Back when Outdoor Retailer took root in Salt Lake City the first time and when he was just a guy who really liked hunting and fishing, Dave Andre had an itch to attend the outdoor industry’s largest North American trade show.
As a self-described “gear junkie,” he wanted a glimpse at the latest and most innovative products out there, from camping chairs to converted cargo vans. Maybe he’d discover brands he’d never heard of and gizmos he’d never imagined. And with the show happening virtually in his backyard, he was more than willing to spend an entire weekend perusing the trade show floor.
Only, they wouldn’t let him in.
Since its inception, the show, also known as OR, has been built to connect outdoor-related businesses to other businesses. That might entail linking up a sleeping bag brand with a zipper manufacturer or a boutique backpack maker with a large-scale retailer like REI. What it does not entail is inviting the thousands of climbers, bikers, campers, kayakers and other outdoor enthusiasts in the state to the Salt Palace Convention Center to geek out over the future of outdoor adventure.
Starting this year, though, the organizers of the OR show are pulling back the curtain a bit.
For the first time since the trade show was founded in Reno in 1982, OR’s parent company Emerald Expositions will hold a couple events in which consumers can get their hands on some of the gear that will be on the trade show floor this summer. It’s a proposition that could draw more exhibitors to the show and perhaps smooth over some of the political rough edges created when it returned to Utah this year despite a lack of movement in the state’s public land policies.
Yet some exhibitors — including Andre, who went on to cofound the rugged e-bike brand Bakcou, which will be at OR for the first time this year — wouldn’t mind seeing the show make even more overtures to potential customers.
“Gear junkies love to go see new gear, and the vendors love to see the feedback, not just from dealers, but from the consumer themselves,” Andre said. “And so that would be beneficiary.”
This weekend, OR will dip its toes into the metaphorical water at Snowbasin Resort in Huntsville and the actual waters of Pineview Lake with the inaugural Outdoor Adventure X (OAX). Billed as “a mountain festival for the outdoor adventurer,” it will feature demos and educational programs and is open to the public. An adult pass starts at $25 plus a $2 fee. Camping and glamping are also available Friday through Sunday nights starting at $247 for the weekend, including one festival pass.
On Monday, most OAX exhibitors will move over to the Salt Palace for the three-day OR trade show. While the public won’t be allowed inside, a block party will be held outside the east entrance that evening. The free event is expected to include bands, food trucks, vendor booths and a drone light show. On Wednesday, the community is also invited to participate in a “voluntourism” event to remove trash and weeds at Wheadon Farm Park in Draper.
(Bakcou) Dave Andre, cofounder of Ogden-based Bakcou ebikes, is in favor of the Outdoor Retailer trade show making more space for consumers. Bakcou will be exhibiting at OR for the first time this summer at both the traditional trade show and at the new Outdoor Adventure X recreation festival.
So after 40 years of shows, why did OR show organizers have a change of heart when it comes to including consumers?
Jeff Davis, the group vice president for Emerald, said the simple explanation is that this is what the exhibitors wanted.
“We want to connect manufacturers with retailers. We also want to connect manufacturers with consumers,” Davis said, “because we’ve heard from the product manufacturers, ‘Hey, we’re interested in doing that.’”
The change could be considered part of a natural evolution for the show. The outdoor industry surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, and with customers unwilling to go to stores, many beefed up their online — or direct-to-consumer — sales capabilities. Some of that interest has waned with shoppers returning to stores, but the habit remains. So businesses are looking both for ways to reach major retailers and to reach consumers, and if they can do it in one place, all the better.
That doesn’t mean they don’t want some separation, though.
Reaching two audiences at once
Matt Maxfield is the vice president of product and innovation for Klymit, a lightweight camping gear company based in Kaysville. Klymit had its first booth at OR in 2009, its first year on the market, and this year plans to have one both at the main tradeshow and at OAX. Maxfield said he sees a benefit in OR’s efforts to create a greater connection with outdoor enthusiasts. Yet he expects the transition from marketing to consumers to marketing to retail buyers will be “chaotic.”
