Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
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hero. Sell through is the way.Hey. Rock fight. Rock fight. Rock
fight. Rock fight. Rock fight.Rock fight.
Welcome to the Rock Fightwhere we speak our truth, slay sacred
cows, and sometimes agree todisagree. This is an outdoor podcast
(01:49):
that aims for the head. I'mColin Tru, and joining me today,
you can find them on the roadthis fall doing their two man outdoor
industry dance review. It'sthe Monday Boys, Owen Cupperford
and producer Dave.
Okay, I know.
No, I thought there was asound effect that went with that.
Well, this is kept back inpost. I did. Okay, so is there. Is
(02:09):
this like a river dance kindof scenario or what do we do?
See, I knew we'd get there.
I knew we'd get there.
I thought all roads lead backto Riverdance with Owen.
Come on.
That was a thing, though.
It was an absolute thing.
Yes.
I don't understand how it everbecame a thing, but it was a thing.
All right. Hey, someprogramming reminders before we get
(02:30):
into today's episode.Tomorrow, Tuesday, Doug Schnitzbahn
opens the container like healways does on Tuesdays. And his
guest this week is KristenMiller from the Alaska Wilderness
League. Don't miss thatconversation. On Thursday, you'll
get an all new episode of GearAbbey with host Shante Salibair.
So make sure you're followingboth open container and Gear Abbey.
So along with the Rock Fight,you can get all of the outdoor audio
(02:52):
content you've ever wanted.And hey Dave, how can our listeners,
if they want to get more fromthe Rock Fight, what should they
do?
Right. If that's not enough,you can always go to Rockfight Co
and sign up for thenewsletter. It's sometimes timely,
sometimes present, sometimesboth. But it's there.
Rockfight Co. Oh, and if ourlisteners want to reach out to us,
(03:14):
what do you recommend they do?
First of all, I wouldcertainly think they should email
us@myrockfightmail.com youmcan also reach out on LinkedIn just
search up Rock Fight or onInstagram where we are rockfightco
all one word and you canfollow along there. Or send us a
dm.
And if you have a question forGear Abby, you can send it to dear
gearabbymail.com that's theother new address. You can also send
(03:38):
it to myrockvite. But we dohave an address for Gear Abbey now,
so do that.
And hey guys, extra points forcoming up with clever names for yourself
to be introduced on the show.Yes, that's true.
Trail names get extra weight.
That's true, actually.
Yeah.
All right, so we're start offthe show with a quick mailbag. We
got a lot of feedback on lastweek's episode about Summit Hut closing
(04:01):
and the state of outdoorretail. First email I want to address
today is from Todd Buckley,who is the owner of Town to Trail
Outfitters in Brighton,Michigan. And Todd writes, we are
a new shop coming up on oneyear in business. When I met with
reps 10 months before openingand told them that I wanted our new
shop to be 50% hard goods and50% apparel, all of them told me
it wouldn't work. So weshifted to our plans to be a 15 to
(04:24):
85 split. We opened to a greatresponse and have continued to listen
to what our customers areasking. We we are still shifting
every day, but wanted to sharethe bullet points of what our shop
looks like. They have I'mgoing to kind of breeze through this.
They have hard goods forhiking, camping, backpacking. They
wanted to have some of that. Ablend of technical and lifestyle
clothing from brands likePatagonia Cool or flylo and a bunch
of others. They carry darntough and fit socks. So flying in
(04:47):
the face of my smart woolthing, you gotta have smartwool.
Apparently no smart wool atthis shop. This week they're adding
Lem's Danner and Merrell afteronly carrying Olakai initially, apparently.
Owen, you had a hand in that.
Well, yeah. I mean, that wasone of the things. One of my big
pieces. You have to havefootwear. Footwear is like the milk
of an outdoor store. Right.You have it on the back wall. It's
there, it's present, it drivesrepeat customers. You gotta have
(05:09):
footwear.
It's the show. Right? Yougotta have show. It's the centerpiece
of the store. And they alsohave a 20 seat bar. Dave at the back
of the shop. I know this isgetting. Dave just perked up. He's
like, what? Let's go. Thissounds like the best gear shop of
all time. They have eightbeers on tap. Wine, bourbon, tequila
and other drinks. And they doa lot of events as well. He says
(05:30):
while it's a. He closes withsaying by saying a while. A part
of me is bummed that I can'tgeek out on more fun hard goods in
our store. I realize we needto stock what will sell. I think
this email goes a long way inkind of supporting a lot of what
we both said. Even maybe whenyou and I are kind of on opposing
sides of the coin there, Owen.Right. I mean, it's a smaller assortment,
but they're keeping the vibe.But also recognizing the things that
(05:51):
makes a gear shop special.
And it's not a huge store. I'destimate it's about 3,000 square
feet. So that also plays intoit a little bit. You need to definitely
get sku productivity in astore that size. And you can't possibly
cover all the things thatpeople need from a gear perspective
there. And it's also, it's ina really sort of cute downtown y
(06:13):
walkable setting where there'speople out and about getting a cappuccino
and doing that sort of thing.So it is more of that walk by person
who would come in and maybebuy, you know, more of a lifestyle
type piece on an infl. On animpulse versus a destination store
where they're coming to get,you know, a water filter or a backpacking
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stove.
Look, I think it's, you know,of course, I think it's great. I
think just like you said,creating the vibe, a place where
people can hang out and talkshop. Whether their gear is present
there. They're going to betalking about gear, where to go,
what to do with it. You know,this is a gear shop with a bar. Why
not a bar with a gear shop?Like, I mean, why can't we go the
(06:55):
other direction and Justdiversify our alcoholic holdings
and then have a few items forsale. But I think it's great.
Next email we got was fromBarry Scrimsher who has been an outdoor
industry staple for manybrands over the years. And Barry
writes into us. It was good toquantify versus feeling it with Owen's
ranking system, but I wouldlike to see the unreleased tier 3
(07:17):
of brands from the outdoorbrand scorecard that was not revealed.
There will be an interestingTypero group here. Almost there,
but kind of almost off thehigh wire. Interest in T3 was piqued
by the reprieve uplifting fromT4 of Mountain Hardware into T3 after
Troy calling in aclarification to escape the bottom.
