Backcountry has launched an innovative new advocate sponsorship program, Breaking Trail, aimed at supporting and welcoming underrepresented communities. The Breaking Trail program is similar in structure to a traditional athlete sponsorship team, with one key exception: It focuses on outdoor leaders who shine not only in their individual sports, but also as advocates driving meaningful conversations and change in the diversity of the outdoor community.

Inspired by Pattie Gonia, the drag persona of outdoor photographer Wyn Wiley, Backcountry’s Breaking Trail program will offer long-term, sustainable support to these outdoor leaders working to make the outdoors more inclusive.聽

鈥淚鈥檓 proud of Backcountry for not just talking the talk but also walking the walk, saying they believe diversity in the outdoors matters and following through with action, allyship, and direct financial support for the advocates as they create community for diverse outdoorists,鈥� said Wiley, who will support Backcountry’s Breaking Trail program both as a photographer and聽an advisor.聽

The program, which launches this month, includes not only sponsorship dollars but monthly features that amplify the advocates and their organizations. Advocates will also lead trainings at Backcountry internally, and at the end of the year, Backcountry plans to fly them all to Park City for a community engagement summit and storytelling event.聽

The program’s class of sponsored athletes will include seven outdoor trailblazers: Jos茅 Gonzal茅z,聽diversity educator, athlete, and founder of Latino Outdoor;聽Ron Griswell,聽advocate, educator, and founder of HBCUs 国产吃瓜黑料;聽Juju Milay,聽athlete and founder of Colour the Trails;聽Eliot Jackson聽MTB athlete, presenter, and co-founder of Grow Cycling Foundation;聽Jaylyn Gough, photographer and founder of Native Women鈥檚 Wilderness;聽Cali Wolf,聽ER nurse and coordinating director of Native Women鈥檚 Wilderness; and Kareemah Batts,聽diversity advocate, cancer survivor, and founder of Adaptive Climb Group.

“This program should serve as a blueprint for companies who wish to approach marginalized communities that they don’t directly belong to,” said Batts. “They let us lead the campaign every step of the way. I had never experienced anything like that before. I have good expectations about this partnership鈥攖his is just the beginning.”

How Backcountry Chose Its Athlete Ambassadors

Colleen O’Neill, senior marketing manager at Backcountry, told OBJ this week that the inaugural class of athlete-ambassadors is the first of many to come.

“This is a long-term commitment that we will be developing for years,” she said. “Our initial thought was to include 12 advocates, but we realized we wouldn鈥檛 be able to tell everyone鈥檚 story in a meaningful way, so we’re starting with seven.”

Backcountry selected the athletes based on several criteria, but two of the most important, O’Neill says, were existing relationships and nonprofit involvement. The company wanted to kick the program off by working with advocates it had supported in the past; it also made sure that each of those advocates was involved with some kind of nonprofit organization, so that Backcountry could support those organizations with the ambassadors’ help.

As for coming classes, O’Neill says the company welcomes input from anyone in the outdoor community as to who should be involved.

“This is a two-way street,” she said. “We’re open to any and all advice for our next advocates. This is a community effort and we’re open to any guidance our community can give us.”

For the makeup of future classes, O’Neill says that including members of the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community is “100 percent on Backcountry’s radar.”

“We know that we need to be more inclusive that space,” O’Neill said, “and we鈥檙e excited to expand in that direction.”

Sunn Kim, a digital content producer for Backcountry who worked with Wiley to photograph the inaugural class of athlete-ambassadors, says he felt a sense of deep purpose assisting in the effort to amplify these seven voices.

“When I was growing up, I struggled with my identity in the outdoors as second-generation Korean American,” Kim said. “This [photoshoot] was the first time I was surrounded by people who felt the same kind of restrains I’ve always felt in the outdoors. As a creative, I feels it’s my responsibility to give these people a voice.”

Paul Tew, senior creative director at Backcountry, added that this project is meant to be a conversation, not a marketing campaign.

“This is more than just imagery鈥攖his is a storytelling effort,” Tew said. “We’re going to be doing interviews with every ambassador because we feel it鈥檚 just as important to hear peoples’ voices as it is to see their images. Those interviews will be included in the monthly spotlights for each advocate.”

Backcountry鈥檚 Larger Commitment to Diversity

This new initiative is not the first effort Backcountry has made to improve diversity in outdoor recreation. The company is also one of 175 organizations that have signed the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge, founded by Teresa Baker and Chris Perkins in 2019. The Pledge is a commitment to action that moves the outdoor industry toward authentic inclusion.

The spectrum of how companies have interpreted that pledge鈥攁nd how much success they鈥檝e seen in making progress toward their goals鈥攙aries widely. Nonetheless, Baker sees tangible progress in the making.

“I think brands are finally coming around to the understanding that equitable representation in marketing matters,” she said. “What I really like about the campaign is that everyone is wearing their own style. Backcountry didn’t make it a necessity to have everyone styled in their line of clothing.”

Through the Breaking Trail program, Backcountry hopes to become a more inclusive organization while at the same time amplifying the message of its new leaders鈥攕preading the message of inclusivity as widely as possible throughout the industry.

The post Backcountry Reimagines the Sponsored Athlete appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The post Episode 2: Calling on Brands to Diversify the Outdoor Industry | Teresa Baker, co-founder of the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Is it ever okay to use the N-word? There is, of course, no definitive answer to that question, as you’ll discover when you watch this webinar.

A few months back, rapper and climber Devin Dabney submitted an essay to Gym Climber magazine that was riddled with the N-word: It appeared 22 times in two pages.

