Corey Buhay is a freelance writer and editor based in Boulder, Colorado. You can find her work in Backpacker, Climbing Magazine, SNEWS, and The Voice.
In the beginning, the dream was simple: Just you, the gear, and the open road. You’re somewhere, it doesn’t matter where. Between Colorado and Wyoming, say. You’ve got a truck full of next season’s climbing gear. Your next appointment isn’t until tomorrow, and there’s a crag and ...read more
Didn’t make it to this year’s show? We’ve got you covered. We prowled the floor for three full days in search of new products that your customers will be scrambling for. Here are 25 of the most interesting products at this year’s Outdoor Retailer Summer Market. A “scrappy” ...read more
The (expertly cleaned and newly waterproofed) gauntlet has been thrown. This year, Nikwax is renouncing wasteful trade show culture with a sustainable—and completely recyclable—booth. Originally, the waterproofing and gear care brand wanted new digs to help support messaging ...read more
Sustainability is the outdoor industry’s warmest and fuzziest buzzword, but the movement has fallen short on two points: It’s only really made headway in apparel, and it’s mired in green-washed marketing speak. Osprey has decided to tackle both. Osprey—which, according to NPD ...read more
“I’m not paying full price for that—I can get it on pro-deal.” If you’ve been in, or adjacent to, the outdoor industry long enough, odds are you’ve heard a friend say this. Or you’ve heard a retailer complain about a customer who came in for a boot fitting, chatted for an hour ...read more
The Outdoor Industry Association is taking its political work to a deeper level. At Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2018, OIA announced a new campaign called Vote the Outdoors, marking a shift for the organization. The group has long devoted itself to lobbying efforts in ...read more
"Do you have a boat?” Eric “Hende” Henderson asks me. He’s the owner and founder of Meteorite PR, and the mastermind behind what seems at first blush like a hare-brained idea: packraft to OR. I shake my head. He reaches inside the doorway of evo, a Denver retail shop providing ...read more
If the outdoor industry had a constitution, the Confluence Accords would be it. After seven months of collective effort, representatives from the eight states with formal offices of outdoor recreation gathered on the roof of a downtown Denver hotel yesterday to sign the accords, ...read more
Attendees flooded into a standing-room-only ballroom for the OIA Industry Breakfast featuring a speaker lineup filled with star power. “It’s good to be among friends,” said Sally Jewell, former Secretary of the Interior, prompting a roar of applause as she approached the podium. ...read more
The spotlight was never part of the plan. With his June 3 free solo of Yosemite’s El Capitan, Alex Honnold secured his place as the outdoor industry’s biggest celebrity—a height he never meant to ascend to. Even so, it’s a platform he’s learned to embrace. Over the past decade, ...read more
On June 27, over 200 backpackers take off from the starting line for the first leg of a three-day, 40-mile journey through the Colorado backcountry. More than half wear Fjällräven pants, shirts, or jackets. The rest carry Fjällräven packs. Ten miles later they set up Fjällräven ...read more
Bears Ears National Monument stands quiet. Sunbaked terracotta pillars hold sentinel like broken chess pieces over a sandy board. Wind stirs the pinyon pine, flicking drifts of sand at the feet of thousand-year-old petroglyphs. Waves of heat vibrate in the valleys, a soft pulse. ...read more
In the outdoor industry, wool has been gaining popularity for several years, as more and more apparel brands start to incorporate it into everything from undies to puffy jackets to shorts to shoes. But the reality is that as a global commodity, wool has been waning in ...read more
A visionary of both conservation and recreation, Mary Anderson helped launch one of America’s biggest outdoor gear distributors and shaped the growth of legendary climbing club The Mountaineers. In many ways, Mary Anderson created the modern outdoor industry as we know it. She ...read more
If urban athletic brands like Under Armour and adidas ever truly break into the outdoor realm, their diverse appeal might be just what the industry needs. Under Armour has started to stretch its spandex wings, exhibiting at Grassroots Connect, kicking off a summer 2017 UA ...read more