Somewhat of a head scratcherthere. Barry writes. I mean are we
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gonna. Is this like releasethe Snyder cut? Are we gonna say
before we do.
This we just wanna know. T3was the focus of a lot of conspiracy
conversations over the lastweek. So I think Owen, if you could
clear this up for us, thatwould be great.
Yeah.
And if you missed last week'sepisode, Owen created a ranking system
for the engagement that brandshave with their retailers and kind
of gave them a score based ona certain set of criteria. If you
(08:00):
missed it, I'll link lastweek's episode in the show notes.
You can go back and check itout so you can hear all about what
he's about to say.
All right. Okay, I will. Soagain from this is T3 from the best
scoring to the lowest scoring.So we've got Hoka which was a surprise
in T3. I thought for sure Hokuwould be actually top of the list
because typically those betterhigher demand type brands are up
(08:22):
there. But no, I mean they'vegot a 10% email discount. They really
don't have any kind of promoon there for their, for their dealers
on their. On their pdp. Soyeah, they were in there as a tier
three, the North Face, alsotier three. No email sign up which
is really, I think really goodfor North Face. But they were very
(08:44):
kind of salesy otherwise anddidn't really support the dealer
much. I think we talked aboutthis. Viori was tier 3, 20% email
signup discount. That one wassurprising to me. And no real retailer
support on the PDP Merrell.Not entirely shocking. Mountain Hardware
was in here then with havingmoved into.
(09:06):
So the revised rankings forhardware, right?
Exactly. Yep. MSR and Therm arest same score, same. They basically
share a web architecture.Originally I had Black diamond in
here which was like. Thatsurprised me. I went back and checked.
And actually at least when Ichecked today, they did have a dealer
(09:26):
locator on the pdp. So I don'tknow if I just missed it or if they
had it turned off during theirLabor Day sale or something like
that. But because they're sortof a friend of the pod, we'll give
them the benefit of the doubt.So that moves them up to tier 2.
So FYI. And then finally andprobably not surprisingly, Hydro
Flask is here kind of at thebottom of tier three.
These main sale messages,these were pre Labor Day.
(09:49):
They were. So there's a chancethat some of these, if we redid it
today, we'll get a cleanerscore. So I think one of the plans
would be to maybe revisit thismore at the peak of season, let's
say, I don't know, lateSeptember where it's not in any way
considered a sale element. Andthen we'll come back and maybe give
(10:09):
people a little bit of a.
Bump there and then do it onThanksgiving Day.
No, Black Friday.
The next day.
The next day.
That's a, that's an awfulscore, Colin.
I mean, everyone's got a zero.What happened?
Right? Oh my gosh.
Well, it would be interestingto see if like, you know, on Black
Friday do brands turn offtheir, their, you know, their local
(10:31):
dealer listings on pdps andthat kind of thing to really drive,
you know, to, to drive that,that volume.
You know what brands on BlackFriday are like a shark when its
eyes roll back in its head,they can't see anything as they just
go to gobble up that consumer.
All right, let's get into ourfirst story of the week. So per sgbbackcountry.com
(10:52):
who last year, as was firstreported here on the Rock Fight,
was acquired by CSCGeneration, well, they've made some
acquisitions of their own. InJuly, Backcountry bought Utah retailer
Level 9 Sports. And then lastweek Backcountry purchased Velotech
Inc. Envelotech is a Portlandbased cycling retailer that is the
parent of three other bikefocused retail outlets, Bike Tires,
(11:12):
Direct Trisports and WesternBike Works. Terms of the deal were
not disclosed, but in astatement, Backcountry said that
the move strengthensBackcountry's position in the growing
US Cycling market and broadensits ability to serve riders nationwide.
It's kind of an interestingmove here. Owen, what were your initial
thoughts on, I guess bothacquisitions by Backcountry?
(11:32):
When I first heard about theLevel 9 sports one, I figured it
was Just them beingopportunistic. Reportedly Level nine
had been going through someproblems, so it was. I think it was
probably a bit of a sweetheartdeal for them. It's in their hometown
of Salt Lake City. So I'mlike, eh, okay, sure. Just opportunistic.
But now that they're goingafter a second acquisition, that's
(11:57):
a bit of a different place. Sois this the start of maybe more of
a wider retail roll upstrateg, which. Which I think would
be really fun if it is. Youknow, it's. It's been tried before,
I would say, and it's beenchallenging. So like, I don't know
if you guys remember theFinish line. And. And those was called
(12:21):
Jackrabbit in New York.Exactly. They bought up a whole bunch
of stores. I was like seven,60, 50, 60 stores. I think at one
point that didn't goparticularly well, at least for the
finish line. It ultimately gotsold to Fleet Foot. Fleet feet, sorry
World tried to do something inthe outdoor space. They bought up
Rock Creek, Air One, UncleDan's, the House. That did not go
(12:42):
well. And they ultimately, youknow, so. So it closed a few stores
and then sort of sold what wasleft to Gearhead Outfitters. So,
you know, it's an interestingplay. I think there are opportunities
here, but the question is, isthis the. The route they're going?
I feel like if we had beenaround when Finish Line bought all
those specialty run shops, wewould have been like. That would
(13:03):
have been like three months ofepisodes. We just never would have
stopped talking about it. Thatwas such a big deal that there was
no podcast. You know, when wetalked about the sale of Back country,
I think you posited thatperhaps they were building towards
a marketplace model. I mean,does this move even fit that goal?
Yeah, I mean it might get themsome more brands, but I don't. I
(13:23):
don't think so. If I had toguess, I would say that they potentially
underestimated the issues withbeing a pure play e commerce platform
for other brands. It's a toughplay with all of the D2C and all
the rest of it. And maybethey're realizing, hey, we need some
(13:44):
brick and mortar here to kindof offset the whole thing. And I'm
not entirely sure how muchbrick and mortar is in the latest
acquisition. Obviously Levelnine had quite a bit of brick and
mortar, but maybe that's it.They're looking for more of a balanced
approach where they can.Because online is very price sensitive.