As a publisher, Pocket Outdoor Media (also parent company to us here at OBJ), faced a dilemma: To publish or not to publish. We will cut to the chase here. After much debate and consultation with DEI expert, Teresa Baker, Pocket declined to publish the article. But the conversation took on a new life when Teresa suggested that Pocket partner up with Outdoor Industry Association and Outdoor Media 4 Inclusion to host a live webinar to explore the topic.

The result was a candid and energetic conversation between Baker, Dabney, Dr. Carolyn Finney, Alison Desir (co-chair at Running Industry Diversity Coalition), and Dhani Jones (former NFL player and strategic advisor and board member at Pocket Outdoor Media).

The post Watch the N-word webinar appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

When The Outbound Collective needed to fill a new customer success position last September, CEO and co-founder Brian Heifferon decided to skip advertising the job in the usual places in favor of a new approach: posting the position on just one, the In Solidarity Project鈥檚 job board, a platform caters to job seekers from underrepresented communities.

鈥淚 believed in its ability to deliver the right kind of candidate,鈥� Heifferon said. And it did: Outbound Collective hired one of the 48 applicants who responded, the vast majority of whom were members of the BIPOC community. 鈥淭hat stands in stark contrast to jobs we鈥檝e shared on LinkedIn and other platforms,鈥� Heifferon said.

A Deep-Seated Industry Problem

A crucial part of making the outdoor industry more inclusive is hiring more diverse employees across the board. But even though plenty of companies want to step up, they struggle to reach potential employees from diverse backgrounds.

To help with the problem, Teresa Baker, founder of the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge, included the job board in the launch of her In Solidarity Project website last June. She鈥檇 been fielding increasing requests from the industry asking her to share job openings across her network; the job board formalized that system of informal matchmaking.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a long history of the outdoor industry passively posting jobs, and hoping that as a byproduct they might be able to find more diverse candidates,鈥� said Heifferon, who helps Baker manage the board.

But diversifying a company from the inside out 鈥渞equires being more proactive and sharing opportunities with those communities directly,鈥� according to聽Heifferon.聽Posting a job with In Solidarity is one way to do that. Using the board costs $75 per post鈥攎ore than a free site like LinkedIn, but on par with many other targeted job boards.

So far the platform鈥檚 growth has primarily come from word-of-mouth marketing and shared promotion within the industry. To date, 194 job seekers have registered with the site (users don鈥檛 need to officially register to apply for jobs), and 135 different employers have posted a total of 230 positions.

The Platform in Action

Sawyer, a manufacturer of water filtration and first aid products, posted a social media and community manager job exclusively on the job board for a month last fall, says Andrew Glenn, the company’s brand and marketing manager.

鈥淲e wanted to have integrity in our hiring process, and [we knew] that if we were to post a job internally or within our circles鈥攐n LinkedIn or a typical job posting site within the outdoor industry鈥攊t would get a lot of the same viewers,鈥� Glenn said. 鈥淭he outdoor industry is very white, and we were excited to get in front of new people.鈥�

About two dozen of the roughly 200 people who applied came through In Solidarity鈥檚 board; though Sawyer ultimately hired someone who applied through a different site, two In Solidarity seekers made the final round, and, as Glenn said, 鈥淲e looked at the In Solidarity applicants pretty thoroughly and used them as a litmus test for the rest of our applicants.”

Pushing the Industry in the Right Direction

鈥淚t has always been a challenge to find exactly the right type of talent you鈥檙e looking for,鈥� Heifferon said. When those candidates belong to groups that haven鈥檛 historically been well represented in the industry, the challenge intensifies. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a problem that needs to be solved, and this is one of the many ways I think the industry is trying to solve it.鈥�

Plus, Glenn pointed out, In Solidarity鈥檚 board offers benefits for prospective employees, too. By posting jobs on the board, companies are able to communicate that they value inclusivity and are actively recruiting more diverse talent.

鈥淪peaking as a queer person, I鈥檇 feel much safer going through In Solidarity,鈥� Glenn said. 鈥淚鈥檇 have trust that I鈥檓 going to have merit for my work. Going through LinkedIn or Workable, you don鈥檛 know that. You have all these other brands that, unfortunately, don鈥檛 hold the same values.鈥�

Right now, the board features jobs ranging from a technician at Specialized Bicycle Components to a designer at BioLite to a VP of marketing and communications at Protect Our Winters.聽As more employees and job seekers join up, it just might grow into a critical tool in the push to make the industry truly inclusive.

The post This Job Board Helps Make Hiring Diverse Employees Easier appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

It’s been 10 years since The North Face launched its widely praised charitable giving initiative Explore Fund,听which has provided聽millions of dollars to outdoor nonprofits over the years. With a stated mission of enabling exploration and fostering a love of wild places, Explore Fund has powered hundreds of 501(c)(3)s from coast to coast working to increase participation, break down barriers, and invite more people to the outdoors.

Up to this point, the recipients of Explore Fund grants have received plenty of attention, but little if any communication has come from The North Face聽about the selection process itself鈥攖he people driving decisions about where Explore Fund money goes.

In 2021, that will change. This month, the company announced a new phase of its DEI efforts called Reset Normal, an effort to “radically accelerate” the work of diversity funding in the outdoor industry.

Several big changes are wrapped up in the new campaign.聽First, The North Face has pledged $7 million to the effort. The sum is far greater than any single commitment the brand has made to DEI efforts in the past. The Explore Fund, for comparison, has awarded about $500,000 a year聽over 10 years聽in $5,000 to $25,000 grants.

Second, the company is putting a spotlight on the allocation process for those dollars by creating a new Explore Fund Council鈥攁 group of leaders across “culture, entertainment, academia, and the outdoors” who will advise TNF leadership on where to invest its DEI grants.

