The sales numbers coming out of the pandemic thus far paint a picture of unpredictable, if short-lived, demand. In the first few weeks, dehydrated meals鈥攖he kind backpackers carry to lighten their loads鈥攕eemed to be worth their weight in gold. Companies like Mountain House, Backpacker’s Pantry, and dozens of others saw sales spike, sometimes as much as 1,000 percent, out of nowhere.

“Our sales were up ten times in March,” said David Koorits, co-founder of Good To-Go, a dehydrated meal brand in Maine that has a devoted following among outdoor enthusiasts. “We saw an initial surge right after states started locking down. Some people were ordering as many as 100 or 200 meals at a time. We’ve seen that occasionally for big expeditions and trips, but never individuals ordering that quantity before.”

As spring wore on, however, sales at Good To-Go and other dehydrated meal companies slowly settled back to normal. Food shortages were not imminent, people seemed to realize. Demand for other outdoor survival products spiked in similar fashion, but almost universally those frenzies followed the same pattern鈥攕hort, punctuated bursts of activity, declining interest, and an eventual return to baseline.

“Emergency rationing behavior led to a surge in demand for portable power devices,” such as those you might take backpacking, said Dirk Sorenson, executive director and sports industry analyst for the NPD听Group, a market research firm in New York. “That was pretty short-lived, though. After a couple weeks, people returned to normal purchasing behavior.”

Independent retailers saw interesting jumps in product movement, too. Charlie Wise,听owner of The Mountaineer in Keene Valley, New York, says his shop鈥攚hich closed from March 16 to May 15 but continued selling products online鈥攕aw a spike in purchases of books and maps.

“People were sheltering in place and wanting to venture out,” he said. “If they couldn’t do it with their bodies, they wanted to do it with their minds, through books. We harnessed that demand. We rolled out a book campaign with staff picks, just to keep people connected to the store.”

The Big Winner

Through all the changes in brand and retailer sales, however, one category has risen consistently across the board since the pandemic began: bicycles.

“The biggest surprise to me has been the durability of the demand for bikes,” said Sorenson. “It鈥檚 remarkable that it hasn鈥檛 been satisfied yet. This pattern of consumer desire for bicycles has been very long, and people haven鈥檛 met the need in aggregate across the U.S., even after months.”

Recent numbers published by the NPD Group confirm the point.听In March, U.S. bike sales rose across virtually every category, with commuter and fitness bikes increasing 66 percent, leisure bikes increasing 121 percent, children鈥檚 bikes increasing 59 percent, and electric bikes increasing 85 percent.听Independent bike shops also saw repair orders rise by 20 percent overall. In the months since, the numbers have remained just as strong.

Industry Optimism

All of this has experts like听Trek president John Burke and former pro racer听Heather Mason听talking about a coming bike boom and a sunny-looking Q3 for 2020. It has also听reinforced the importance of brick-and-mortar retailers听for听people听Sorenson and others with a bird’s-eye view of the industry’s sales numbers.

“With all the store closures over the past two months, it gave us a good moment to see just how important brick-and-mortar retail is to outdoor equipment sales,” Sorenson said. “Many bike shops were classified as essential businesses and stayed open, and you can see the success of that. It really reinforces the power of brick-and-mortar sales in satisfying the needs of outdoor consumers who want try-and-buy, in-person experiences for purchasing technical equipment.”

In all, the uptick in bike sales across the U.S. amounted to more than $300 million in additional sales in Q1 of 2020. As Sorenson wrote in a recent blog post on NPD’s website, “All of this growth generates an opportunity for cycling retailers and manufacturers…to embrace a new group of customers expressing interest in cycling.”

A large part of that embrace,听Sorenson wrote, should focus on the surge in family riding.

“For independent bike shops, in-store messaging should focus on family. Family and trail-a-bikes should be placed in the front of the store and offerings shouldn鈥檛 be marginalized. Sales staff should be encouraged and trained to help with the basic questions a new family might ask about cycling, and encourage sales for this important segment. For broader retailers in the rest of the market, I would look long and hard at how bikes are initially built to assure that the first ride experience on a bike from a major retailer is a positive one.”

Looking Ahead

Whether the “bike boom” will pan out the way retailers and brands hope remains to be seen. Trek released a survey last month that showed 50 percent of Americans plan to ride their bikes more after the pandemic. Headlines are frequently declaring bike “shortages” in the U.S. as demand continues to outpace supply.

