Outdoor Retailer Summer Show: Day 1

Just as all the athletes of the world are gathering in Beijing, all the folks associated with the outdoor industry—the designers, manufacturers, salespeople, sales reps, sponsored athletes, media, and retailers—are gathering at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City for the annual Outdoor Retailer Summer Show. The show, the premier outdoor industry event, is strictly for business people—the public is not invited.

I’m here at the show until Monday morning. I usually come to both the summer and winter shows if my schedule allows, although this the first summer show I’ve attended in four years since my work on a Master’s degree conflicted with show dates. I come to the show as an author for my publisher Globe Pequot Press and as a reporter for About.com’s climbing site.

This year, after the first day, the show seems bigger than ever. More floor space. More vendors and exhibits. More people crowding the aisles to look at what’s new, what’s improved, what’s been dropped, and most importantly, what’s going to sell. This summer’s show boasts over 100 new exhibitors over the 2007 show. The show itself has over 1,000 exhibitors and over 22,000 participants. This growth is mirrored by an Outdoor Industry Association report which found that participation in outdoor sports is growing by leaps and bounds. The study found that 30% more people participated in indoor and outdoor climbing in 2007 than in 2006, while 43% did more whitewater kayaking.

The growth in participation was not, however, mirrored by a corresponding growth in retail sales. The soft economy slowed sales of outdoor products overall, although internet retail sales jumped from $57.2 million in June 2007 to $68.6 million this June.

Besides hanging out at the FalconGuide booth, I looked around some of the booths and visited with a few climbers. John Bacher was at his Acopa shoe booth, recovering from appendicitis. Eric Hörst from Pennsylvania was at the Nicros booth and flexing his new edition of Training for Climbing. Chris Sharma and Chris Lindner signed posters at the bouldering wall. Marty Karabin, a climber from Phoenix with the best US collection of climbing gear, was carrying his usual folder of tear-sheets from old climbing magazines for the new and aging rock stars to autograph.

Photo above: Larry Siedl and Mark Downey wait for clients at the FalconGuide booth.
Photograph © Stewart M. Green