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Martin Vilaboy
Editor-in-Chief
martin@bekapublishing.com
Percy Zamora
Art Director
outdoor@bekapublishing.com
Ernest Shiwanov
Editor at Large
ernest@bekapublishing.com
Berge Kaprelian
Group Publisher
berge@bekapublishing.com
Rene Galan
Account Executive
rene@bekapublishing.com
Jennifer Vilaboy
Production Director
jen@bekapublishing.com
Ilissa Miller
Advertising Creative Director
beka@imillerpr.com
Beka Publishing
Berge Kaprelian
President and CEO
Neil Ende
General Counsel
Jim Bankes
Business Accounting
Corporate Headquarters
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Voice: 480.503.0770
Fax: 480.503.0990
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Reproduction in whole or in any form or
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of Beka Publishing, is prohibited. Inside
Outdoor and the Inside Outdoor logo are
trademarks of Beka Publishing
Experiential Opportunities
A great deal of thought and resources have gone into attracting non-participants
and younger generations to the pleasures of outdoor pursuits. During the last sev-
eral years, brands and businesses have made great strides in tapping new demo-
graphic sensibilities, refining messaging and reaching out to groups in the places
where they interact.
Before any of these efforts truly can become effective, however, one greater evolu-
tion will need to take place first. It has to get easier for beginners to get outdoors.
Consider our public lands. Here we have an amazing and expansive network of a
literally countless number of awesome trails, waterways and vistas – truly a surprise
around every corner. Yet to the under- and uninitiated, finding great public places to
play can be a challenge. The Web sites run by government agencies, which largely
control the data about our public lands, are uninviting, de-centralized, hard to use and
often annoying. For most of our parks, forests, monuments and scenic areas, there’s
comparatively little detailed information, and making reservations can be akin to book-
ing a trip online in the late 1990s. In today’s digital and connected world, you’d be
hard pressed to find another category of travel and entertainment that has so much
to offer with so little means to access it. As an upshot, most people still are introduced
to the outdoors only when someone else takes them outside.
Of course, developments have emerged to improve the situations. More and more,
online portals are available that centralize recreation options, and organizations such
as Hipcamp, the Outbound Collective, RootsRated and Access Land are incorporating
the power of data technology, peer reviews and tenets of the sharing economy to make
it much easier for novices to find places to play and book places to camp.
Even so, Mike Brown, the twenty-something co-owner of GearCommons, a peer-
to-peer outdoor rental platform, believes the industry still can do more.
“For the general consumer, even though you can buy everything online, it’s still
hard to go camping or get into mountain biking,” he says. “It take a lot of thought
and planning and some know-how.”
Sure, guided trips and outfitted expeditions have always been part of the market-
place, “but even that is too highly specialized; it’s too intimidating,” he argues.
In turn, Brown believes there is a huge opportunity awaiting retailers and brands that
place less emphasis on moving product and more on packaging and selling the “outdoor
experience.” He points to a generation of peers that define themselves less on what they
own and more on what they do. At the same time, young and emerging consumers
increasingly are trained to seek and expect seamless, on-demand experiences.
This same model, says Brown, can be applied to the outdoor industry, whereby
retailers package together product, place, processes and payment into an on-
demand, seamless event – ideally with large groups of users and low introductory
prices. The basic premise is, “you don’t really have to do anything. There’s no plan-
ning, there’s no equipment investment, there’s none of that. You just come and have
this experience and we’ll take care of everything else.”
As one example, Brown recalls a recent camping event hosted by Hipcamp out-
side of New York. Hundreds of hipsters paid a nominal fee to hang out and spend
the night, while Hipcamp and its sponsors handled the logistics.
“You watch all these guys show up, and it was skinny jeans and Converse All-Stars
and tattoos and long hair; and you wouldn’t necessarily think you’re out backpack-
ing,” he says. “So they had this super unique experience that they probably wouldn’t
have had otherwise if Hipcamp wouldn’t have curated it for them.
“I think that’s what people are willing to pay top dollar for, unique experiences,”
he continues.
After all is said and done, and “oh, you had a really good time on this trip
we took you on?” Brown continues. “Here are some deals on the stuff we used.”
In other words, the proverbial “win-win.”
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MV
Inside
Outdoor
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Summer
2015
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