New Nature is bandaging our wounded connection to the great outdoors –– in the case where this connection doesn’t exist at all, it’s giving us the tools to build it.
Ollie Olanipekun wants you to rethink what it means to be a “nature person.” The multi-disciplinary creative who doubles as a founder and triples as an adept bird-watcher recently launched his next initiative –– New Nature — an open invitation (a bird call if you will) to a refreshed way of thinking, and a redefining of ‘outdoorsy’ to include everyone. It’s a huge undertaking, but not a daunting one for Olaniepkiun.
The 39-year-old is no novice when it comes to connecting people to the great outdoors. In 2020, during a notoriously indoorsy year, he launched the birdwatching collective Flock Together, a tight-knit community for POC individuals to indulge in the endless joys that nature has to offer. After launching Flock Together and witnessing its rapid rise, and the growing popularity of outdoor groups in general, Olanipekun became curious about this new wave of nature enthusiasts he was encountering, what compelled them to spend their time outside, and what had kept them from doing so previously.
What he found was that the guiding principles of outdoorsmanship were defined long ago by the white guys of the leisure class who had the means, and the access. They were the ones creating the clubs, buying the land, designing the clothes, and honing the skills. This exclusivity in the outdoor space alienated many avid nature enthusiasts, who assumed that a relationship with nature was not applicable to them. This is where New Nature enters the conversation.
“New Nature is about speaking to these new audiences in new ways,” Olaniepkun explains, a feat they confidently achieve by borrowing learnings from other communities, like the streetwear scene, and its legacy of nonconformity, community, and forums without hierarchy, remaining a vast inspiration.
Building on Flock Together,…
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