Catskill Outpost is outfitting adventurers.
The shop at 81 Main St. in Stamford is, according to its social media, “a small outpost where you can shop hiking/camping gear along with some cool threads and home goods.”
Owner Sal Fabbella, 42, is a Brooklyn native with a deep love for all things upstate.
“I’m born and raised in Brooklyn, but I’m here now,” he said. “What gives me a good connection to a lot of people in the area and the locals is, my grandparents have lived up here since the ‘70s, so me and my sisters would spend the entire summer and every weekend up here, because my family was obsessed with this little town of Stamford. They were crazy enough to finish work Friday nights and drag us up here every weekend, and I think it paid off.”
Fabbella said the shop, launched in 2019, was inspired by “the people of Stamford.”
“I genuinely have a love for the hard work and the good people that are in this area,” he said. “When I first started thinking about opening the store, I got a lot of good input from locals around here. I came into Wades (Towne & Country) Florist — Michelle Wade — and asked her what she thought if I opened a shop in town. She said, ‘Absolutely, bring it; we’ve seen your stuff’ — because I would do markets up here quite often in Margaretville and the West Kortright Center for years prior to opening, as a litmus test to see if people want this stuff that I’m putting out: clothing, leather goods — and everybody gave me super-positive feedback.”
Fabbella said he has curated inventory to reflect clientele while prioritizing upstate artisans.
“We’ve morphed over time, but I would say we’re a clothing brand where the trail meets the pavement,” he said. “It means we do a lot of stuff centered around hiking and upstate and stuff like that, but’s kind of in between. Like, ‘Hey, it’s cool to wear if you want to go to a restaurant but also cool if you want to go on a hike.’
“When we initially opened, it was camping, hiking and leather goods, then it morphed and we added a lot more home goods,” Fabbella continued. “That came because I saw the need for people; they wanted the thing to comfort them, especially during COVID and being at home, so that led us to start carrying a lot of local products: soap, locally made lotions. Seventy-five percent of our stuff is locally made, and that’s a big thing. I want to showcase (artisans). And there’s a lot of pride in anything made local, so, when people come in and see their neighbor or somebody’s son or daughter or someone they went to school with making stuff for us — whether it be cutting boards or belts — that’s such an amazing connection with people. Without that, I’m just some city kid who tried to open up a store here.”
Fabbella said that approach has generated a responsive customer base.
“My bread and butter is my locals, because we do make a lot of references in our clothing to things that people who grew up here know,” he said. “Like the local ski resort that closed 15 or 20 years ago, Scotch Valley. We do signs and T-shirts with that, and I can’t even tell you the dozens of people who come in and say, ‘I was an instructor’ or, ‘I worked at the bar,’ so we reference a lot of things only locals would know.
“When we get a local customer that walks in and sees Holly’s Soaps or so-and-so’s candles … that’s a big one,” Fabbella continued. “We have a sweatshirt that says ‘Not Connecticut’ and ‘small towner.’ This clothing is well made and a lot of it is made in the U.S. It’s all made for locals … but it’s for everybody. Everything in my shop — all the clothing — is all printed by hand right here in Stamford; 95 to 99% of shops that try to do what we do sub it out to god knows where, but we print everything the traditional way, with silkscreen screens and ink. You can come in at any given moment and I’m printing in the back. You can see me printing the garment you’re about to put on. We pull, I would say, from within five or 10 towns, or a 20-minute (radius) in each direction — Kortright, Delhi, Oneonta, Jefferson.”
Fabbella said he hopes to continue offering a blend of locally made and classic goods.
“We’re working with a lot more different artisans in the area and collaborating with brands that people love,” he said. “We just got Zippo in, which is a classic American brand doing all their production in the U.S., so we’re connected with brands that have a really good U.S. presence, but also brands that people love and know and have aged very well.”
For more information, visit catskilloutpost.com or find Catskill Outpost on Facebook.