Boulder has a fairly steady stream of news that comes out every day and week. In this series, BLDRfly editors highlight some of the news that stuck out.
Supply Chain Crisis
Boulder pizzerias running out of beer, coffee shops running out of to-go cups, and the like. After more than a year of the global pandemic, most industry stock, and the goods they rely on to do business, are in short supply.
As pandemic lockdown mandates stalled production within the last year, suppliers and distributors are navigating massive backlogs.
Raw materials like steel, plastic and gas are running low but mechanical equipment and individual parts also remain to be seen. Not only is there a shortage of the materials local businesses need most, but there’s also a labor shortage, both for businesses and their suppliers and distributors.
As prices also increase for the delayed goods, larger companies with more purchasing power have more hope to come out on top than smaller, local businesses.
Mount Inspiration
After he spent almost half a year hiking the Appalachian trail, Evans Prater thought of his business idea. Though at first glance, it seems to be just another outdoor apparel store on Pearl Street, Mount Inspiration’s first and only retail location is much more.
Among the typically hipster Fjällräven and classic Eddie Bauer, Mount Inspiration’s Founder Evans Prater is hoping to bring a little more lightheartedness, comedy and ethical consumption to the industry. Graduating college in English and teaching himself graphic design, Prater started making and selling stickers with humorous phrases on them.
When those took off, he created and launched a clothing line for the One Percent for the Planet program. Every piece of Mount Inspiration clothing uses organic cotton, hemp, bamboo and polyester made from recycled plastic bottles. The store also has an upcycle program, where customers who bring in used clothing receive a discount on their next store purchase.
Sledding Down Arapaho Glacier
Though college students now soak in the Boulder Creek during a hot summer day, the city used to offer a much colder, more refreshing experience.
The Rocky Mountain Gateway, advertised on a 1920s billboard outside Boulder, led tourists across the country to this site. The city’s engineer developed the Glacier Route Line to the Arapaho Glacier, driving visitors through Boulder Canyon, Rainbow Lakes, then finally, dropping them near South Arapaho Peak.
There, tourists and locals slid on the ice and threw snowballs at each other before descending at the end of the afternoon. By 1929, Boulder bought the glacier watershed from the federal government, closing the area to the public to this day.
Boulder in Tokyo
In the wake of the 2020 Olympics, here’s a summary of our athletes and their placements. In addition to a couple Longmont and Broomfield competitors, these Boulder competitors represented our city well.
Brooke Raboutou finished fifth overall in women’s climbing and placed the same in bouldering. Participating in the new Olympic sport, she and Broomfield-based Colin Duffy were on two of our nation’s four-person teams.
Erin Huck, in true Boulder mountain biking fashion, came in 31st in the cross-country mountain biking final. Jake Riley came in 29th in his first Olympic marathon with a time of 2:16:17.
A few UC-Boulder graduates also hit the track in Tokyo. Emma Coburn and Val Constein both raced in the 3,000m final, finishing 16th and 12th, respectively. Joe Klecker came in 16th in the 10,000m race.
