I visited T.J. Maxx's outdoorsy sibling Sierra, the most interesting brand in the TJX family

• Sierra is TJX's outdoor lifestyle brand, selling apparel, gear, home goods, and pet products.
• It's still small, but the footprint has nearly doubled in the last five years to 90 US locations.
• Business Insider visited a store for a closer look at T.J. Maxx's younger, sportier sibling.

Shopping for outdoor lifestyle stuff is normally a quick way to burn through a lot of cash.

Whether at Dick's Sporting Goods or REI, well-made apparel and gear usually come at a premium price — even with the occasional coupon or sale.

When it came to activewear (and inactivewear), shoes, and other accessories, my experience led me to believe the relationship between quality and price was somewhat fixed.

That was before I discovered Sierra.

There is a store near my house in Wisconsin, and one day a couple of years back, when I had some unexpected free time, I decided to give it a look.

I've done plenty of shopping at Sierra's more widely known siblings T.J. Maxx, Marshall's, and HomeGoods, and I never really felt the spark that keeps die-hard Maxxinistas coming back. Yes, the discounts at those stores seem large, but I'm not always able to tell if the price is actually a good value.

Scanning the racks at Sierra was a different story, however. These were brands that I knew and loved, like Smartwool, Carhartt, and more.

Each time I came back to my local store, I wondered why the Sierra brand wasn't more widely known relative to TJX's other brands and even other outdoor retailers.

As it turns out, the reason is pretty simple. The brand was, and still is, fairly small and a more recent addition to the TJX portfolio.

Originally called Sierra Trading Post, the company started as a catalog company in 1986 in Reno, Nevada. It later moved to Wyoming and launched its e-commerce business in 1999.

TJX acquired it for $200 million in 2012, and the first TJX-owned stores were located in Denver followed by its first East Coast location in Burlington, Vermont.

In 2018, with a fleet of a few dozen stores, TJX relocated the company's headquarters to its main offices in Framingham, Massachusetts, and dropped the "Trading Post" from the name. The brand has since been on a growth spurt and now numbers 90 US locations, plus its fully fledged e-commerce channel.

That footprint is still dwarfed by T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, which have more than 2,500 US locations combined, plus hundreds of international stores.

Sierra's tiny stature means it barely receives individual mention in TJX earnings calls beyond annual announcements of planned store openings, per AlphaSense.

Out of the spotlight, Sierra has nevertheless been busy.

Analysis from Placer.ai found that customer visits doubled between 2019 and 2022, driven in part by a pandemic-era rush to spend more time outside. While some of that increase is a result of simply having more stores, visits per store were also up, Placer said.

In one of the rare mentions, TJX CEO Ernie Herrman characterized Sierra's merchandising as ranging from "moderate to very high end," and my experience certainly supports his assessment.

Some recent treasure-hunt finds include the pair of Fjällräven pants I got, the Cotopaxi down vest that was too big for me, the pair of Lodge cast iron enamel dutch ovens in my kitchen, and the Yeti tumbler sitting on my desk.

High-quality items from known brands have also given me the confidence to try unfamiliar offerings from the store's assortment, and I am rarely disappointed. Hydrapeak's mugs may not have the current cultural cachet of Stanley's cups, but they do a damn good job of keeping your drink hot (or cold) for a fraction of the price.

As with any off-price store, the selection can be rather limited when compared to a traditional retailer, but I almost always find something worthwhile, and I now make a point to check Sierra before or after trips to REI and Dick's.

Neither of those competitors is sleeping on Sierra, though.

In addition to its Public Lands stores, Dick's has recently experimented with clearance stores like the Warehouse Sale and Going Going Gone. And the online REI Outlet has deep discounts on many of the items the co-op carries in its stores.

Still, Sierra has been at this game for a long time online, and its physical presence is expanding at a rate that could have it match REI's store count in just a few years.

Another difference is that, unlike other national or regional outdoor lifestyle chains, Sierra's parent company is a powerhouse of off-price retailing.

TJX's fingerprints are all over Sierra's stores, and the combination of its tried-and-tested playbook with this retail category make the small-but-mighty brand an exciting one to follow.