This fall, Mystery Ranch will notch a brand first—the company’s first fully recycled pack series—with the help of Cordura Advanced Fabrics and its incorporation of Cordura re/cor fabric in The District series, Mystery Ranch’s new everyday-carry collection.

“We make the most durable load-bearing packs in the world, and now thanks to our innovative fabric partners, we can take meaningful steps at the product level with full pack lines made of recycled materials,” said Mystery Ranch president Alex Kutches. “Our company partnership with Cordura has a long and special history, but the launch of the District series heralds a new chapter in our brand story.”

For over 20 years, Mystery Ranch has been building some of the finest carrying equipment for military, firefighters, and mountain professionals. Now the company is on a mission to further reduce its environmental impact through its use of Cordura re/cor, which uses high-quality yarns spun into durable fabrics made from reclaimed waste resources.

The District series will include five packs and bags in sizes of two, four, eight, 18, and 24 liters. Currently available in 36 colors for fall 2022 and winter 2023, the new collection is “durable, responsible, and innovated to last,” according to the company. The production of the recycled fabrics used in the series decreases greenhouse gas emissions by 83 percent compared to non-recycled fabric, consumes 82 percent less energy, and uses 57 percent less water. Cordura re/cor is made solely from pre-consumer fiber that is 100 percent Global Recycle Standard-certified.

“We’re delighted that the District series has already been adopted in 16 countries, including the U.S.,” said Cindy McNaull, Cordura’s business development director. “This is an impressive take-up for a brand-new product line. As the world evolves, we know a large piece of that evolution will fall within stewardship and sustainability. At Cordura, we believe that sustainability begins with products that last. Mystery Ranch operates from the same value set, and they truly are the perfect partner to help us bring this new fabric to market.”

Cordura fabric is a primary ingredient in many of the world’s leading high-performance products, from casual apparel and activewear to footwear, backpacks, military/tactical wear, and workwear. To learn more about Invista’s Cordura brand, end-use products, and marketing tools, please visit , and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

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As the clock ticks down to Outdoor Retailer’s 40th anniversary show, it’s tough to zero in on a single emotion. OR has been doing its thing in Denver for five years—COVID gaps notwithstanding—and for many, there was a sense of rightness about it that’s difficult to articulate. Yes, there’s the economic boon. Yes, there’s the central location. But at the heart of it all, OR’s Colorado residency fit the people here. The show, some would argue, was a reflection of the values and passions that make Colorado such a renowned ambassador for outdoor recreation and stewardship.

The next time this crowd gathers in early 2023, it will be back on the show’s old Utah stomping grounds. As attendees strolled the floor one last time or zipped by trying to hit that one booth they’d missed, it all seemed more final than usual. Colorado played host to a mere sliver of Outdoor Retailer’s 74 shows over the years, but it’s been a meaningful, if transitional, run. Some would say the “retailer” part has lost a bit of luster over time as the show has slowly shifted its focus to other areas—advocacy and consumer-focused elements chief among them. Will the Salt Lake City redux restore the OR of a bygone era, when big brands were king and deals were inked on the spot? Unlikely. Still, the specific nature of OR’s next chapter remains to be seen.

In the meantime, here’s our final roundup of new brands, neat gear, and deep thoughts from Outdoor Retailer Summer 2022.

Notable New Exhibitors

Performance wear with fishing roots: It might be its first time at OR, but the family-owned, Florida-based has been in the biz of outdoor wear for more than 25 years, expanding from early graphic tees to its current sporty and colorful lines of high-tech cooling and sun-protective apparel. In fact, most of Reel Legends’ fabrics have earned the Skin Cancer Foundation Seal of Recommendation for sun protection. Moisture wicking, quick-drying, and heat-activated cooling features make these garments suitable for just about anything you’re doing outside. “Fishing is our DNA,” said Roselle Thomas, Reel Legends deputy vice president of wholesale and ESG. “That’s how we started. But we see people wearing this brand everywhere: on the boat, in water, and all over the golf course.” 

For keeping your (other) cheeks toasty: File this one under “things we never knew we always wanted.” Developed in Maine in 2021 as a direct response to restaurants that were forced to launch all-season outdoor dining during COVID, heated seat cushions are battery-operated for up to ten hours of coziness, and portable—straps let you toss it one over your shoulder like a backpack. Water-resistant, easy to wipe down, and boasting three temperature settings, these cushions have grown beyond their restaurant beginnings to become an outdoor luxury for anything from camping to catching an outdoor show at an amphitheater. Imagine the seat warmers in your car—but better—packaged in a backpack you can take anywhere. “It allows you to enjoy the outdoors for a longer period of time,” said CEO Jocelyn Olsen.

The wagon that does it all:  Another Florida brand, , is hoping to expand its reach from beachgoers to a more camping-oriented clientele with a go at Outdoor Retailer. These hefty, no-nonsense wagons are your answer to getting from A to B when you’ve got a lot of stuff to schlep—and they’re surprisingly maneuverable. Manufactured entirely in the United States from commercial-grade, rust-proof aluminum, the wagons come in various sizes with a plethora of accessory options—bike attachment, trailer hitch, kayak holder, table top, cutting board—that attach via two fishing rod holders on the end of the wagon. And if you want to bring your beach hauler to the woods? No problem. Just change out the wheels—they sell a conversion kit. “It’s super heavy-duty but also lightweight,” said Kahuna Wagons president Jennifer Knoebel. “It’s meant to be the last wagon you ever have to buy.”

Cool New Products

Shoes that support the fight against breast cancer: Adidas Terrex and Adidas Five Ten have teamed up to launch a collaboration that not only looks sharp, but also sends proceeds to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Choose from the trail running, biking, or hiking versions, all of which boast a gorgeous pink color scheme in support of breast cancer awareness, with accompanying custom artwork. “This is the first time Five Ten and Terrex have come together,” said Whitney DeBree, senior manager of communications, who points out that Five Ten’s Luke Hontz was inspired to give back by his mother, who is a breast cancer survivor. He tapped bike athlete Vero Sandler to help design. “We were really excited about this because it’s proof of how Adidas is tapping into an amazing network of athletes and using some of their incredible [leverage] to give back.” The shoes will go live at the end of September, just in time for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.

The easiest clean water in the world: There’s lots of love in the corner at this show (the water filtration company was a finalist in this year’s Inspiration Awards) but we’ve gotta hand out one more plug for the newest addition to the lineup: the one-and-done 24-ounce Bottle Water Filtration System. Going on a day hike? Traveling to a place with questionable water? Bring this bottle. Fill it with water. Drink. Repeat. No extra containers or mechanisms required. “This is the highest level of filtration in the industry and it’s highly portable,” said Sawyer communications director Andrew Glen. “Whereas before you would need a reservoir pack and a bottle, this one is all in one.” It’s good for 100,000 gallons versus 1,000 liters in other products. Plus: Sawyer’s proceeds help millions of people across the world gain access to clean water.

Training wheels for skateboards: It’s almost too simple. How do young kids learn to ride bikes? Training wheels that come off when they have the skills and confidence to make it in the two-wheeled world. And so it is with , whose first-of-its-kind Wheele Pro skateboard training wheel lets little skaters rock on their boards with the added support of an extra wheel. Once they’ve mastered it, just rip off the sticky pad, and voila: ready to hit the park. “Skate smart—that’s my mantra,” said founder Kuba Sitak. If you teach kids [that], then they can become who they want and build their character through skateboarding.”