Rife with lone wolves and adrenaline fiends, the climbing community has historically operated as a loose collective rather than a united front. But in the face of rising popularity, educational inconsistencies, and political threats, that could start to change. The American ...read more
Ted Manning got an early start in the outdoor industry, first pinning on an Eastern Mountain Sports name tag at age 17. Now the CEO of Ibex, Manning’s a far cry from that sales floor-roaming kid, but he’s yet to forget his roots. In the past year, Ibex has worked to bridge the ...read more
You get to keep the money and the inventory? In theory alone, the rental business seems like a pretty good gig, but here’s some news to sweeten the deal: rentals were up nearly 300,000 units and over $16 million in the 2015/16 season, bringing total revenue to $238 million. ...read more
Donald Trump’s party might be bent on selling off public lands, but no need to panic just yet: Even among Republicans, not everyone is behind the movement. The GOP declared a new platform priority at the Republican National Convention this July: returning public lands to the ...read more
Business travel is getting pricier, and costs will continue to rise through 2017. Scroll down to our infographic and see how your Outdoor Retailer expense report stacks up to the average attendee’s, and use these tips to save money on future travel. Outdoor Retailer is the ...read more
WHEN PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA STEPS OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE, he’ll be leaving some big shoes to fill. Half a billion-acre shoes, to be exact. Our current POTUS made headlines again last week when he designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the ...read more
Conservation is a hot topic for the public land-dependent outdoor industry. Even President Barack Obama’s efforts - more than any other U.S. president in history - aren’t enough, given the rapid pace of development in the U.S., said Kristen Brengel, VP of government affairs at ...read more
Tours aren't just for rock bands. With direct sales eating away at specialty shop bottom lines, road shows featuring retail events offer a symbiotic solution. Here’s how to do them right. IT WAS STILL DARK when Stormy Kromer’s president, Bob Jacquart, pulled out of his driveway. ...read more
As much as the outdoor industry might hate to admit it, the shutterbug wandering the streets of Rome has many of the same needs as the guy waiting for his backcountry skis to come through baggage claim. The overlap between what travelers and outdoorists want is even bigger than ...read more
By fusing online ease and in-store service, Locally.com breathes life into struggling specialty shops. When Mike Massey first started selling on Amazon, he said it was like the Wild West. “It felt like having 900 stores in one mall,” he said. “We’re just all getting on top of ...read more
Teen trips with organizations like Big City Mountaineers and NOLS open a window on some of the daunting challenges facing outdoor recreation growth among underserved youth. Getting the boys to the first day of the trip is the hard part. Their lives revolve around the familiar ...read more
Adventure travel is on the rise, and outdoor retailers are poised to take advantage of the growing market. How do you get travelers into your store, or market your gear to them? The first step is understanding who they are and why they travel. For more data about adventure ...read more
PUNCTURE-WOUNDED WALL MAPS are no longer suffering in vain: More Americans than ever are putting their money where their pins are. For this new breed of tourists, actualizing their wanderlust in plane tickets and scrolling odometers, the goal is more than just sightseeing. ...read more
With gas prices falling to a 10-year-low this spring, more Americans than ever are hitting the road for summer vacation, boosting revenue for parks, campgrounds, and—for retailers—certain gear categories. THERE HAS BEEN NO RITE OF PASSAGE LIKE THE GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIP, a ...read more
Where's the diversity in the great outdoors? SNEWS crunches the numbers. Part 2 of a 2-part series on diversity in the outdoor industry. Earlier this week, author James Edward Mills wrote about the challenges we'll face if we don't become more inclusive - and fast. In spite of ...read more
Millennials start families later than other generations. In the meantime, they tend to fill the void with something warmer and fuzzier than a newborn. Of the new pet owners between 2007 and 2015, 43 percent were millennials, according to market research publisher Packaged Facts. ...read more