Through the new program, the company is increasing the transparency of its funding process while simultaneously creating a marketing hook for the program itself through the celebrity of Explore Fund Council members. The first group (participants rotate annually) will be led by Emmy-winning actor/writer/director/producer聽Lena Waithe and the Oscar-winning director of “Free Solo,”聽Jimmy Chin.

It’s a notable change from the old Explore Fund process. Bringing together a group of leaders to decide how to allocate DEI funding is a big step toward engaging directly with underserved communities, says Teresa Baker, founder of the Outdoor Industry CEO Diversity Pledge. Baker says she sees potential pitfalls, however, in leaning on entertainers to promote DEI when there are “already enough of us who have been doing this work for years.”

“If the audiences of those celebrities start to speak up and reach out to brands, calling attention to their lack of inclusion, that would be awesome,” Baker told OBJ. “My hope is that the celebrities getting involved are genuine, though, not just being paid to say they care.”

Baker also says The North Face would do well to invite outside diversity experts into the selection process for the campaign’s leaders.

“It would be amazing if they would bring everyone together for a roundtable,” she said. “All of us who have been doing this work for years should be privy to the process of choosing these representatives.”

Amy Roberts, The North Face’s senior director of sustainability and brand impact, says of the effort, “We hope to move from a more traditional approach to grant-making that鈥檚 included support from key industry partners and internal TNF associates to a participatory model that shifts more involvement into the hands of the those who represent and reflect communities we hope to impact through funding. While we鈥檒l still work with partners and associates, our fellows will help advise on opportunities, assessment and funding as we seek to be more inclusive in this process. ”

“Communities of color are three times more likely to live in nature-deprived places, and often face racism and other systemic challenges when they do explore,” Roberts told OBJ. “As a leader in the outdoor industry, we are committed to enabling people from all walks of life and abilities to get outside, explore and feel safe and welcome doing so.”

The post The North Face Leans on 国产吃瓜黑料 Expertise and Celebrity to Promote DEI appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

This week, a new group called the聽Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC) announced its formation鈥攁 step forward in ending systemic racism in the running industry and running community.

Funded by grants from Brooks and Hoka One One, the coalition is led by by co-chairs Alison Mariella D茅sir, founder of Harlem Run and Run 4 All Women, and Chris Lampen-Crowell, co-owner of Gazelle Sports in Michigan. The group’s mission: bring together brands, running retailers, and BIPOC runners to fight systemic racism and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the running industry.

鈥淏rooks and Hoka are brands comprised of people who love running,” said Brooks CEO Jim Weber and Hoka One One President Wendy Yang in a joint statement yesterday. “We are committed to continuing the work of representing our sport鈥攁nd all runners鈥攊n authentic ways, and to making the joy of movement accessible to everyone.鈥�

The group’s leadership committee, which draws on talent from around the industry, includes Running Industry Association president John Benedict; Hoka One One, director of global brand communications Martha Garcia; Fleet Feet VP of development Robyn Goby; Verna Volker, founder of Native Women Running; Shannon Woods, senior manager of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Brooks; and Teresa Baker, co-founder of the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge.

“The fact that these brands are coming together as a collective speaks volumes,” Baker told OBJ this week. “Approaching this work as a collective serves a very important function because it allows these companies to lean on each other for support. It dilutes attention on you as an individual brand and puts the focus on the industry as a whole.”

Baker says she would love to see other large brands that operate in the running and footwear space, like Nike and Adidas, join the coalition.

“I welcome every running brand out there to join,” she says. “We recently had a number of running brands sign the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge. I think the running industry is really recognizing the need for this.”

In a release this week, the group stated its goals as follows.

1. Conversation: Create opportunities for discussion that listen to marginalized people in this space so that we may better understand their experiences.
2. Naming: Build deep industry reflection to uncover and name the systems of racism within our businesses, the running community, and the culture of running.
3. Representation: Increase authentic representation in stories, images, marketing, athletes, ambassadors, and product wear-test/feedback. Promote partnerships between the running industry and BIPOC running organizations.
4. Education: Commit to ongoing DEI and anti-racist training, with a particular focus on anti-Blackness, in our industry. Promote and acknowledge the Indigenous lands whenever and wherever races occur.
5. Employment: Hire, support, and develop marginalized people in all positions from internships to leadership.
6. Ownership/Leadership: Support diversity in ownership of running businesses and events by creating pathways to make this possible. Increase diversity within the leadership structure of running brands and other companies servicing runners.
7. Access: Decrease real barriers and racist structures to running for people of color.
8. Accountability: Remain open to meeting people where they are, dialoging, critiquing and regularly interrogating our process and progress.
9. Resources: Provide a platform to share best practices, measurements, and critical resources.

鈥淚 have been in the running industry for eight years and I have always known there are not a lot of people who look like me, and the sport is not as inclusive as people claim it to be,鈥� said coalition co-chair D茅sir. 鈥淭his is an opportunity to help folks in power change the systems that make it that way鈥攖o finally open up running.鈥�

Lampen-Crowell, who founded Gazelle Sports 35 years ago, says he always believed that running was a welcoming and inclusive activity. The murder of Ahmaud Arbery made him reconsider that notion.

鈥淭here is white privilege, white power and systemic racism in almost all industries, and the running industry is no different,” he said. “I am optimistic that the running industry and running communities will take this work to heart.鈥�

The post The Running Industry Takes on Racism appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

With all due respect to the many great outdoor sock brands out there, let鈥檚 be honest: For most consumers, socks are a commodity. So when the folks at Nester Hosiery,听a North Carolina sock maker, decided to launch a private label line called Farm to Feet in 2013, they knew they had to do something that would help them stand out. They landed on two key things: First, they would build socks that relied completely on a U.S. supply chain. Second, they would embrace total transparency.