“We have to treat it as two separate events although they’re very linked,” he said, “because you have to prepare differently. You have to talk to consumers as opposed to debuting new products and meeting with our regional partners. So it’s tricky.”
Andre said Bakcou will have two different marketing teams handling the two shows. The one at OAX will be well-versed in the current models of e-bikes, their features and price points. That crew’s goal is to introduce potential customers to the brand and possibly sell a few of the bikes, which were created to be used in hunting and backcountry expeditions but are equally capable on more traditional trails. The team stationed at the OR show, meanwhile, will showcase next year’s models and have knowledge of bulk sale prices, distribution models and how to set up dealer accounts.
Despite the different approaches and end games when it comes to the two groups, both Andre and Maxfield said they see a place for consumers at the actual trade show as well as at OAX. That place? The final day of the show. By then, most buyer meetings have been held and deals have been struck and the trade show floor is notoriously quiet. Exhibitors are prohibited from packing up early, so many spend the day dreading having to get all their gear ready to ship back to their headquarters.
Allowing consumers to come in that day would give exhibitors a way of unloading display gear and would also bring energy to the show, Maxfield said.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show for outdoor industry manufacturers and retail buyers, August 3, 2016, at the Salt Palace Convention Center.
“Honestly, it feels like more and more when an event is embracing consumers, it’s getting people there. It’s filling up. It’s having excited people there,” he said.
“Oftentimes the last day of the show is pretty dead, and it’s just exhibitor-to-exhibitor kind of mingling there because we have to be there,” Maxfield added. “So would there be a venue to be able to bring some people in and have consumers walking and seeing some of the newest, latest and greatest? I think it could be interesting.”
Not ready to grant full access
Allowing consumers into the actual show isn’t something currently being considered, Davis said. While not completely dismissing the idea, he said other shows have tried that approach and “an overwhelming number of brands reject that kind of format.” Besides, he said, Emerald feels OAX is a fitting response to the request for more customer interaction. And it is invested in the festival’s future. In January, Emerald acquired Lodestone Events which produces the booming adventure travel show Overland Expo and is also producing OAX.
“We’re committed to this because we see this as this is a community we want to gather and we want to gather them in Utah,” said Lodestone cofounder Jessica Kirchner. “And so we’re excited to bring this thing to life.”
No matter how it is done, making a deeper connection with the outdoor community could benefit the OR show in a variety of ways. It’s no secret that the show’s turnout has dwindled in recent years as businesses turn to smaller, more regional shows and make more deals online. This gives the show another avenue for keeping or attracting companies, especially those that trade heavily in direct-to-consumer sales.
Plus, bringing customers into the fold might be a salve for OR’s optics problem.
The show left for Denver in 2018 partially to protest Utah’s public lands policies, which favor constricting the size of some national monuments and putting control of those lands in the state’s hands. In recent years, Utah legislators have only hardened their stance, filing a lawsuit that seeks to stop the expansion of the Bears Ears monument and takes aim at the 1906 Antiquities Act.
Yet Emerald decided to bring the show back anyway, saying it wanted a seat at the table. The decision sparked a boycott by several major brands. Most of those brands, including Patagonia and Utah’s own Cotapaxi and Black Diamond, have continued to stay away from the show.
But if outdoor enthusiasts develop an affinity for the show and an interest in keeping it in town, that could tilt the board back in OR’s favor.
Some evidence of that has already come out of OR’s first show back in Salt Lake City in January, said Kaitlin Eskelson, the CEO of Visit Salt Lake. That winter event featured a demo day at Brighton Resort and a community homecoming party.
“I think that with a lot of our big conventions — and OR is a marquee event for us — when they come to town, they want to feel noticed and to feel loved,” Eskelson said. “And that was the biggest takeaway that they had, probably, this year. This last January they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we came back and people knew that we were here and they wanted us to be here.’”
That’s just what all those gear junkies might say — if OR lets them in.
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