MoJo Outdoor Sports marks ten years
By Anthony Brino
Staff Writer
Over multiple owners and locations, MoJo Outdoor Sports in Presque Isle has been a part of the local outdoors business and community for a decade.
Staff photo/Anthony Brino
Mark and Heather Fullen, owners of MoJo Outdoor Sports, on one of two weekly group bike rides they lead, this one on Parsons Road from Presque Isle to Washburn.
Once the former Aroostook Bicycle & Sport, MoJo Outdoor Sports opened in 2006 and has been run by the current owners Mark and Heather Fullen since 2010.
Since then, they’ve moved to a new location, added new products for bikes, cross country skis and snowshoes, and have also helped build the local outdoors culture.
“We want to introduce people to road biking and see if they like it,” said Mark Fullen, who was originally hired as a bike mechanic under the previous owners.
In the summer, they lead free twice-weekly group bike rides of around 20 miles. On Monday evenings, starting at 6 p.m. from the store, they often follow the Aroostook River upstream to Washburn via the Parsons Road, a 22-mile round trip.
“We wanted to do something that was family-oriented for us,” said Heather Fullen of their business motivations. “And to allow our kids to be out doing the same things, other than being on their screens,” added Mark Fullen, referring to their three middle- and high school-age children.
The two met while working in the Air Force in South Carolina. Mark, a native of Houston, came north to settle with Heather in Presque Isle, close to her family in Caribou. While Mark enrolled in UMPI’s outdoor recreation program, and taught himself cross country skiing, Heather ran a daycare.
By the time he was finished the degree and working as a bike mechanic at the store, the owners, Melanie and Harold Stewart, decided they wanted to move on from the business and Mark and Heather worked with them on an arrangement to “job share it and manage it,” Heather said.
“It was a way to put sweat equity into it.”
In 2013, they bought the store, and today they share management of it, while Heather also runs a salon, the Collage Beauty Studio.
The store does maintenance and a rental business in kayaks, river tubes, snowshoes and cross country skis, which let people dip their toes in the activities affordably.
They’ve also changed some of their offerings in biking, a key part of their business, to expand into more affordable segments of the new bike market and compete with big box stores.
“We have morphed,” Mark said. “It used to be a higher-end clientele that we serviced, meaning that we sold $8,000 bikes, $10,000 bikes. Not that I don’t still occasionally sell a couple a year. But there’s only so many of those people out there.”
“There are a lot of people that are interested that want bicycles,” added Heather. “They have a pot of money that they want to spend and they want to buy quality.”
