How Cool Outdoor Club Usal is Reimagining Community

These days, community is the biggest buzz word in brand building; how to create it, how to keep them engaged, and ultimately how to convert them into customers. But for Michael Washington, founder of Usal, customers aren’t his goal. His curation of community-led outdoor experiences, events, and workshops is more about bringing people together to bond over a shared love of the outdoors. For him, “a natural, magical thing happens when things aren’t about money, but being together.” Washington aims to foster this magic with Usal.

(Though of course, there is a retail space in the trendy Silver Lake neighborhood in Los Angeles, and plenty of merch for sale, too. Because even the best intentions need funding.)

“I very much had a transcendental experience when I stumbled upon Usal,” Michael tells me, referring to a remote beach on an uninhabited stretch of Northern California coastline for which his brand is named. “It’s just one of those places that really leaves a mark on you.” This mark is akin to the one someone gets when attending one of Usal’s events. Washington invited me to a recent class so I could “really see what they were building,” he emphatically told me. And I accepted with equal enthusiasm.

Source: https://fieldmag.herokuapp.com/articles/usal-community-michael-washington-interview