Renting gear doesn’t have to be expensive and complicated. In the past, it could be. You had to look up all the local gear shops wherever you were heading. Then call them up and make reservations. Maybe browse their online inventory if you were lucky. There could be dozens of places to choose from, and you could easily spend an afternoon making phone calls trying to find the gear that fits your schedule, your budget and your particular needs.
While that works, it’s not the smoothest or fastest method. Wouldn’t it be easier if there was a single central location where you could see ALL the inventory available in a particular destination, and book it directly from your computer or phone? Kind of like an Uber for gear rentals? Turns out there is, and it’s called Gearo.
Gearo is a Denver-based tech company, started about a year ago Justine and Andrew Barone – who wanted to make it their mission to get as many people as possible out in the great outdoors with them. They felt that simplifying the gear rental process and bringing it into 2019 would be the simplest, easiest way to do that.
Here’s how it works: you head over to their website and select the city you want to rent gear in (right now, only Denver and Pittsburgh are available – but we image they will keep expanding – and fast). You then get to browse a real-time inventory of all the gear available to rent. Kayaking, hiking, biking, paddle boarding, or virtually anything you want to attempt – they have it all.
Check out and make your reservation, and the gear shop will begin prepping and reserving your gear ahead of time – to make sure it’s there when you need it. Pick it up and you’re ready to go. If anything happens and you keep it past the drop-off date, the vendor will initiate a new rental transaction and charge you the extra fees.
A few examples of what you can rent with Gearo? An Enduro Pro ’29er for $85 a day in Denver; a Jackson Cuda starting at $40 a day; and a Big Agnes Copper Spur 3P tent at $60 a night.
Sounds like a solid setup. One that could make the gear-renting, destination-hitting part of the outdoors a lot easier, too. We’d love to see them expand to new destinations in the future. We may even try them out when we make a late-season trip to Denver this fall.
