the proposal. “We will run everything first through a whole layer of machine learning, computer vision, verification, and then a whole level of human curation, among other things,” Mr. Schneidermann said. , inherently easy to change.
“Once a trail is open to the public on our site, it doesn’t mean it’s static, it means it will be that way forever,” he added.
Like the trails themselves, your hiking habits can change over time. I think some people end up breaking away from AllTrails and venturing out on their own.
“If I were someone who gained some beginner hiking experience through AllTrails, I would say it is absolutely worth it to start hiking.” “It’s great,” says Ryan Tripp, 21, an environmental engineering student at Dartmouth College who grew up hiking. led a hiking trip near his home in Oakland, California.
“You can’t necessarily tell them to turn off their phones, turn everything off and just go into the woods. But I think incremental change can be really rewarding and has the potential to expose people to what I think is the best. Benefits of outside activities such as self-reliance and independence.
“Technology will continue to seep into the outdoors,” Tripp said, referring to the ongoing debate over whether cell service and infrastructure should be expanded in national parks.
But Mr. Schneidermann insists AllTrails is strictly outdoors, even if users are looking at their phones rather than weather-beaten trail signs. He no longer sees other hiking apps as competitors, but is instead focused on becoming an alternative to tech companies like Facebook and TikTok.
“Incredibly powerful, well-equipped companies designed to keep people behind screens all day are attracting top talent,” he said. “And obviously we are anti-metaverse.”