Margins are tight where you'vegot all Those customer acquisition
(14:04):
costs, retail, brick andmortar retail is a little bit better
and more stable from the salesand retail and margin perspective.
So you're saying as an, as abrand, outdoor branded retailer,
the idea of betting everythinginto just a D2C play, not having
an IRL presence, if you will,is a weakness?
(14:27):
No, what I'm saying is beingan, an online, I mean, I love being
not online e commerce playerwhere you're not selling your own
brand, where you're selling abunch of other brands and you're
going up against the Amazonsof the world and the D2C entities
of those same brands. It'sjust changed a lot over the last
(14:50):
10 to 15 years in terms ofpricing, in terms of competition,
customer acquisition costs.The numbers are. It's tough to make
it work from a profitability perspective.
Well, and it's an interestingmove. I mean, road cycling, I think
cycling in general is kind ofa, I don't know, it's a fraught category,
maybe, I don't know if that'sthe right word. But you know, there
are successes one can pointto, but when you look at it in comparison
(15:11):
to run and outdoor, it's muchless consistent. I mean, do you believe
that making cycling,specifically road cycling, part of
its rebuild strategy is a wisepath for a retailer or a brand like
backcountry?
Obviously the category hasbeen at a tough time the last, what,
two, three years? And itdoesn't look like things are getting
(15:31):
better very quickly. But thatalso leads to opportunity in terms
of being able to probably snapup some assets out there at a pretty,
pretty low cost. Also,backcountry does have competitive
cyclists, so they are already,they're already a leader in the space.
So this could potentiallybuild upon that leadership area.
(15:52):
And I wonder to what degreesome of these entities are going
to actually be rebranded tocompetitive cyclists to get more
of a, more of a footprint out there.
Well, we'll keep an eye onbackcountry. It's always an interesting
when we get to talk aboutthem, but in the meantime, let's
get into the lightning round.First up in The Lightning Round,
(16:17):
ON has released its first everweight training shoe. The CloudPulse
Pro is specifically designedto be used in the gym. Oh, and given
that weight training shoes area pretty much bullshit category,
is this a sign that ON hasgotten as big as we're going to see
them get in the running spaceand they're looking for other ways
to grow?
First of all, I have a problemwith you saying the weight Training
(16:39):
shoes are a bullshit category.
As Matt Powell wrote aboutthat once.
I think as a proud owner ofsome Nike. I'm wearing them right
now because I worked at beforethe show. As a proud owner of some
Nike metconsult. That's adifferent animals. You need a different
sort of platform when you're,when you're, when you're doing weightlifting
(16:59):
in terms of, you know,compression, stability, et cetera.
So first of all, I don't, Idon't buy that it's a bullshit category.
Do you wear Under Armour? Doyou wear Under Armour tops with that?
I do not. This is a.
Do you protect this house?
Yeah. No, I don't need to looklike a sausage. That's just not a
good look for me. Nobody wantsto see that. But and on this, on
(17:24):
your second point, no, thisis, this does not mean that they
are totally out of juice. Imean they have, they have a lot long
way to go. Their trailingtwelve month revenue is about $3
billion which is, you know,that's a chunk of change. But you
Compare that to 46 billion forNike and they were, you know, recently
at 60 billion or 25 billionfor Adidas. I would say on has plenty
(17:47):
of room to grow.
Next up for the lightninground, hey, get ready to gag outdoor
brand purists because Nike ismaking legitimate waves in the ultra
running world. Caleb Wilsonwon western states in Nike's ACG
new Radical Airflow shirt andtheir new Ultrafly Trail Super Shoe
Dave. ACG was introduced in1989. Has had many ups and downs
(18:07):
but Nike always returns to itwhenever they get the bug to do something
outdoorsy. What can otherbrands learn from that sort of commitment?
Reach 40 to 50 million billiondollars and then you can do whatever
you want whenever you want to.
That's it. That's all yougotta do, right?
Right. No, look, I don't thinkthere was anything thought out about
(18:27):
it. I think it was, you know,they launched with great fanfare
in the 80s and 90s and madeinteresting products. Kind of disrupted
from a fashion perspective.And then in the 2000s lost focus
on it. Just didn't carefrankly. And then when they did bring
it back, they brought it backas this weird, I think is weird kind
of tech, urban kind of outdoorthing that they had going on. And
(18:50):
then I don't know, seven,eight years ago somebody else comes
back in to run it and decidesto pivot back to more traditional
outdoor still with a fashionforward sense to it and take that
now to even where they aretoday. I think now there's new leadership
and they're even cranking thatup. And I think that's part of Nike's
kind of broader strategy ofmore athlete focus, more kind of
(19:12):
core sport focus. So run'sgoing to get a lot of attention and
basketball probably gets somemore attention. And I think ACG is
one of those platforms they'vekind of designated as. We're going
to get back to it. And so whatcan you learn from that? Like Nike
getting back to it, rebrandingtheir trail team to what is all conditions
racing department starting.Like you said, Filter these stories
(19:34):
about innovation if anybody'sgoing to do it. We've said this before.
Nike gets serious about acategory, they are going to move
the needle in the category, no question.
Lastly, for the Lightninground, a hearty happy birthday today
to Kula Cloth. In a belatedpost on LinkedIn, founder Anastasia
Allison celebrated the seventhbirthday of her brand, Kula Cloth.
Her post closes with herremarking, when I first decided to
(19:56):
start a p cloth company, Ithought I'd be the laughing stock
of the outdoor industry. But Idid it anyway. Now, seven years later,
I simply could not be moreproud. Proud. Owen, what can other
founders or potential founderstake away from Anastasia's mindset?
If they have a problem intheir outdoor life that isn't being
solved by current productsafter they do their homework, if
(20:18):
it isn't being solved, thenmaybe there is an opportunity to
innovate. And I think that'sespecially true if you're not a skinny
white guy because the industryhas been focused on supplying all
of the needs for the skinnywhite guys guy. But if you're, if
you're a woman, if you're plussize, what have you, there's a, there's
a pretty decent chance thatthe industry hasn't done a good job
(20:39):
and there could be anopportunity there to, to, to provide
a new product.
All right, let's take a quickbreak here for some sponsors and
then we'll be back with themain event just in time for fall.
