Upon visiting The Outdoorist Oath’s website, a popup window currently greets the new guest: “Are you even part of a thriving meadow, bro?”
The Outdoorist Oath, a young, year-old organization created in collaboration with environmental justice leaders Pattie Gonia, Teresa Baker and José González, pedals a simple mission: “A commitment to Planet, Inclusion, and Adventure.”
The Oath itself is an educational model grounded by the Reasonable Person Model and Systems Change thinking, that offer theories and practices, peer-reviewed and proven successful at facilitating social change.
Essentially, The Oath is a workshop where people can better understand and be agents of change in protecting the planet and making the outdoors a diverse and inclusive place. Plus, it ends with a cool ceremony. Over 2,200 folks have taken The Oath so far.
But in the organization’s first year of workshops and community building, its founders (and growing team) found that people who took The Oath were still hungry for more events centered around the intersections of people and planet.
So, back to the pop-up window.
It advertises an upcoming event (both virtual and IRL) called a Stretch Session, which builds upon themes first touched on in The Oath Workshop.
“The workshops are a way to bring people into what the Outdoorist Oath is, as a call to action and setup to practice; To live The Oath and share #HowIOath,” co-founder González said in an email to Good Good Good.
“Like setting up people to exercise: the stretch sessions are very much like when you exercise; it's important to stretch throughout to support growth. To lean into a stretch in order to be ready to do more. It's an additional way to support the community in how they Oath.”
It’s always free to attend both Stretch Sessions and Oath workshops, but in order to make these events accessible to a growing community of intersectional environmentalists, The Outdoorist Oath needs support.
Hydro Flask, a stainless steel water bottle brand,just announced its “Let’s Go Together” line, featuring sleek beverage containers displaying illustrated trees holding hands. Along with the new design, the brand is also making a $25,000 donation to The Outdoorist Oath.
“The donation as financial support is critical to sustain our work… Our teams are invested in community and movement building, and this donation aids such efforts,” González said. “Beyond that, it matters when a brand as notable as Hydro Flask uses its social capital to support us in this way, and it’s reciprocal.”
Part of the inspiration for founding The Outdoorist Oath came from co-founder Teresa Baker’s work creating a pledge for outdoorist companies to improve their diversity and inclusion efforts. The Outdoorist Oath builds on the mission to make outdoor spaces safe and equitable for all.
“This is a way we collectively lift inclusion in the outdoors for all, and the Outdoorist Oath is leaning into it with online sessions, community connection, in-person events, and tangible resources that support individuals aligned to systemic change,” González continued.
Why is this good news?
While it might initially just seem like a cute water bottle, the collaboration behind Hydro Flask’s collection really does matter.
By bringing a large, corporate platform together with a grassroots movement, the collaborative efforts of inclusive environmental advocacy expand even further.
“We sometimes say that it’s important for us to ‘verbalize to internalize’ in how we embody this work,” González said. “The statement ‘Let’s Go Together’ is a very tangible way to practice inclusion and spaces of welcoming and belonging.”
“We can ask ourselves, ‘when do I say that, to who, with what intent?’ he continued. “It’s an invitation to think not simply if we are inviting people into our version of the outdoors, but also how they are contributing to this, and we’re celebrating that, as well.”
The “outdoors for all” mentality, González emphasized, is not just an allowance or acceptance of diverse faces and bodies in outdoor spaces, but a true celebration of the multitudes both nature and humanity contain.
“We’re not simply inviting people to a party to dance like us, but we’re actually supporting how they dance… being willing to change the way we dance in joyful and community-building ways.”