A prime example: When the leaders looked around the factory floor, they were appalled by the piles of wasted raw mate- rials they saw, and asked themselves how they could divert waste from the landfill. The result was the Remix collection, launched in 2019, which turns these excess fibers into new socks. 鈥淭his allows us to extend the life of existing materials while we figure out how to create less waste in the future,鈥� said Katie Kumerow, director of sustainability for Nester Hosiery.

Supply chain transparency is a fairly new concept. Fifteen years ago, nobody cared about where a product came from as long as it worked. But over the last decade鈥攁nd even more so in the last five years鈥攖ransparency has emerged as a key corporate value in the outdoor industry and beyond.

Not only are we seeing governments, stakeholders, and NGOs demanding information about where goods come from, consumers are demanding it.

鈥淲ith the way people can track and trace everything these days, it鈥檚 very important to be open and honest,鈥� said Ralph Oliva, professor of marketing at Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. Consumers are spending unprecedented time online researching the companies they support. That鈥檚 why, he says, more and more outdoor companies are lifting the veil when it comes to how they operate.

Farm to Feet drills into all aspects of its operation on its website, which features a prominent 鈥淥ur Supply Chain鈥� tab with a wealth of information about where its materials come from, how and where its socks are made, and the people involved in every step. The company has invested heavily in communicating its story via packaging, custom videos, and more.

Supply Chains Can Be Messy

Even if businesses find unsavory things when digging deep into their supply chains, these days it鈥檚 scarier not to be transparent about what you find. 鈥淏rands may discover things they aren鈥檛 proud of, but the best course is to fess up and admit it鈥檚 something they鈥檙e working on,鈥� said Oliva. 鈥淭he right customers will stay with you.鈥�

Transparency does eventually pay off, says Alex Scott, assistant professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. 鈥淲hen companies audit suppliers, develop trusting relationships with them, and write contracts with penalties for unethical behavior, it will eventually lead to increased sales. Our research shows that people will pay 2 to 10 percent more for products from companies that provide聽greater supply chain transparency.鈥�

He emphasizes that transparency isn鈥檛 so much about perfection as it is about progress.

Leaders in Transparency

Patagonia was an early adopter of transparency. According to the 2020 Fashion Transparency Index, it ranked seventh among 250 apparel companies analyzed (see right).

聽The Most Transparent Outdoor Companies

The 2020 Fashion Transparency Index ranks 250 large companies (with at least $400 million in annual sales) on their transparency in five categories: Policy & Commitments; Governance; Traceability;聽Know, Show &聽Fix; and Spotlight Issues.

These outdoor companies scored in the top 75 positions: Adidas (#3); Patagonia (#7); The North Face (#8, tied); Timberland (#8, tied); New Balance (#29); Helly Hansen (#60); Fja虉llraven (#69, tied); Mammut (#69, tied)

In 2012, Patagonia launched a blog called Footprint Chronicles with a simple mission: to 鈥渂e completely honest about where our products come from and the resources required to create them.鈥�

Vincent Stanley, Patagonia鈥檚 director of philosophy, has been involved with the blog from the beginning. Although he says it鈥檚 impossible to say how Patagonia鈥檚 transparency efforts have affected sales growth, it鈥檚 clear that the company鈥檚 honesty has created a lot of trust that they might not have had with products alone. 鈥淲e make our values and how we act on them crystal clear,鈥� said Stanley. 鈥淎nd we don鈥檛 shy away from talking about shortcomings.鈥�

For example, in 2014, Patagonia published an article called 鈥淧atagonia鈥檚 Plastic Packaging: A Study on the Challenges of Garment Delivery.鈥� In it, the company admitted that it was contributing to the world鈥檚 plastic problem via shipping the garments it sells in polybags. The article details a series of failed experiments aimed at finding more sustainable solutions, like roll-packing with twine and paper mailers. As of fall 2019, Patagonia switched to 100 percent recycled polybags that can be sent back to the company for recycling (a spokesperson reports that 25 percent of bags shipped get returned).

Keen also has a strong transparency track record and, like Farm to Feet, a wealth of information on its website detail- ing its efforts. An example: In 2013, Keen decided to examine its waterproofing treatments, which contained perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) that have been linked to a host of health problems. The company got to work. After 1,000 hours of testing, they hit upon non-toxic, PFC-free alternatives that met their quality standards. To date, this change means Keen has avoided using more than 150 tons of perfluorinated chemicals. 鈥淚t took cooperation and trust across our entire supply chain,鈥� said Chris Enlow, senior director of philanthropy, advocacy, and sustainability. 鈥淲e would never had gotten here without transparency.鈥�

And it鈥檚 not just consumers that are looking to support this kind of transparency, says Enlow. 鈥淩etailers are also demanding it in order to curate responsible and sustainable collections in their shops.鈥�

Lindsey Barr manages Blue Ridge Hiking Company in Asheville, North Carolina, which specializes in small batch ultralight gear. She says sourcing products with transparent supply chains gives them a leg up with customers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way to differentiate what we sell from what everyone else sells,鈥� she said.

Beyond the Supply Chain

Other types of corporate transparency are equally important. Transparency in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts is also on the rise among outdoor companies and recent events have created a sense of urgency. 鈥淚t鈥檚 imperative that to begin the work of DEI, a company must first be transparent鈥攁t least internally鈥攁bout the racial diversity of their employees and their failures to recruit or maintain a diverse work force,鈥� said Teresa Baker, founder of the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge.

Merrell, which signed the Pledge in early 2019, has fully embraced transparency in its DEI efforts and is among a handful outdoor brands doing an outstanding job, says Baker.