We're happy to introduce a newsponsor to the rock fight, Fjall
Raven. Because you can't fialwithout Fjall Raven. And there's
(20:59):
crickets on the other zooms.Fall. Okay, fall doesn't get nearly
enough credit for hiking guys.Everyone thinks summer's the season,
but for hikers, autumn is thereal deal. Cooler days, quieter trails,
more space. And fall isexactly what Fjallraven's keb collection
is built for. Born fromtrekking in northern Sweden, Their
(21:19):
jackets, fleeces, trousers letyou focus on nature. All specifically
designed to make coldoptional. So check out the whole
Kebb collection by clicking onthe link in the show notes or search
for it when you head tofjallraven.com where your fall begins.
I'm excited about having thisas a new sponsor here. Yeah, right.
You are on the record.
(21:40):
Exactly.
You should be very excitedactually about this.
I think there should be somesamples coming my way is what I think.
That's right.
Let's do that again. Just intime for fall, we're happy to introduce
Owen's new closet. That's right.
That's right.
Yes.
All right. The main event ontoday's episode of the Rock Fight
is presented by Lem's shoes.As the summer season wraps up, now's
a great time to get ready forfall with Lem's. From easygoing slip
(22:03):
ons and refined leather laceups to tough trail ready boots, Lem's
offers footwear for everyoccasion and their fit is unmatched.
If you've never experiencedthe fit of a pair of Lem's, hey man,
I just feel sorry for you.Built with comfort, durability and
versatility at the core, theircollection is ready to take you wherever
the season leads. And withfresh, exciting styles just around
the corner, be sure to staytuned. But in the meantime, head
(22:24):
to lemzhoes.com right now toget your feet into the best fitting
shoe you've ever worn. Andapparently you can go to town to
trail outfitters in Brighton,Michigan to get your Lem's pretty
soon, if not already. So.
That's right.
All right guys, pop quiz. Whatanimals kill the most humans every
year?
Rhinoceros.
(22:45):
No, no.
Buffalo.
It is. It is. Yellowstonetourists petting bison.
That's right. They're a killerin the national park system.
Oh, and you got a guess, it's cats.
Because just out of pureboredom, Dave's lived this long.
Guys know it's mosquitoes.That's an actual true thing. They
(23:06):
kill more humans every year.Right? And like the Dalai Lama once
said, if you think you're toosmall to make a difference, try sleeping
with a mosquito. But I doubtthe Dalai Lama was sleeping in an
Amp Light long sleeved shirtfrom Royal Robbins. Because the Amp
Lite long sleeve, likeeverything in Royal's MPT collection,
has mosquito protectiontechnology relying on protection
(23:27):
through construction. MPT isthe chemical free solution to mosquito
free days in the outdoors. Soto shop the entire MPT collection
from royal Robins and staybite free in these waning days of
summer. Head toroyalrobbins.com I gotta say, Colin.
I think mosquito protectiontechnology makes me feel like witness
protection. Are you sure thisisn't protecting the mosquitoes from
(23:49):
the humans?
Dude, you're blowing it.They're gonna. Everyone's gonna know
where the mosquitoes are.
That's right.
We blew their cover.
They're out there with Henry Hill.
Hey, whatever. You know what?If it keeps them off ya, good on
you.
Okay, for the main topictoday, we're at the beginning of
the fall winter 2026 sellingseason. Brands and reps are gathering
for sales meetings to see newproducts and fret. Retailers are
(24:11):
getting ready to meet withthose reps and brands and continue
to fret about tariffs in thefall Season is the biggest part of
the outdoor industry. Stuffmaking calendar. So as we look ahead,
we wanted to try and figureout who the comeback player of the
year for next year will be.For 2025. It was obviously Mountain
Hardware. Hardware was notdoing all that great not that long
ago. But after a shift instrategy by their parent company
(24:32):
Columbia, and solid executionby again, Troy's getting a lot of
play around here these days,guys. Troy Saikat and his team. Many
will tell you that theassortment and branding of Mountain
Hardware has been a truereturn to form. So today we're going
to try and figure out whowe'll be gushing over this time next
year. So we decided to focuson big brands, mostly because they
publish their financials andwe can track how they're doing. So
(24:55):
maybe next week we do like arookie of the year prediction so
we can do something similarfor emerging brands. Maybe we could
do that. But before I gothrough who the candidates are, I
want to say that I think I maytake Black diamond off the list.
Okay. We were talking aboutthem. They were the odds on favorite.
Todd Frank on the show waslike just, oh, yeah, it's Black Diamond.
I don't even think it's acompetition with them on there. Do
(25:15):
we need to replace them?
That gives us a chance to beright, you know, like we can, you
know, have these really greatinsights and then next year we go,
oh, we were so insightfulabout that.
Exactly.
Now you're, now you're goingto make me, like, choose somebody
that really doesn't have achance to have a gum. Oh, God. Okay.
They all have a chance, Owen.They all have a chance.
(25:36):
Okay, I'm sorry. You're right,you're right. They all have a chance.
No, no, you're right.
I Like this, you know, it'slike next year jackets are going
to have sleeves. That's mytrend prediction.
We, you're right. We shouldkeep in mind it's. It is this little
like, well, I think the Chiefsare going to make it to the Super
Bowl. It's like, oh, wow, wayto go out on a limb.
So, okay, fine, fine, we'lltake them off the list.
(25:57):
But okay, we, we'll talk aboutit, we'll put them at the bottom.
Then we maybe have some otherchoices as like backups. But the,
the brands we're going to bereviewing today are Marmot, Columbia,
Nike, Chaco, Under Armour, theNorth Face Vans, Hydro Flask, Prana,
Solo Stove and Black Diamond.So here's how we're going to do this.
I'm going to introduce eachone, kind of make a light case for
(26:19):
why they'll be the toast ofthe industry in 26 and what the case
against them is. And then youguys can weigh in and we're going
to start with Marmot. I thinkthe case for Marmot that we know
that they have some goodpragmatic leadership for the first
time in a while in JohnGraden, who's been on the show, updated
product assortment and astrong legacy that they can lean
into the case against them. Ican speak from some emails I got
(26:41):
after that John Gradeninterview that we did. There's a
lack of trust with buyers, soif anyone's listening, they know
who they are. Ownership couldpivot at any moment. They're owned
by Newell, which we know isprobably the biggest risk here for
them. And obviously there's apoor ranking on Owen's, you know,
the commer meter. The commer meter.
