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Deliberation between Utah officials, Outdoor Retailer organizers, and the industry’s biggest brands dragged on all winter. Now, the trade show returns to Salt Lake City.
The Outdoor Retailer (OR) trade show will officially move back to Utah this year. The announcement comes amid ongoing push and pull between public officials, the show’s organizers, and big-name brands like Patagonia and The North Face.
Last month, the two brands and over 20 others pledged to boycott the show if it returned to Utah.
OR announced the decision on Wednesday in a statement that responded to the well-known past abrasion.
“We firmly believe that staying engaged and collectively contributing to the ongoing discussion, no matter how difficult, is far more constructive” than holding the show elsewhere, OR said. “We are the first to admit significant work is required to achieve change, so we are dedicating resources to making progress.”
The changes it details include:
- Committing revenue over the next 3 years from Outdoor Retailer events in Utah to fund programs to support outdoor recreation and protect public lands.
- Forming the Business with Purpose initiative in partnership with Visit Salt Lake. The partnership seeks to bring Utah officials, public lands and outdoor recreation leaders, and industry stakeholders together for biannual meetings. The meetings, it says, will focus on addressing challenges, influencing policy, assisting advocacy efforts, and directing resources into protecting responsible access to natural and cultural spaces.
- Providing increased opportunities for the industry, local communities, and media to participate in panel discussions, educational activities, and volunteer projects.
Outdoor Retailer’s commitments in Denver end following the June Summer Market. The show’s organizing body, Emerald Expositions, now awaits responses from the industry.
Patagonia, REI, The North Face Among Top Brands Boycotting Outdoor Retailer Move to Utah
Outdoor Retailer’s Fraught Recent History
Salt Lake City hosted the cornerstone event for over 2 decades until 2017. That year, the show pulled out of the city in response to a politically charged boycott from Patagonia. Its ensuing contract in Denver expired this January, necessitating a new plan.
In a familiar redux of 2017, brands across the outdoor industry again lobbied for the show to stay out of Utah. In a January letter, two conservation organizations representing hundreds of outdoor businesses urged Utah Governor Spencer Cox to stop simultaneously “undermining” Utah’s public lands and courting Outdoor Retailer to come back to Salt Lake City.
Then in February, they appeared to promise another boycott if Outdoor Retailer’s parent company, Emerald Expositions, did move the show back to Utah.
“So long as Utah’s elected delegation continues its assault on public lands and the laws designed to protect them, Emerald faces a choice: move the show to Utah and ensure that many of the key players in the outdoor industry will not return to Utah with the trade show, or work with the industry leaders to shape a future trade show that balances the interests and values of industry members and partners,” the letter said.
Patagonia is expected to issue a statement about Emerald’s decision later today. Between its January and June events, the show brings about $45 million in revenue to its home state each year.