We’re interested in the stuff you can’t find in stores until next year.
We seek out “industry only” events: the bigger and more exclusive the better.

The twice-yearly Outdoor Retailer Show has been the Clever Outdoor Gear (COG) focus since … well, since well before Outdoor Retailer (OR) existed.

During the ‘70s the Ski Industries of America (SIA, now Snow Sports of America) staged an eponymous trade show in Las Vegas. This “ski only” event was largest in the world. The gigantic “all sport” ISPO trade show in Munich was (and continues as) world’s biggest sporting goods trade show. But SIA is unique in its close ski focus. Your COG reporters worked this show for a variety of employers.

After outgrowing SIA, OR moved to Reno, then Salt Lake City for 20 years. Currently in Denver, it is here every six months, that COG finds retailers, manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, promoters, special interest groups, sports stars and hangers-on meeting for fun and profit.

This is where we find the “little guys,” the product innovators with the cool gear that don’t yet have the “clout,” the numbers, the seniority to merit an address on OR’s Main Street. These new vendor locations are “The Ballroom” and “New Product Pavilion”. You won’t find buyers from Nordstrom or Macys or the big “buying groups” here; they’re writing mega-orders on Main Street. But the new product areas are where you’ll find the little guys. And that’s always where the COG team starts looking for the good stuff.