We are not calling it thecomer meter.
(27:04):
Owen index, scale.
The Owen Scale, The OwenIndex, whatever.
The Owen index.
But they do rank poorly.
Maybe I'll go with the Owenindex, but it needs to be something
less about me and more aboutthe retailers. But we'll figure something
out. But it's not the commameter. The love of all that's holy.
Do we think Marmon has achance to be the comeback player
(27:24):
of the year in 2026?
Let me just clarify, Colin.Everyone has a chance.
A good chance, a chance.
Right? I'll leave Owen toanswer that.
Right.
Maybe. I think what they. Theyabsolutely have their, their heritage
(27:45):
to, to lean. Lean back on. Ithink there is a lot of love for
the brand. Maybe in 27, to doit by 26. I think it's, it's really
tough to turn around a brand,especially given the like 18 month
product development cyclesthat we have. And yeah, I think the
whole newel of it all is, ismakes it tougher still. I mean, if
(28:05):
the leadership there canreally get the parent behind them
and let them run free, the wayMountain Hardware, quite frankly
has been allowed to run freethe last couple, three years, then
yes, but even Mountain Harbor,I remember talking to those guys,
gosh, five years ago, thecomeback that everyone's talking
(28:28):
about right now, it was not aone year deal. This was five or six
years of hard work.
Yeah, it took a liter ago.Right? I mean it was Vernaccio who
got it started before Troytook the reign.
Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. And listen, I'm notgoing to read the whole thing, but
I did get a buyer email andlike the short of it is, wasn't very
impressed with the collectionand he closed the email by saying
(28:51):
third season of zero bookingsby me. So I think to that point.
To that point, exactly. Ifit's going to happen, it's going
to need multiple seasons ofimproving the product line. This
is really the first effort byJohn, the season that we're heading
into and. Or maybe the second.So it's going to take some time.
So I don't think it's going tobe marmot.
I just have to say thatproduct alone is not going to solve
(29:12):
the problem you do have.There's a perception issue that's
even further ahead of that.There's the public facing of it.
You know, there's just a lotthat needs to be done that can be
done because of their brandequity and who they are and where
they profess to want to begoing. But if you don't back that
up with some, some boldimaging and perception changing,
then it's going to stay whereit is. So that barely my right.
(29:34):
Give people a reason to buy inother than like, hey, that's because
you.
Know, again, that's hardwarealso went down that path.
Yeah, their creative wasreally good. All right, next up on
the list is Columbia. Right.The case for Columbia. They fueled
the hardware comeback so theyknow the playbook publicly. They're
publicly saying the vibe oftheir new brand campaign is what
they're leaning into for thelong haul. That Sutton told Dave
and I that last week. I thinkthe case against them is it's a sort
(29:57):
of long established entrylevel brand. We know they have typically
a pretty low adoption ratewith specialty retailers when compared
to competitors. Not that theydon't carry them, but not at the
same level as A Patagonia orNorth Face and a poor ranking on
the. What do we say? The Owen,what is it? The Owen Index.
Owen Index, right. Look, theyown DadCorp. I don't know what you're
talking about.
That's what it is. So, I mean,I think they're again, probably same
(30:19):
thing. We'll see where theyare next year. If they've changed
up their mix or if it's just alot of good talk on the marketing
front, I would.
Say there are probably peoplethat come and say, why are we even
on this list? I mean, yes,they've had some up and down quarters,
but nowhere near what some ofthese other folks have seen where
it's been negative, negative,negative. Colombia has an absolute
(30:40):
war chest in terms of theirbalance sheet. No debt, a ton of
cash. They can go after this.And if they start to see traction
in terms of this ad campaignand the direction they can turn on
the taps, I would put them inalmost in that sort of black diamond
category of almost too easy.
Because if they wanted, theycould get it.
(31:02):
Yeah, yeah. It's, you know,don't call it a comeback because,
you know, they really. Yeah,they're doing okay. It hasn't been
amazing, but it hasn't beenamazing for anybody over the last
few years.
All right, next brand, Nike.Yeah. For the case war. I put their
fucking Nike. You just don'tbet against Nike. I mean, like to
your point, you said earlier,Dave, like, well, we're going to
(31:24):
go for this and just hang onbecause now we're going for it. I
think the case against isprobably outdoor specialty. I mean,
if they really lean into Nike,ACG, maybe they can become a contender
starting in 2027. But again,maybe that's a year away by saying
it'd be for 2026. Just giventhe timelines of all this and getting
it in the market and all thatto make it happen. But I don't know,
what do you guys think about Nike?
(31:44):
So that's. It's sort of theopposite of the Columbia one to a
degree. Just because they'redown, down, down and down. Right.
I mean, it's been negativesfor a lot of quarters here and not
getting better. I think theywere down what, 12% in the most recent
quarter. So part of theproblem is that they gave up so much
(32:08):
shelf space with the misguidedD2C strategy. They gave up so much
shelf space that now has beentaken up by the onslaught and the
Hokas and the new balances ofthe world. Right. Those brands aren't
just going to give that back.And also the retailers don't want
to get back to the days in runspecialty where it's 50% of your
(32:33):
business. They'd much ratherhave it not have a brand like that
have that much power overthem. So I think it's a toughie.
I'm kind of excited in a darkmacabre way.
This next one we have Chocodirected by Tim Burton.
Choco, right.
I mean it's coming this October.
(32:53):
Coming this October.
Edward Choco hens.
That's right. Choco. Choco. Choco.
So the case for Choco I thinkthey still have a lot of juice with
the core outdoor in terms oflike that's the kind of a go to style
but I do think that is thatjuice is fading fast.
I think oh no, the customerbase is dying fast is the problem.
They're all and getting older.
Right.
(33:14):
I think we found our newMarmot. To be fair, they're real.
I think we did include them inour zombie conversation last time.
