McFly Outdoors is a one-stop shop.
ln July, Kate and Wes Garton opened the third location of their all-inclusive outdoor outfitting shop, McFly Outdoors, in The Village at White Oaks in Bridgeport, joining locations in Flatwoods and Horner. A 5,000-square-foot space that sells everything from high-end active wear by North Face, Carhartt, Mountain Kahki, and OluKai to an extra-large inventory of Yeti coolers, Mountain Hardwear backpacks, sleeping bags, and tents combined with Simms and Redington waders, backpacks, tackle bags, and Sage fly rods and reels, Kate and Wes have created a one-stop outdoors shop that seems to have customers hooked. “Bringing a fly shop to North Central West Virginia was a little risky, but so far the impression we’ve gotten from a lot of our customers is that they are really excited,” Kate says.
Kate and Wes are Lewis County natives who were raised to have an appreciation for all things outdoors. Kate’s dad, Mike McWhorter, started the business after purchasing Jerry’s Sporting Goods Store. “He’s a pilot and owns Mountain Air Services, a chartered aviation business that operates out of the Morgantown Airport,” Kate says. “His nickname is McFly.”
As a spin-off to the business, the Gartons are working with fly fishing guides in North Carolina and the Florida Keys, among other hot spots. “We’re getting pretty close to basically offering a one-stop shop for fishing trips,” Kate says. “We can outfit you and get you there.”
It was White Oaks Developer Woody Thrasher who suggested that Kate and Wes bring their store to the area. “We thought it was a good move for us,” Kate says. “Bridgeport is obviously an area with a higher population, but it is a community in and of itself. It has been very welcoming to us.”
It falls in line with the White Oaks’ vision, too. “What we’ve tried to do is to show that West Virginians can do really nice things and we try to deal with a really good product,” Woody says. “I think McFly Outdoors exemplifies that in a real sense.”
mcfly outdoors White Oaks, 20 Shaner Drive, Suite 101, Bridgeport, 304.333.2550, mcflyoutdoors.com
written by Julie Perine
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