ISSUE 1604 JANUARY 25, 2016
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ISSUE 1604 JANUARY 25, 2016
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The Weekly Digital Magazine for the Active Lifestyle Market
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MARKET REPORT 4 Movers & Shakers PeopleForBikes Awards Eight Community Grants 5 Outdoor Tech Launches Walkie-Talkie App and Chips 2.0 Adidas and Stella McCartney Lock In Sports/Style Partnership 6 Jabra Polling Reveals Change in New Year's Fitness Resolutions
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8 By the Numbers Former Twitter CEO Starts Buzz on New Fitness Platform
20 Industry Calendar
GIVING BACK 10 Protect Our Winters Shifting Climate and Changing Paradigms Drive Winter Advocates to Washington
RETAILER PROFILE 12 Great Outdoor Store Has Refined the Brick-and-Mortar Experience
SPORTSMAN 14 Hunting Trends 2016 Rise Of The Performance Brand
MOVERS & SHAKERS
MARKET REPORT
Canadian footwear brand Kamik appointed Hej International, led by Tomas Torstensson, to be its distributor in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Kasper Rorsted, CEO of multinational consumer brand Henkel, will replace Herbert Hainer as Adidas AG CEO, effective August 1. New Era Cap signed Bryce Harper, the 2015 MLB National League’s Most Valuable Player, as a brand ambassador. Nike signed Chloe Kim, the X Games Aspen 2015 gold medalist in Women's Snowboard SuperPipe, as a brand ambassador. Photo courtesy PeopleForBikes
Petzl welcomed legendary climber Conrad Anker to its professional athlete team. PHIT America appointed Colleen Courtney as its Manager of Sponsor Relations, Research and Social Media. Scarpa added Sean McColl, accomplished boulderer, climber and World Cup competitor, to its roster of ambassadors. ShotTracker, the manufacturer of wearable tech for basketball, signed an exclusive, multi-year endorsement deal with Memphis Grizzlies point guard, Mario Chalmers. Sports media company Teton Gravity Research named Chris Engelsman as its National Sales Director. Engelsman previously spent nine years as the Sales Director for The Enthusiast Network’s (TEN) Sports and Entertainment division. 4 SGBWeekly.com | JANUARY 25, 2016
PEOPLEFORBIKES AWARDS EIGHT COMMUNITY GRANTS PeopleForBikes announced the recipients of its most recent cycle of Community Grants, with eight awards totaling $51,750. In total, the Community Grants Program has funded more than 350 advocacy and infrastructure initiatives since 1999, including bike lanes, paths, parks, and advocacy programs. With this round of grants, PeopleForBikes has now funded at least one project in every U.S. state. Grant recipients this round include: Bike Friendly Oroville: Routes, Riding and Repairs (Oroville, WA), where the Borderland Historical Society will encourage bicycle tours and recreational riders to experience Oroville by adding to the bicycle amenities at their tourism center. Central Falls Protected Bike Lane (Central Falls, RI), where students at the Learning Community Charter School evaluated the need to build 1.5 miles of protected bike lanes that will link three schools, a park, and a playground. Chestnut Ridge Ride Center (Westerville, OH), where Central Ohio Mountain Bike Organization will complete the pump track, skills park, and a 2-mile beginner loop at Chestnut Ridge.
Equitable Bike Parking (Baltimore, MD), as Bikemore will create and manage a community outreach initiative and online bike rack request system to add an additional 100 bike racks in Baltimore City. Kickapoo Rail Trail (Mahomet, IL), where the Forest Preserve Friends Foundation will help fund Phase 1 of an off-road connection between Urbana and Danville, extending 24.5 miles once completed. The Underline (Miami, FL), for the newest multi-use trail that will use land running beneath the MetroRail Line for a 10-mile path from the Miami River to Dadeland South Station. Kalamazoo River Valley Trail – Downtown Connection (Kalamazoo, MI), as Parks Foundation of Kalamazoo County, in partnership with the City of Kalamazoo, will connect two halves of the 22-mile Kalamazoo River Valley Trail with one mile of protected bike lane through the city. Santa Cruz Coastal Rail Trail (Santa Cruz, CA), for Friends of the Rail Trail/Ecology Action to advance fundraising and develop community and business support for the 32-mile projected Trail.