To say I hear, I hear brains. Brains.
I don't think anyone though isagain it's still staying and trying
to make the case for no onehas really dethroned them as the
quintessential sandal foroutdoor activities. There are plenty
of other options though thathave taken them down to peg, especially
(33:35):
on the casual side. Okay. Thecase against Chaco, I mean declining
quality and decliningreputation. Just anecdotally speaking
I've heard from actually twopretty core user friends in the past
couple weeks asking me myopinion on sandals because they either
their, their Chocos broke orthey not performing well in certain
circumstances. Again, that'sanecdotal. I've heard from some folks
(33:57):
in the industry, some repsthat I know that there are some decent
retailers who are dropping thebrand or looking to drop the brand.
And then if you just look atbased on the other Wolverine brands
on the Owen index, they wouldprobably rank pretty low and not
be an attractive ranking lowon there is not going to be. There's
not going to be somethingthat's going to win you over in the
face of those metrics. So Ikind of look at Chaco as yeah, this
(34:21):
is the, you know, they'regetting the number one draft pick
next year. They're the worstrecord in the league kind of brand
almost.
I mean they definitely havesort of that zombie aspect that Dave
mentioned and also just a lackof innovation. Right. I think I said
this on a prior podcast. Themost exciting thing to come out of
Chaco in the last 10 years waswhen they brought out new straps
(34:44):
that you could change out thedifferent colors of your. You know,
so you could change them tomatch your mood.
You could custom your eyes.
Yeah, yeah, right. And maybethat's not fair. And I'm sure they've
done other things I justhaven't heard about.
No, dude, they did a GratefulDead collab. Oh. And I can't believe
you didn't cite that.
Sorry. Sorry I missed that.
But, yeah, man, it's calledthe Panda Collection.
(35:04):
They suffer a little bit fromthe kind of. The Teva situation,
by which I mean kind ofthey're the redheaded stepchild.
All that Wolverine wants totalk about, obviously, is Merrill
and Saucony. Chaco doesn'teven make the earnings call typically.
So, Yeah, I think that's.That's part of the problem.
We got another one of those onthat list coming up shortly as well.
(35:26):
So safe to say it's not goingto be Chaco. Is our pick for the
comeback player of the yearnext up on the list, Under Armour.
So, I mean, I don't know. Nota lot to say. Like Nike, Under Armour
is regrouping, but they'vestated they're refocusing on team
sports and athletics. Youknow, long are the. Long gone are
the days of making outdoorpriority. I think the case. So that's
(35:47):
the case for. I made for them.The case against. I mean, if you
search for trail running onUA's website, which I did this morning,
there's like three shoes.They're kind of buried. If you just
search for run. And you thinktrail run would be a bigger deal.
Trail run would be a biggerdeal for them. If that's. If they
had any plans of playing itoutdoors. I, you know, I think it's
a long ways off before we seeUnder Armour coming back into outdoor
(36:08):
in a meaningful way.
I. I would agree. They. Theyreally need to protect their house
and really.
Plate, sir.
Yes. I respect.
By which we mean just coreathletics and sporting goods, so.
And just really clean up allthe promotional aspect. They're probably
one of the poster children forletting their D2C team run amok in
(36:32):
terms of focusing on, youknow, CRO conversion rate optimization,
where it's like you've got apromo at every corner and it's just.
Yeah, yeah. So they just havesome work to do to clean it up in
terms of that, in terms ofinventory, in terms of distribution.
Not to say they can't do allthose things. I just don't think
(36:53):
they're going to. It's allgoing to turn around the next six
to 12 months.
Next up, the North Face. Ithink for the case 4. I don't really
know if they need to comeback. I kind of feel like they're
just a pretty consistentpresence. The case against, I mean,
it's kind of the same thing.They may not surge at the top of
the charts, but they certainlyat the. At the bottom either. I mean,
maybe just a firm staple atthis point.
I don't like similar toColumbia. I don't think that they
(37:16):
really do belong on this list.I mean, yes, they've had some bumpy
quarters of late, but I mean,I think they were up 6% last quarter.
They're not. I mean, if youlook at the VF House, North Face
is not the problem. It's whowe're going to talk about next. And
maybe Dickies as well. But no,I think it would be to say they're
going to make a comeback nextyear. No, it's already kind of happened.
(37:39):
I don't think we can have themon the list.
Yeah, the most we talked aboutthe North Face this year on this
show was the skims collab,which sold out, by the way, and basically
became a core versus casualconversation or whatever. And I don't
think anybody dropped thembecause of it. So I think they're
probably doing just fine over there.
Yeah.
To your point, the next brand,vans. The case four is these could
be vans, could be the sleeper.Sort of. Nobody believes in US Team.
(38:01):
Right. The Footwear Newsrecently reported that vulcanized
rubber sneakers are comingback potentially. Like just said,
they're maybe starting to seethat happening. I think the case
against is if that largertrend doesn't return, like why the
hell would vans be picked upby any outdoor retailers in a big
way in 2026? Probably not likely.
So the Warped Tour is back. Sothey've got that going for them.
Yeah, they have four stops.
(38:24):
I was never a big Warped Tourperson. There was a lot of stops
before then.
Oh yeah. It was like a. Everymajor city kind of tour. And this
year they. They did like theydid Long beach here in California,
D.C. and like two other stops.I think so.
No, I think with vans though,you've got the outdoor piece, which
is always that littlesubsection, but that's going to rely
on the rest of the brand andthe trend moving back into their
(38:47):
kind of vulcanized camp.Right. And so will this next generation
continue to, you know, adopt?And kind of to me, it's the vans
Is, is like denim. It's like aT shirt. It's just part of the American
kind of youth culture or atleast the look of that, whether it
be a vans or not, the slip onthe skate style, the, the vulcanized
(39:09):
style. So there's the placefor it. And as they rise then they're
able to look into thedifferent categories and, and you
know, now by now you couldlook back on their heritage and say,
yeah, they've kind of got ahistory of dabbling in outdoor consistently,
so maybe that does providethem a little bit of place to play
in the category.
