Outside, snow pummeled northern Utah, giving this winter season its first real boost. Nestled safely inside the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, snow sport and outdoor companies were already talking about next year.
The 2012 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market had something for everyone, from playful to practical and everything in between. More than 100 new exhibitors and nearly 900 returning exhibitors waited in their booths, ready to show off the latest and greatest designs.
Ryan Green of the Park City company Rossignol, said retailers were forced to pair down and streamline the types of products they carried in past years, giving more reason than ever for innovation with product development.
“This is a very important show for us,” Green said. “The Outdoor Retailer Winter Market will bring in retailers that will stock our products. In a few days, they can see everything they need to.”
Since the start of the market, Rossingol has been taking orders, and while Green said sales are slower, retailers are buying with specific purposes in mind.
“It’s up to us to know what their needs are,” Green said.
For Rossignol, the big product of the 2012-13 Season will be their new cross-country boot. The newly developed boot has a redesigned sole that is “very low profile,” Green said.
“It changes the angle of the foot on the ski so that people have more power and the ski can move forward easier,” he added.
At 50 grams lighter than previous models and a carbon cuff the offers more medial and lateral support, Green said overall the boot makes skiers faster and more efficient.
Competitor Black Diamond has also made a few improvements, but more on the backcountry side of skiing. Penn Newhard, a ski equipment director for Black Diamond, said the company alternates every season between front side and backcountry equipment, and the 2012-13 season will be all about backcountry.
The Revert Ski, which was designed specifically for backcountry enthusiasts, has a lot to offer, Newhard said.
“When you’re standing on ski, you’re flexing it in such a way that that tip breaks trail very easily,” he said, “but there’s not much surface area under foot. The less ski you have on the snow, the less drag you have and the easier it is to get around.”
For tech junkies, the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market added plenty to Christmas lists. Skullcandy completely revamped its line, with new sound, new packaging and new looks.
Luke Edgar, the Director of Core Sales and Dealer Stokage for Skullcandy, said the new sound, dubbed “Supreme Sound,” offers what he called attack bass, natural vocals and precision highs. In April, the crisp white boxes featuring old favorites and new designs will be on shelves.
“Internally, we’re calling it 2.0 Skullcandy,” Edgar said. “We want to own our own tooling, our own production and our own sound. And we want to do this with our own quality control. That’s what puts us at that next level.”
On the clothing side of the industry, Arcteryx is introducing its thinnest insulation yet. United States sales manager Brandon Carlile said the “jackets look really trim, but with a lot of insulation value.”
“We’re known for being a technical company,” he added, “but we’ve taken some of those technical aspects and put that into our ski jackets. It’s a great fit, with all the features.”
Greg Freyberg of Ruff Wear Dog Gear has also carved out a home in Park City shops, appealing to animal lovers in the area. The Ruff Wear brand offers outdoor equipment for dogs, from climbing harnesses to boots.
In October, Ruff Wear launched the Omnijore Joring System, which supports skijoring, mountainboard-joring, skatejoring, bikejoring and canicross.
“If you want to do skijoring it can be a lengthy and expensive process,” Freyberg said. “We’ve created an adjustable, approachable system that someone could walk into a store and purchase.”
But for every company with a well-established home in Park City, other new businesses were looking for a way in during the market. Brea Sorrells, owner of Five O’clock Shadow and a Salt Lake City resident, said she started her business with a friend, making knitted “beard-kerchiefs” to protect faces from stinging winter conditions.
“It was a comical idea,” Sorrells said. “When we took it snowboarding, people were loving it. These drew a lot of attention.”
The two have plans to find distributors in Park City, with ski shops being their biggest target to get their new product out there.
Industry-powerhouses North Face and Sierra Design were two companies that both took away awards for new products. Sierra Design introduced a water-resistant ‘dry down’ in its sleeping bags and coats that stays dry seven times longer and dries 73 percent faster than normal down.
“It’s a very revolutionary technique for insulation techniques,” said Sierra Design central regional manager Mike Wedding. “Our new process creates a water-resistant barrier on every down plume.”
“You have a lot of people who have always shied away from down because if you get it wet its useless,” he added. “We’ve overcome that fear with dry down.”
Dry down products will be available in the spring.
North Face developed the Patrol 24 ABS Pack, growing its avalanche-proof line. The pack comes equipped with air bags with nitrogen canisters that when inflated add 150 more liters of body volume, pushing a person to the surface of an avalanche like a buoy. Wrapped in Thermoball fabric, the packs also provides warmth to someone who is trapped.
The Outdoor Retailer Winter Market will be bringing these new items to shelves this year.