OUTDOOR TECH LAUNCHES WALKIE-TALKIE APP AND CHIPS 2.0 Bluetooth audio leader, Outdoor Tech, invented a new Walkie-Talkie App that allows its nextgeneration Chips 2.0 Wireless Headphones to connect with one another through a mountainfriendly push-to-talk design. The Chips 2.0 get upgraded with an embedded Bluetooth Low Energy chip - allowing a simple push and hold (possible with gloves or mittens on) to engage the app for communication. The range, they say, is limitless. The company is touting the new technology with ease of use for families, ski schools and cyclists for both the audio quality of the CHIPS and to be able to communicate without having to take phones out of pockets. One of the Chips keys to success was that it was designed to fit universally with most helmets. Outdoor Tech said its patented Bluetooth wireless Chips headphones have given winter sports athletes and cyclists the chance to stay connected without being tethered. The Chips also allow users to play, pause, and skip tracks, adjust volume, answer calls, and interact with Siri thanks to a built-in microphone and a simple two-button system. The updated Chips 2.0 and Walkie-Talkie App will be available for 2016/17 Winter season at OutdoorTechnology.com and Outdoor Tech retailers.
Photo courtesy Outdoor Tech
Photo courtesy StellaSport
ADIDAS AND STELLA MCCARTNEY LOCK IN SPORTS/STYLE PARTNERSHIP Adidas and Stella McCartney marked a decade of partnership in 2015 while signing a renewed agreement that will extend collaboration on Adidas by Stella McCartney and Adidas StellaSport brands until 2020. Launched in 2005, Adidas by Stella McCartney was one of the first luxury activewear lines to feature athleisure designs. Following the success of this ongoing collection, a new collaboration was formed to target the younger female consumer. In January 2015, Adidas StellaSport launched a range combining sport and style with bold branding, loud colors and unique prints. General Manager Training at Adidas, Brian Grevy, said, “Since the beginning of this collaboration, Adidas has been focused on providing women with products that both perform and look great. In extending the partnership, we continue to empower the female athlete in her quest for technically advanced sports products, without compromising on style.” Designer Stella McCartney, said, “I am incredibly proud to have designed the Adidas by Stella McCartney range for 10 years, and I am thrilled about what the future holds. This collection is for women who take both their sport and style seriously.” The collaboration hit another milestone when Adidas announced Stella McCartney as creative director for the Adidas Team GB kit at the Rio 2016 Olympics, the second time McCartney has fulfilled this role, previously in 2012.
S H A R P E N YO U R PERSPECTIVE START SEEING CLEARLY SSI VantagePoint is the only weekly retail point-of-sale reporting platform exclusively for the active outdoor lifestyle industry that swiftly delivers critical trends and detailed business data to brands and retailers. SSIVantagePoint.com ssidata@sportsonesource.com
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JANUARY 25, 2016 | SGBWeekly.com
5
JABRA POLLING REVEALS CHANGE IN NEW YEAR'S FITNESS RESOLUTIONS
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Headphone Company Jabra enlisted the polling power of Enalyzer software to conduct a global study asking ordinary people about their New Year fitness resolutions. While January is traditionally a time for inflated goals, like losing 50 pounds in one month or fitting into a coveted size, the winds have shifted according to Jabra’s findings. The Enalyzer global survey, polling 1,580 people in December 2015, revealed more than 40 percent of people made resolutions to make their bodies stronger, versus just losing weight. Another 52 percent attested to never making a fitness-related New Year’s resolution until 2016, which may be a result of 2015’s media shift away from thinspiration (a social media term for being inspired to get thin) to fitspiration (inspiration to get fit and healthy via strength training, eating well, and general mind/body maintenance). More than 40 percent of people made resolutions to make their bodies stronger, versus just losing weight. Karin Piscitelli, marketing director at Jabra, said, "The research is clear. Globally we live in
6 SGBWeekly.com | JANUARY 25, 2016
a culture where staying motivated is the key to success. Whether people opt for training apps or upbeat music, finding that inspiration to suit you is key. What is really positive is that people are already willing themselves to succeed, particularly when their goals are related to health and fitness." Jabra officials added, “This refreshing shift in attitude reveals an increased emphasis on strength and fitness training and dispels the notion that most people either won't make a resolution, or will simply fail to reach their goals. Teamed with growing confidence, 67 percent of people feel completely confident that they will stick to their fitness resolution.” Survey results also suggest the method of reaching a fitness goal has changed as well, with 45 percent admitting they may take small breaks during their journey, but ultimately accomplish their goals. This is a big departure from the overnight method, where transformation is expected to occur overnight, and positions the fit resolution as a journey as opposed to a destination.
