Owen's Outfitters: Sioux Falls' Free Medical Equipment Lifeline
From Grief to Gear: How Owen's Outfitters Is Closing Sioux Falls' Healthcare Gap One Wheelchair at a Time
When Mike Turner sat down with host Bubba Startz on this week's episode of REEL BIZ, the conversation opened with the Sioux Falls air show and Thunderbirds flyovers — a light, local moment before Turner walked listeners through one of the most quietly powerful nonprofit stories in South Dakota. Turner is the executive director and co-founder of The Legacy Foundation, the parent organization behind Owen's Outfitters, a free medical equipment lending library that has become a lifeline for families across the Sioux Empire.
The full conversation is available now on the REEL BIZ YouTube channel and wherever you listen to REEL BIZ on Apple Podcasts — but here's why this episode belongs on every Sioux Falls business owner's, caregiver's, and creator's radar.
REEL BIZ exists to spotlight the people building real, lasting value in the media and business world, and Turner's story is a reminder that "value" isn't always measured in revenue. Sometimes it's measured in wheelchairs delivered, surgeries protected, and families kept out of bankruptcy court — all built on a business model disciplined enough to scale without ever charging a client a dime.
A Family Story Behind the Mission
Owen's Outfitters isn't a branding exercise. It's named for Turner's first child, Owen, who was born with a rare chromosomal abnormality that required years of intensive medical care — everything from mobility assistance to feeding support. Turner and his wife, Ella, discovered firsthand how expensive and exhausting that care can be, even for a two-income, college-educated family with health insurance.
"We struggled mightily at times," Turner told Startz. "How can we make this easier for other families?"
That question became a mission. While living in Wisconsin, the Turners connected with Katy's Kloset, a Waukesha-area medical equipment loan closet, and used it as a model when they returned to South Dakota — a journey the University of South Dakota profiled in depth, tracing the couple's path from USD graduates to healthcare-equipment advocates. The result: an organization that accepts literally any donated medical equipment — Band-Aids, hospital beds, CPAP machines, diabetic test strips, wheelchairs, shower chairs, knee scooters, Hoyer lifts — and gives it away free, no questions asked, no insurance status required, no income verification, no waiting list.
Owen's Outfitters was built in memory of Owen, whose story continues to drive the foundation's leadership team, which also includes Vice President Dr. Michelle Schimelpfenig, a Sioux Falls pediatrician. It's a detail that gives every piece of equipment moving through their Sioux Falls facility real emotional weight — and it's exactly the kind of origin story REEL BIZ exists to surface.
Turner was candid on the episode about the toll caregiving took on his marriage long before it became a nonprofit. "There were times when we were talking about divorce," he told Startz, not because of any single catastrophic event, but because two or three hours of hands-on medical care a day leaves almost nothing left over for date nights or patience with each other. It's the kind of admission most founders never make on a business podcast — and it's exactly why Turner's leadership resonates with families walking through his doors today. They're not meeting an executive reciting a mission statement; they're meeting someone who has lived the exact 2 a.m. exhaustion they're living now.
The Business Model of Radical Generosity
What makes Owen's Outfitters compelling from a REEL BIZ business-strategy lens isn't just the mission — it's the model. Hospitals and clinics regularly discard usable equipment during remodels or vendor switches. Families donate equipment their loved ones no longer need. Turner's team intercepts that supply chain before it hits a landfill and redirects it to the people who need it next.
The numbers back it up. According to SiouxFalls.Business, Owen's Outfitters has served more than 7,000 clients and distributed over $4 million in medical equipment value since opening — generating more than $20 in equipment value for every $1 donated, run largely by volunteers with a single paid staff member. Turner told Startz the organization has now diverted more than 150 tons of usable medical supplies from landfills and serves over a thousand families a month at its expanded Sioux Falls location, which opened in 2025 after outgrowing its original space.
It's a genuinely elegant supply-and-demand fix: a knee scooter is built to last for years but is typically used for five or six weeks post-surgery. Rather than that equipment sitting in a garage or heading to a curb, Owen's Outfitters recirculates it to the next person who needs it — sometimes within the same neighborhood, sometimes within days.
That efficiency hasn't gone unnoticed locally. Owen's Outfitters is a featured partner of the Sioux Empire United Way, and its operations have been highlighted as a case study for inventory-management platform EZRentOut, which the organization uses to track more than half a million dollars in circulating donations. For a nonprofit built by two parents with no background in logistics, that kind of operational maturity in just a few years is a genuine business-strategy story — proof, as REEL BIZ likes to say, that credibility gets built through consistent execution, not just a good pitch.
