What you missed: Day 2 of Outdoor Retailer
Keep tabs on the most newsworthy things happening on the show floor.
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Happy Outdoor Retailer Summer Market. We hope your Day 2 has been just as energizing as Day 1. Here are a few of the things you might’ve missed:
- On Monday night, the ninth annual Inspiration Awards by Outdoor Retailer honored a slew of deserving individuals. Vericool Coolers won the Manufacturing Award, Arrive won the Retailer Award, Unlikely Hiker’s Jenny Bruso won the Individual Award, City Kids Wilderness Project won the Nonprofit Award, Joseph Goldstein won the Youth Award, and Outside‘s Larry Burke and adidas Outdoor’s Greg Thomsen won Lifetime Achievement Awards. Congratulations, everyone!
- Neptune Mountaineering, Boulder’s iconic mountain shop, just announced its new program called Neptune LAB. Launching this August, the lab is an interactive experience featuring a small assortment of hand-picked products that have successfully launched through crowdfunding. Products will be featured and for sale in the 17,000-square-foot retail store, for a limited time and in limited quantities. “For over 45 years, Neptune has welcomed and supported up-and-coming brands that often had a hard time getting in the door with bigger retail chains,” said co-owner Shelley Dunbar. “The Neptune LAB is a modern take on that strategy of offering our customers the latest, most exciting gear that they can’t find everywhere.”
- John Sterling was honored at The Conservation Alliance breakfast on Wednesday morning for his 23 years of service with the organization, most recently as executive director since 2004. He received a standing ovation from the crowd at the end of his speech. “I don’t know what I’ll do next, but I do know it will be informed by the experiences I have had and the relationships I have built during my tenure at The Conservation Alliance,” he wrote in his farewell announcement. “And I hope that my next adventure includes spending more time in the wild places that we have helped protect together.”
- At the same breakfast, Doug Peacock was the keynote speaker. The eco-warrior, Green Beret medic, and grizzly expert, spoke about what it means to dedicate your life to saving our environment. “If I were gonna save any other species, including Homosapien, I think I’d be fighting the same exact way. We all need protection. We all need habitat,” he said. While much work has been done to protect lands, there’s more to be done especially during this time of flux. He told the story about the first time he saw a mama grizzly and her cub. He was naked in a hot spring and decided to climb a tree, which was no bigger than a Christmas tree. He bumped his head and scrambled to the top. But the bears paid him no attention. That was the start of his love for the bears and the start of his decades of conservation work. He offered more wise words: “I don’t make any distinction between fighting for grizzlies and fighting for our own survival…I always say to start in your backyard.” Watch the short film about Peacock here.
- Outdoor Industry Association has measured just how damaging tariffs have been to the businesses feeding the $887 billion outdoor recreation economy. Between September 2018, when the new tariffs took effect, and April 2019, outdoor companies and consumers paid an extra $1.1 billion. The additional threatened tariffs could take another $1.5 billion monthly toll. Conversation around tariffs is filling the show floor, since it’s possible the new levies will impact every product coming from China.
- Headsweats, a 20-year-old performance headwear and apparel maker, has hired Backbone Media as its PR agency of record. To start, Backbone will support the launch of the Headsweats REPREVE line, consisting of hats and apparel made from recycled plastic bottles.