Recent sightings confirm isolated bands of humans still surviving winter conditions with little or no ice and snow traction. Clearly an endangered species. At Yaktrax, we’ve evolved a range of dependable ice traction tools to fit every survival strategy. Yaktrax.com
©2016 Implus LLC. Yaktrax® is a registered trademark of Implus LLC. 1.16
#ConquerWinter
BY THE NUMBERS
110 Million
The number people expected to use fitness wearables by 2019 according to a new report from Juniper Research.
$252 Million
The value of Nike Inc.’s new 15-year sponsorship deal with Ohio State University, making it the richest in college sports, according to the Wall Street Journal. Costolo (right) announced plans to develop software for a new personalized fitness technology platform in partnership with Bryan Oki, co-founder of Fitify.
2.5%
The rise in occupancy at the western mountain ski resorts compared to a year ago, according to DestiMetrics. Revenue is up 3.7 percent.
3%
The increase of 2015 holiday sales to $626.1 billion according to the National Retail Federation. Non-store holiday sales grew 9 percent to $105 billion.
$877,000
How much the Finish Line Youth Foundation raised during its annual Holiday Drive for the Special Olympics in Finish Line stores across the U.S. and online at finishline.com.
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FORMER TWITTER CEO STARTS BUZZ ON NEW FITNESS PLATFORM They don't call it the cult of CrossFit for nothing... After leaving Twitter as CEO in July 2015, Dick Costolo hit up the fitness scene, joking that when he started CrossFit, he couldn’t do one pull-up. Now, he said he's up to 152. His passion for fitness went a step further on January 19 when Costolo announced plans to develop software for a new personalized fitness platform in partnership with Bryan Oki, cofounder of Fitify. The announcement shared that the fitness platform, “will go beyond measurement to motivate and drive improvement and make the road to personal transformation fun and social. For wellness professionals, from fitness coaches to physical therapists and nutritionists and more, our platform will be the easiest and most flexible way to extend expertise and guidance by orders of magnitude.” The former Twitter CEO ironically shared the news first via his former company's platform (@dickc), and in a rebuff of the 140-character limit, placed of screenshot of photos taken from notes written on his smartphone. We counted. Those notes hit well over the 500 character mark.
Costolo's business partner in the venture, Bryan Oki, runs a health and wellness class fitness service called Fitify, which is said to specialize in designing, implementing, and managing corporate fitness programs for start-ups and Fortune 500s. Although no announcement was made on Oki’s Twitter account (@Bry_Oki), he did retweet congratulatory posts from other Twitter members expressing excitement over the new fitness platform collaboration. Details on the name of the new platform have not yet been released, however Costolo hinted toward its ability to dial into connective wearables and fit trackers writing: “The fitness industry is transitioning to a world of specialized studios and programs with a multitude of connected devices and software trackers. We’ve developed a system that works within this evolving landscape, and we believe we can scale this system with technology and deliver it to a massive audience.” Costolo ended the tweet with a tease to more information on the fitness platform being released shortly, along with an announcement of his joining Index Ventures as Venture Partner.
