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Industry takes care of business at annual Outdoor Retailer Winter Market
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SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (February 2, 2005) – The relaxed atmosphere found throughout the aisles of Outdoor Retailer’s Winter Market held recently in Salt Lake City, Utah (January 29-February 1, 2005) provided the perfect backdrop to four days of seeing and testing innovative new products, fashion shows, seminars, networking and plenty of order writing for the outdoor industry.
“From every corner of the hall, customers have told us that the quality of appointments and numbers of attendees exceeded their expectations,” stated Peter Devin, Outdoor Retailer’s Group Director. “To see the actual attendance numbers surpass last year’s Show is fitting with the quality of products, style, innovation, and energy within our industry - congratulations to everyone on a great Show.”
“We’ve had a fantastic show -- came to Winter Market with a new booth, new logo and big re-branding effort. We had more retailers dropping by the booth than we could make appointments for,” said Tony Manzella – founder of Manzella Productions (http://www.manzella.com) based in Buffalo, New York.
There were over 100 new exhibitors bringing energy to the Winter Market show floor providing retailers with plenty of fresh ideas for their stores. Mountain Khakis, who launched their line of lifestyle apparel focusing on the “hips down,” found the outdoor industry to be very receptive to their brand new company.
“It was great to see the dealers as excited about Mountain Khakis as we are. In fact, there's been so much interest that we are capping our first delivery in June to 100 dealers, allowing us to focus on business development for the Fall deliveries,” commented Noah Robertson, Director of Sales for Mountain Khakis (http://www.mountainkhakis.com) in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
With so many outdoor companies infusing style and fashion into their designs, the daily Winter Market Fashion Shows became a “must-see” during the Show. With standing-room-only crowds lining the runway, OR attendees followed along as professional models strutted their stuff in next season’s Fall/Winter/Holiday fashions from outdoor manufacturers. Proving that function and fashion do mix, the Show featured sponsored presentations from Royal Robbins (http://royalrobbins.com), Ex Officio (http://www.exofficio.com) and Spyder (http://www.spyder.com), plus themed sections including sweaters, rugged outerwear, casual, base sport and technical outerwear from over 125 outdoor companies.
“I was most surprised by all the color coming out. I’ve been thinking – wow, this looks great, my daughter is going to wig out when she sees it,” said Crystal Elliott from Snow Peak in Clackamas, Oregon.
“Spyder is a 28 year-old brand, but this was our first Outdoor Retailer tradeshow. Our goal was to get as many people to see our product line, as a whole package, and understand it was truly outdoor. The Fashion Show gave us the perfect platform to introduce ourselves to this industry – it was a great experience,” commented Kathy Carroll, Director of Marketing for Spyder, located in Boulder, Colorado.
“I liked the Fashion Show – it was great to see the major trends in color and style for the next season. Also good to see different apparel companies mixed together on the models,” said Brian Mildenstein of Fin & Feather out of Iowa City, Iowa.
The outdoor industry may be more fashion forward these days, but they’ve hardly forgotten their roots – the outdoors. And environmental sustainability was certainly a major theme throughout Winter Market. With help from Scott Leonard of Indigenous Designs, Outdoor Retailer launched the “Green Steps” program at Winter Market to help the outdoor industry educate itself on the issue of sustainability through seminars, discussions and sharing information. OR’s Green Steps program acknowledged outdoor companies that currently have environmentally-friendly practices in place with Green Step footprints in front of their booths and on the OR website. Many retailers noticed the Green Steps program and appreciated the heads-up on which companies were making the effort on environmental sustainability.
“I headed into Winter Market looking for product from companies that practice better environmental and green habits,” said Chally Sims, Pack Rat Outdoor Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
“As far as natural or ‘green’ products we’ve noticed that merino wool definitely seems to be gaining momentum,” commented Rob Santa of Sturtevants out of Ketchum, Idaho.
Making an effort to do their part in regards to sustainability, Outdoor Retailer used 100% clean wind energy to power the four-day tradeshow and titled their annual industry party “WinterGreen” featuring organic food and recycled paper products. Even the official show t-shirt, provided by Earth Creations (http://www.earthcreations.net), was environmentally friendly -- made of 100% organic cotton and clay-dyed.
“Outdoor Retailer decided to do our part for the Show and the industry by powering all four days of OR Winter Market 2005 with a sustainable resource -- wind energy. It is just one step that OR is taking to move with the entire industry in the right direction and encourage the Green Steps program,” said Andy Tompkins, OR’s Show Director.
Please see the following "Highlights from the Show" for more information on events and happenings during Outdoor Retailer Winter Market.
Outdoor Retailer, a division of VNU Expositions, is a full service tradeshow company whose goal is to create, market and produce high quality tradeshows and educational conferences. Outdoor Retailer is the leading outdoor industry business-to-business trade event, bringing together top manufacturers, retailers, industry advocates and media to conduct the business of the recreational outdoors. Currently in its 23rd successful year, OR gathers approximately 30,000 attendees on a semi-annual basis for both Fall/Winter/Holiday and Spring/Summer Markets.
Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2005 will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah from August 11-14 at the Salt Palace Convention Center, with the Open Air Demo scheduled on August 10th at Little Dell Lake – a short 30 minute drive outside of Salt Lake City. Registration details for Summer Market 2005 and more information on Outdoor Retailer tradeshows can be found at http://www.outdoorretailer.com. Media can contact Lori Crabtree at Stanwood & Partners Public Relations by phone 307/733-ows , or email at lcrabtree@wyoming.com.
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