Hot Takes from the Show Floor

Reunited and it feels so good: “For the last two-and-a-half years, we had to do everything by Zoom calls. It’s hard to do a proper technical briefing on a Zoom call. Quite frankly, I think people are all Zoomed out. Being back in Denver is amazing just because we are able to be face to face with our clients and reestablish relationships that had sort of been put on hold for the last two-plus years. It’s nice to see people’s smiling faces, hear what they’ve been up to, hear how they’ve coped with COVID, and get back into innovating products for our brand partners. Because that’s what we do. We create innovation.” —Timothy Skedzuhn, HeiQ / Global Brandforce

Next time, can we save some trees? “I’ve made a lot of connections. A lot of the events on Wednesday night really helped get my feet wet. A lot of the seminars have been super helpful. ‘Diversifying the Outdoors’ was probably my favorite. A couple of things that could be changed: I saw a lot of paper. Like printed paper. What the heck? That was our team’s major [qualm]—people outside kept giving us paper.” —Gracie Villanueva, Gossamer Gear

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Coming off of last night’s Inspiration Awards and Outdoor Retailer’s 40th anniversary party, the morning of day two felt, well, inspired. The annual celebration of the people, retailers, nonprofits, manufacturers, and emerging leaders culminated in the Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Larry Harrison, whose sales-focused outdoor industry career is profound, covering more than five decades and brands including JanSport, Eagle Creek, Yeti, Sierra Designs, and Adidas, to name a few, not to mention roles with Outdoor Industry Association and Outdoor Retailer. Other winners: Gloria Hwang of Thousand; Mercy M’fon Shammah of Wild Diversity, Goal Zero, National Forest Foundation, and Pack Rat Outdoor Center. 

As retailers, exhibitors, nonprofit staff, buyers, sales reps, and outdoor stewards milled around the convention center today—making introductions, reconnecting with friends, exploring new ideas—Harrison’s parting words in his acceptance speech lingered: “This is really about people. It’s about the ‘great us.’ I’ve always liked that concept of ‘us.’ People committed to one another are stronger, just like we are here, today. So you see, this award is not about me at all. But about each of you and the community that we’ve created. We inspire others to find joy in the outdoors and preserve wildlands for future generations. It’s about us. Good on us.” 

With that, we bring you today’s rundown of brands, gear, and thoughts from the floor.

Notable New Exhibitors

Everyone’s favorite Western wear goes all-terrain. A stroll by the Wrangler display stopped us in our tracks when we spotted a stack of colorful tights that fit squarely in the ‘athleisure’ realm. Wrangler showed up for its OR debut with a whole new line of apparel——that skews less hunting, fishing, and ranchwear, more versatile outdoor garb. Think yoga pants, compression shorts, puffies, windbreakers, and trail joggers at affordable prices. “With people ‘finding’ the outdoors the past couple of years, they also found that everything in this industry is expensive,” said Aaron Mason, sales manager for ATG by Wrangler. “That’s where we found the gap. We’ve got fresh innovation and the technology, but the average consumer can afford the product.” Amen.

Sunnies with built-in bluetooth tunes. introduced its sleek line of polarized audio shades to the OR crowd this year, and we’re intrigued (especially at the $150 price point). They pair with your phone via bluetooth to play your favorite jams—and, via two subtle buttons, can even take and make phone calls, adjust volume, and skip tracks while you’re wearing them, whether you’re running or riding, on the trail, on the boat, or
wherever. It’s open-ear technology that makes your run safer because you can hear external sound in addition to your music. “Nobody’s done it like us with some of the patented technology we have,” said Lucyd sales director Ken Strominger. “It takes away your reliance on the phone because everything’s done through the glasses. And it takes ear buds out of the equation completely. It’s one less thing that’s hanging out of your ears or around your neck.” 

Molded foam shoes for
everything. They’re boat shoes. They’re street shoes. They’re water kicks. They’re loafers. They’re . This casual, moldable, EVA foam shoe in a loafer silhouette is about as versatile as you can get in a summer shoe, once you get past the unconventional look. Tucked into a dazzling enclosed modern booth, this OR first-timer brought a dizzying array of shoes in almost every color imaginable, including a scented kids’ Crayola line (yes, they smell delightfully like coconut and grape!) and fun prints like the Baja Llama and Robert Stock collections. What sets them apart from other foam footwear is the rubber outsole, which affords slip-resistant, scuff-proof, boat-deck-friendly wearability. Plus, they have side holes for breathability and drainability, a utility hole for easy hanging via carabiner (just clip to your backpack), and massage pods on the inside for extra comfort. “We want to be modern, disruptive, and unexpected,” said president and CEO Larry Paparo. Mission accomplished. 

Cool New Products

Running tights with a built-in knee brace: Injury-prone athletes, these are for you. ’s K-Line tights—there are three versions with varying ventilation features and lengths—are referred to as “supportive apparel.” Each pair is a full lower-body compression system that the wearer can adjust to their comfort via minimalist dials on the back waistband. Each twist of the dial cinches cables in the tights that are mapped to the muscles on your body, but still allow for unfettered activity. “Rigid braces don’t allow that much movement,” said Stoko strategy specialist Kirsten Geyer. Pull on a pair of these tights, and “you can go through the full range of motion without restriction, and if your knee goes into an injury-compromised position, that’s where the cables pull tight to correct it.” Prepare to pony up: thanks to the proprietary Embrace System technology, these tights ring in at $298.

A must-have kit for wilderness survival: If you ever find yourself lost, stranded, or evacuating in the woods, mountains, desert, or water for any extended amount of time, you’ll wish you had one of ’s Forever Endure Go-Bags along for the ride. You may have thought many times about what you would need to make it through a few days marooned in the wilderness—or even attempted to create an emergency survival kit yourself. Chances are, you missed something. Which could be critical. The beauty of these survival bundles is that experts have prepped and packaged it all for  you. The Ultimate Bug Out Bag ($260) is the most comprehensive (though the waterproof marine kit might be the best to stash on a boat), with all your basic needs—water, shelter, first aid, food, lighting, communication, and more—covered. With almost every tool and supply you can imagine, “you could survive off these bags for three to five days if you were to go out in the woods,” said Brittany Bettonville, director of marketing for Quake Kare’s parent company, Lighthouse for the Blind. “We’re really trying to sell to someone who is an outdoorsperson and a camper—someone who can start a fire by hand.”

An 101-level e-bike in happy colorways: ’s snazzy lineup is the prettiest set of electric bicycles we stumbled across at this show. “We like to target entry-level customers who are new to e-biking, maybe haven’t had enough courage to try them,” said Xprit product specialist Philip Hu. “So we design with that in mind. Color is one of our big design factors. We put a lot of effort into our colorways.” That translates to fun, retro color blocking (we liked the Beach Cruiser [$1,300] in Watermelon) that reads approachable and laid back. But if your speed is more forest trail than beach path, the fat-tired Hunter ($2,400) in Grand Prairie is a solid choice; it’s rugged enough to tow a trailer. Bonus: the bikes ship 95 percent assembled.