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GIVING BACK
PROTECT OUR WINTERS SHIFTING CLIMATE AND CHANGING PARADIGMS DRIVE WINTER ADVOCATES TO WASHINGTON By Austin Parker After a half dozen lean snow seasons across the West and the uncertainty of Godzilla El Niño calling for record precip and droughts alike, it’s easy to get discouraged about what climate change has in store for the ski industry. However, with the recent announcement of the landmark Clean Power Plan and a successful Paris Climate Agreement this year, for the first time we have a comprehensive national strategy to not only understand and explain the ramifications of a shifting climate, but to educate the next generation on finding lasting solutions. The team at lobbying collective Protect Our Winters (POW) has been influential in not only bringing this plan and its potential impact to the attention of lawmakers in Washington, but also in building a grassroots awareness campaign in mountain towns across the country. After all, the fifth grader who sits in a school assembly watching Caroline Gleich ski steep lines in Chamonix, and Brody Leven tackle frigid pow in Svalbard – while gaining education on weather and climate – may just be the future inventor of new energy technology or become an influential leader a decade from now. We sat down with Chris Steinkamp, POW’s executive director, just before their latest trip to Washington DC with members of the Riders’ Alliance to discuss some of the programs POW is investing in on both local and national levels. Their efforts with the Clean Power Plan fold into the larger Climate Action Plan, enumerated by the Obama administration in 2013. This plan details everything from changing emissions standards on coal and other fossil
Chris Steinkamp, Executive Director, POW
10 SGBWeekly.com | JANUARY 25, 2016
fuels to involving the international community in research on climate change impacts. Steinkamp’s rallying call through all of POW’s programs follows a “think global, act local” mentality. There has to be a balance between large campaigns that affect national policy, and local activities like working with states and counties to invest in better transportation infrastructure, energy efficient construction and renewable energy. Programs Foremost among POW’s local outreach programs are the Hot Planet Cool Athletes school assemblies. Launched in 2012, these assemblies allow kids in schools across the country to meet professional snowsport athletes and learn about how they can make a difference in their communities. Caroline Gleich, one of the Riders’ Alliance pro members, detailed their efforts: Since 2011, POW has reached more than 45,000 kids. They have not only raised awareness but put together a Powder Grant system for schools to take action on local energy initiatives such as building composting bins at a high school in Madison, WI, and human powered bicycle charging stations at the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy in Colorado. On the political front, POW’s advocacy program is growing every year. Rather than going with the typical Washington Beltway route and hiring professional lobbyists, POW brings athletes and industry advocates out
Caroline Gleich, Professional Mountaineer
to interface directly with Congressional committees, environmental officials and think tank working groups. Some of their latest visits even involved an online townhall with Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. While these meetings with political leaders have led to big results in the Clean Power Plan, athlete Julian Carr stressed that getting the public caught up in the climate fight is just as important. His eloquence when speaking about shifting our entire paradigm on energy production and public transportation is electrifying. Of primary importance to him is not just cleaning current emissions but finding the next generation of innovators and inventers. The stress on the planet may not have reached the point of no return, and even small, local actions make a difference on a scale measurable globally. Whether you’re a mountain town ski bum who chooses to drive a hybrid, an investor bringing funds to energy developers, or an educator getting students excited about climate science, you are doing work that affects us all. That is POW’s most important message: be the local difference. POW believes in rebuilding the way we think about how we power our society. If we can get even one high school student excited to study in a climate-related STEM field, or encourage a few more skiers to carpool or take the bus, then we are back on track to seeing more powder days again. That’s a goal we can all get behind.
Pro Skier Julian Carr Photo courtesy Julian Carr
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RETAILER PROFILE
Great Outdoor Store
GREAT OUTDOOR STORE HAS REFINED THE BRICK-AND-MORTAR EXPERIENCE DeAnn Echols, owner of the single-location South Dakota specialty retail store, shares the secrets of what separates a good retailer from a great one. By Jahla Seppanen Great Outdoor Store in Sioux Falls, SD, has been around since the spandex-wearing days of the 1980s. Tom Ashworth, a Sioux local, founded the store, seeing it through almost two decades until selling the business to DeAnn Echols, an employee who fell in love with buying and merchandising, in the ‘90s. Although passing through new hands and a variety of locations, the spirit of Great Outdoor is core to the bone, and current owner Echols has proven specialty retail is still king. The store is currently a member of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance (GOA), co-owned by DeAnn and her husband James. SGB caught up with Echols following a roaring holiday selling period to see exactly how she stays competitive in the growing direct-to-consumer (DTC) landscape; which trade shows the store will attend in 2016; employee retention tips; and a peek into the surprising strategies that led Great Outdoor Store to brick & mortar success. What separates a good outdoor retailer from a great one? Business practices and having a good solid business from a financial standpoint. Also a supportive staff and community. In 2014 your store was named a top 100 specialty retailer. What impact did that have? That award was given by the vendors. In retail it’s your relationship with vendors and how you utilize marketing opportunities that can set you apart. 12 SGBWeekly.com | JANUARY 25, 2016
What products are and are not selling well? We are in the full effect of El Nino and a warm winter has caused low sales in heavy winter coats. But we have had great success with our sportswear – we always do really well with Patagonia fleece and flannels. Some of our lighter-weight down products are selling well also. We have gotten a couple good dumps so we’ve sold a ton of Sorel, and holiday shopping brought more socks, hats, scarves and mitten sales. We just started selling Luci lights and those have been flying off the shelf. How are you tailoring the shopping experience? This has a lot to do with merchandising and display. We like to use a lot of props or things that are outside of the products, such as old antiques for our fixturing. We don’t have a flatwall. It’s very organic in here. We also focus on customer service. All our staff goes through clinics and training so we know what we are talking about and where products are located. Any employee retention tips? I’ve found my best employees through other employees. Word-of-mouth and friend-of-a-friend. Retention wise, I try to hire a little older. Most of my staff are college students or out of college, and this is maybe a second job to do in their spare time. Moreover, treating your employees with respect while letting them know what is expected always wins. Good feedback and making sure it’s a pleasant environment to work in is also key.
