Skip to main content
The owners of Next Adventure are on to their next adventure, and it won’t be selling you great gear at reasonable prices.
“We’ve been in business for 28 years, and we’ve loved every minute of it and loved Portland,” says Deek Heykamp, co-owner of the store with his childhood friend Bryan Knudsen. “You come to a point in your business life where you have to make a decision, and we decided to retire.”
The outdoor outfitter plans to close every location by the fall. This includes the Portland outdoor store at 426 SE Grand Ave., the paddle sports center down the street at 624 SE 7th Ave., the Sandy location and the Scappoose Bay paddle sports center in Warren, Ore.
“We’re facing a lot of uncertainty,” Heykamp says, “and as the leader of the company, my job is to make sure that we have stability and certainty for our team and our staff and our vendors.”
Heykamp declined to specify what type of uncertainty led to his decision, though the majority of U.S. retailers right now are concerned about economic factors such as high prices and how the federal government’s tariffs will ultimately shake out.
In recent years, Next Adventure was vocal in the state-level fight between the recreation industry and the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association over liability waivers.
“In 2021, Next Adventure was the target of an opportunistic lawsuit which came very close to destroying our business,” Heykamp said in testimony for a state Senate bill in 2023. “Just a few years ago, we offered our customers a robust schedule of trips, tours, classes and clinics to help them learn to use the outdoor gear that we sell. Due to the lawsuit, we made the decision to shut down all outdoor programming.”
For a company known for its bargain basement and big sales, the final sale at Next Adventure will be an everything-must-go bonanza for gearheads. It begins May 28 and will continue until about the end of September, or until the inventory is gone.
Heykamp says a few parties were interested in purchasing Next Adventure, but it never penciled out. If people are interested in buying “certain parts and pieces of the business, we would certainly entertain a conversation on those things,” he says.
“We are both so passionate about going out and finding deals and then hooking up our customers with the right product to get out on their adventures,” Heykamp says. “This sale is going to be exactly that. We’re going to have crazy deals, and it’s going to be fun.”