For the glass-half-full crowd that makes up the outdoor industry, the results of the latest outdoor participation survey are sobering. Outdoor businesses need people to get outside, but almost half of Americans don’t venture outdoors to play. The steady decline in participation threatens not just the bottom line but the outdoor industry’s mission to collectively […]
Outdoor Retail Snow Show
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Evolution of Outdoor Retailer trade shows mirrors industry’s transformation into political, economic force
It was not so long ago that retailers and manufacturers left the annual Outdoor Retailer and Snow Show trade shows with contracts for gear that would carry them into the coming season. The shows were all about wheeling and dealing among gearmakers and shop owners, with a scattering of media documenting the coming trends and […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors
Snowsports Industries America buys Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo in trade group’s first turn toward consumers
Snowsports Industries America, the nonprofit trade group representing winter industry retailers, resorts and manufacturers, is acquiring the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Expo and its sister expo in Boston. The move, announced Friday, gives SIA — the 65-year-old founder of the annual Snow Show that is now part of Outdoor Retailer’s annual winter trade show in […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Luis Benitez leaving outdoor recreation office he built to work for outdoor juggernaut VF Corp
Luis Benitez is leaving the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office after almost four years directing the country’s second-ever office of its kind and establishing the state as the epicenter of the outdoor industry. The mountaineer and former Town of Eagle trustee who united Colorado’s diverse outdoor community, helped land the Outdoor Retailer trade shows, lured […]
Posted inBusiness, Culture, News, Outdoors
Women continue to scale outdoor-industry mountains. And they’re giving others a hand on their way up
In what is now at least the second year of what many call the “Year of the Woman,” Colorado has emerged as a national leader in the outdoor industry movement to make a leader’s gender unremarkable. Not that long ago, a female president of the board, a female CEO or a female entrepreneur was noteworthy. […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Sen. Bennet: Collaboration that led to CORE Act could model a cure for “partisan disease” ailing politics
Sen. Michael Bennet is sure his new Colorado Outdoor Recreation Economy Act could be a national model not only for preserving public lands, but for the collaborative process that went into creating it. Noting that “partisan disease” has corroded national politics, Bennet on Friday said his CORE Act legislation — which would protect more than […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Flexing new political muscle, the outdoor industry unites for a historic push against climate change
The outdoor industry blared a first-ever unified battlecry against climate change on Wednesday. Kicking off the annual Outdoor Retailer Snow Show in downtown Denver, three of the industry’s largest trade groups announced the Outdoor Business Climate Partnership. The alliance of Boulder’s Outdoor Industry Association, SnowSports Industries America and the National Ski Areas Association will not […]
Posted inBusiness, Growth, News, Outdoors
Montrose wants a piece of Colorado’s $62.5 billion outdoor recreation economy with new 150-acre business campus
MONTROSE — Cynthia Lively is making $300 stainless steel pliers. She’s also buffing the burrs off freshly forged $1,500 fly-fishing reels. And she’s spinning out tiny $6 reel caps. She dances between an array of Haas automated milling, boring, cutting, drilling and tapering machines that sculpt high-end Abel and Ross Reel fly-fishing equipment with aeronautical […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Outdoors
Aspen innovator Klaus Obermeyer, still skiing at age 99, celebrated at Outdoor Retailer Snow Show kickoff
From wool knickers and planks nailed to his shoes to breathable fabrics and modern-day rockered skis, Klaus Obermeyer has not only skied every major innovation through the history of skiing, but he invented many of them. From creating a down parka stitched from a comforter provided by his mother as he fled Nazi Germany to […]