Hot Takes from the Show Floor

Slow but not boring: “The show looks great. It seems a little slow. It’s not as packed as I expected it to be. But I don’t know. Maybe it builds up. It hasn’t been boring at all. We’ve been interacting with a great amount of people, making connections. We’re excited to be here.” —Aiyesha Christian, Nomad Trail Mix

Nonprofits need more visibility: “We teach rock climbing, backpacking, camping, kayaking, and everything that goes along with it at Title I, lower-income schools. We’re just trying to get our name out there, make partnerships and collaborations with other nonprofits. It’s worth us being here, I think, since we’re such a new nonprofit. I just wish [nonprofits] had more of a presence [here] instead of being just pushed off in the corner, so to speak. I feel like maybe if we were out in the hallways, or lined up in front of the entryway or something, where we’re more visible, [it] might be nice. A lot of the retailers, once they see ‘nonprofit’ on your badge, they kind of give you less attention.” —Andrew Hartman, New Treks

Work to do on DEI: “What’s been really helpful for me as a first-time attendee are the Outdoor Industry Association trainings and support. I think an area of improvement, for the outdoor industry or just this show in general, is diversity—in terms of representation and other audiences. I think that’s a definite area of growth. But I’m excited to be part of the industry and to be here. Denver is a beautiful city. It’s been amazing to see all the different brands. We all have to work together to support getting people outside.” —Sana Jafri, BabyGami, first cohort of REI’s Path Ahead Ventures

Lesson of the Day

There was a packed house at this morning’s NPD Group briefing on retail and consumer trends in the outdoor marketplace, keynoted by sports industry analyst Dirk Sorenson. 

Statistics and graphs aplenty provided a thorough picture of what, when, and why consumers are buying this year. Bottom line: the core outdoor industry—apparel, footwear, equipment, and accessories—has raked in $28.3 billion in retail sales in the 12 months ending in March 2022. That’s a growth of $6.8 billion over 2020. That’s significant. Ultimately, Sorenson encouraged retailers to keep a close eye on demographics and to whom they’re marketing, as it’s a moving target—and to think deeply about how to keep consumers engaged once you get them on board. 

Here, a sampling of the (many) takeaways: 

• The outdoor industry will continue to be a bright spot in retail—but focus will lean toward backyard lifestyle.
• Men are spending more on outdoor stuff. Coming off of the pandemic, they’re reevaluating their lifestyle and acting on it more than women.
• Consumers are learning from their outdoor and fitness splurges. Big equipment purchases are not necessarily one-and-done. Once newcomers master the basics, they want to augment their enjoyment of the activity. Retailers need to take note and figure out how to retain those people.
• Brick-and-mortar is back (up more than 27 percent from last year) while e-commerce is down more than 4 percent.
• Lifestyle goods are surging in sales, while equipment sales are declining. 
• Backpacks and luggage are hot, hot, hot.
• Paddling sales are down (though SUP sales are up), and climbing gear is rebounding as people have gotten back to indoor gyms after a pandemic hiatus.
• E-bikes are now selling better than both road and mountain bikes.
• Top outdoor gear sellers in the past year include: water bottles, camp chairs, coolers, sleeping bags, and optics (i.e. binoculars). 
• Spending at Recreation.gov, where you book camping sites at national parks and federal lands, is up 1 percent in Q1 of 2022 compared to 2021.

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As the opening day of Outdoor Retailer Summer 2022 comes to a close, it feels bittersweet for those who’ve grown to love the show’s home in downtown Denver. This is the last iteration (for now) in Colorado before the show . OR will call Utah home at least through the end of 2025—a move that was met with surprise and consternation from those troubled by Utah’s disregard for policies that protect public lands. 

While Denver’s five-year contract was mired in pandemic challenges, some might also call it a transformational period for the very essence of Outdoor Retailer. Take this summer’s floor lineup: nearly 30 percent of the roster is composed of new exhibitors. A sign of more inclusivity and expanding reach in the outdoor industry? Probably. An indicator that the show has become more startup incubator than facilitator for heavy-hitting outdoor businesses? Jury’s out. Regardless, the positive feedback was flowing in the early hours. Here’s a snapshot.

Notable New Exhibitors

Surf stuff and artsy maps: Need a gadget for your surf life? This is the place. From wetsuit driers and waterproof seat covers to bike racks for your board and car door handle lock boxes to store your keys when the waves are calling, had an enthusiastic presence at its OR debut. Ricky Judalena, current Toyota USA Surfing Longboard Champion, is all in as the owner of 7 Seas, Inc., the parent company of Surflogic USA (and sister brand Awesome Maps—hand-illustrated frameable world art maps with themes such as “bucket list” and “fishing”). “It took 47 years of experience to start this at a late age,” he said. Age aside, anyone in need of a few extras for their surf kit should start here.

Where to take a wild ride: In an impressively simple yet dazzling display, brings the stoke of eFoil (electric hydrofoil) to OR. For the uninitiated, eFoil is a hydrosport carried out on a board propelled by electric marine power. In other words, a surfboard-like piece of gear that’s propelled by a motor as opposed to a sail. The adrenaline-fueled sport is, said the Fliteboard crew, easy enough to pick up in 20 mins (the $13,000 price tag notwithstanding). “So many people love this idea of surfing, but they think they don’t have time or that it’s too hard,” said Jimmy Trask, Fliteboard west coast sales representative. “Really, it’s pretty user friendly.” Ben Miller, team lead in customer experience, agreed: “If you go out by yourself, it’s very accessible. You don’t need another person to drive the boat or a big vehicle to tow it. They’re a blast.” At 60 to 70 pounds apiece, the eFoils can be dismantled into four components, complete with bags and cases, for transport. With a charge time of two hours, you get 90 minutes zipping over the water, whether it’s ocean, lake, or bay—any body of water will do. Now about that sticker shock


For the sun worshippers among us: We know, we know, sunscreen isn’t the jazziest item on the floor—but it’s probably one of the most important. skincare line made its first appearance at OR at the perfect time to talk up its necessity for epic days on the water or the trail. The sunscreen line is “meant to address all the pain points that keep men from wearing sunscreen,” said brand manager Annie Gianakos. In other words, the white tinge that sits on face stubble, the greasy finish, and the anti-travel size are nowhere to be found in these products. Take your pick from spray, lotion, and the crowd favorite uber-portable Go Stick Clear ($6 to $22). No excuses.

Cool New Products

Tent camping for one: The latest addition to the ultralight Maxfield tent series by  is a solo backpacker’s dream. Weighing in at 2.5 pounds, the Maxfield 1 ($320) has unique super-short tent poles that make folding it up and packing it a dream, even with the built-in vestibule. The roomy overall footprint and 42-inch height make for a comfy, totally sit-able respite for taller folks. “It’s our most comfortable style tent in terms of keeping your gear safe and the usability of the inside space,” said product developer Kyle Hill. Solo getaway to the backcountry coming right up.

