Judging by the most-viewed stories on The Daily through the first six months of 2024, the outdoor industry can be characterized as cautiously optimistic after a challenging 2023.
Some downsizing at brands and retailers as well as changes at the executive level show that the industry is still grappling with too much inventory, a tough wholesale environment and frequent discounting. Others have enjoyed tremendous growth and resilience, and have moved to consolidate and file initial public offerings.
These are the most-viewed stories of 2024 so far.
1. Solo Brands Names New CEO After Snoop Marketing Miss
Viral marketing campaigns don’t always reap rewards. That was the takeaway from The Daily’s most-viewed story of the year so far, about Solo Brands, the maker of Solo Stove, Chubbies, Oru Kayak and more mutually separating with John Merris, its former president, CEO and director following the viral success of a marketing campaign featuring rapper Snoop Dogg for Solo Stove.
The campaign featured the rapper mysteriously announcing on social media that he was “giving up smoke,” inciting theories from all corners of the internet about what he was referring to. In the end, Snoop promoted Solo’s smokeless fire pits, earning accolades from marketers and loads of laughs. But unfortunately the brand awareness wasn’t enough of a return on investment.
“While our unique marketing campaigns raised brand awareness of Solo Stove to an expanded and new audience of consumers, it did not lead to the sales lift that we had planned, which, combined with the increased marketing investments, negatively impacted our EBITDA,” said Interim CFO Andrea Tarbox in a statement.
Former VIsta Outdoor CEO Christopher Metz took the helm of Solo Brands on Jan. 15. In a follow-up story reported by The Daily, Metz said the holiday season was the wrong time of year to be investing in brand awareness.
“Think of the top of the funnel as brand awareness, the middle of the funnel as brand consideration, and as you work down to the bottom of the funnel, it’s brand conversion,” he added. “You want to be spending across the full funnel throughout the entire year, but you really want to be converting in (the) key selling season.”
2. Yeti Acquires Back Brand Mystery Ranch
Yeti’s acqusition of durable load-bearing backpack and accessory company Mystery Ranch was welcome news at the beginning of the year after a tough 2023.
While the Bozeman, Montana-based company was grappling with the same issues the rest of the industry was facing last year, according to Mystery Ranch President Alex Kutches, its DTC business was growing and beating expectations.
Matt Reintjes, president and CEO of Yeti, praised Mystery Ranch, saying that its packs “have earned a global reputation within the most demanding communities by building load-bearing equipment that delivers in the harshest environments.”
Yeti later disclosed that it acquired Mystery Ranch for $36.2 million.
Yeti also acquired Butter Pat Industries, a manufacturer of cast iron cookware, in the first quarter of 2024.
3. The Top 10 Fastest Growing Brands in Outdoor Specialty Channel
It’s not surprising that Hoka, On and Vuori are three of the fastest-growing brands in the outdoor specialty and e-commerce channels, but Cotopaxi, Helly Hansen, 686 and Kuhl were also named by Circana at a webinar hosted by the Outdoor Industry Association in the spring.
While the oudoor industry has had challenges, the growth was attributed in part to the buying power of casual consumers.
“With fewer post-pandemic health concerns, we’re seeing continued consumer interest in sports participation, event attendance, and adventure travel,” said Matt Tucker, Circana’s director of client development. “As a result of these activities coupled with remote and hybrid work environments, consumers are investing in brands with multi-functional product offerings.”
Curious about more fast-growing brands? Check out the winners of this year’s Circana Outdoor Sports Retail Performance Awards.
4. Arc’teryx, Salomon, Atomic Parent Company Amer Sports Files for IPO
When Amer Sports announced it was filing to go public in the U.S. in January, The Daily pored through the filing and subsequent annual report to share more details about Arc’teryx, Salomon and Atomic’s parent company.
Arc’teryx’s revenue was the clear growth leader in the IPO filing, with revenue reaching $941.2 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30 2023, compared with $569.4 million a year earlier – a 65% increase year-over-year with growth in every region. Salomon revenue was $949.3 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30, up 34% year-over-year, and Atomic revenue was $160.7 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30, a 2.4% increase compared to the same period the previous year.