Merrell knows that looking into the mirror is key to driving meaningful change. 鈥淪ince signing the Pledge, we鈥檝e done brand-wide, formal, biannual training sessions on JEDI topics,鈥� said Chris Hufnagel, global brand president. 鈥淲e have a culture audit next month that will inform our 2021 team learning sessions, and we鈥檒l also be implementing a scorecard to keep us moving forward. [Merrell will share the results of both with customers.] As we continue the journey to diversify our team, our Merrell senior leadership team now more closely reflects the diversity of the population.鈥�

Transparency is the Future

Nester Hosiery鈥檚 Kumerow says brands need to be fearless in their transparency efforts. 鈥淏y working to improve鈥攚hether it be supply chain or DEI efforts鈥攁nd shooting straight, we鈥檙e opening the door for deeper connections and loyalty among our customers.鈥�

And hopefully that will be the saving grace as brick-and-mortar retail comes out of coronavirus hibernation. Kumerow says that when that happens consumers will want鈥攎ore than ever鈥攆or the products they purchase to align with their values. She thinks that will give brands like Farm to Feet, which shares openly, an edge over the competition.

In the end, the labels we wear are more than just labels. They stand for something, and most people want to know what they stand for.

The post Trend Report, Part 2: Show and Tell appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Stamping Out Racism

The Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge catalyzes business leaders to bust up the all-white club

During the summer 2018 Outdoor Retailer show, Teresa Baker roamed the aisles and asked company leaders to sign her just-launched pledge to make outdoor businesses more inclusive of people of color. More than just a statement of intent, the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge committed signatories to developing a bona fide action plan.

And Baker is all about action. She was far from the first person to talk about the lack of diversity in the outdoor industry. But her Pledge, and the accountability it creates among leaders, has accelerated change in a powerful way.

Initially, Baker didn鈥檛 rouse an avalanche of responses. As founder of the African American National Park Event, she wasn鈥檛 a well-known figure within the industry. But she sensed that gear brands represented a powerful way to amplify her DEI efforts beyond the national parks. After all, Baker鈥檚 hikes around Big Sur and other spots near her California home convinced her that outdoor enthusiasts already included people of color. 鈥淲e hike, ski, climb鈥攚e do all these things,鈥� said Baker. 鈥淏ut looking at the social media feeds of [gear] brands, you wouldn鈥檛 know that.鈥�

So along with Chris Perkins, a Yale University forestry student, Baker developed the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge and its supporting program. Marmot鈥檚 general manager, Joe Flannery (who has since moved on to Callaway Golf), was among the first to sign in May 2018. A year later,听the Pledge had amassed 28 CEOs who promised to craft a specific set of actions for their companies to hire and support a diverse workforce and executive leadership; present representative marketing and advertising in media; engage and support broadly representative ambassador and athlete teams; and share best (and unsuccessful) practices within the industry.

Those focus areas and the consultations with Baker鈥檚 team have helped Granite Gear take DEI 鈥渢o another level,鈥� says Rob Coughlin, general manager, who signed the Pledge in 2018. 鈥淭eresa has had such an influence on me and made me look at myself really hard,鈥� Coughlin said. That scrutiny prompted the brand to diversify its team of trash-removing Grounds Keeper hikers, to represent BIPOC and LGBTQ+ issues on its social channels, and to emphasize diversity when hiring. Still, Coughlin knows the work is far from done. When detractors slam the company鈥檚 representation of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ hikers in its newsletters and social media feeds, 鈥淭hat just makes us want to do more,鈥� said Coughlin.

Such efforts are snowballing into even greater impact. At press time, more than 220 brands had signed the Pledge and 200 more were in the pipeline. The program鈥檚 job board now lets participating organizations target and recruit diverse candidates.

The current climate has awakened Americans鈥� understanding that opposing racism requires active change rather than passive agreement in the status quo. But the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge issued that call to action more than two years ago. Its earliest adopters are showing how a real commitment to this issue can lead to real change. 鈥淧eople are finally understanding that the demographics in this country are shifting into a scenario where people of color are dominant,鈥� said Baker. 鈥淲e need and we demand a change.鈥�

Green Police

REI Co-op pushes the entire industry toward a more sustainable future

How can the biggest outdoor retailer in the country be a disruptor, you ask? Its size gives it leverage, and it鈥檚 using that leverage to change the way the industry makes gear.

In spring 2018, REI unveiled a new set of sustainability standards and told its more than 1,000 vendors that they鈥檇 need to comply with everything on that list by fall 2020鈥攐r lose the opportunity to sell through REI. The five guidelines (see sidebar, below) direct companies to pursue healthier supply chains, get savvy about harmful chemicals, and incorporate sustainable materials such as organic fibers, humanely sourced down, and Bluesign-certified fabrics into their products.

These might not seem like controversial聽asks. After all, who would argue against the treating factory workers fairly, or avoiding the use of toxic chemicals? Yet standard manufacturing practices continue to rely on habits that harm people, animals, and the planet鈥攂ecause changing those norms takes tremendous effort and resources. REI has forced the issue, and brands are scrambling to comply.

Of course, not all manufacturers are behind the curve. For some, REI鈥檚 requirements merely describe practices that they鈥檝e already put in place. But they鈥檙e the exception, not the rule. REI wanted to hasten widespread adoption, so it issued an ultimatum and set out a clear path to reach it. 鈥淥ur standards are meant to help scale sustainability best practices beyond just these leading brands and to make them more achievable by every brand across our industry,鈥� explained Greg Gausewitz, REI鈥檚 product sustainability manager.

