Outdoor Retailer cancels November show

[AdironRider]

Your right wing is flapping hard here and you're going in circles.

This has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with marketing hubris.

[yeahman]

Yeah, that economic impact was/is definitely overblown as well.

50 million would require 10,000 retail shops to drop 5k a piece on incidentals for a weekend, or like 2k a person. No fucking way.

The retail shops who send buyers are a relatively small part of OR. The vendors are where the real $$ is/was. I attended twice a year for a long time as a vendor. Our company was reeeaaaalllly small compared to the big players, yet it still cost us 50k a year to rent the space, ship everything from our warehouse to the Salt Palace (and back), and cover airfare/hotels/meals for the half dozen of us who attended the four-day show--twice a year. Every hotel was booked within miles, every restaurant packed every night, etc. It was a big deal financially for SLC to lose that show, believe it.

And it's true, the days of retailers coming to the shows to write big orders with manufacturers were pretty much over--mostly it was a chance to view new products, meet-and-greet, be a presence, etc. Most orders were made online later, but the show still played a significant role in that.

[jackstraw]

This has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with marketing hubris.

You don't understand the wholesale channel. And the fact the move was based on an anti-republican policy you chimed in here.

[AdironRider]

I don't care about the politics of the situation. I do think it is amusing that everyone made this out to be a big deal, when clearly it was not given how quickly they cancelled it. They held it what, once in Denver and it failed immediately. Literally everyone was full of shit.

PS, I understand the wholesale channel just fine. It is dying right along with retail. Everyone from Patagucci to tiny little startups would rather sell direct, which is easy breezy with online sales. Sure there are some online resellers that are slowing the wholesale channels demise compared to retail, but slowing is all they are doing, not preventing anything.

[Dantheman]

I don't care about the politics of the situation. I do think it is amusing that everyone made this out to be a big deal, when clearly it was not given how quickly they cancelled it. They held it what, once in Denver and it failed immediately. Literally everyone was full of shit.

Jesus you're dense. They combined the winter show with another winter event that happens in January, and the (much larger) summer show is still very much on. OR has most certainly not "failed" in any way, shape or form.

[XavierD]

Neither wholesale nor retail are dead, but changing. Retail companies who don’t figure out those changes will fail. Many of the historically dominant retail outlets had too much inertia to change or have handled that change poorly. Others are rapidly evolving and new options are starting.

OR had a huge economic impact, $50 million might be excessive, but I wouldn’t be surprised. That said, it’s now relatively cheap to go to major accounts or bring them too you, and have smaller shows dispersed across the country which require less commitment from smaller shops.

[bodywhomper]

Seriously, none of y’all went for the O? I usually tacked on a few days at beginning and end of the winter show to ski with local friends. Also had a friend that worked patrol at PC that I’d ski with for a bit during the demo day.

There were usually a few “secret” products at the shows and it was an opportunity to see new stuff from small companies and start-ups.

[The SnowShow]

I don't care about the politics of the situation. I do think it is amusing that everyone made this out to be a big deal, when clearly it was not given how quickly they cancelled it. They held it what, once in Denver and it failed immediately. Literally everyone was full of shit.

PS, I understand the wholesale channel just fine. It is dying right along with retail. Everyone from Patagucci to tiny little startups would rather sell direct, which is easy breezy with online sales. Sure there are some online resellers that are slowing the wholesale channels demise compared to retail, but slowing is all they are doing, not preventing anything.

OR’s been in Denver for what, 5 shows now? I don’t think it’s failing at all.

Too bad they don’t open a part of it to the public. People would pay to get in for sure.

[yeahman]

It makes total sense to combine the winter OR show with the Snow Show. I don't know what took them so long. The winter OR show had turned into a pseudo ski show in recent years anyway. With the morphing of climbing and skiing and backcountry and sidecountry and ski alpinism, they really had to combine the shows, otherwise half the ski companies ended up going to both, which was stupid.

Only downside of combining the shows could be that booth space will be at a premium, and that might shut out some of the small entrepreneurial types from being able to rent affordable space. And honestly, some of those products are the most interesting, so that would be a shame.