The coziest hammock ever: It’s like your fluffy down sleeping bag and your super chill hammock had a baby. ’s Evolution 20 Down Hammock ($299), made with RDS-certified down, might be the next must-have for car camping. “There are a couple problems with normal hammocks,” said Grand Trunk chief marketing officer Paul Asay. “One: You get cold. Two: There are too many extra attaching quilts if you do, and they don’t stay in place. We are solving a problem that’s been around for years.” Tip: Grand Trunk’s Siesta Hammock Pillow is a clutch accessory. When you adjust in the hammock, it doesn’t slide down because it hooks into the hammock’s carabiner. Brilliant.

USB-chargeable batteries that never die: If you have ever camped or trekked with a headlamp that flickers out in the middle of the darkness, you know the pain of batteries that don’t hold up to sustained device use. Who wants to carry around extra bagfuls of
anything? Especially alkaline batteries that get tossed in landfills at alarming rates. Enter: ’s USB Rechargeable Smart Batteries, newly reimagined in an Artist Series that makes the batteries, well, pretty. More importantly, the partnership helps the artists—or whoever Pale Blue Earth partners with in the future—pursue their own sustainability goals as part of “an ecosystem of businesses trying to do the right thing,” said Pale Blue Earth CEO Tom Bishop. “And from a marketing perspective, it’s a way to help move the needle.” At $30 for a four-pack of AAs—compared to $5 for four Duracells—the ROI is outstanding, given that six uses pays them off, and it would take 1,000 full uses before they burned down to 80 percent of original capacity.

Hot Takes from the Show Floor

Wowed by the selection: “It’s amazing to see all of the different products and necessities for the outdoors. You have certain activities outdoors, but when you go around here at the exhibit, it’s just like, wow, I’d never have thought that I’d need this or that this could support my activities and endeavors. I think it’s a very good presentation. The traffic has been very good. It’s been flowy. Especially in the morning.” —Barry Jackson, Adidas Eyewear

“It’s different in a good way. Just walking around, I see things you’d never think you’d need or never think existed, and you’re like, wow, I need that. I walked over to a booth and it was sleeping bag ponchos. I thought that was so cool. There’s a plethora of things from A to Z that I feel like I need to bring back to New York.” —Ryan Medina, Adidas Eyewear

Turnkey, one-stop shopping: “We call Oregon the Silicon Valley of the outdoor industry. This show is really important for our small- and medium-sized companies. Oregon and Idaho combine together to have this booth, the Northwest Pavilion. We kind of pay [the cost] up front with a federal fund. We help companies get grants, provide travel costs, food, setup, everything, with a 75 percent reimbursement for their costs. We try to do that every year. I’m so glad to be kind of a sponsor for these companies because they really need it. And we want to help them. A lot of people have been impressed because this [Northwest Pavilion] is kind of one-stop-shopping. We don’t have any duplicates.” —Sharon Kim, Business Oregon

“I’m really liking the reception we’re getting from everyone coming through. Sometimes you see these big pavilions and people don’t walk into them
and they are! I’m so happy that we kept a gap in the middle [of the layout]. A lot of times, the bigger vendors—that aren’t really at the show this year—their booths are very closed off and it’s like this secret entrance kind of thing. You walk by those and it’s like, can I go into those? So I worried a little bit about our scenario here, but traffic really seems to be flowing through. A lot of the buyers are liking that we have 22 companies, especially if they’re looking for a wide variety of products. Doing turnkey pavilions was new; we had to do some customization. Thank goodness they worked with me! I think we created a great product.” —Tina Salisbury, Idaho Commerce

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șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű’s gear team exists to bring you information on the best outdoor products on the market. Usually this involves having our testers spend months in the field with them—it’s difficult to know what really works until we’ve actually tried products in the wild. But a couple times a year at the Summer and Winter Outdoor Retailer shows, brands announce so many product launches at once that we can’t help but make some educated guesses about what will be our favorites. Here are the four items that we can’t wait to test from this show.

NEMO Forte Endless Promise Sleeping Bags ($180-$240)

There are a lot of new products out there that are made partially of recycled materials, and this is certainly a welcome trend. The holy grail these days: products that are made entirely from recycled materials and that are also recyclable at the end of their lives. NEMO accomplished just that with an upgrade to its popular Forte sleeping bag line. The new Endless Promise bags (men’s and women’s in 20- and 30-degree versions) are manufactured with zero waste practices. Each bag is made completely with Bluesign-approved recycled materials and insulated with recycled PrimaLoft synthetics. The kicker: 95 percent of the bag is made from a single polyester polymer, so that portion be recycled when it can’t be repaired anymore. Nemo will send the bag to their partner Unifi and give consumers $20 toward new gear. These bags hit the market in the spring of 2023.

Pale Blue Earth Rechargeable Smart Batteries ($30 for 4 AA)

Americans throw away millions of batteries every year, resulting in precious—and toxic–heavy metals sitting in landfills across the country. Rechargeable batteries are nothing new, but we got our hands on lithium ion versions a few months ago and they are the most convenient we’ve tried by far: each battery has an individual micro USB port that charges it within two hours, and a life cycle that takes the place of 1,000 alkaline batteries. And they weigh 40 percent less (17.5 grams for an individual AA) than disposables—a boon for weight-conscious athletes. The up front cost is more than a normal pack of batteries but you’ll potentially save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars over their lifetime. And they come in AAA, C, D, and nine-volt versions too.

Aurea Technologies Inc. Shine Turbine ($400)

Portable solar panels keep getting better and better but some limitations remain: in areas with fickle weather and limited sunlight harnessing enough juice can be difficult. Enter the . This three-pound device sets up in minutes and can create power in winds from eight to 28 miles per hour, rain, shine, or through the night. Juice can be stored in the five volt, 12,000 milliampere-hour integrated battery or you can directly charge any USB-chargeable gadget. You could feasibly carry this setup into the backcountry, we think it’d be most handy in base camp situations where you’re in a fairly remote location but still need power. It’s on the market now.

Level Six Ace Spray Skirt ($185)

Spray skirts are a necessary evil for kayakers. They are a life-saving device, keeping you in your boat when you flip, but wrestling  them on is one of the more onerous tasks in the sport. Level Six takes on the latter problem with the , a skirt which has a thinner stitched (instead of glued) rubber band that’s stretchy to fit easily onto any style of cockpit. But it’s still made tough, with thick neoprene and reinforced kevlar panels for durability. We have questions about whether or not it’s too stretchy and could result in unwanted swims, but we’ll have to get it on the water to test that factor. “If it works, it’ll be a game-changer,” says our Gear Guy, Joe Jackson.

The post Outdoor Retailer Promises Some Great Gear for 2023. This Is What We’re Most Excited About. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Outdoor Retailer was our industry’s indispensable event. Twice annually, more than 20,000 people crowded into the trade show, wandering a vast grid of booths that displayed companies’ top-secret coming attractions—racks of impossibly light down parkas, cases of glittering climbing hardware, and gadgets like stoves that charge a smartphone with a twig fire. The national media reported breathlessly on next year’s gear and shop owners and employees rubbed elbows with outdoor celebrities like Alex Honnold and Bear Grylls and partied at corporate shindigs featuring bands like Parliament Funkadelic and Macklemore.