Some standards resonate with consumers (those who prefer humanely collected down, for example). Others dictate back-end changes to supply chains, logistics, and sustainability monitoring. The requirement for brands to complete the Higg Index self-assessment tool has proven to be so difficult that REI is revising the timeline for its compliance, to be released sometime in 2020. But the disruptive effect of REI鈥檚 product sustainability standards is about more than any one requirement. It鈥檚 the sum of the parts, and the fact that brands that aren鈥檛 willing to walk the sustainability talk will lose out on the聽industry鈥檚 most sought-after door, potentially devastating their businesses.

The threat shocked a number of brands, says outdoor industry veteran Ammi Borenstein. As principal at Snaplinc Consulting, Borenstein has helped a half dozen brands comply with REI鈥檚 standards. 鈥淭hey were asking, 鈥楬ow do I get my arms around this?鈥� Because many of them didn鈥檛 have any basic, meaningful sustainability foundation in place,鈥� Borenstein said.

Yet REI鈥檚 requirements also set brands on a clear path to best practices, Borenstein said: 鈥淚f you鈥檙e coming from zero, it鈥檚 very hard to know what to do first, but the standards provide a starting point and roadmap.鈥�

Even Royal Robbins, which wasn鈥檛 starting from zero, received valuable guidance from the Product Sustainability Standards. 鈥淭here were a lot of things that we were working on, but the guidelines helped to sharpen our focus,鈥� explained Kaytlin Moeller, Royal Robbins鈥� brand sustainability manager. As a member of the Fenix Outdoor family of brands聽(which includes Fja虉llra虉ven and Primus), Royal Robbins had already begun to map its supply chain and had asked its tier one suppliers (which sell directly to Royal Robbins) to sign onto a sustainability code of conduct, but REI鈥檚 standards nudged Royal Robbins to extend that code of conduct to tier two suppliers (which sell to tier one).

Now, Royal Robbins is evaluating how to eliminate the practice of wrapping individual products in polybags. 鈥淚t can鈥檛 happen overnight because we need to make sure our logistical system is set up to process that change,鈥� said Moeller. Ditching polybags represents a significant change in any company鈥檚 operations, but the hope from REI is that Royal Robbins and other brands will find big strides to be more achievable once the Product Sustainability Standards lay down the stepping stones.

Of course, REI benefits from its vendors鈥� advances in sustainability. 鈥淭hird-party brands account for the majority of REI鈥檚 product sales,鈥� said Gausewitz. 鈥淭hese products also account for the most significant component of REI鈥檚 environmental footprint. So if we want to bring a more sustainable offering to our customers and continuously reduce our footprint, it鈥檚 critical that we partner with the brands we work with.鈥� REI has dropped brands that do not align with its standards, he adds.

A crib sheet on REI’s product sustainability standards

1. Create fair and safe supply chains, using a manufacturing code of conduct that outlines social and environmental standards and pursuing Fair Trade certification wherever possible.

2.聽Manage chemical use to avoid toxic substances, such as oxybenzone (in sunscreens) and long-chain PFAS.

3. Source materials that comply with guidelines for responsible land stewardship, such as organic crops and wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

4. Ensure that animal-derived materials (such as down, wool, and leather) come from animals that received humane treatment.

5. Address products鈥� environmental impacts across their entire life cycle鈥攊ncluding disposal鈥攂y completing the Higg Index Brand & Retail Module.

However, says Borenstein, some of the most exciting and far-ranging impacts of the REI guidelines have been the ways that brands are now exploring sustainability beyond those basic requirements. Fulfilling REI鈥檚 sustainability expectations has prompted a groundswell of excitement within companies that鈥檚 buoying them to greater things. 鈥淧eople want to do the right thing, and they want to work for a company where they know they do the right thing, so we鈥檝e seen [REI鈥檚 guidelines] activating employee excitement,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen it becomes meaningful to brands鈥� customers, employees, and leadership, companies start dedicating money and time to it. That鈥檚 when sustainability takes on a life of its own.鈥�

As with any change to the status quo, results can be somewhat hard to track, but REI remains optimistic that its efforts will address the biggest problem of our time: climate change. 鈥淲e do not yet have data to show the carbon benefits of our standards,鈥� Gausewitz said. 鈥淎ddressing climate change is at the heart of our mission to fight for life outdoors, and our Product Sustainability Standards are an important tool in that fight. We continue to work to get better data so we can fine-tune our efforts and better understand our impact.鈥�

No Strings Attached

Stio provides retailers with new gear on consignment terms

It鈥檚 one of retail鈥檚 most fundamental tenets: Shops buy goods at wholesale, sell them to consumers, then figure out what to do with the inventory that doesn鈥檛 sell. But, in 2016, Stio hatched a novel kind of consignment deal that placed new apparel 鈥渙n wheels鈥� in select brick-and-mortar outdoor retailers. If items don鈥檛 sell there, Stio takes them back and doesn鈥檛 charge the shop. The program, called Outpost, lets Stio sell product in retail shops while retaining the direct-to-customer model at the core of its business. But it also opened retailers鈥� eyes to a new realm of possibility for their聽partnerships with manufacturers and the idea is catching on.

鈥淚t gives specialty retail some bargaining leverage,鈥� said Brendan Madigan, owner of Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City, California. He says that his participation in Stio鈥檚 Outpost program has made him reevaluate his existing relationships. 鈥淚 can say hey, here鈥檚 a company that鈥檚 giving me the same terms you do, but with zero inventory risk,鈥� said Madigan. And Outpost addresses one of Madigan鈥檚 biggest, most persistent problems: cash flow.

