Founded Outdoors and REI Co-op Path Ahead Ventures published several key findings from their upcoming 2025 Outdoor Small Business Benchmarking Study.
The free executive summary takes a deep look at the challenges and emerging opportunities that face outdoor industry companies with less than $10 million in annual revenue. In particular, it is designed to deliver insight during a period of rapid economic change.
The study, which was compiled over the last five months, highlights the pressing challenges and emerging opportunity facing small outdoor businesses today.
It also reinforces the role of targeted support for early-stage and under-represented founders and business owners, with their business’ health regarded as “critical” to future innovation, broader inclusivity and a more resilient, dynamic outdoor industry.
Key takeaways include:
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Of the respondents that manufacture internationally, 70 percent reported making some of their goods in China.
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Over 35 percent of founders and business owners reported low familiarity with key financing tools such as merchant cash advances, inventory financing, PO financing, AR financing and supplier financing.
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In 2024, women-only teams reported the lowest rates of equity fundraising, at 15 percent (compared to 50 percent of all-men teams), and raised the smallest median amount ($26,000), about half the overall median.
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Among businesses with non-founder/owner employees, 81 percent of teams with a woman founder or owner had at least one woman employee, compared to just 60 percent of businesses without any women founders or owners.
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65 percent of teams with a minority founder or owner had at least one minority employee, versus 38 percent for businesses without any founders or owners of color.
“When small businesses are thriving, the entire outdoor industry becomes stronger,” said Founded Outdoors’ Katie Doherty. “Our emerging founders and business owners are the drivers of innovation, the entry points to new communities and an essential component of a more resilient, inclusive and dynamic outdoor industry.”
The report also includes additional data on 2024 business-performance metrics, team composition, contractor use, trade show preferences, regional funding and manufacturing trends, advertising strategies and sales channel patterns.
