Mountain Equipment Company (MEC) is coming to Moncton’s Mapleton Centre this summer, making it MEC’s second Maritime location, joining the Granville Street location in downtown Halifax.

“Moncton is a hub city in the Maritimes with an abundance of local and provincial wild spaces, ideal for camping, hiking, climbing, biking, paddling, and Cross-Country skiing, and we are looking forward to helping new customers and members gear up for their outdoor adventures,” says Peter Hlynsky, MEC’s Chief Operations Officer.

The company is currently recruiting staff including a manager. Hlynsky says they’re seeking staff members who are knowledgeable about the outdoors, and passionate about sports like rock climbing and kayaking, hiking, snow-shoeing, and many more. He says staff members use MEC products and merchandise so they have first-hand knowledge to give their customers.

“We give our staff paid days off to go out and use the gear,” he says. “We give a lot of product knowledge to them so we can really help them understand all the nuances. Especially with our MEC label product, we’re doing so much innovation right now.”

Located at 79 Wyse Street in the Mapleton Centre, the new MEC store is currently slated to open in August. This will be the first stand-alone store the business has opened since switching from its original co-operative model that it launched in Vancouver back in 1971.

MEC is still well-known across the country and around the world for its high-quality outdoor equipment. Hlynsky says that’s not going to change at the new Moncton location.

“We’re like a candy store of the outdoors. If you’re into the outdoors, we have everything you need,” he says, adding that the ‘rock-solid guarantee’ means if a product doesn’t meet a customer’s expectations, they can bring it back.

In addition to its own line of clothing and equipment, MEC also carries over 100 additional clothing and equipment brands in its stores across the country including Marmot, Billabong, Patagonia and The North Face.

The storefront is a 17,000-square-foot space, with an additional 6,000 square feet to accommodate a rental fleet and a bike shop.

For those people who are fanatical about their outdoor enthusiast clothes and equipment, the Moncton store will mean one less trek to Halifax, or Quebec City.

“We know we have a lot of demand,” says Hlynsky. “We get notes and calls and emails from people saying ‘Why don’t you have an MEC here?’ So we’ve listened to our members and we’ve also listened to our staff…”

MEC also has a buying team that seeks out local products throughout Canada and the stores have space dedicated to local products.

“We do typically use our stores as test markets,” he says. “If it works well in the Moncton store, you expand it to Halifax. So it is a good launching pad for those people that are bringing innovative product to market.”

MEC is continuing with its membership program. It’s free to join and members of the old MEC membership program will continue to be members, with perks related to equipment servicing and deals.

Hlynsky says he’s looking forward to MEC having a bigger presence in the Maritimes.

“We think getting ourselves out there, it helps get people outdoors. That’s what gets us excited.”

Alex Graham is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.