With Outpost, Stio provides retailers with product, delivered about eight times per year (compared to the two deliveries in spring and fall that are the norm for the broader apparel industry). Those retailers are not permitted to market Stio pieces using any kind of national reach, so Stio retains control of its brand identity. But retailers are expected to honor flash sales and seasonal clearances that Stio occasionally offers through its DTC channel. Retailers collect the typical, keystone wholesale margin. And they return unsold items to Stio, which developed the program because retailers kept asking for a way to carry Stio apparel in their stores. According to Stio, only a very small percentage of product has been returned, which Stio combines with its other inventory for sale online.

鈥淚t started at the insistence of a bunch of old retail friends of mine,鈥� explained Stio founder Stephen Sullivan, who had developed extensive retailer relationships during his days at Cloudveil (another Jackson-based apparel brand that Sullivan helmed until 2010). Jans in Park City, Utah, and Sturtevants in Ketchum, Idaho, were among the first retailers to become Stio Outposts. 鈥淲e seek out high-quality shops that really focus on customer engagement, have high-quality staff, and invest in a lot of staff training,鈥� Sullivan said.

Madigan likes that such terms let him be more financially fluid. But he also thinks they separate the wheat from the chaff. 鈥淭here are a lot of average brands in a saturated, competitive market,鈥� he said. Offering retailers product on wheels strengthens retailers鈥� negotiating position and puts pressure on manufacturing brands to earn their spot in brick-and-mortar showcases.

Currently, the Outpost program includes about 40 stores, and Sullivan expects that number to grow鈥攁lbeit slowly. 鈥淚 think a lot of the other brands are probably pissed off at me for having stuff on wheels, so we won鈥檛 expand it too aggressively,鈥� Sullivan joked. Besides, Outpost is most valuable as a piece of Stio鈥檚 broader puzzle of markets; leaning too hard on it for sales incurs too much inventory risk. But from a branding and marketing standpoint, said Sullivan, it鈥檚 been very successful. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to quantify what it鈥檚 done,鈥� he admitted. 鈥淔or us, it鈥檚 been a way to build consumer awareness, especially in major metro areas away from our core markets in the mountains.鈥�

Not every apparel brand is likely to be able to offer product on wheels, Sullivan says, because most are dedicated to traditional wholesale models. Nevertheless, at least one major brand鈥擳he North Face鈥攊s dabbling with buy-backs. When contacted, the company declined to elaborate on its policies. 鈥淲hile we don鈥檛 disclose our specific sales programs, we do support our retail partners in a number of ways to ensure our relationship is positive for them,鈥� said The North Face spokesperson Kali Platt. But multiple聽retailers have confirmed that they鈥檝e accepted 鈥渙n wheels鈥� deliveries of The North Face product, such as the high-dollar Summit Series line of alpine apparel.

If so-called pinnacle products are shipping to stores on wheels, that could be enough to tip the entire brick-and-mortar retail model.

The Breakaway

The Big Gear Show goes its own way

The Outdoor Retailer trade show has been the industry鈥檚 reigning conference since 1982, when 93 exhibitors gathered in Las Vegas. But The Big Gear Show has designs on OR鈥檚 dominance: This upstart is planning a new trade show, to stage just weeks after Outdoor Retailer鈥檚 typical Summer Market (and in the very city that OR abandoned, Salt Lake), with exhibitor rates that radically undercut OR. Of course, there鈥檚 no telling yet if anyone will win this showdown or if the industry has an appetite for two shows. Both were canceled this summer because of COVID-19鈥攂ut The Big Gear Show has clearly fired a shot across Outdoor Retailer鈥檚 bow.

The Big Gear Show鈥檚 founders, Darren Bush and Sutton Bacon, both hail from retail鈥攕pecifically the paddling realm (Bush currently owns Rutabaga Paddlesports in Madison, Wisconsin, and Bacon was CEO of the Nantahala Outdoor Center from 2007 to 2018). Convinced that OR had become too expensive and too focused on apparel, they launched the Paddlesports Retailer show in 2017. Buyers liked that the show took place in late summer (rather than in June, which is the busiest month for paddling shops) but they preferred the diversity of brands and traffic that comes with a multisport exhibition like OR. So Bush and Bacon revised Paddlesports Retailer into The Big Gear Show, which includes paddling, cycling, camping, and climbing brands鈥攂ut is limited to hardgoods only.

鈥淪o much of the [outdoor] industry is based around apparel, but that timing doesn鈥檛 work for all aspects of the outdoor industry,鈥� said Kenji Haroutunian, who directed the Outdoor Retailer and Fly Fishing Retailer shows before Bush and Bacon tapped him to direct The Big Gear Show. Tents and kayaks, for example, aren鈥檛 always updated every year (as apparel generally is) and such hardgoods aren鈥檛 always made in Asia, where most apparel gets sewn, which makes lead times shorter. Plus, Haroutunian adds, the buying practices for apparel and hardgoods differ, so most retailers dedicate separate buyers for each category. 鈥淗ardgoods buyers from retail stores can order just a few tents to test how they sell; they don鈥檛 have to buy a whole season鈥檚 worth of jeans and button-down flannels as they would for apparel,鈥� he explained.

By calling out jeans and flannels, Haroutunian hints at the increasingly mainstream character of OR. As that trade show welcomes more streetwear, home furnishings, fashion footwear, and other goods that don鈥檛 qualify as 鈥済ear,鈥� it has ballooned into a much bigger, more generalized production that can seem less relevant to core outdoor brands.

Beyond hardgoods, there are other ways that The Big Gear Show offers a narrower focus than OR. Its target is specialty retail, 鈥渘ot so much the big-box stores or even REI,鈥� said Haroutunian. Nor is The Big Gear Show chasing the biggest manufacturers, he adds. Instead of exhibiting Patagonia and The North Face, says Haroutunian, the show will highlight 50 to 100 smaller brands such as Inno, which makes roof rack systems, and Liberty, a purveyor of water bottles. And those brands will benefit from exposure to consumers, since The Big Gear Show is expected to be partially open to the public, as OR was in its earlier days.