But going back to like when wetalked about them a couple of weeks
(39:30):
ago, like Owen, you mentionedwhen you were at Moose Jaw, you guys
carried vans. Like if that wastoday and it wasn't really a trend
or the demand wasn't there.And like I mentioned a couple weeks
ago that my kids were down onvans. Like if you could say, hey,
we could continue to carryvans or we could bring in another
trail runner or something elsethat was probably more towards our
audience and is trending,you're probably going to go that
route. I would, I would think, yeah.
(39:51):
I mean in the end of style ofan E commerce player, you'd keep
them around because you, you,you know, there's some demand out
there. But in terms of a. Thefootwear shelf in your store. Yeah,
I mean we, we didn't carryvans in the store. We didn't. We.
It was really only an online player.
Right.
Yeah. And I mean, I think thatthe issue with vans is that it is,
(40:12):
let's face it, it's alifestyle product. It's not really
an outdoor product. Yes, theymake snow, you know, snowboard. So
the problem with a trendyproduct is you live by the trend,
you die by the trend. Will thetrend come back? Can they reignite
that trend all by themselvesor are they a victim of just where
is the overall sort of surfskate culture going right now? It's
(40:33):
not great. That said, they'vebeen down, down and down in terms
of sales, so maybe they findthe bottom and get a bounce, but
it's a tough spot right now.
All right, next up, I'mexcited to talk about this one, Hydro
Flask. Okay. And the reason Ithink the case for Hydro Flask is
(40:54):
that post the Stanley boom, Idon't think we've really gotten a
true championship belt holderin the bottle category. I think there's
been a few brands that haveascended, but not to the heights
that now Gene reached orCamelback Sig Hydro Flask, Stanley,
these sort of the bottle ofthe moment heights that we tend.
That tended to be the trendover the past decade or so. So maybe
Hydro Flask stops selling atCostco and tries to take back the
(41:16):
title. I think the caseagainst I wonder if Stanley was the
end of the singular bottlechampionship and now it remains more
of a mixed bag. You know,also, by the way, Hydro Flask ranking
low on the Owen index. But Ithink, I wonder if that, if that
the days of, like the bigbottle brand, maybe that just doesn't
exist anymore.
I don't know. I mean, we'vehad quite a few years of it. Yeah,
(41:39):
yeah, Maybe even, you know,people talk about, oh, you know,
there's a wall or whatever iscoming out and they're the next big
thing. They're not really. Imean, they've grown and they're a
thing, but they're nowherenear the kind of volume that the
big guys are still doing. TheHydro Flask, the Yetis, the Stanleys.
So, yeah, hard to say. Theother thing I think about Hydro Flask
(42:02):
that's interesting is theybooted the CEO, the prior CEO, who
came from much more of a CPGbackground, and the new CEO comes
from a Nike background. Somuch more of a performance brand
piece, which to me, I wouldhope he really gets it more in terms
(42:22):
of the importance of brand andprice discipline and distribution
and all those things. So thatin and of itself could bode well
for a Hydro Flask.
All right, Prana. The case forPrana is the continued explosion,
I think, of functionalapparel, athleisure, lifestyle, whatever,
and then the heritage andclimbing legitimacy that Prana brings
to the table. I think the caseagainst Prana, and I'm judging only
(42:44):
by their website and socialmedia, but Colombia does not seem
as invested in Prana as eitherthemselves or Mountain Hardware,
at least from an outdoorpositioning standpoint. Also, they're
ranking low on the Owen index.What are your thoughts on Prana?
Owen?
I think they definitely have achance to turn it around. They do.
In their most recent earningsstatement, they talked about Prana
(43:05):
and the fact that they'rereally reinvesting in reinvigorating
that product line. I think itgotten a little bit stale.
Well, you talk about kind of aneglected stepchild. They're kind
of the poster child of thatfor the last few years.
Exactly. And they brought inthe rezion, which didn't go well.
And there were various otherissues within the brand. So having
(43:29):
seen the fruits of the laborsof the Mountain Hardware Team Columbia
potentially has a bit of aplaybook that they can call on. Like,
oh, okay, here's how we can goabout this. So they would probably
be one where maybe there ismore because again, they're part
of Colombia that has thedollars to invest if they see success
(43:52):
and to drive it in the rightdirection. So, yeah, they would be
one that might be at the topof my list.
Might be a sneaky goodcandidate here.
I agree with that. I want tojust say, look, they help pioneer
the athleisure in the outdoorspace in terms of really what that
could be. And these otherbrands have come in and taken from
(44:13):
the outdoor brands, butthey're the ones that really kind
of first put that together.The. Again, the climbing and the
yoga, you know, both kind ofthese core sport activities, plus
the lifestyles around them.You know, prana. Just be. Prana.
Be cool again. Like, you couldcompletely take. You're such a different
take on the way everyone elseis coming at Athleisure Outdoor.
(44:35):
Be yourself. It would be freshand it would be cool. And that's
Right.
Right.
That's all I have to say.
Re.
Embrace. Right.
Re.
Embrace your roots from thosepersp. And don't try to be.
And don't try to be with itand do it the way you did. There
was just. There was such afreshness and an earnestness to the.
The authenticity. There's thatword. But they really came off as
(44:56):
authentic. And I think thepeople that are there still have
that, even though they're in adifferent structure these days. You
know, don't. Don't play thegame of the vioris and everybody
else. Just be. Be your ownself. Even in the tactics that you
use, you could still reallytake a lot of share.
Well, their website right nowlooks more like the Gap than even.
(45:16):
That's the thing.
That's the problem.
Yeah. Their opportunity liesin being more special, not like everyone
else.
All right, two to go. And oneof them we've already talked about.
But so Solo stove is the nextone. The case for, I think maybe
the increase in casualparticipation. Solo's products are
perfectly suited to thatbackyard car camping section of outdoor
consumers. The case against isthe wins of the past two years have
(45:37):
been mostly limited to adsfeaturing aging 90s rappers and showing
up at the Macy's ThanksgivingDay Parade. All of these then followed
by poor sales that have led toleadership changes two years in a
row. So I'm probably notpicking Solo Stove, if I'm being
honest. But what do you thinkabout Solo Stove, Owen.