Beyond the gear bacchanal, Outdoor Retailer was instrumental in growing the industry’s conscience. Dozens of conservation and equity nonprofits rallied support at the show, and the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), which has been the show’s title sponsor for over 25 years, grew from a trade-issues lobbying group into a more forceful advocate for public lands protection and social equity. Congresspeople and senators roamed the show stumping for legislation like re-authorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund and expanding designated wilderness areas. In 2017, Outdoor Retailer made national headlines when it decamped from Salt Lake City and moved to Denver to protest Utah’s efforts to decimate Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.

So it was a blow to many when, after canceling the previous two in-person shows entirely, the Delta and Omicron variants whittled the August 2021 and January 2022 events to fewer than 8,000 attendees apiece. Some believed the show would never recover its previous size due to shifts in the way business is done: many factories now need orders well in advance of the event, a significant number of retailers have migrated to less expensive regional trade shows, and direct-to-consumer sales mean the show is simply no longer essential to some brands. Recognizing all of those factors, certain companies have shifted their marketing budgets away from previously lavish expenditures at Outdoor Retailer, or have stopped attending entirely. To the chagrin of many who love the energizing effects of Outdoor Retailer’s critical mass, the show’s star has undeniably dimmed.

The Next Evolution of Outdoor Retailer

It therefore made financial sense when, last month, Outdoor Retailer announced that despite its 2017 exodus, in January 2023 the show would return to Salt Lake City, where costs will be lower for both attendees and exhibitors—and the show itself. Then, a week after the announcement, Outdoor Retailer let go two of its senior management team, brand development director Larry Harrison and senior marketing director Jennifer Pelkey. Harrison said it was an additional cost-cutting move. Representatives from OR declined to comment on the reasoning behind the decision.

But those weren’t the only problems: when brands caught wind of the potential about-face, 34 of the industry’s biggest players—including Patagonia, the North Face, and REI—peremptorily announced that, on moral grounds, they would not attend Outdoor Retailer if it moved back to Utah.

“We will not support or attend a trade show event in Utah so long as its elected officials continue attacks on national monuments and public lands protections,” they wrote in a public letter distributed by the Conservation Alliance. While President Biden reversed the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to shrink both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, the state of Utah is currently to the Supreme Court. “Before we’d return to a trade show in Utah, we’d need a commitment that Utah wouldn’t pursue that suit,” says Corley Kenna, Patagonia’s head of communications and policy.

Furthermore, many have noted that Utah’s passage last month of makes the state anathema to an industry working to increase inclusivity. “Why would you want to tie outdoor retailers to such a trans-phobic state?” wrote one person on social media. “It is a slap in the face to the entire LGBTQ+ community.”

Outdoor Retailer and supporters of the Utah move say they aren’t ignoring the state’s unpalatable politics. “Leaving after 2017 has not brought the change we had hoped for, so we will push back, not pull back,” the company wrote in a press release. They announced plans to donate a portion of show revenue to support public lands in Utah and to bring government officials and industry stakeholders together for meetings “focused on influencing policy, assisting advocacy efforts, and directing resources into protecting natural and cultural spaces.” It’s unclear, however, how much they’ll donate and where the money will go, exactly.

Nevertheless, the upcoming Utah trade shows will almost certainly be smaller than those of the show’s pre-pandemic apex. In addition to the boycott by many of the industry’s heavyweights, the trade show’s primary model has been shifting for the last decade or more. Outdoor Retailer was originally created to show off future products to retailers who would write orders on the spot, but the factories making the gear are requiring increasingly long lead times, so orders are now being filled weeks in advance of the shows—a problem only exacerbated by the pandemic. Instead, for the manufacturing brands footing a portion of the show’s bill, Outdoor Retailer has largely become a marketing event. Even before COVID, dozens of brands like Arc’teryx and Columbia had decided the costs were no longer worthwhile and decamped. Then, says Conor Hall, director of Colorado’s Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, “COVID-19 threw lighter fluid on that smoldering model.” Some of the brands and retailers that have abandoned OR are now rendezvousing at less expensive regional trade shows and smaller national gatherings like the Big Gear Show in Park City, Utah, whose exhibitor fees are significantly lower than OR’s.

From the retailer side, national chains and online behemoths like REI and Backcountry don’t necessarily need a big show like OR to find new vendors, says Wes Allen, owner of Sunlight Sports in Cody, Wyoming. “Every brand makes a pilgrimage to REI’s headquarters in Seattle, and would give their left arm to sell their stuff with REI.” Many manufacturers, including Patagonia, Arc’teryx, and Columbia, are also growing their own direct-to-consumer businesses online in addition to operating fleets of brick-and-mortar stores. “It’s unlikely those big brands will miss Outdoor Retailer,” says Allen.

What a Weakened OR Might Mean for the Industry

So, what is lost if Outdoor Retailer continues to fade? First and foremost, it’s the community building, say most attendees. “Trade shows are great for networking and trading ideas that you didn’t know you needed to trade,” says Chris Sword, CEO of RoVR Products. Those ideas run the gamut from updating style and technologies to building consensus on the moral and political issues that affect the entire outdoor community. “Where else can the CEOs of The North Face and Patagonia grab a casual beer together?” says Sword.

Speaking of community building, look too at the constellation of nonprofits that rely on the show to recruit supporters and spread their messages. Some, like , which seeks to increase inclusivity in the outdoor industry, were literally created at the trade show. “You don’t see that activism at many other trade events, if any,” says Harrison.

In addition, a weaker trade show might mean a weaker OIA, which is undeniably the industry’s most powerful agent of change in Washington. (Last year, OIA’s executive director, Lise Aangeenbrug, was invited with a handful of other business and labor leaders to sit down with President Biden and Vice President Harris at the White House.) At one time, OIA relied on show revenue from Outdoor Retailer for over 60 percent of its budget—a tenuous position that effectively tied the organization’s fate to OR’s. Recently, it’s , but a smaller Outdoor Retailer still means less opportunity for OIA-driven consensus building and possibly less fiscal might for OIA as well. Representatives from OIA declined to comment on funding issues, but in a released after OR announced its upcoming move, the group did say that it “expressed the concerns of many of [its] members regarding a move of Outdoor Retailer to Utah.”

A smaller national trade show will impact us all as outdoor consumers, too. Small brands, the kind with just a few employees and maybe a bit of seed funding, have been helping drive gear innovation for decades. Without the show, their opportunity for in-person discovery by important retailers will likely diminish. Allen describes the sensation on the Outdoor Retailer show floor when Jetboil, founded by a pair of New Hampshire cousins, debuted in 2003. Such brands made it at Outdoor Retailer “because shops can wander the show and discover dozens of them all in one place,” Allen says. “There’s no way a small brand can afford the time to attend each regional show or knock on the doors of hundreds of stores across the country.”

Nicholson echoes that sentiment from the show’s leadership team. “What makes the show relevant is the ability for retailers to discover and elevate the importance of new and younger brands,” she says. “There’s been no slowdown of brands entering the industry. Trade shows have always served as an efficient path for small companies to showcase their products and gain exposure.”

