# REI #OptOutside

> REI closed on Black Friday; Sprout reported 156,000 hashtag uses in the 2015 campaign.

- Owner: REI
- Kind: Campaign
- Sector: Retail
- Seed date: 2015-10-26
- Peak date: 2015-11-27
- Spread Score: 49 (Notable), v1.2
- Mechanics: Transgression, Challenge, Shareable output, Platform jump, Press loop

## Summary

REI announced a paid Black Friday closure and invited people to share outdoor plans. Twitter users, retailers and parks took part. Paid advertising and employee advocacy supported the launch. REI made the closure permanent in 2022.

## Timeline

- 2015-10-26 — REI (Open web) — REI emailed members its closure announcement and launched a site for sharing outdoor plans.
- 2015-10-26 — TIME (Press) — TIME reported that REI would close on Black Friday and pay employees to take the day off.
- 2015-10-27 — Twitter users (X) — Topsy counted more than 3,000 #OptOutside tweets in a day, according to Digiday.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/rei-optoutside

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “REI #OptOutside.” Case HIS-00477. Spread Score v1.2: 49/100. Updated 2026-10-14. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-00477