So the big issue with SoloStove was that they started off as
a D2C, then they got intowholesale, but then D2C still really
(46:03):
ran the shop. They massivelyoverbought in terms of inventory
and then they flushed it allthrough their D2C. I mean, I was
talking to my buyer who was onSolo Stove. They were selling product
on their D2C site for lessthan our wholesale cost. Right.
Oh, my God.
So it was just a complete shitshow. And part of that was also just
the fact that they werestruggling for cash. They'd gone
(46:25):
through this whole acquisitiondeal and they had all this inventory
that they had to liquidatejust to basically keep the doors
open, which led to thenearlier this year, almost going bankrupt.
Since then, they'verefinanced. I think they have sort
of of solidified the base.Right. Chubby's is doing well as
part of that, and they'vestarted to really cut back on the
(46:47):
discounting. I think they knowthat it's their core issue. Right.
And there may be another, Idon't know, 612 months of a reset
there where they kind of resetthe bottom a little bit and rebuild
what the base looks like interms of a sustainable business model
about the brand in terms offull price selling. But. But it's
(47:09):
still a great category. Theystill have a great product that has
demand. I think with the rightmoves there and some real pricing
and buying discipline, yeah,they can absolutely make a comeback.
You're talking me into it.Because they also don't have to worry
about the authenticity piecewe've been talking about a lot and
winning over buyers and thingslike that. All they need to do is
(47:29):
fix their house and all of asudden they could be ascending. Especially
given that we're talking aboutthe casual consumer as opposed to.
To the core and all that otherkind of stuff. Interesting. The last
one on the list is BlackDiamond. We all believe that they're
the clear winner here. Andit's funny, now, looking through
the list, maybe we should justall say Black diamond because, man,
this is a tough list to decidefrom. The case for Black diamond,
(47:50):
obviously, is the moves theymade, the leadership they have. They're
well loved by retailers. We'veheard from multiple retailers who
are bringing them back inafter a break of not caring them.
The case against, I mean, justmarket forces probably, like just
things not aligning their wayin terms of, you know, making it
easier for buyers to buy theirstuff. But even then the brand seems
(48:12):
to be winning.
And tariff exposure. Yeah,exactly. So so that let's. I think
I'm fine with saying Blackdiamond is the winner, but we all
have. Maybe that's the toppick. But we all need another pick
to go on the pick here.
Do we have to pick alldifferent picks?
No, not necessarily. No.
Okay.
It would be more interesting.
Who's yours and why is it Chaco?
(48:33):
Okay. I think I'm going to gowith soloist. I'm going to go solo.
Stove.
Yeah. You made a good case.
Yeah. I feel like they havehopefully now the financial wherewithal
to manage a reset and get to.And get to a better place.
I really want to say, Marvin,just because I really like what John's
doing over there, but like wetalked about, I think it's just too
(48:53):
soon and just for the sake ofbeing different, then if you guys
have different picks, I'll goPrana. Only because it's a little
nobody. But nobody believes inus because nobody's really talking
about it. But they do haveColumbia running them, who are is
being bold in a lot ofdifferent ways. And like we talked
about, it wouldn't take much.They just, you know, wanted to tweak
some messaging. Maybe therefresh is coming, the rebrand is
(49:15):
coming for, you know, like thespring all of a sudden drops like,
oh, Prana's back. Look at thenew video for Prana now, you know,
and all of a suddeneverybody's talking about prana again
in 2026. Dave, who you got?
Yeah, well, I, I got to gowith acg, Right. You know, it's separate
from the master brand. I thinkacg, you know, whether they'll penetrate
the specialty in the nextyear, I think they're going to definitely
(49:38):
pique some interest. We'regoing to hear a lot more about them.
It's what they do. Well, likeyou said, I just, we. We'll stick
to that corner of the. Of the store.
All right, well, hey,pressure's on Black Diamond. We all
believe that you are takingthe mantle from Mountain Hardware
as the comeback story of theoutdoor industry. And we all have
our backup just in case thatdoesn't happen. But we'll see how
(49:58):
it shakes out in 2026. Allright, so Dave had to leave for the
parting shot, but Owen's stillhere with me. And for the parting
shot today, we're actuallysaying farewell to someone who's
meant something to the. To therock fight. We're saying farewell
to Northwest. Alpine founderBill Amos posted on social media
platforms last week that the15 year old brand that focused on
(50:21):
making functional Climbing andoutdoor apparel here in the United
States had begun the processof shutting things down. Bill and
the Northwest Alpine brandbrought a layer of fight to an industry
that mostly operates in directopposition of their own ethos. They
challenge the status quo andthey challenge accepted opinions
in a way that we here at theRock Fight, while not always agreeing,
but can absolutely toast,respect, and celebrate. Northwest
(50:43):
Alpine was one of our firstadvertisers as well. Like I said,
there's some history here. Ifyou look at the broader outdoor industry
brand scene, there are a lotof up and coming amazing brands,
which I think means the futureis quite bright for the outdoors.
But losing a unique voice likeNorthwest Alpine is never a good
thing. So to Bill andNorthwest Alpine, thank you for the
past 15 years. That light's alittle dimmer today. And that's the
(51:04):
parting shot. I do wonder,though, now that Bill isn't trying
to grow his own brand, whathis posts on LinkedIn will be like.
Is he going to level up?
Well, maybe he'll really sharehis views.
He's gonna let it rip. That'swhat I mean.
Oh, yeah. Cause he. Yeah,right. Yeah.
(51:25):
All right, that's the show fortoday. We want your emails. Who's
on your list? Who do you thinkthe comeback player of 2026 is gonna
be from the outdoor industry?Send them to myrockfightmail.com
TheRockfight's a production ofRock Fight LLC. Today's episode was
produced by producer Dave artdirection provided by Sarah Gensert.
For Owen Comerford, I'm ColinTrue. Thanks for listening. Krista
(51:46):
Makes is here. He's going totake us out with the Rock Fight fight
song. We'll see you next time,Rock Fighters.
You're going to do the partingshot. Then you're going to say, all
right, goodbye, everybody.There you go. You can cut that wherever
you want to. Yep. See ya. Allright, shy bye.
(52:11):
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