“The chance encounters you get when there’s 20,000 people in the building were critical for us,” says Kelli Jones, founder of NoSo Patches, which makes adhesive patches to help individuals repair their gear. At Outdoor Retailer in 2018, Jones happened to meet Burton’s director of global sustainability. They hit it off, and that friendship led to one of NoSo’s biggest contracts. Then, in 2021, The North Face icon Conrad Anker dropped by the tiny NoSo booth and expressed his love for the company’s mission. That led to a partnership with The North Face—a huge deal for the ten-person company. 

By the same token, the show has been indispensable for independent retail businesses like Allen’s. At a big trade show, he says, “small shops can efficiently find unique products that fit their vision, or get a leg up on competitors by discovering emerging brands.” It’s how they compete with national chains and e-tailers.

As with NoSo’s Jones, Allen relies on the excitement of the show to help keep his business energized. “We retailers are motivated by helping people get excited to go outside, which spreads that conservation ethic,” says Allen. “When there’s 25,000 people at the show, there’s a powerful sense of belonging.”

Outdoor Retailer says it has plans to increase the critical mass at its Utah shows to keep the community building alive. When the company announced its return to Utah in late March, it declared it would be “reinventing OR” by hosting speakers, community events, and musical acts “beyond the walls of the convention center.” Many are hopeful the strategy works, even if the high-profile boycotters of the show follow through with their threats. “I’d love to see [the show] survive,” says Allen. “But it’s hard to imagine Outdoor Retailer succeeding without its deepest-pocketed companies.”

Perhaps, though, there’s a third option for attendees and exhibitors—a way to retain the political and cultural momentum created by Outdoor Retailer while satisfying those repelled by the state of Utah’s stances on conservation and equality. The same day OR announced it was leaving Colorado, officials in that state said they would establish their own trade event, describing it as a South by Southwest for the outdoor industry. Details are sparse, but given Colorado’s to power a significant part of its economy, a new event might quickly gain support among state organizers and lawmakers.

“There should be the leadership piece and the creative piece,” says Colorado’s Hall. “Given the upheaval in our society, it’s more important than ever to nurture connections within our community.”

The post What Outdoor Retailer’s Move Back to Utah Means for the Industry appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Outdoor Retailer was our industry’s indispensable event. Twice annually, more than 20,000 people crowded into the trade show, wandering a vast grid of booths that displayed companies’ top-secret coming attractions—racks of impossibly light down parkas, cases of glittering climbing hardware, and gadgets like stoves that charge a smartphone with a twig fire. The national media reported breathlessly on next year’s gear and shop owners and employees rubbed elbows with outdoor celebrities like Alex Honnold and Bear Grylls and partied at corporate shindigs featuring bands like Parliament Funkadelic and Macklemore.

Beyond the gear bacchanal, Outdoor Retailer was instrumental in growing the industry’s conscience. Dozens of conservation and equity nonprofits rallied support at the show, and the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), which has been the show’s title sponsor for over 25 years, grew from a trade-issues lobbying group into a more forceful advocate for public lands protection and social equity. Congresspeople and senators roamed the show stumping for legislation like re-authorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund and expanding designated wilderness areas. In 2017, Outdoor Retailer made national headlines when it decamped from Salt Lake City and moved to Denver to protest Utah’s efforts to decimate Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.

So it was a blow to many when, after canceling the previous two in-person shows entirely, the Delta and Omicron variants whittled the August 2021 and January 2022 events to fewer than 8,000 attendees apiece. Some believed the show would never recover its previous size due to shifts in the way business is done: many factories now need orders well in advance of the event, a significant number of retailers have migrated to less expensive regional trade shows, and direct-to-consumer sales mean the show is simply no longer essential to some brands. Recognizing all of those factors, certain companies have shifted their marketing budgets away from previously lavish expenditures at Outdoor Retailer, or have stopped attending entirely. To the chagrin of many who love the energizing effects of Outdoor Retailer’s critical mass, the show’s star has undeniably dimmed.

The Next Evolution of Outdoor Retailer

It therefore made financial sense when, last month, Outdoor Retailer announced that despite its 2017 exodus, in January 2023 the show would return to Salt Lake City, where costs will be lower for both attendees and exhibitors—and the show itself. Then, a week after the announcement, Outdoor Retailer let go two of its senior management team, brand development director Larry Harrison and senior marketing director Jennifer Pelkey. Harrison said it was an additional cost-cutting move. Representatives from OR declined to comment on the reasoning behind the decision.

But those weren’t the only problems: when brands caught wind of the potential about-face, 34 of the industry’s biggest players—including Patagonia, the North Face, and REI—peremptorily announced that, on moral grounds, they would not attend Outdoor Retailer if it moved back to Utah.

“We will not support or attend a trade show event in Utah so long as its elected officials continue attacks on national monuments and public lands protections,” they wrote in a public letter distributed by the Conservation Alliance. While President Biden reversed the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to shrink both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, the state of Utah is currently to the Supreme Court. “Before we’d return to a trade show in Utah, we’d need a commitment that Utah wouldn’t pursue that suit,” said Corley Kenna, Patagonia’s head of communications and policy.

Furthermore, many have noted that Utah’s passage last month of makes the state anathema to an industry working to increase inclusivity. “Why would you want to tie outdoor retailers to such a trans-phobic state?” wrote one person on social media. “It is a slap in the face to the entire LGBTQ+ community.”

Outdoor Retailer and supporters of the Utah move said they aren’t ignoring the state’s unpalatable politics. “Leaving after 2017 has not brought the change we had hoped for, so we will push back, not pull back,” the company wrote in a press release. They announced plans to donate a portion of show revenue to support public lands in Utah and to bring government officials and industry stakeholders together for meetings “focused on influencing policy, assisting advocacy efforts, and directing resources into protecting natural and cultural spaces.” It’s unclear, however, how much they’ll donate and where the money will go, exactly.

Nevertheless, the upcoming Utah trade shows will almost certainly be smaller than those of the show’s pre-pandemic apex. In addition to the boycott by many of the industry’s heavyweights, the trade show’s primary model has been shifting for the last decade or more. Outdoor Retailer was originally created to show off future products to retailers who would write orders on the spot, but the factories making the gear are requiring increasingly long lead times, so orders are now being filled weeks in advance of the shows—a problem only exacerbated by the pandemic. Instead, for the manufacturing brands footing a portion of the show’s bill, Outdoor Retailer has largely become a marketing event. Even before COVID, dozens of brands like Arc’teryx and Columbia had decided the costs were no longer worthwhile and decamped. Then, says Conor Hall, director of Colorado’s Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, “COVID-19 threw lighter fluid on that smoldering model.” Some of the brands and retailers that have abandoned OR are now rendezvousing at less expensive regional trade shows and smaller national gatherings like the Big Gear Show in Park City, Utah, whose exhibitor fees are significantly lower than OR’s.

From the retailer side, national chains and online behemoths like REI and Backcountry don’t necessarily need a big show like OR to find new vendors, said Wes Allen, owner of Sunlight Sports in Cody, Wyoming. “Every brand makes a pilgrimage to REI’s headquarters in Seattle, and would give their left arm to sell their stuff with REI.” Many manufacturers, including Patagonia, Arc’teryx, and Columbia, are also growing their own direct-to-consumer businesses online in addition to operating fleets of brick-and-mortar stores. “It’s unlikely those big brands will miss Outdoor Retailer,” said Allen.

