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Fjallraven pants as far as the eye can see - the brand had one of the bigger booths at the show
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Joe Windemuth of Coal - Headwear
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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
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Vissla CEO Paul Naude, and Kathleen Detreaux and Kelly Morishige of Poipu Surf on Kaui
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Drew Dolkas and Ryan Sirianni of Roark
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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.
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We noticed this at the last show - retailers are very interested in Puffin
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A Puffin drink coozie
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People love Puffin
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We saw a lot of interest in the Nanga brand from Japan
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We saw lots of people looking at the French adventure and eco brand Picture at the show
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Amandine Le Bihan of Picture, which is based in France and makes a wide range of outdoor and lifestyle clothing for men and women
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Former Hydro Flask President Scott Allan, who is now on the Rumpl board, among others
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We saw a lot of people looking at these eco backpacks from Got Bag
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An REI panel wtih brand founders of color drew a big crowd
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Team OR: Sarah Schuster, Krista Moore, and Marisa Nicholson
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Morgan Logue, Joe Hodnicki, Dustin Henry and Cory Higgins of Jetty
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A Jetty woven
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Brady Collings of Spyder, which debuted a new activewear line at the show
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Spyder Activewear
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Hari Mari Owner Lila Stewart
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The Gear Guide presentation drew a nice crowd
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SIMA meeting: Vipe Desai and Paul Naude
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French retailer Decathlon showed its private label brand at the show
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Rod Tomlinson of Surf Expo, Bob Soven, Chad LaBass and Nick Meistrell of Body Glove, Roy Turner of Surf Expo
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Skechers had a huge booth for its trail line
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Great to see Scott Bailey and Floris Gierman of Path Projects
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Eric Carlson of The Leisure Collective
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Matthew Davis and Liam Barrett of 100% Sports Performance Eyewear
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Reef Apparel, which is managed by licensee Hybrid Apparel, had a big line at the show
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The Outerknown booth
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Hurley had a very large booth at the show
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Psycho Tuna was busy
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Glyder activewear
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OIA Research Director Kelly Davis with fans after her talk
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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.