Trekking through the muck of a creek in Red River Gorge was not then 6-year-old Gabe Pleiman’s idea of a good time. To make matters worse, the mile-and-a-half round-trip on the Sheltowee Trace Trail was taking the Pleiman family half a day to complete because of the conditions.
The bottom line: Gabe was miserable, and he let it be known in the worst words his 6-year-old vocabulary could muster.
“It’s a beautiful hike,” said Gabe’s dad, Adam Pleiman. “It has these really tall pine trees. It looks like you’re in the Pacific Northwest. There’s a creek that runs through the middle of it, and it’s just gorgeous. And the soundtrack was these ‘lousy hills’ and ‘stupid creeks.’”
That hike for the Fort Thomas family took place in 2020. Fast forward to the present day, and the Pleiman family has turned their son’s dismay for the great outdoors into a wearable brand named after one of Gabe’s infamous taglines: “Lousy Outdoors.”
The brand appeals to the reluctant adventurer with spirited phrases on t-shirts and hoodies like “Another Lousy Hike” and “Certified Trail Quitter.”
Gabe, who is now 11, joked that he knew a lot worse words now he could have used.
“I think it’s fun, it’s just a chuckle, even if that’s the piece of it, it’s just to have a little bit of joy with the idea around it, something kind of funny,” said Gabe’s mom, Laura Pleiman.
The family of five goes on a fall trip every year and started to warn their friends to keep an ear out when Gabe started going uphill on their hike. That turned into friends gifting Gabe a shirt that said, “hiking is lousy,” which he wore on a trip to the Grand Canyon, where it got some attention.
“We’re just in the back, and you pass a line of people, and we’re just keeping quiet or waving high, and everyone would go by, ‘hey,’ the last person in line, ‘I love your shirt,’” Adam Pleiman said.
Fittingly, the family finally decided to buy the URL for Lousy Outdoors in the parking lot of Delicate Arch in Utah after a hike this past summer.
Although their middle child inspired the brand, everyone in the family is involved in the clothing designs and what phrases are approved, including the oldest, Oliver Pleiman, and the youngest, Lulu Pleiman.
“From the get-go, I wanted to have a brand that meant something, and not just sell, you know, trinkets that didn’t make sense,” Adam Pleiman said. “We spent a lot of time talking about strategy, mission and vision up front with the kids, to say, we’re not making fun of hiking, we’re embracing it for the people who might not want to be out there all the time. It’s more of an inclusive thing to say, everyone’s welcome.”
Even though Gabe has created humor and the family has built an entire brand around it, one thing has not changed. “I still hate hikes,” he said.