When a $150 Shower Chair Prevents a $45,000 Surgery
One of the most striking points Turner made on the episode was about downstream cost avoidance. Someone recovering from knee, hip, or back surgery who can't afford a simple shower chair is at serious risk of a fall — one that could undo the entire surgery and trigger a second procedure, a hospital readmission, or a longer rehab stint.
"You're risking this $45,000 surgery for a $150 shower chair," Turner said. By closing that gap for free, Owen's Outfitters isn't just helping individual families — it's reducing strain on the broader healthcare system, cutting readmissions, and shortening recovery timelines for everyone.
Turner shared a story about a local electrician's family: two working parents, two kids, and roughly $14,000 in savings — a solid cushion until he was T-boned by a driver who ran a red light. The accident led to a $12,000 out-of-pocket deductible and six months away from work. Medical debt, Turner noted, accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. bankruptcies. Owen's Outfitters supplied the equipment the family needed and connected them with additional resources. Months later, the family returned — not just to give the equipment back, but to make a donation of their own, paying the help forward.
More Than Equipment: Encouragement and Community
Turner's most emotional story on the episode involved a daughter caring for her aging mother at home. The team equipped her with a Hoyer lift and incontinence supplies, but what mattered just as much was telling her directly that keeping her mother out of a nursing home — and out of costly additional care — was itself valuable work worth recognizing. "She honestly just broke down and cried," Turner said, "because no one had told her she was doing a good job."
That blend of practical support and genuine encouragement is central to how Owen's Outfitters operates, and it's why Turner resists calling the organization a "charity." His team frames every interaction around dignity: no one walks in for a wheelchair because it's fun, and no one should have to prove they deserve help to get one.
Turner also pointed out that the families who receive help are frequently the same families who eventually give back. Owen's Outfitters sees more than a thousand families a month come through for equipment — and a steady percentage of them return the item later, often with a donation attached, once they no longer need it. It's a self-sustaining cycle that Turner and Startz both circled back to throughout the conversation: the same community members leaning on Owen's Outfitters during a crisis become the ones restocking it for the next family in line.
The American Dream, One Donation at a Time
Startz and Turner closed the episode on a bigger theme that runs through a lot of REEL BIZ conversations: what community actually looks like when it's working. Startz noted that Sioux Falls, and South Dakota more broadly, benefits from a culture that doesn't see itself as divided — one where neighbors show up for each other regardless of politics, income, or background. Turner's answer was simple: the people who donate equipment back to Owen's Outfitters aren't doing it for recognition. They're doing it, in his words, because "they wanna pay it forward" and "make someone else better."
That ethos is exactly why Turner and Startz floated the idea of a future joint event between The Scene Projects and the Legacy Foundation to publicly celebrate the families, donors, and caretakers who keep Owen's Outfitters running — the unpaid, unrecognized work that so rarely gets a spotlight of its own.
Get Involved — and Catch the Full Episode
The conversation was recorded just before Owen's Outfitters' Game Night fundraiser on September 19 at the South Dakota Military Heritage Alliance in Sioux Falls — an evening of Price Is Right–style games, Family Feud, speed puzzle building, trivia, a dessert bar, live music, and prize giveaways celebrating the volunteers, donors, and families who make the organization's work possible. It's the kind of community-first event Turner and his team run regularly, and a good preview of what to expect if you get involved going forward. Details on the Legacy Foundation's Get Involved page outline how to volunteer, donate equipment, or give financially year-round.
For Sioux Falls businesses and creators listening to REEL BIZ, Turner's episode is a masterclass in mission-driven storytelling: a clear origin story, a scalable and low-overhead operating model, measurable community impact, and a founder who leads with lived experience rather than a pitch deck. It's the kind of nonprofit case study that doubles as a business strategy lesson — proof that radical simplicity (take anything, give to anyone) can outperform bureaucracy every time.
Watch the full conversation between Bubba Startz and Mike Turner on the REEL BIZ YouTube channel, stream it on Apple Podcasts, and explore more guest stories at reelbiz.thesceneprojects.com. To support Owen's Outfitters directly, visit thelegacyfoundationsd.com, find them on Facebook, or reach the team at (605) 215-0884.