What a Weakened OR Might Mean for the Industry

So, what is lost if Outdoor Retailer continues to fade? First and foremost, it’s the community building, say most attendees. “Trade shows are great for networking and trading ideas that you didn’t know you needed to trade,” said Chris Sword, CEO of RoVR Products. Those ideas run the gamut from updating style and technologies to building consensus on the moral and political issues that affect the entire outdoor community. “Where else can the CEOs of The North Face and Patagonia grab a casual beer together?” said Sword.

Speaking of community building, look too at the constellation of nonprofits that rely on the show to recruit supporters and spread their messages. Some, like , which seeks to increase inclusivity in the outdoor industry, were literally created at the trade show. “You don’t see that activism at many other trade events, if any,” said Harrison.

In addition, a weaker trade show might mean a weaker OIA, which is undeniably the industry’s most powerful agent of change in Washington. (Last year, OIA’s executive director, Lise Aangeenbrug, was invited with a handful of other business and labor leaders to sit down with President Biden and Vice President Harris at the White House.) At one time, OIA relied on show revenue from Outdoor Retailer for over 60 percent of its budget—a tenuous position that effectively tied the organization’s fate to OR’s. Recently, it’s , but a smaller Outdoor Retailer still means less opportunity for OIA-driven consensus building and possibly less fiscal might for OIA as well. Representatives from OIA declined to comment on funding issues, but in a released after OR announced its upcoming move, the group did say that it “expressed the concerns of many of [its] members regarding a move of Outdoor Retailer to Utah.”

A smaller national trade show will impact us all as outdoor consumers, too. Small brands, the kind with just a few employees and maybe a bit of seed funding, have been helping drive gear innovation for decades. Without the show, their opportunity for in-person discovery by important retailers will likely diminish. Allen described the sensation on the Outdoor Retailer show floor when Jetboil, founded by a pair of New Hampshire cousins, debuted in 2003. Such brands made it at Outdoor Retailer “because shops can wander the show and discover dozens of them all in one place,” Allen said. “There’s no way a small brand can afford the time to attend each regional show or knock on the doors of hundreds of stores across the country.”

Nicholson echoed that sentiment from the show’s leadership team. “What makes the show relevant is the ability for retailers to discover and elevate the importance of new and younger brands,” she said. “There’s been no slowdown of brands entering the industry. Trade shows have always served as an efficient path for small companies to showcase their products and gain exposure.”

“The chance encounters you get when there’s 20,000 people in the building were critical for us,” said Kelli Jones, founder of NoSo Patches, which makes adhesive patches to help individuals repair their gear. At Outdoor Retailer in 2018, Jones happened to meet Burton’s director of global sustainability. They hit it off, and that friendship led to one of NoSo’s biggest contracts. Then, in 2021, The North Face icon Conrad Anker dropped by the tiny NoSo booth and expressed his love for the company’s mission. That led to a partnership with The North Face—a huge deal for the ten-person company. 

By the same token, the show has been indispensable for independent retail businesses like Allen’s. At a big trade show, he said, “small shops can efficiently find unique products that fit their vision, or get a leg up on competitors by discovering emerging brands.” It’s how they compete with national chains and e-tailers.

As with NoSo’s Jones, Allen relies on the excitement of the show to help keep his business energized. “We retailers are motivated by helping people get excited to go outside, which spreads that conservation ethic,” said Allen. “When there’s 25,000 people at the show, there’s a powerful sense of belonging.”

Outdoor Retailer says it has plans to increase the critical mass at its Utah shows to keep the community building alive. When the company announced its return to Utah in late March, it declared it would be “reinventing OR” by hosting speakers, community events, and musical acts “beyond the walls of the convention center.” Many are hopeful the strategy works, even if the high-profile boycotters of the show follow through with their threats. “I’d love to see [the show] survive,” said Allen. “But it’s hard to imagine Outdoor Retailer succeeding without its deepest-pocketed companies.”

Perhaps, though, there’s a third option for attendees and exhibitors—a way to retain the political and cultural momentum created by Outdoor Retailer while satisfying those repelled by the state of Utah’s stances on conservation and equality. The same day OR announced it was leaving Colorado, officials in that state said they would establish their own trade event, describing it as a South by Southwest for the outdoor industry. Details are sparse, but given Colorado’s to power a significant part of its economy, a new event might quickly gain support among state organizers and lawmakers.

“There should be the leadership piece and the creative piece,” said Colorado’s Hall. “Given the upheaval in our society, it’s more important than ever to nurture connections within our community.”

The post What Outdoor Retailer’s Move Back to Utah Means for the Industry appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

After five years in Denver, the Outdoor Retailer trade show is bidding farewell to Colorado and returning to its previous home in Salt Lake City, Utah. On Wednesday, show organizers confirmed that the trade show will relocate to Utah’s capital in January 2023 when its current five-year contract with the City of Denver expires. The show will run in Utah at least through the end of 2025.

Show director Marisa Nicholson told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Business Journal that the decision comes after more than 18 months of discussions with OR attendees and exhibitors.

“We’ve been in talks with our customers since June 2021,” Nicholson said. “Those continued, meaningful conversations have ultimately determined the appropriate dates and location for the show’s future.”

According to Nicholson, feedback from multiple post-show surveys in the last two years indicated that OR customers want easier access to water and snow demo sites to test products from the show floor. In Colorado, Nicholson said, OR has been “unable to execute those [demos] the same way we did when we were in Salt Lake City.”

The event’s new home at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake is meant to change that, Nicholson said. In general, the metropolitan area of Utah’s capital has easier access to nearby mountains and lakes than Denver does.

The cost of travel and staging the event, Nicholson added, was also a factor. “The costs for both attendees and exhibitors in Salt Lake City will be significantly lower,” she said. OR has not released specifics about updated attendance or exhibitor fees for future Utah shows.

OR has one more run in the Mile High City before it departs. From June 9 to 11, the show will stage as planned in the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. Exact dates for the first Utah show—happening sometime in January—will be released in seven to ten days, according to Nicholson.

Officials from the State of Utah and the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday morning, though OR said in a statement that it has a “committed partner in [Salt Lake City] Mayor Erin Mendenhall, whose values align with ours following tremendous investments in clean energy and a strong commitment to public lands.”

A Debate Over Conservation

The return to Salt Lake may come as a shock to some, given that very issue: public lands. OR first moved to Denver in 2018 partly to protest Utah’s spotty record on public-lands protection, and some believe not enough has changed in the intervening years to give the state another shot at hosting the show.

Last month, 25 of the industry’s largest brands—including Patagonia, REI, and The North Face— pledging to boycott OR if it returns to Utah, arguing that the state “leads the fight against designated national monuments and public lands.”

Ryan Gellert, Patagonia’s CEO, wrote in the statement that his company’s position on the location of OR remains clear and unchanged. “The show belongs in a state whose top officials value and seek to protect public lands,” he wrote.

It’s a point OR acknowledged Wednesday in a release of its own. “Salt Lake City
is our hometown, and we’re going back with a commitment to effecting meaningful change,” the statement reads. “Leaving after 2017 has not brought the change we had hoped for, so we will push back, not pull back.”

Read more: .