Which shows are you attending? We’re a member of GOA and this year they added the Connect show with more retailers and vendors. That was a great week. We got so much work done. It was easy to go in, see our vendors, do our work and move on. Typically, we would have gone to our regional show MWSRA, but it was too hard timing-wise. We also went to Outdoor Retailer Winter Market. The environment there is fun, but we have the majority of our work done before. New Year’s resolutions? Be much more focused on our marketing and online social media presence. Streamlining that, working on our informational website, and making sure all info is up to date and relevant. What’s your current online presence? We’ve had several attempts at an online presence over the past seven years, but haven’t had much success with it. About four years ago we decided to get out. It wasn’t performing and it was taking up all our time. Except for telling people who we are and where we are, we don’t want to sell our products online. Advice to other retailers? Focus on something and get it done rather than the big thinking steps. There are a lot of little things that will make a huge impact. We just hired a new events and marketing position and hope to improve the shopping experience by giving customers another reason to come in.
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SPORTSMAN
Photo courtesy Sitka
Hunting Trends 2016 Rise Of The Performance Brand By Greg Thomas
S
ome of my best and worst childhood memories formed in a soggy western Washington duck blind, sitting on a wet wood plank, cold feet stuck in the mud, waiting for mallard ducks to arrive on what my dad might call, “the 9 o’clock flight.” He’d name these flights to best serve his purposes - if I was shivering and wet and pleading to leave the blind at 10 a.m. he’d say, “We’re waiting for the 10:15 flight.” Making matters worse, I could see McDonalds’ golden arches from the blind and that only focused my attention on hot chocolate and the slim possibility that I might survive. In those days my attire consisted of cheap, army-green, un-insulated calf-high rubber boots, white cotton socks, baffled long underwear that reminded me of the Eggo waffles I’d eaten for breakfast, Toughskins jeans, 14 SGBWeekly.com | JANUARY 25, 2016
and a plastic hooded poncho that barely reached the knees. This wasn’t quite Naked and Afraid, but it wasn’t a poolside seat at the Ritz either. I don’t know how I came out of those years retaining the will to hunt, but here I am, many years later, wishing that the performance hunting apparel movement we are seeing today would have been part of my youthful outdoors experience. Several newish companies - and some long established brands - are creating tech-driven apparel and accessory options at premium price points, quality items that could keep you alive on the top of McKinley. And this gear, especially, appeals to the go-getter, meaning hunters who need lightweight, storm-worthy gear they can rely on when traveling farther into the bush, for increasingly longer durations, to find the kinds of animals that fill a freezer and end up on the living room wall.
Sitka Sitka Gear’s lineup of technical apparel is a great example. Sitka entered the market in 2005 with a systems-based approach building on highquality, moisture-wicking base layers topped with equally efficient midweight and heavyweight insulation. These three systems, labeled Light and Fast, Extended Exposure, and Extreme and Extended, cover the bases whether you’re chasing early season archery elk in the Rockies, midseason whitetails in the eastern hardwoods, or late season mule deer or mountain goat in the high crags. Be prepared - you’re not coming out of the Sitka buying experience with a fat wallet. George Cook, a Sitka rep in the Pacific Northwest, said Sitka “turns clothing into gear” and their approach “matches hunters with the right system for their given task or environment, be it static (tree-stand whitetails), extended mountain hunts (such as sheep), or light and fast (for alpine elk and mule deer).” Cook said Sitka’s Mountain Pant, $189, can’t be beat for early-season hunting and its Timberline Pant, $229, serves best during late-season hunts. Three jackets Cook would take on every hunt are the Kelvin Light Hoody, $249, the Jetstream Jacket, $349, and the 90% Jacket, $289, which is touted as being perfect for 90 percent of the mountain conditions hunters encounter.
