Photograph by Martha Williams
Secondwind Gear Shop is more than a place to score a discounted pair of Scarpa hiking boots or a sun-faded Patagonia fleece. Tucked away in an unassuming retail space on North Highland Avenue (formerly Highland Row Antiques), Secondwind is an outpost where conversations about gear and mountain getaways become one.
“We like to say we’re your friendly neighborhood outdoor gear and consignment shop,” offers co-owner Jason Seagle. “We have your needs covered from the Blue Ridge to the Beltline to backyard barbecues.”
Seagle and his business partner and wife, Amanda Sautter, run Secondwind as a one-stop shop for local adventurers and far-flung travelers alike. Racks of gently used shirts, pants, shoes, kayaks, bikes, backpacks, snowboards, skateboards, and more stretch from the floor to the ceiling.
For Seagle, opening Secondwind is a homecoming that was decades in the making. A Chamblee High School class of ’91 grad, he joined the Peace Corps and studied at the University of Montana in Missoula.
Somewhere along the way—in the ’90s—he struck up a friendship with the owner of the original Secondwind location in Bozeman, Montana, and began hanging out at the store “all the time.”
Fast-forward to a few years before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out: Seagle and Sautter traveled to Montana for a friend’s wedding. In Bozeman, they paid a visit the shop’s current owner, Brad Baumann. He floated the idea of expanding operations and asked if Atlanta might be a good fit for Secondwind.
Three months later, Seagle was back in Bozeman, learning the business.
As pandemic restrictions lifted, Seagle and Sautter converted a 20-foot cargo trailer into a mobile shop and began selling wares at the Grant Park Farmers Market. They also made appearances outside of breweries and bike events.
In August of 2024, they moved to their current brick-and-mortar location. While addressing the balance of organization and clutter in the shop, Seagle pays homage to his teenage years spent hanging out in Little Five Points’ legendary skateboard shop Crazy Lou’s (1984–1989).
“Honestly, the look and feel of walking into that tiny space—how it was packed with so much stuff, and you really wanted to look at everything—influenced how I put this space together,” Seagle says.
For those looking to consign items, Secondwind offers cash and store credit: For anything that sells up to $350, the seller gets 60 percent of the sale price in store credit; higher than $350, and they get 65 percent credit. A cash payout takes 10 percent off of that deal.
Atlanta’s Secondwind joins a growing network of sister stores in Denver, Bend, Oregon, and Scottsdale, Arizona, offering high-quality secondhand gear with a focus on affordability and keeping good stuff out of the landfill. In Poncey-Highland, that philosophy lands right at home, where trail runners, Beltline cyclists, and backyard fire-pit aficionados overlap.
“I use the term franchise lightly,” Seagle says. “I like to think of it as a partnership. We all have flexibility to pursue our individual markets and branding.”
In a neighborhood that thrives on porch hangs and park loops, Secondwind is an outfitter with DIY ethics and soul rooted in reuse and fueled by the call of the great outdoors.
This article appears in our October 2025 issue.
Advertisement
