Summer 2019 – Inside Outdoor Magazine

Inside Outdoor | SUMMER 2019 6 New Markets Outdoor Retailer is dead. Long live Outdoor Retailer. The thrice-a-year Outdoor Retailer Markets certainly are far from dead, despite the wry opening. More to the point, the Outdoor Retailer brand may be quite healthy, but there is little doubt the shows are transforming. Among the most visible changes, of course, are a new host city after a long stay in Salt Lake, a much bigger home in the Denver convention center and downtown area, an added show in November and shifted show dates. Inside the halls, we’re also witnessing some changes in terms of who attends and what’s being accomplished. Historically, Outdoor Retailer shows were all about writing orders; buyers came to buy. Now, OR show organizers reportedly rearranged the show schedule to match buying cycles, but an ear to the ground hears exhibitors moaning about the event “not being about writing paper anymore.” It’s not hard to understand why. The growth of rep association and buying group shows and the overall digitization of the value chain have fragmented outdoor retail buying operations, thereby affecting the importance of that “big annual sales meeting” in the back of a trade show booth. At the same time, the concentration of buying is consolidating into fewer and fewer hands. Outdoor specialty stores seem to be closing at least as fast as they are opening, and one phone call with Amazon or REI can be more lucrative to a start-up than signing five new specialty dealers during three days of exhibiting. For show organizers, all the while, there’s still a need to foster growth, and in this case to fill a bigger expo space. In turn, OR shows are playing host to an expanding assortment of activities and categories – most notably a reuniting with snowsports, bike gear coming in November and powered vehicles on the floor of what was once decidedly a show united around “human powered” recreation. (Stay tuned for RVs and power boats coming to Denver ;) Who can blame them, really? In some ways, the name “Outdoor Retailer” increasingly is less descriptive of the actual event. Three times a year, it’s more the “outdoor industry” that gathers in Denver. Retailers certainly still come to OR to find new products and meet new vendors, but along with them, product designers come to find new materials, managers come to find new supply chain partners, advocacy groups come to inspire and find inspiration, PR companies to find clients, reps to find new lines and old acquaintances to shake hands and raise glasses. There are always good reasons to lament things that are lost. But the way we see things, change tends to bring new opportunities, and in today’s fluid and volatile retail marketplace, new opportunities can be necessary to survival. From the Editor Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Gerald Baldino Managing Editor gerald@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director outdoor@bekapublishing.com Ernest Shiwanov Editor at Large ernest@bekapublishing.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com Rene Galan Associate Publisher rene@bekabusinessmedia.com Anthony Graffeo Associate Publisher anthony@bekabusinessmedia.com David Garcia Digital Marketing Manager david@bekabusinessmedia.com Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Neil Ende General Counsel Jim Bankes Business Accounting Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Fax: 480.503.0990 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2019 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media, is prohibited. Inside Outdoor and the Inside Outdoor logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media