“And as with age you choose your way among the many faces of a busy world, may you always remember the path that leads back, back to the important places.” —Doug Woodward, The Important Places.

At NRS, we’ll always remember 2015 as the year of the important places. The year of the film that inspired so many. The year we took time to remember the places, people and experiences that matter most in our lives.

So, when REI announced earlier this month that it would be closing its stores on Black Friday and giving its employees the day off to go outside, we couldn’t ignore the call to do the same.

On Friday, November 27, we’re turning off the lights, hanging up the gone boatin’ sign and heading outside to our important places.

“At the heart of the Opt Outside movement is the suggestion that life is more than a day shopping or at the office,” wrote NRS Vice President Bryan Dingel in a company-wide email this week. “We find solidarity in this statement because it’s part of who we are as individuals, and of the company we have created together.”

NRS was founded on the idea that business could be a source of value and satisfaction in our lives and communities, not just a way to make a buck. We are passionate about our business because our business supports our passion, and #OptOutside gives our employee-owners another opportunity to prove this idea true.

Although the online resources at nrs.com will be up and running as usual on Black Friday, all NRS operations will be closed for business. We hope you’ll join us in going outside instead of shopping.

“We’re a different kind of company—and while the rest of the world is fighting it out in the aisles, we’ll be spending our day a little differently,” says REI CEO Jerry Stritzke. “We’re choosing to opt outside, and want you to come with us.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.