- Outdoor Retailer’s CAMP stage runs Thursday, Aug. 20 and Friday, Aug. 21, covering retail trends, the creator economy, circularity, and Gen Z buying habits.
- Circana’s Matt Tucker opens Thursday’s keynote, and TerraCycle and Loop founder Tom Szaky delivers Friday’s keynote.
- Popfly leads two sessions on outdoor brands building owned media and adapting their marketing strategy.
Outdoor Retailer has released the education schedule for the CAMP stage at its 2026 Minneapolis show, and the two-day lineup gives a clear read on what the organization sees as the industry’s biggest pressure points heading into August.
The program runs both expo days, Thursday, Aug. 20 and Friday, Aug. 21, at the Minneapolis Convention Center, and sits alongside the show’s broader education push for the year, which also includes the Retail Playbook Lab and Industry Day on Wednesday, Aug. 19, the day before the expo floor opens.
Thursday Opens with Hard Numbers on the Outdoor Market
The CAMP stage kicks off at 10 a.m. Thursday with a keynote from Matt Tucker, executive director and industry analyst at Circana, focused on retail and consumer trends across the outdoor marketplace. The session is billed as a data-driven look at what is actually selling, who is buying, and where the market is headed next.
At 11 a.m., Mandela Echefu, co-founder of Wheelzup Adventures, presents “The Novice Economy: Why Accessibility Is the Industry’s Greatest Growth Engine,” making the case that the outdoor industry’s largest untapped audience is the first-time participant rather than the customer who is already hooked.
The afternoon turns to media and storytelling. At 1 p.m., Stephen Regenold, founder of Gear Junkie, joins Mark Baumgarten, outdoor editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Thruhikers team, and Adam Roy, editor-in-chief of Backpacker, for a panel on creators, communities, and the next era of outdoor media. The Thruhikers duo brings a combined social following of more than 3.4 million across platforms, and the panel is expected to cover authenticity, brand partnerships, and how outdoor storytelling is being reshaped by independent creators and legacy outlets alike.
At 3 p.m., Popfly leads “Every Company Is a Media Company: How Outdoor Brands Are Building Their Own Audiences,” examining how brands of any size can operate like publishers and build owned audiences rather than relying solely on paid reach.
Friday Turns to Circularity, Public Lands, and the Next Generation
Friday’s keynote at 10 a.m. features Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle and Loop, on eliminating the idea of waste in outdoor gear and apparel. Szaky will draw on more than two decades of work in circular innovation to outline how brands can turn packaging and product waste into design and loyalty opportunities.
At 11 a.m., a panel featuring Tom Vogl, Anthony Taylor, and Mark Deming makes the business case for nonprofit partnerships as strategic infrastructure rather than philanthropy, framed around protecting the public lands the outdoor economy depends on and reaching new consumers through community-based organizations.
At noon, graduate students and faculty from Western Colorado University’s Outdoor Industry MBA program present findings from the OR Gen Z Challenge, a research effort into how the next generation discovers, evaluates, and buys outdoor gear, and what they expect from brands on sustainability and values.
Popfly returns at 1 p.m. with “The Outdoor Marketing Playbook Is Being Rewritten. Are You Keeping Up?,” a creator-led conversation on what is working now in outdoor brand marketing.
The day closes at 2 p.m. with a session from the University of Minnesota’s Wearable Technology Lab, the same lab known for design challenges with NASA. Faculty and undergraduate students will present lightning talks on apparel designed to balance thermal comfort and protection for backcountry emergencies, with select projects also featured in OR’s digital Innovation Lookbook.
Education Programming is a Bigger Piece of OR 2026
The CAMP stage lineup adds to a broader slate of new programming Outdoor Retailer has built for its Minneapolis debut. Wednesday, Aug. 19, is dedicated to the Retail Playbook Lab in the morning and Industry Day in the afternoon, while the expo floor and CAMP stage sessions run Thursday and Friday, Aug. 20-21.
The show has also leaned into the creator economy more broadly through its Wild Reach Initiative, developed with Popfly, which brings roughly 150 curated outdoor creators into the show environment across all three days, and through the Backcountry Garage activation, a new floor presence from Backcountry that connects emerging brands with buyers and creators alike.
“We put a lot of thought into this lineup because we wanted people to walk away with something they can actually use. Whether it’s the data from Circana or the conversation Popfly is leading on brand media, there’s something here for retailers and brands at every stage,” said Outdoor Retailer Group Show Director Matthew Mathiasen.
Outdoor Retailer 2026 runs August 19-21 at the Minneapolis Convention Center, with the Retail Playbook Lab and Industry Day on Aug. 19 and the expo floor open Aug. 20-21.