Greater China accounts for 19% of total company revenue at Amer Sports, according to the company’s annual report,and CEO James Zheng said the company plans to focus on DTC going forward.
“We believe we are unique in our ability to shift our business model from wholesale to DTC while driving higher operating profitability,” Zheng said in the report.
5. A Look at What 2024 Might Hold for the Outdoor Industry
When The Daily asked nine outdoor companies what they were anticipating in 2024, many of them echoed the issues that plagued the industry in 2023, such as a glut of inventory and macroeconomic pressures.
Representatives of retailers, brands and industry service providers also said they learned important lessons in 2023: the importance of having diverse sales channels, how segmented the market can be, and how even talented, smart business leaders can fall victim to tough challenges.
Many said they were cautiously optimistic about growth, making conservative projections for the year.
“Our forecasts for 2024 show a slight increase from 2023,” said Jonathan Degenhardt, U.S. managing director of Deuter and Ortovox.
6. Layoffs at Columbia Sportswear, Cotopaxi and REI
Some of the best known brands and retailers downsized in 2024, and those stories have attracted a lot of attention from our readers.
Most notably:
- Cotopaxi laid off 22 workers in January as part of a restructuring plan despite strong top line growth in 2023.
- Columbia Sportswear announced in February it was reducing corporate personnel costs by between 3%-5%, which had outpaced the company’s growth, according to CEO Tim Boyle.
- REI laid off 357 workers, or 2.2% of its workforce, out of “financial necessity,” said CEO Eric Artz in a letter to employees in January. The company had already laid off approximately 275 workers in October 2023.
Artz said REI was projecting lower revenues in 2024 than 2023.
“When we plan our revenues down, we must adjust our plans and cost structure accordingly,” Artz said. “We must also continue our work to return REI to profitability to set the co-op up for long-term health and success.”
7. TJX Ramps Up Sierra Expansion
Sierra, the off-price outdoor retailer in the TJX Companies Inc. portfolio, is growing steadily, even though it is isn’t talked about as much as its better known sister businesses, TJ Maxx and Marshalls.
For the fiscal year ended Feb. 3, Sierra opened 17 new doors, and an additional 26 are slated to open in the current fiscal year, confirmed CFO John Klinger in March.
Sierra is much smaller than TJ Maxx and Marshalls with just 95 locations as of March, but its projected growth for 2024 will be the largest since TJX acquired Sierra Trading Post in 2012.
“Sierra’s sales trend all last year was strong, and we’ve been thrilled with where we’re heading there,” TJX President and CEO Ernie Herrman said.
8. Is Bike Retail on the Road to Recovery?
Fox Factory, Shimano MIP, and Thule all reported positive quarterly reports this spring, and according to Circana, bike sales declines slowed significantly so far in 2024. So is bike retail bouncing back?
Sales are improving, but Heather Mason, president of the National Bicycle Dealers Association, warned independent bike dealers that retailers are still dealing with too much inventory and dwindling post-pandemic demand.
E-bikes, however, remain an interesting opportunity for retailers.
“If we can really start talking about e-bikes for transportation, that’s a huge opportunity,” Mason said.
9. Black Diamond Narrows Its Focus to Return to Growth
Black Diamond is returning its focus back to climbing, according to Brand President Neil Fiske at parent company Clarus Corporation’s investor day in March.
“The brand had become way over-extended,” he said. “We were trying to do way too many things, go into too many categories with too much complexity. And it’s simply overwhelmed the organization.”
Black Diamond removed 30% of its SKUs in the equipment category over the previous year and it will eliminate another 20% in the coming year.
10. The Danger in Chasing the Outdoor Lifestyle Surge: Opinion
It’s good news that outdoor participation is higher than ever, but that presents an interesting challenge for retailers, according to The Daily columnist Wes Allen.
The challenge is whether to meet those casual, new participants where they’re at with the kinds of products they feel comfortable with, or trying to engage, educate and eventually convert them toward the types of hardgoods that retailers have traditionally sold.
“What is your brand or your store going to choose to be this year? And are you prepared for that to be your brand for years to come?”
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate.robertson@emeraldx.com.