That’s obviously good news for cycling companies, though the picture could become more complicated when tariff exclusions on many Chinese-made bike products expire听in late summer and early fall. If those tariffs are reinstated, they will raise penalties on imports听as much as 25 percent above normal rates.

Still, most experts seem to regard the situation positively, at least for now.

“The new reality that we鈥檙e all faced with has brought many challenges along with it, but has also opened doors for opportunity in certain markets, including cycling,” Sorenson wrote in an assessment of the recent market changes. “More people are likely riding bikes today than in years past, and there鈥檚 no reason why this new culture shouldn鈥檛 persevere.”

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When Vinny McClelland was in his mid 20s, he helped his father build a cabin-like shop out of wood from the local tree mill, not knowing that one day he鈥檇 be the owner of The Mountaineer. The family-owned retailer is nestled New York鈥檚 Keene Valley, an area with a year-round population of around 850.

The scant pool of potential customers can make it a challenge to maintain a steady flow of traffic in the store, but this shop has kept the lights on for more than 40 years because of its expert employees, selection of tested gear, and loyal visitors who return every season, McClelland said.

鈥淲e have good people and we live in a beautiful part of the world and we鈥檙e purveying fun stuff and everybody’s working together. We鈥檙e lucky to be successful, it鈥檚 fun,鈥� said McClellan, now 66. 鈥淚 wouldn’t be in the business if it wasn’t.鈥�

Expert Employees

Ask any question about the outdoors at The Mountaineer, and it鈥檚 likely one of eight salaried employees will have the answer. The 5,000-square-foot shop is organized into sections鈥攕ki sports, rentals, books, and fishing tackle鈥攊n which the employees specialize.

McClelland is a backcountry skier and Dustin 鈥淒usty鈥� Ulrich, for example, is a big wall and free climber who also happens to be the social media guy and event coordinator.

鈥淲e鈥檙e all users, climbers, trail runners, skiers, and our customers love to connect on that level,鈥� Ulrich said. 鈥淲e treat our customers with a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation. It鈥檚 important to us to build lasting relationships with customers who keep coming back time and time again, year over year. You鈥檇 be shocked at the amount of people that come in here on a fairly regular basis that have been coming here since these doors opened in 1975.鈥�

Try Before You Buy

It鈥檚 easier to feel confident buying a pair of boots from someone who has actually laced up that same model for their own walk in the woods, which is why McClelland鈥檚 team religiously tests each piece of gear that requires a custom fit, such as footwear, backpacks and climbing harnesses.

鈥淲hen somebody comes in to buy a pair of boots, we know the characteristics of the boots, we know what kind of feet it fits, and we can do a much better job with our customers,鈥� McClelland said. 鈥淲e reach out to brands and request or react to their sales pitch. Sometimes we write an order contingent upon testing. And we only test production run items, not samples.鈥�

The Mountaineer also offers ample opportunity for customers to try out gear through numerous demos and clinics held as part of events throughout the year. Those include fundraisers like the Adirondack trail runs and a wilderness fly fishing camps as well as the Reel Rock film tour and Mountainfest, a mountaineering festival that draws world class athletes.

Staying True to Roots

Being located in a tiny town in the middle of the mountains where a number of customers are tourists rather than locals, The Mountaineer鈥檚 monetary success is based around the seasons.

There鈥檚 a noticeable lull from one to the next, which McClelland said he has come to expect and plan for in the budget after four decades. He said the down time affords him the opportunity to clean house and swap products. On busy days though, the parking lot and the store鈥檚 floor space are packed to capacity.

The Mountaineer wasn鈥檛 established on a wildly innovative or novel business model, and McClelland said he hasn鈥檛 altered his father鈥檚 vision for the store much. But he believes the simplicity in a knowledgeable staff selling quality gear to passionate people is what keeps the store alive.

Ulrich said that McClelland runs the store by the idiom, 鈥淧igs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.鈥� He added, 鈥淲e know where we stand in the industry as the little guys and we鈥檙e totally cool with that. If you try to grow too fast or jump on board with the latest and greatest thing, it never lasts and usually backfires. Our roots are important and we stick to those because we know them best.鈥�

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