OR said it will donate a portion of show revenue over the next three years to support outdoor recreation and public lands in Utah. It will also form a new initiative with the Salt Lake City tourism board to bring government officials, outdoor recreation leaders, and industry stakeholders together for biannual meetings “focused on addressing challenges, influencing policy, assisting advocacy efforts, and directing resources into protecting natural and cultural spaces.”

In spite of the rift between OR and some of the companies that have been important presences at its past events, OR leaders said there is no malice toward any brand that has decided to protest the show’s move. “We really want to be open-tent,” said Jeff Davis, VP of the Action Sports Group at Emerald, OR’s parent company. “Everyone is invited. That’s the tack we’re taking.”

Reinventing Outdoor Retailer

Show leaders confirmed Wednesday that they’re also planning changes to the event itself after it pulls up stakes in Denver. “When we talk about change, there’s a lot more to it than just changing a city,” Davis said. “We want to reinvent OR.”

Part of that reinvention will be opening up parts of the show to consumers for the first time. Davis told OBJ that OR leadership is exploring the idea of hosting musical acts, speakers, and other community events “beyond the walls of the convention center” in Salt Lake to offer brands new opportunities to connect with customers.

Those efforts, Nicholson said, are a direct response to recent post-show surveys, which have indicated that brand exhibitors want more connection with consumers at OR. “We’re really excited about the opportunity to engage beyond the B2B aspect we’ve historically delivered,” she said.

Specifics about the show’s new consumer elements will be released in June, at the summer event in Denver.

Gratitude to Colorado

Both Nicholson and Davis expressed their gratitude to the City of Denver on a call this week, saying it has been a wonderful home for the trade show over the past half-decade. “Denver has been, and is, a good partner,” Davis said. “We appreciate what they’ve done for us.”

OR added that, even with the change and excitement ahead, there’s still one more show to focus on in Colorado. “We are incredibly grateful to Denver for nourishing [our] passions and embracing our amazing community,” the company said. “We’ll gather in Colorado once more this June to reconnect in person, enhance relationships, and celebrate our milestone anniversary.”

The post Outdoor Retailer Is Moving Back to Utah appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

It’s official. Outdoor Retailer is headed back to Utah in 2023. After this summer’s show in Denver, the trade event will bid farewell to Colorado, where it has staged since 2018, and return to its former home of Salt Lake City.

The industry is still processing the news, and we want to hear directly from you. Did OR make the right call? Cast your vote below to see how the rest of the outdoor community feels.

The post Poll: Is Outdoor Retailer Making the Right Decision Moving Back to Utah? appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

After five years in Denver, Outdoor Retailer (OR) is bidding farewell to Colorado and striking out once more for Utah. Show organizers today confirmed that the trade show will relocate to Salt Lake City—its former home—in January 2023 when its current five-year contract with the City of Denver expires. The show will stage in Utah at least through the end of 2025.

Show director Marisa Nicholson told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Business Journal that the decision comes after more than 18 months of discussions with OR attendees and exhibitors.

“We’ve been in talks with our customers since June 2021,” Nicholson said. “Those continued, meaningful conversations have ultimately determined the appropriate dates and location for the show’s future.”

According to Nicholson, learnings from multiple post-show surveys in the last two years indicated that OR customers want easier access to on-water and on-snow demo sites to test products from the show floor. In Colorado, Nicholson says, OR has been “unable to execute those [demos] the same way we did when we were in Salt Lake City.”

The event’s new home at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake is meant to change that, Nicholson said. In general, the metropolitan area of Utah’s capitol has easier access to nearby mountains and lakes than Denver does.

Cost, Nicholson added, is also a factor. “The costs for both attendees and exhibitors in Salt Lake City will be significantly lower,” she said. OR has not released specifics about updated attendance or exhibitor costs for future Utah shows.

OR has one more run in the Mile High City before it departs. From June 9 to 11, the show will stage as planned in the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. Exact dates for the first Utah show—happening sometime in January—will be released in seven to ten days, according to Nicholson.

Officials from the State of Utah and the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday morning, though OR said in a statement that it has a “committed partner in [Salt Lake City] Mayor Erin Mendenhall, whose values align with ours following tremendous investments in clean energy and a strong commitment to public lands.”

A Debate over Conservation

The return to Salt Lake may come as a shock to some, given that very issue: public lands. OR first moved to Denver in 2018 partly to protest Utah’s spotty record on public lands protection, and some believe not enough has changed in the intervening years to give the state another shot at hosting the show.

Last month, 25 of the industry’s largest brands—including Patagonia, REI, and The North Face—released a statement pledging to boycott OR if it returns to Utah, arguing that the state “leads the fight against designated national monuments and public lands.”

Ryan Gellert, Patagonia’s CEO, wrote in the statement that his company’s position on the location of OR remains clear and unchanged. “The show belongs in a state whose top officials value and seek to protect public lands,” he wrote.

It’s a point OR acknowledged today in a release of its own. “Salt Lake City…is our hometown, and we’re going back with a commitment to effecting meaningful change,” the company wrote. “Leaving after 2017 has not brought the change we had hoped for, so we will push back, not pull back.”

OR says it will donate a portion of show revenue over the next three years to to support outdoor recreation and public lands in Utah. It will also form a new initiative with the Salt Lake City tourism board to bring government officials, outdoor recreation leaders, and industry stakeholders together for biannual meetings “focused on addressing challenges, influencing policy, assisting advocacy efforts, and directing resources into protecting natural and cultural spaces.”

In spite of the rift between OR and some of the companies that have been important presences at its past events, OR leadership says there is no malice toward any brand that has vowed to protest the show’s move. “We really want to be open-tent,” said Jeff Davis, VP of the Action Sports Group at Emerald, OR’s parent company. “Everyone is invited. That’s the tack we’re taking.

Reinventing Outdoor Retailer

Show leaders confirmed Wednesday that they’re also planning changes to the event itself after it pulls up stakes in Denver. “When we talk about change, there’s a lot more to it than just changing a city,” Davis said. “We want to reinvent OR.”

Part of that reinvention will be opening up parts of the show to consumers for the first time. Davis told OBJ that OR leadership is exploring the idea of hosting musical acts, speakers, and other community events “beyond the walls of the convention center” in Salt Lake to offer brands new opportunities to connect with customers.

Those efforts are a direct response to learnings from recent post-show surveys, Nicholson said, which have indicated that brand exhibitors want more connection with consumers at OR. “We’re really excited about the opportunity to engage beyond the B2B aspect we’ve historically delivered,” she said.

Specifics about the show’s new consumer elements will be released in June, at the summer event in Denver.

Gratitude to Colorado

Both Nicholson and Davis expressed their gratitude to the City of Denver on a call this week, saying it has been a wonderful home for the trade show over the past half decade. “Denver has been, and is, a good partner,” Davis said. “We appreciate what they’ve done for us.”

OR added that, even with the change and excitement ahead, there’s still one more show to focus on in Colorado. “We are incredibly grateful to Denver for nourishing [our] passions and embracing our amazing community,” the company said. “We’ll gather in Colorado once more this June to reconnect in person, enhance relationships, and celebrate our milestone anniversary.”

The post Outdoor Retailer Is Moving Back to Utah appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.