Fjallraven pants as far as the eye can see - the brand had one of the bigger booths at the show
Joe Windemuth of Coal - Headwear
Patrick Whinnery of Sun Diego, Darren Hawrish, Dez Price, Peter Olson, and Matt Keenan of BN3TH, Dave Nash of Sun Diego, Mike Loughlin of BN3TH
Vissla CEO Paul Naude, and Kathleen Detreaux and Kelly Morishige of Poipu Surf on Kaui
Drew Dolkas and Ryan Sirianni of Roark
Phyllis Grove, the SVP of Marketing for Helen of Troy's Home & Outdoor Division. That includes Hydro Flask, newly acquired Osprey Backpacks, and OXO home goods.
We noticed this at the last show - retailers are very interested in Puffin
A Puffin drink coozie
People love Puffin
We saw a lot of interest in the Nanga brand from Japan
We saw lots of people looking at the French adventure and eco brand Picture at the show
Amandine Le Bihan of Picture, which is based in France and makes a wide range of outdoor and lifestyle clothing for men and women
Former Hydro Flask President Scott Allan, who is now on the Rumpl board, among others
We saw a lot of people looking at these eco backpacks from Got Bag
An REI panel wtih brand founders of color drew a big crowd
Team OR: Sarah Schuster, Krista Moore, and Marisa Nicholson
Morgan Logue, Joe Hodnicki, Dustin Henry and Cory Higgins of Jetty
A Jetty woven
Brady Collings of Spyder, which debuted a new activewear line at the show
Spyder Activewear
Hari Mari Owner Lila Stewart
The Gear Guide presentation drew a nice crowd
SIMA meeting: Vipe Desai and Paul Naude
French retailer Decathlon showed its private label brand at the show
Rod Tomlinson of Surf Expo, Bob Soven, Chad LaBass and Nick Meistrell of Body Glove, Roy Turner of Surf Expo
Skechers had a huge booth for its trail line
Great to see Scott Bailey and Floris Gierman of Path Projects
Eric Carlson of The Leisure Collective
Matthew Davis and Liam Barrett of 100% Sports Performance Eyewear
Reef Apparel, which is managed by licensee Hybrid Apparel, had a big line at the show
The Outerknown booth
Hurley had a very large booth at the show
Psycho Tuna was busy
Glyder activewear
OIA Research Director Kelly Davis with fans after her talk
Hydro Flask's outdoor living line
Outdoor Retailer Summer kicked off Thursday in Denver with a much more energetic atmosphere and business environment compared to shows during the pandemic.
We talked to a ton of people during the day and there was an interesting dichotomy: if you had attended or exhibited at shows during the pandemic, this show felt more like a return to pre-Covid times. There was energy in the aisles, retailers viewing lines in booths, crowded education sessions.
If this was the first show people had been to since the pandemic, they commented on the smaller show size compared to Before Times.
We saw lots of busy booths. At Roark, Drew Dolkas said the brand had appointments with retailers such as Urban Outfitters, Chopwood, Christy Sports, BC Surf & Sport, Danner, and others.
At sandal company Hari Mari, owner Lila Stewart said she had seen 15 retailers before noon, including Roadrunner.
We ran into Kathleen Detreaux, owner of Poipu Surf in Kauai, at the Vissla booth. She had been writing lots of orders at the show.
“I’m going to leave too much paper here,” she said.
At the January show, we heard lots of frustration from brands that they had been inundated with service providers and media companies trying to sell them stuff.
Eric Carlson at Otis Eyewear said this time around, he is seeing a lot of media, but more for actual PR opportunities.
We did several brand interviews and will have stories to come from those talks over the next few weeks. See our slide show above for photos from the show floor on Day 1.
Outdoor Retailer Summer continues through Saturday.
