Grassroots Outdoor Alliance Connect show went down as planned over the weekend, despite the cancellation of Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, which was to be held in the days following Connect. Connect is a critical microcosm and bellwether of the outdoor industry, and SNEWS was ...read more
Ahead of the annual Grassroots Connect buying show, the consortium of specialty retailers and vendors on Monday welcomed six new stores to its membership. The additions elevate Grassroots Outdoor Alliance to 74 members and 144 doors nationwide, marking the largest size ever for ...read more
When the venerable Denali closed its doors in July 2019, leadership’s reason was that they “could not find a responsible path forward.” It got me wondering, what does it mean to be a responsible retailer today? To be successful, outdoor specialty shops have to offer much more ...read more
Politics was a big theme for 2017—in our country and in our industry. So many outdoor gear companies stepped up to take very public political stances around public lands. In some cases, it makes the cash register ring. But there are lots of customers out there who want gear ...read more
Congratulations to Jackie Cianci from Tahoe Mountain Sports and Joe Brewer from Feral Mountain Co., the winners of our inaugural Shop Star program. The goal of Shop Star is to identify young people working in specialty retail who will become the next generation of leaders in the ...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