Outdoor Retailer: Summer 2011

I made it back from Outdoor Retailer in one piece (barely, as you can see from the photo). Stuart, Bobby, Jeanie and Tom were holding down the fort while I was out like a kid in a candy store among the latest gear offerings.

Photos are prohibited at the show. This is mainly because product is nine months from hitting stores, and the policy deters would-be copycats from sending photos to Asia to create instant knockoffs. Of course, I couldn’t resist a few snaps that I figured were innocuous.

Just a few tents outside.

The scale of the show is a bit hard to grasp, actually. Salt Lake City grows by 14,000 people for a few days and the Salt Palace convention center is jam packed with more stuff than you can absorb in 3 days of walking the floor. I would know, since I tried.

Plaster sculpted like water.

As expected, product presentation ranged from straightforward and bland to inventive and exciting. Some of the booths that stood out to me were the textural panels from Columbia (pictured above), ice sculptures at Teva, huge black and white photography at Brunton, wind tunnel at Yakima and stretched fabric dividing panels at North Face. Of course this was only the tip of the iceberg for notable displays.

Other companies engaged with the audience in memorable, relational ways, rising above the clutter and waste of typical schwag. Gerber Blades had the clever photo-op with the bear climbing a tree (photo at the very top). Camelbak offered a bicycle-powered rickshaw service to surrounding areas. Royal Robbins had an espresso bar running non-stop. Vivobarefoot offered sessions of video analysis with an expert in running biomechanics. Osprey, Patagonia & Kleen Kanteen partnered to serve beer in reusable stainless steel pints (Yes, the beer starts flowing at 4:30p).

Slacking isn’t so easy.

Gibbon Slacklines had a competition area for people doing freestyle moves. (think balance beam tricks on a flat, springy rope). When I was there, a 10 year old kid with a rat tail was showing everyone up. He looked to be sponsored. They also had a more mellow demonstration area where anyone could hop on and give it their best. Let’s just say that my best (pic above) involved a lot of falling off.

Bookis, Ben and Barefoot Ted.

Anyone familiar with the book Born To Run will recognize the name Barefoot Ted. Reading the book is highly recommended, and so is meeting Ted. Now I’ve done both.

Grass typography made me smile.

Thanks to the generous folks at Garmont for the opportunity to attend the show. The outdoor industry is one that we know quite well here at Studiofluid, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to work more closely with some of the people we met.

See you at the winter show in 2012!