Neptune Mountaineering is in the process of being purchased by the owners of another longtime Boulder outdoor outfit.
The owners of the North American distributor of Sea to Summit gear, Shelley and Andrew Dunbar, are in negotiations to buy the mountaineering store from Texas-based Backwoods Retail.
Backwoods owner Jennifer Mull confirmed the pending sale Monday via email.
“We have signed a letter of intent with them with the anticipation of a close date of Jan. 31,” Mull wrote, declining to answer further questions.
Officials at Sea to Summit did not respond to requests for comment.
Sea to Summit gear is sold at Neptune, but employees said they were told the store would operate independently of Sea to Summit. The employees spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk about the sale.
Store manager Eric Schmidt said he was not allowed to comment on who the buyer was, but offered that it was “common knowledge” that the buyer was local.
“We’re very excited about that,” he said.
The future of Neptune has been in question since October, when the property owner of 633 S. Broadway, W.W. Reynolds, sued Backwoods for nearly $70,000 in back rent, unpaid since June.
Three weeks later, Backwoods filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Fort Worth, Texas, citing more than $10 million in debt to hundreds of creditors.
The bankruptcy reorganization allowed Backwoods to receive a $3 million loan in order to fund holiday inventory for its 10 retail locations. Longtime Neptune shoppers say supplies have been low since this summer.
“They had done a little bit of restocking (around the holidays), but still there was stuff I wasn’t able to find,” said David Kreutzer, a Neptune customer since the mid-’80s.
Kreutzer said that, under Backwoods’ ownership, the type of product being sold was changed, with more mainstream apparel brands replacing the hard-to-find technical goods that drew people to Neptune.
“That store was the only place in North America I could get certain gear,” agreed Eric Larsen, a Boulder-based polar explorer. “To have that in my backyard was huge for me, as was having a resource” in founder Gary Neptune.
Neptune sold his namesake store to Backwoods in 2013 after running it for 40 years, maintaining his private collection of historic mountaineering equipment in the space until this year.
Kreutzer said he hopes that collection will be restored, along with a healthy offering of goods for sale Neptune once stocked.
“I hope the new owners will recognize that Neptune was doing very well being Neptune,” he said. “If they can bring that back, I think they’ll do well.”
Shay Castle: 303-473-1626, castles@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/shayshinecastle
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