Specialty Retailer Collective Launches Retail Blog for 2011

Santa Barbara, CA – January 19, 2011 – The Horny Toad Family of Brands (Horny Toad, Nau, Lizard Lounge), Grassroots Outdoor Alliance (GOA) and SNEWS are excited to announce that they have come together to form the Specialty Retail Collective (SRC) and have launched a specialty retail blog, specialtyretailcollective.com, as of today.

The collective blog will bring together specialty retail owners, managers, buyers and merchandisers in an interactive forum where they can inspire, support and educate each other to create the best possible retail experience. The blog will focus on retail planning, sales and merchandising strategies and retail marketing ideas.

“We are thrilled to be able to partner with Grassroots Outdoors Alliance and SNEWS to create a blog where we not only share our experiences and knowledge in an dynamic digital environment, but where we can engage others in a two way conversation about the opportunities and challenges faced by specialty retailers,” said Gordon Seabury, President of Horny Toad Family of Brands.

The idea for the blog was born out of the success of “The Lizard Lounge Way” column, authored by Horny Toad in partnership with SNEWS. The column focused on Horny Toad’s experience operating the Lizard Lounge, a successful specialty retailer in Portland, OR. Positive feedback from the column and requests from specialty retailers for a forum to exchange ideas with others facing similar challenges lead to the formation of the collective blog. Contributors to the blog have been selected as specialists in their field to cover a variety of topics from product design, visual merchandising, retail marketing and PR to retail operations.

“The goal is to create a community for sharing good retail practices and create a platform to communicate successes and challenges of their experiences so that we might all learn how to build a successful retail business,” said Brain Thompson, Director of Sales for Horny Toad Family of Brands.

Roanne Miller, President of the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance added, “The partnership and expertise of Horny Toad’s Family of Brands, SNEWS and the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance brings a sincere enthusiasm for specialty retail and deep understanding of the importance of sharing key retail insights to support sell through to achieve sustainable growth. The retail landscape is evolving quickly and we want to make sure we inspire and build several more decades of specialty retail success.”

ABOUT US:

Specialty Retail Collective (SRC) is built on the concept of bringing together a collection of specialty retail owners, managers, buyers and merchandisers to share insights and experiences with the goal to inspire, support and educate each other to create the best possible retail experience. www.specialtyretailcollective.com

SEEDS FOR THE CREATION, GROWTH AND SUPPORT OF SRC HAVE COME FROM:

The Family of Brands is a collective group of like-minded companies, creating product for the evolving outdoor, active lifestyle. Our clothing companies Horny Toad and Nau, share a passion for innovative product design- blending style, comfort and sustainability. The Lizard Lounge is a next generation retail laboratory, providing a unique opportunity to experiment and evolve the retail shopping experience for the modern consumer.


Our company philosophy is rooted in doing well by doing good. We believe in giving back to our communities, in the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit, and in maintaining an open and transparent communication style with our partners and customers. www.hornytoad.com; www.nau.com,

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance (GOA) independent outdoor retailers as a strong voice to protect and promote the experience of specialty retail and outdoor enthusiasts across the United States. Members create a national network enabling access to best business practices for retailers, to the best equipment and apparel brands for the public, and to the backcountry for all. www.grassrootsoutdoors.com.

Founded in 1984, SNEWS® is an independent, insider news service for trade professionals in the outdoor, wintersports and fitness industries. Its network of resources are the acknowledged industry standards for late-breaking insider news and analysis, trend reporting, business education, community-building and retail training. SNEWS also publishes the Outdoor Retailer Daily and Outdoor Retailer Planning Guide under license from Outdoor Retailer. In addition, SNEWS operates the SNEWS Retail College, an affiliate retailer training program of the OIA Outdoor University. And, SNEWS operates SNEWS TV, the only regularly broadcast web TV program for the trade covering industry products and events. For more information, call the SNEWS 530-268-8295, or go to www.outsidebusinessjournal.com.