THE OUTDOOR INDUSTRY IS FULL OF PASSIONATE PEOPLE, and passionate people have a lot to say. But as with any adolescent, the young industry has had trouble being heard. Since 2013, local outdoor industries have been fighting for state-level recognition and a representative to ...read more
Blazes are growing more costly – both to forests and to the Forest Service’s checkbook. In 1991, fire suppression consumed only 13 percent of USFS allocations. Last year, it devoured over half—52 percent—for the first time, according to a 2015 USFS analysis. On average, the ...read more
As a writer, photographer, and skier coming into her own as a professional athlete, Kalen Thorien knows more than a thing or two about succeeding as a woman in the business of adventure. Kalen Thorien became an athlete by accident. In high school, she played hooky and snuck ...read more
Patagonia representative Kathleen Gillett is often the only woman in the room (or on the mountain). She offers her tips for changing that ratio. Kathleen Gillett is Patagonia’s only East Coast sales rep. There are 26 wholesale reps total, and 22 of those are men. Though women ...read more
PrAna ambassador Olivia Hsu is a master of both rock climbing and Ashtanga yoga. Through the lens of her dual expertise, she offers wisdom for balance – in life, in climbing, and in navigating the gender gap that still exists in both. A thousand feet off the ground, the wind ...read more
Betty Reid Soskin worked her way up from Jim Crow laws and bleak employment options to become the oldest (and one of the most respected) rangers in the National Park Service. Betty Reid Soskin has lived a number of lives. She’s been a clerk in a segregated boilermaker’s union, ...read more
As a world traveler, mountaineer, and leader of a multibillion dollar company, Mary Anderson has done it all. As the co-founder of REI, Mary Anderson could be credited with shaping the American outdoor industry into what it is today. Her contributions to the industry began ...read more
The women behind National Park Experience are on the cusp of releasing their second film. Their perspective on succeeding in the male-dominated film world? “It’s not about being women filmmakers. It’s about being filmmakers.” Amy Marquis and Dana Romanoff form a duo as dynamic ...read more
Renowned big mountain freeskier Alison Gannett left the professional world to do what was right – for the environment and for her health. But that doesn’t mean she’s slowing down. When she’s not skiing the world’s hardest big mountain lines, mountain biking, designing ...read more
In the years following the release of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, first as a novel and then as a star-studded Hollywood production about one woman’s journey on the Pacific Crest Trail, the number of PCT hikers quadrupled. Publications from The Wall Street Journal to Mashable suggest ...read more
Sure, subscription boxes distribute samples, but the benefit to product providers isn’t always tangible. Cairn is changing that. These days, there’s a subscription box for everything. You can sign up with Birchbox for cosmetics, Dollar Shave Club for regular razors, Bark Box ...read more
There’s something about Bend. Transplants are pouring in, flocking to the ski hills, the world-class rock climbing, the tangles of mountain bike trails. A tidal wave of growth has caught the business sector mid-swing, attracting more people all the time. No one who lives in Bend ...read more
Lighter gear and more diverse participation has sparked a surge in backcountry interest, a windfall for retailers catering to the growing ranks of alpine tourers and riders. The backcountry beckons, bringing more thrill seekers than ever out of bounds in search of deep, ...read more
Find out more about Capitol Summit and how you can attend from the Outdoor Industry Association. ...read more
The number of climbing gyms in the U.S. is clambering upward, having more than doubled in the past decade. In 2015 alone, the U.S. indoor climbing industry saw 10 percent growth, according to data from the Climbing Business Journal, with 40 new gyms bringing the total up to 381 ...read more
Wearable device shipments in 2015 rocketed up 171.6 percent over 2014 shipments, according to market intelligence provider International Data Corporation (IDC)’s preliminary Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device tracker. IDC names two drivers of the enormous growth: the fitness ...read more