Adaptations to COVID-19 forced The Big Gear Show to reschedule its debut for August 3-5, 2021. In the interim, smaller brands and retailers will have an even greater need to compare ideas for how to survive and overcome this common challenge. Thus COVID-19 is likely to make The Big Gear Show even more relevant.

Retailers are ready for a trade show shakeup. As Wes Allen, owner of Sunlight Sports in Cody, Wyoming, said, 鈥淭he advent of the Big Gear Show will disrupt the outdoor trade show landscape, giving retailers and brands a large-format show experience for discovery, without the large price tag.鈥�

This story originally ran in the Summer 2020 issue of The Voice.

The post Disrupting the Industry鈥檚 Status Quo appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Pocket Outdoor Media, the Boulder-based group that acquired OBJ and several other active lifestyle publications this year, has become the latest company to sign the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge, joining Marmot, Burton, Eddie Bauer, Moosejaw, and dozens of others committed to furthering inclusion within their organizations.

What the Pledge Means

The Pledge, founded by activist Teresa Baker, “connects leading outdoor brands with inclusion advocates to advance representation for people of color across the industry.” By signing the Pledge, executives聽commit to crafting a specific set of actions for their companies, with four main goals:

1.聽Hire and support a diverse workforce and executive leadership.

2.聽Present representative marketing and advertising in media.

3.聽Engage and support broadly representative ambassador and athlete teams.

4. Share experiences with other leading brands.

The Pledge also commits signatories to聽tracking their own progress, sharing regular updates with the Pledge Steering Committee, and holding themselves accountable to outlined goals.

Pocket Outdoor Media’s signature聽was accompanied by comments from CEO Robin Thurston, who wrote, “When diversity is celebrated and inclusion valued, we can inspire outdoor participants to do the activities they love, more often with greater enjoyment, inspiration, and knowledge.”

Dhani Jones Joins the Board

On Thursday, the company also announced that聽Dhani Jones鈥攅ntrepreneur, philanthropist, and former NFL linebacker鈥攈as been elected to the board of directors. A lifelong athlete, founder of BowTie Cause, and chairman of Qey Capital, Jones will聽offer strategic guidance to the company as it continues its expansion in the聽active lifestyle and outdoor sports media markets.

“All the sports represented by Pocket鈥攃ycling, running, climbing, these passions in the great outdoors鈥攚ere in my life way before football,” Jones told OBJ this week. “People know me because of my involvement in the NFL, but this world represented by Pocket is the world I lived in before I even picked up a football. I competed in triathlons. I raced mountain bikes. I worked in bike shops. This culture has been a part of me my whole life.”

A former host of TV shows聽Dhani Tackles the Globe and 国产吃瓜黑料 Capitalists, Jones聽brings creative expertise and a knowledge of the media and active lifestyle markets聽to his role as board member.

鈥淒hani鈥檚 years of experience as an athlete, entrepreneur, media personality, and all-around adventurer uniquely position him to help us on our mission to inspire people to do the activities they love with greater enjoyment and knowledge,鈥� said Pocket Outdoor Media CEO Robin Thurston in a release announcing Jones’s election.

Jones is excited to foster collaboration and a “cross-pollinating growth mindset” among the company’s family of properties, which includes OBJ, The Voice,听Yoga Journal, Ski, Backpacker, VeloNews, Climbing, Women鈥檚 Running, Triathlete, Better Nutrition, Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, Clean Eating, Fly Fishing Film Tour, IDEA Health and Fitness Association, Muscle & Performance, Nastar, National Park Trips, NatuRx, Oxygen, PodiumRunner, Roll Massif, Vegetarian Times, VeloPress, VeloSwap, and Warren Miller Entertainment.

“So many of our properties have a legacy and a devoted audience,” Jones said. “In the past, those audiences were siloed into different brands, but now we’re bringing them together in one inclusive mindset. These brands are more powerful together, more powerful as one. That takes courage from a leader like Robin, but if we can do it, it gives us an opportunity to effect change. We have an opportunity to free people from their daily routines and improve their lives.”

Jones will join Thurston, John Spinale, Rafael Ortiz, and John Lee on the board, working alongside advisors Chris Yu and Melanie Strong.

The post Pocket Outdoor Media Signs Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge, Welcomes New Board Member appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In this edition of Straight Talk, editor-in-chief Kristin Hostetter sits down with Teresa Baker, co-founder of the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge to discuss how recent events have created an overwhelming surge in interest in the pledge.

Here are some soundbites from Baker:

• We do not practice the call out culture, we practice the call in culture.
• We鈥檝e had 60,000 hits in two weeks (to the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge).
• I know this isn鈥檛 easy work.
• The most powerful thing this industry can do it use its voice. Period.
• I didn鈥檛 see enough faces that look like mine around the table of environmental protection and that is my ultimate goal: to engage more people in that fight.
• Stay the course! Don鈥檛 let this moment鈥攁nd your commitment鈥攄ie down.
• In five years, I鈥檓 doing away with The Pledge. I want people to be automatically doing this work so The Pledge is no longer needed.
• I screw up every day. I say stuff I shouldn鈥檛 say. But I keep trying to become a better person at this work because I understand that I speak to a larger audience.
• As a collective, we鈥檒l put these pieces together and kick ass moving forward. We all play a role, no matter how small of a role you feel you play, you play one. And all those rolls coming together will make the outdoor industry better.

The post Straight Talk with Teresa Baker appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.