Mountain Pant
Timberline Pant
Kelvin Light Hoody
Jetstream Jacket
JANUARY 25, 2016 | SGBWeekly.com Photo courtesy Sitka
15
Sitka’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed, and neither has Walls’, with its long standing 10X brand is moving into the high performance arena with their Silent Storm Rainshell and Pant. This apparel is being touted as the most waterproof, breathable and quiet camouflage raingear on the market. In fall 2016 10X releases its Lockdown line and a full layering system that uses merino wool, Primaloft and a two-tiered scent control called Scentrex. They’re also releasing a women’s line of hunting apparel. “The Silent Storm rainshell and Lockdown soft-shell point to the quality and performance customers will see from 10X in the future,” said Matt Aboussie, an account manager at Backbone Media who handles the brand. “There are lots of players in camou clothing, but the performance market is a growing trend and we’re reaching active hunters who are looking for more than an afternoon in a tree stand, although we sell a lot of gear to those people as well. “And we do see women as a growing segment of the market,” he added. “Our women’s line is full-feature gear, not compromised from the men’s line at all. It just has a specific women’s tailored cut and some pieces may have slightly different colors, say a pink logo or zipper that’s different from the men’s.”
Walls 10x
Silent Storm Rainshell
Silent Storm Pant
Lockdown Jacket
Photo courtesy Walls 10x
Photo courtesy Kuiu
Kuiu is another brand penetrating the performance market . . . and why wouldn’t it? Jason Hairston, founder, sold the Sitka brand and started Kuiu to offer consumers the best- performing ultra-light clothes for mountain hunting, at an equitable price. To do so Hairston sells direct at huntkuiu.com where consumers find Kuiu’s version of the systems approach, offering base layers, insulation layers, outer layers, rain gear, headwear, gloves, boots, backpacks and dry bags, and even sleeping bags and single or two-person lightweight tents, all packed with performance materials. For instance, Kuiu’s Yukon Rain Jacket, $349, uses Toray’s Primeflex to keep weight and water absorption in check; and it uses Toray’s Dermizax membrane and Kudos XR DWR to repel water and for breathability. While these performance apparel lines have a firm grip on the hunting community, there’s something to be said about brand recognition and consumer confidence. The long established Seattle-based brand Filson continues to make its mark in hunting, drawing off a reputation for having outfitted Alaska and Yukon-bound prospectors during the Klondike gold rush. Ralph Stuart, editor of Shooting Sportsman magazine, which caters to upland bird and waterfowl hunters, said tradition and reliability serve the classic brands well and resonate with his readers. “Alaska’s hard-core hunters used Filson and people associate the brand with something that will stand up to time and hard use,” Stuart said. “It’s also a brand that these people’s fathers and grandfathers wore and the items have been passed down through the generations. That shows how good the materials and craftsmanship are.
Kuiu Yukon Rain Jacket
JANUARY 25, 2016 | SGBWeekly.com
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Eddie Bauer
Mens Micro Therm Storm Down Field Jacket
Women's Micro Therm Storm Down Field Jacket
Yakima Breaks Upland Pants
“Another recognized brand that I’m very impressed with is Eddie Bauer,” Stuart said. “They have come back on the hunting scene with a line of ‘Guide Tested’ Upland Bird Hunting Gear. Before launching the line, they brought in professionals for advice and testing and then sent the products out for vetting and made improvements based on what they saw and heard from the field. I can tell that these pieces were designed by someone who wanted versatile birdhunting garments and they are what I’m wearing a lot these days.” Another mainstream brand that’s made inroads in hunting is Patagonia, whether they’ve wanted to or not. It’s a poorly kept secret that some of their apparel, such as the iconic Snap-T and its capilene base layering system, perform as well in the forest and field as on a trout stream or bike trail. In 2015 Patagonia released its “Field” lineup, which includes
Photo courtesy Eddie Bauer
a Lightweight Field Shirt, $85, Field Pants, $99, a Long-Sleeved R1 Field Shirt, $169, and an All Season Field Shirt, $89. These are highly technical items made of 100 percent polyester ripstop with built in UPF 30-sun protection. Patagonia’s Corey Simpson said, “This is a very versatile, highquality outerwear line that climbers love, but it works well on a ranch, in field biology work, and in hunting, too. We’ve found that something doesn’t have to be built for hunting for it to be good in the field.” And with this current surge in performance-driven hunting apparel, you - and I - don’t need to suffer through a day in a duck blind or anywhere else for that matter. With all the options on the market and with more to come this year, you can be nearly as comfortable hunting deer on a snowy peak as you can be in the deserts and uplands hunting antelope and birds.
