Interviews

What's happened to Jim Lamancusa is every startup owner's dream. Since launching Cusa Tea in May 2017, the company has rapidly expanded distribution of premium instant tea packets to more than 750 retail locations in the natural grocery, conventional grocery and outdoor ...read more

When Cailin O’Brien-Feeney attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, more than a decade ago, he was introduced to backcountry skiing, went on his first overnight rafting trip on the Rogue River, and explored the wonders of the redwood forests and Sierra Nevada ...read more

We’ve heard lots of chatter from Outdoor Retailer attendees wondering how to plan their show calendars. Most of the questions revolve around the November Winter Market and the January OR + Snow Show: How will they be different and how will they be the same? Show Director Marisa ...read more

Flavie Dokken’s first experience with cannabis as a training recovery tool was a decade ago, back when she was still a bodybuilder. Then, she used it to heal from severe stress fractures from her time serving in the U.S. Army. Now as a competitive ultrarunner based in Boulder, ...read more

At the end of last year, the community of Montpelier, Vermont, was crushed when Onion River Sports turned off the lights after 44 years in business. But behind the walls, something was cooking. Former manager Kip Roberts and his wife, Jen, were in talks about owning a bike shop ...read more

Pro adventurer Pete Ripmaster, 41, has been home in Asheville, North Carolina, for a whole month and he still can't wrap his mind around what he considers to be the most intense trip of his life. Understandably. After 26 days, 13 hours, and 44 minutes mostly alone in the Alaskan ...read more

On April 16, L.L.Bean sent off the first of 43 pairs of employees relay-style hiking the Appalachian Trail through August. Once the relay is over, collectively the teams will have passed through 14 states and by 20 L.L.Bean stores along the 2,180 miles. Their hike coincides with ...read more

Imagine it's summertime and one of those days when the breeze is gentle and cool, and the sun is shining, and everyone's smiling, beckoning you to play outside. But you're stuck inside at your desk. We've all had those days, and surely, there are more to come. To alleviate that ...read more

Two years ago, Nate and Steph Yarbrough, both now 29, posted their first YouTube video announcing their move into a van. Both their channel and blog, Adventure in a Backpack, were created as journals to share their new lives working full-time on the road with family and friends. ...read more

Fred Beckey’s best friends were the mountains and everything else in his life was secondary to them, up until the climbing renegade passed away in October 2017. One man had the unique opportunity to spend the last 12 years with Beckey, when his wrinkles were deeper, gray hair was ...read more

In celebration of the amazing women in the outdoor industry, and of March as Women's History Month, SNEWS has featured a number of female leaders in stories about Camber Outdoors' Deanne Buck to 10 rad women-led companies. In this new Q&A series, we asked women in all sorts of ...read more

On a trip to the Lower Salmon River in Idaho, Alan Davis had his first vision for his own company. Someone had brought along a two-piece chair that didn't last through the trip. He wanted to create one for himself that was invincible and wouldn't break under any weight. He ...read more

In celebration of the amazing women in the outdoor industry, and of March as Women's History Month, SNEWS has featured a number of female leaders in stories about Camber Outdoors' Deanne Buck to 10 rad women-led companies. In this new Q&A series, we asked women in all sorts of ...read more

In order to complete the full running loop on a recent Run Wild Retreats trip in Iceland, a group of 15 women needed to cross an unexpectedly high, rushing river. Elinor Fish, the retreat group’s founder, watched on as one woman’s trepidation turned into elation as she crossed ...read more

In celebration of the amazing women in the outdoor industry, and of March as Women's History Month, SNEWS has featured a number of female leaders in stories about Camber Outdoors' Deanne Buck to 10 rad women-led companies. In this new Q&A series, we asked women in all sorts of ...read more

Courtney Matthews has been creating marketing concepts for outdoor brands since 1994. She's done stints at media outlets like BACKPACKER and Bicycling magazines, as well as at big brands like The North Face and Sierra Designs.Recently joining the Active Interest Media team as ...read more

Forty-six years ago, a passionate hiker, climber and camper named John Burroughs had a groundbreaking idea: Sleeping on the solid earth, surrounded by the wilderness that he loved, shouldn’t need to be miserable.Burroughs had a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford and, at ...read more

Even with a sneaker on one foot and a climbing shoe on the other, Deanne Buck ascended with grace up an overhung, 50-foot wall at Boulder’s Movement Climbing & Fitness on a recent Friday evening. In the empty gym, she and I made our way from route to route, and in evaluating each ...read more

Hilde Midthjell is one of Norway’s richest women, and the first to earn 1 billion Norwegian Kroner (by 2016), according to the country’s business magazine, Kapital. She got there by founding, owning, and managing one of Scandinavia’s largest cosmetic and skincare distribution ...read more

Diversifying the outdoor industry is critical, says Jeff Wiguna—not only to sell more gear, but ultimately to expand the reach of its environmentally friendly, sustainable, and healthy-living philosophies. That’s the goal for Wiguna’s newly established Outdoor Diversity Coalition ...read more

The adventure travel industry is thinking about the footprint it leaves behind. Beyond the tourism dollars outfitters bring to remote parts of the world, Chris Baker, a former Teach For America corps member and Yale University graduate (where he spent a semester in Nepal), wanted ...read more

These days, next year’s gear from Outdoor Retailer hits social media feeds within seconds—or even before the show—giving consumers pause in their purchase decisions: “Maybe I should wait until next year to buy those new skis with the latest technology?” Those early announcements ...read more

Self-described “brand turnaround guy” John Walbrecht has spent his career pushing innovation at companies like Timberland, Spyder Active Sports, Fenix Outdoor, and Mountain Hardwear. So when he took the helm at Black Diamond in fall 2016, it’s no surprise that his goal was to ...read more