To put it bluntly, Supreme is the cool kid on the block. The one whose lack of effort seems unattainably chill, whose attention you’re dying to grab but can’t ever seem to figure out how to get. Even if you think you don’t know them, you’ve almost certainly seen riffs on their ...read more
It’s 3 a.m. and professional skier Eric “Hoji" Hjorleifson stands over the blueprint he’s sketching for a ski boot lever. An overhead lamp illuminates blizzard conditions through the tiny windows of the 12- by 24-foot basement-level workshop—but Hoji hasn’t skied for four weeks ...read more
As the title sponsor and education provider of the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2018 trade show, Outdoor Industry Association offered lunch-and-learn panels each day of the show. The topics varied, but were all informed by OIA’s three pillar focus areas: policy, participation, ...read more
Black Americans now spend $48 billion a year on travel and are among the fastest growing segments in the U.S., according to Mandala Research. And the strongest influencer of that trend is black millennial women. #BlackGirlMagic—a social media movement cultivated by black women to ...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
What’s more important to today’s consumer—the product, or the story behind it? In a crowded outdoor market, the determining factor has increasingly come down to the brand’s background and what it stands for, says Sue Harvey-Brown. She has seen firsthand the power of brand ...read more
Specialty outdoor brick and mortar retailers are so much more than product pushers. Sure, you sell stuff, but the reason your customers keep coming back to you is the service and expertise you provide as part of the experience. Your Unique Value Proposition.Why UVP mattersIf you ...read more
Take it from a millennial: Hashtags rule the Insta-universe. Slap a few popular hashtags onto your post, and BOOM, all of a sudden you’re getting “likes” from Instagram users all over the world.So how do you capitalize on the power of a hashtag to get your posts read by the ...read more
My name is Hannah and I’m addicted to Instagram. Lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) for me, my internship with SNEWS is supporting my addiction with this assignment: finding the most inspiring retailer shop Instagram feeds. As a millennial and outdoor newbie on a ...read more
Many of us have what a lot of people would consider to be dream jobs. Sure, work is work, but a lot of what we do revolves on getting people outside. And we get to do a lot of that ourselves, too. We're curious how you got started in this great industry. Share your stories with ...read more
Just a decade ago, local retailers were the biggest influencers of a shopper's path to purchase. But, just like most other industries—from airlines and hotels to restaurants and even schools‑changing consumer behavior has dramatically upended everything we all knew about how ...read more
Fjällräven announced today that it will start airing a TV commercial during Monday Night Football. Marmot ran a Superbowl ad last year, but television commercials are rare territory for outdoor industry brands.The ad will air for the first time tonight, during the first half of ...read more
Your tour company or destination has a story to tell. You craft incredible new experiences, create connections with local people doing positive things for the community, and have a rich history to share. But you need to get those stories out into the world — a world increasingly ...read more
Liz Carlson grew up in Virginia, but the millions of annual visitors to her blog, Young Adventuress, know her better for her life in New Zealand and her travels around the world. Since she started the blog in 2010, Carlson has become a powerful influencer. She knows from years of ...read more
It is 2017, and we are now #adultsummercamping. Don’t judge: That’s pretty much the No. 1, unspoken rule of the wild and wonderful new CamelBak Pursuit Series. It is the opposite of the “Gore-Tex Vortex” you’ll find in places like Boulder, and it’s a beginner outdoorist’s ...read more
For a lot of Dave Polivy’s friends in outdoor specialty retail, online juggernauts like Amazon are seen as a hulking behemoth steamrolling the industry. Many of his contempoaries are reluctant to go anywhere near the e-commerce giant, let alone do business with them. But Polivy ...read more
Twenty years ago, travelers spent hours on hold with unfriendly airlines; skimmed the same few travel guides at their local bookstore; and relied on friends-of-friends for faint hints of "off-the-beaten path" fun in new cities and countries.The arrival of social media changed all ...read more
Every day, about 10,000 baby boomers in the United States retire. Every day, a significant number of them choose to spend their retirement years getting in shape, traveling and exploring the outdoors.The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) reports that baby boomers ...read more