INDUSTRY CALENDAR
TRADE ASSOCIATIONS BUYING GROUPS Athletic Dealers of America 1395 Highland Avenue Melbourne, FL 32935 t 321.254.0091 athleticdealersofamerica.com National Shooting Sports Foundation Flintlock Ridge Office Center 11 Mile Hill Road Newtown, CT 06470 t 203.426.1320 nssf.org National Sporting Goods Association 1601 Feehanville Drive I Suite 300 Mount Prospect, IL 60056 t 847.296.6742 nsga.org Nation’s Best Sports 4216 Hahn Blvd. Ft. Worth, TX 76117 t 817.788.0034 nbs.com Outdoor Industry Association 4909 Pearl East Circle I Suite 300 Boulder, CO 80301 t 303.444.3353 outdoorindustry.org
JANUARY 2016 4-6 ASI Orlando Orlando, FL 5-7 Archery Trade Association Show Louisville, KY 6 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market Demo Day, Salt Lake City, UT 6-9 CES Show Las Vegas, NV 7-10 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market Salt Lake City, UT 11-13 MRA January Novi Market Novi, MI 14-16 Surf Expo Orlando, FL 17-20 NRF Retail Big Show New York, NY 19-22 NBS Winter Show Ft. Worth, TX 19-22 SHOT Show Las Vegas, NV 22-24 Imprinted Sportswear Long Beach, CA 24-26 Sports Licensing & Tailgate Show Las Vegas, NV 27-29 PGA Merchandise Show Orlando, FL 28-31 The SIA Snow Show Denver, CO
FEBRUARY 1-2 1-2
SIA On-Snow Demo Denver, CO SIA Nordic Demo Denver, CO
20 SGBWeekly.com | JANUARY 25, 2016
2-4 FFANY New York, NY 2-4 Worldwide Spring Show Reno, NV 8-10 EORA SE February Show Greenville, SC 15-18 Magic Show Las Vegas, NV 16-17 MWSRA New Model Demo Afton Alps-Hastings, MN 17-20 Sports Inc. Outdoor Show Phoenix, AZ 18-22 NBS Semi-Annual Market Fort Worth, TX
MARCH 8-9 SFIA National Health Through Fitness Day Washington, D.C. 17-19 Imprinted Sportswear Show (ISS) Atlantic City, NJ 21-24 IHRSA Orlando, FL
APRIL 1-2 19-21
SFIA Litigation & Risk Management Summit New Orleans, LA Imprinted Sportswear Show (ISS) Nashville, TN
MAY 22-25
NSGA Management Conference and Team Hilton Head Island, SC
JULY 13-17
IDEA World Fitness Convention Los Angeles, CA
Sports & Fitness Industry Association 8505 Fenton Street I Suite 211 Silver Spring, MD 20910 t 301.495.6321 sfia.org Snow Sports Industries America 8377-B Greensboro Drive McLean, VA 22102 t 703.556.9020 snowsports.org Snowsports Merchandising Corp. 235 Cadwell Drive Springfield, MA 01104 t 413.739.7331 Snowsportsmerchandising.com Sports, Inc. 333 2nd Avenue North Lewistown, MT 59457 t 406.538.3496 sportsinc.com Sports Specialists Ltd. 590 Fishers Station Drive I Suite 110 Victor, NY 14564 t 585.742.1010 sportsspecialistsltd.com Tennis Industry Association 1 Corpus Christi Place I Suite 117 Hilton Head Island, SC 29928 t 843.686.3036 tennisindustry.org Worldwide 8211 South 194th Kent, WA 98032 t 253.872.8746 wdi-wdi.com
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