SANDPOINT — It started as a casual comment, “Hey do you want to buy an outdoor store?”

Julie Nye, who owned Outdoor Experience with her husband, Kevin, was talking with friend Jennifer Curto when she made the off-the-cuff, not-entirely-serious comment. And yet, fast forward five months, Curto has taken over the longtime downtown anchor from the Nyes and is looking forward to continuing her next adventure in the outdoor industry.

Curto has worked in the industry for about a decade, starting out on the retail side and has spent the last six years working in-house at Cascade Designs in Seattle. For the past three years, she’s managed public relations for outdoor equipment manufacturer, which includes such brands as Therm-a-Rest, MSR, Platypus, SealLine, and PackTowl. In 2017 Curto and her fiance, Tyler Salvage, who has family in Laclede, moved to Sandpoint and she’s continued her role at Cascade Designs, working remotely.

But then, the Nyes planted the seed about taking over Outdoor Experience. Once she thought about it and talked to her fiance about it, Curto said she realized it was an opportunity she had to pursue.

“I think I was really looking for an opportunity to take my skills and passion for the outdoor industry and apply it to my new community,” she added. “Working remotely was cool and flexible and good work-life balance but it was relatively isolating and I was really looking to really do something and invest in this community that I’ve come to love so much.”

She spent the next few months researching the opportunity and working with Kevin Nye to collect information to decide if she truly did want to take the plunge to become a business owner. Conversations with her fiance were equally supportive.

The more they talked, the more Curto got to know about the store and the more the Nyes learned about her background, the more each knew this was the right move for everyone. Five months later, on May 13, it became official: Kevin Nye retired and Curto became owner of Outdoor Experience.

“My fiancé and I were thinking long-term about the future and just thought that this would be a really amazing opportunity to make a living for hopefully the rest of our lives,” she said.

Curto said she is honored by the Nyes trust in selling her the business, by their encouragement and support, and by their continued guidance and unselfish training — all of which has made for a smooth and seamless transition.

“It’s really exciting,” Curto said. “It’s a lot of work and there’s still so much learning that needs to happen but it’s happening. Just diving right into it .”

Kevin Nye said the timing was right, and the person was right, to sell the business.

“We couldn’t have found a better person to trust it to, that’s for sure,” he said.

Knowing Curto’s background in both the outdoor industry and retail, knowing her passion and love for the industry, know her personality and love for the community made her the ideal person to take over the business and take it to the next level, he said.

“It was like she said, it was just a casual comment that created it, initially, between my wife and her,” Nye added. “But once we knew her background, and just knew her personality and knew it was a perfect fit, that’s for sure.”

Nye said after 33 years running the store — including 30 years with longtime business partner Mark DeLaVergne — it’s now time for he and his wife to begin their own adventures after helping others pursue theirs for so many years.

“It’s been a great career,” Nye said. “It’s always challenging, it’s an interesting product, it’s interesting customers, interesting people to work with, had a great staff of employees over the years that have made it fun.

While the business dates back to the mid- to late-1970s, Nye and DeLaVergne took over the business after acquiring its assets from the bank in 1986. Originally located where the Sunshine Gold Mine is now, Outdoor Experience moved to its current location in the early 1980s and has steadily increased in size since.

Nye is embracing the retired life, but admits it’s a work in progress. He stills stops in at the store and meets regularly with Curto to offer whatever advice and support she might want.

“It’s nice,” he said of having more free time. “I like it. It’s been very busy. It’s kind of weird. I guess every once in a while I take another step where it feels like I’m actually retired but it’s different. I don’t feel like I’m totally divorced from this place yet. I want to help however I can and however much I can. I don’t just want to walk away from it and go, ‘Pffft, there you go.’

“I think that’s kind of kept me from that feeling of being done, but in a good way. I’m glad I’m doing it. I’m happy to do it. I want to see the store succeed, I want to see it continue and plus it’s fun. It’s a fun place to be. It’s a really great environment. There’s great people you get to deal with, so it’s a little hard to leave that for sure.

Future plans include more travel, with items on the bucket list including bicycle tours in Europe and trips to South America, somewhere he’s never been but would love to visit.

“I guess my tag-line is that I’m going to hopefully be able to do more of the adventures and activities that I’ve been helping facilitate for others for such a long time,” Nye said. “I guess just take advantage of the time that I have to travel and go see things and hike and go sailing whenever I want to, ride my bike whenever I want to.”

Nye said he takes inspiration from the adventurers who have stopped by the store to stock up, sharing their stories of where they’ve been and where they’re going. Each person, each story is amazing and it’s been fun to be a part of those adventures through the years, he said.

Nye said he and his wife are excited that Curto ended up with the store and know she is going to take it to the next level.

“I think it will be fun to see where her passions take the store,” he added. “As far as what she brings in, and how she promotes it and what she does with the product mix and already, coming in, there’s things, I’ll go, ‘That’s a good idea.’ It’s fun to see those changes. I’m just excited to see what she’ll do with it and where her passions will take it.

For Curto, the first priority is to preserve the Nyes’ legacy and the success of the store they helped create. And while she has a lot of ideas, including specific areas she wants to expand, she said she plans to spend the first year continuing to observe and learn.

“I think there’s some potential in running and climbing and backpacking,” she said. “I think there’s some potential in increase the level of community engagements, whether it’s through events or social media.”

Caroline Lobsinger can be reached by email at clobsinger@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolDailyBee.