By Will Rietveld and Janet Reichl
Overview
and Index (this article)
Welcome to our coverage of the Summer 2016 Outdoor Retailer
Trade Show. Our focus is new gear and technologies of interest to lightweight
and ultralight backpackers.
We have covered the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show for 10 years
now, and remarkably, OR delivers every time. The innovation and evolution are endless, and we find a load of items to report on every time.
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| Outdoor Retailer is held twice a year at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, UT. This summer a new façade (right) was added symbolizing “Thinking Outside the Box”. |
At OR new technologies are announced, product designers meet
with materials suppliers, gear manufacturers announce new products to hit
shelves in 6 months, new vendors exhibit their creations, retailers test out
new equipment, everyone is looking for that new breakthrough product, friends
gather and party, and retailers decide what to bring into their stores. And we
media attendees search the Show for items that will interest our readers. It’s
a treasure hunt, and fun if you enjoy keeping up on the latest gear and trends.
 |
| OR begins with a demo day at a local reservoir in summer or a ski area in winter, where buyers can look over and test out new gear before they place their orders. |
The majority of gear found at OR fits in the conventional
gear category, and the majority of interesting new gear we find is the latest
in an evolutionary process. The small cottage businesses that produce the
majority of ultralight gear are mostly absent from OR because they can’t afford
to be there, they mainly sell online, and retail buyers don’t pay much
attention because ultralight gear is a niche market.
However, there is a lot of lightweight gear and some
ultralight gear to be found at OR (and in retail shops). Reduced weight is a
desired attribute in most outdoor gear, and is made possible by incorporating
stronger, lighter, better-performing materials into new products. Some of our
favorite lightweight and ultralight gear comes from the bigger companies:
tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, clothing, footwear, and rainwear to name a
few. Those are the things we find at OR and report on. The small cottage
businesses sell mostly online, and their products are usually lighter yet and
specifically aimed for the niche ultralight and lightweight market.
 |
| Over 3000 exhibitors show off their latest creations over four days at OR. The summer show has about 25,000 attendees. |
In reporting on new lightweight and ultralight gear coming
in the pipeline, we focus on the lightest gear we can find and the technologies
and innovations that make it better than what we have now. One reality is most
of what we find at OR is in the lightweight category, and the list is shorter
for truly ultralight gear. Some readers looking for only ultralight items have
expressed displeasure about those items being mixed with a ton of lightweight
gear, so this time we are organizing our coverage into the categories below;
click on the category to read a separate article.
Overview
and Index (this article)
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Gossamer Gear for their continued
support of our OR coverage, by letting us stay with them while in Salt Lake City. In the
spirit of full disclosure, we are Gossamer Gear Brand Ambassadors; on the trail
and in our presentations we use Gossamer Gear and are advocates for lightweight
and ultralight backpacking. When asked for a specific gear recommendation, we
recommend gear from any manufacturer that best meets an individual’s needs.
Our OR coverage is published on our own website Ultralight Insights to avoid
conflict of interest with products sold by Gossamer Gear. Opinions expressed
are those of the authors. In his career as a research scientist, Will Rietveld was
trained to be objective and unbiased, and he brings those principles to his
retirement endeavor as an outdoor writer and gear reviewer. Will was a senior
editor with Backpacking Light Magazine for 10 years before retiring again to
start his own website.
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