Badlands is owned and operated by Eric and Lori Torcasio.

Eric is a 10-year veteran of retail advertising and marketing, with a brief stint in the music business. Aside from his professional pursuits, he’s played guitar and wrote songs for many a rock and roll band over the past 15 years, gracing stages from L.A. to New York City to Dublin, Ireland and points in between. Come and talk to him about music and he’ll keep you in the store all day. Eric is also an avid hiker, skier, backpacker and all-around intrepid traveler. It doesn’t take much to get him to pack up and hit the proverbial road. Some folks were just born with the travelin’ jones, and Eric is definitely one of them.

Lori has been all over the retail business in the past 13 years. Learning the ropes in department stores, she started out in store management before joining the buying office. Then she switched sides and worked her way up as an Account Executive for Tommy Hilfiger. Sitting on both sides of the negotiating table has put Lori in good stead for life as a retail store owner. Lori was made into the outdoors-woman she is by her dear old dad, who ignored the fact that she was a girl and dragged her along with him sailing, skiing, fishing, camping and hiking, teaching her the finer points of each along the way.

Eric and Lori spent 10 years in sunny Southern California, where they indulged in their every adventurous whim. But now, with 2 little outdoorsman running around the house, they’ve left the corporate rat race behind for the entrepreneurial frontier back home in the good ‘ol Midwest. Naperville, to be exact.