Wes Allen

This story originally ran in the Summer 2020 issue of The Voice. To read the free digital issue, access it here. Who, exactly, should qualify for a pro deal in the outdoor industry? A ski patroller? Full-time mountain guide? Retail employee? Most everyone can agree that these ...read more

In recent weeks many retailers have stepped up to help support brick-and-mortar retailers survive the coronavirus pandemic through profit-sharing ecommerce revenue. Osprey is the latest to announce such a program, but with a twist that also promises to drive traffic once stores ...read more

Come summer 2020, the outdoor industry will have yet another trade show to choose from. The Big Gear Show, a concept by longtime retailers Sutton Bacon and Darren Bush, the team behind Paddlesports Retailer, is slated for July 22 to 25, 2020, in Salt Lake City. The hardgoods-only ...read more

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

Projects on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and other crowdfunding sites will come to life next month in a new startup showcase in Boulder's Neptune Mountaineering. The NeptuneLAB is the latest experiential concept for the iconic gear shop. Owners Shelley and Andrew Dunbar collaborated ...read more

It's summer break and a family of four with two teenage kids is driving to Yellowstone National Park. Noticing they need gas and knowing they need to stock up on a few camping essentials, the driver seat suggests that one of the kids find a good gear shop nearby. An ad for the ...read more

Words like “game changer” and “disruptor” get tossed around a little too easily these days, but with FutureLight, its patent-pending new waterproof/breathable technology, The North Face says it has a product to back up those superlatives. In fact, the brand believes so strongly ...read more

Hundreds of representatives from outdoor brands and retailers gathered last night for the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance annual awards, which pay tribute to the vendors and retailers that are leading the outdoor industry in excellence. The presentation happened in Knoxville, ...read more

A Grassroots Outdoor Alliance award is a very big deal. The group, which is a consortium of 64 independent outdoor specialty retailers and 68 vendor partners, represents the best of specialty retail. The awards, which will be given out on June 13, 2018 on night one of the ...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

When Wes Allen finished college and started working part time at Sunlight Sports in Cody, Wyoming, it was supposed to be just a temporary summer gig. Except summer slid into fall, fall slid into winter, and all of a sudden Allen found himself running the show as manager. But it ...read more

On July 5, Ibex CEO Ted Manning announced to company employees that fall 2017 will be the last season the merino wool outdoor clothing company sells product through wholesale channels. Ibex shifts completely to a direct-to-consumer model in spring 2018. “We’re pivoting toward ...read more

If you’re running a small to medium-sized outdoor brand today, there are so many competing forces trying to shape your business. It’s easy to freak out and be too scattered in your focus or retreat altogether and stubbornly stick to an old way of doing things. Neither approach ...read more

One of the first things you’ll notice about Wes is that he’s a very affable guy. You can tell right away that’s he’s someone you can trust and I later came to realize how important this DNA is to the success of Sunlight. I had a lot of conversations with Wes, his wife Melissa, ...read more

It’s been at least ten years since I’ve been a proper outdoor consumer. I fell in love with ice climbing—and about a dozen other outdoor pursuits—when I was a freshman in college in 1994. I spent pretty much every spare dollar I had for the next decade assembling my stash of ...read more

Rich Hill now needs a flowchart to explain his work history, which has taken him to a number of well-known brands, from Kokatat to Kelty, Marmot, Patagonia, Ibex and prAna in roles he describes as “sphincter-like”: He has served as a channel through which everything passes. The ...read more