I, like many, feverishly guard my Yeti gear. My water bottle cabinet is stacked with Ramblers and my garage has four different-sized coolers neatly stacked and waiting for my family鈥檚 next adventure. The cooler and drinkware brand鈥檚 stuff is so good that it鈥檚 found a permanent place in my rather large but ever-rotating gear collection that鈥檚 fed by my job as a gear tester.

That said, there鈥檚 one piece of Yeti gear that I was rather happy to give away to friends. After lugging the Yeti Trailhead Camp Chairs on several camping trips, I decided that I wanted them gone and gladly shuffled them off to other garages. Those chairs, I will admit, are more comfortable than any other camp chair on the market. But they鈥檙e also the heaviest and bulkiest camp chairs I鈥檝e ever tested and were a royal pain in the ass to lug around. Their bulk took up an absurd amount of space in my truck bed, and hauling two around a campsite felt like lugging sacks of stones. Bottom line: The comfort was not worth the effort.

Given that experience, I was curious鈥攁nd skeptically hopeful鈥攁bout Yeti鈥檚 new beach chair. I鈥檝e now been testing the Hondo Beach Chair for a few weeks, and, thankfully, it is exactly what I鈥檝e been hoping for and will absolutely become part of my permanent Yeti gear collection.

Yeti Hondo Beach Chair Wear-Test Review

Made from a powder-coated aluminum and slung with a breathable and UV-resistant mesh, the Hondo is rated to hold 350 pounds. Weighing 11 pounds, it鈥檚 not (their Chair One comes in at 2.25 pounds), but it is two pounds lighter than the Trailhead, which is noticeable when walking around a campsite or from your car to your kid鈥檚 soccer game. It also comes with a removable padded shoulder strap that makes carrying two or three at a time a total breeze.

The biggest difference, however, is in the bulk. Like most beach chairs, Yeti鈥檚 version folds flat and, packed down, is only about 2.5 feet on its longest side. You can stack two or three into your car and only take up a few cubic feet of space. In my truck, the chair disappeared against the side of my bed, unlike the Trailhead, which squeezes down into an awkward cylindrical shape that never fits anywhere well because of its girth.

Like all beach chairs, the Hondo sits closer to the ground on two lengthwise braces instead of four individual feet so that it鈥檚 more stable in sand. People accustomed to taller camp chairs might balk at the lower-to-the-ground design, but I鈥檝e found it to be an advantage. By sitting closer to the ground, I鈥檓 actually closer to the coals of the campfire, which is where the heat is. The chair doesn鈥檛 sit so low that it feels awkward to get out of, at least for someone like me, still relatively young and spry. In terms of seating height, the Hondo feels similar to the Helinox Chair One, so you won鈥檛 be a total outlier. When I hauled the chair to my son鈥檚 soccer game, I found that I had to scoot a little forward to not be blocked out by other spectators in taller chairs, but that was no big deal.

Beach chairs are also built to recline so you can sunbathe, and I鈥檝e found this to be an advantage for camping as well. When the stars come out at night, it鈥檚 been fun to haul the chair to a dark spot, recline it as far as it will go and stare up at the constellations. During the day, leaning the chair back has also facilitated great naps.

I have yet to take the chair to the beach, but it will obviously do its job well when placed in the sand and next to the water. There鈥檚 a sturdy cup holder, and plastic tabs on both arms are designed to integrate with other Yeti products like the SideKick Dry one-liter gear case that will hold daily items like sunscreen and car keys.

Like all Yeti products, the Hondo is pricey at $300, but as we always say about the brand, the investment is worth the initial pain. I know that I鈥檒l gladly haul this chair around to camping trips and beach outings for the next 10 years, toss it around in my truck, leave it out in the sun, and generally abuse it without ever worrying that it will break or not be the most comfy seating option during every adventure.

See our full gear guide to 2025 camp chairs.

The post Yeti鈥檚 New Hondo Beach Chair Tested and Reviewed聽 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The first Gear Guy video I produced for 国产吃瓜黑料 in 2013 is, to this day, my most ambitious. It was also the scariest thing I have done while testing gear. I have always taken pride in testing gear rigorously enough to put myself in danger at times. On other assignments for this publication, I have ice climbed on thousands of feet of exposure on mixed routes in Chamonix, shivered next to a feeble fire in shorts through a night when a freak , and triggered a loose wet slide avalanche that I outskied on Mt. McLoughlin. Those moments stick out as scary, but they pale in comparison to the cold, butt-puckering, fear I felt while I faced the camera and delivered the lines 鈥�…and punished it鈥� while my dear friend Saylor fell a 50-foot tree onto a 聽behind me.

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We dropped the dead tree legally and in an environmentally sound manner, but I still regret the decision because it was just so fucking dangerous. I could have been crushed if Saylor messed up his chainsaw work by an inch. I wanted to pretend it was no big deal, so I didn鈥檛 look back at the tree while speaking into the camera. Our camera operator, Pat, told me he would yell 鈥淏ail!鈥� if the tree looked like it was coming our way. When I heard the crack that let me know the tree was on its way down, life moved in slow motion. I could see the shotgun mic on Pat鈥檚 camera jiggling from his shaky nerves.

The tree hit its mark beautifully and the cooler beneath it survived the ridiculously massive impact. The middle of the lid was a little warped from the hit, but the hinges still worked and the body held strong. My buddy Saylor used boiling water and a rubber mallet to restore the cooler to near-new鈥攁nd used it on river trips for half a decade after the test. I haven鈥檛 been able to top that level of gear testing since then (nor would I want to now, as a forty-one-year-old father).

Professionally testing outdoor gear for the ten-plus years since then has been a dream job. Also: professionally testing outdoor gear limits the number of topics outdoorsy acquaintances want to talk to me about. I have lied about my job at parties because I knew that if I mentioned what I did for work, the night would descend into backcountry ski touring binding talk and I would miss an opportunity to connect in any real way. I have answered thousands of questions about gear over the last decade.

But the one question I have been asked the most, by far, is: 鈥淚s the Yeti [insert product] worth the money?鈥� I have been texted the question so many times that I had to type an automatic answer on my Notes app about roto-molding and insulation to be ready to copy and paste.

So, Are Yeti Products Worth the Money?

Yes. If you are here because of the headline, my TLDR is Yes. Yeti products are worth their high price tag. The rest of this article is more of an answer to why I think the super-premium, ridiculously overbuilt products are worth the money. That 鈥渨hy鈥� isn鈥檛 simple.

First, I want to address the large mythical snow monster in the room: I have not paid for any of the Yeti products I have tested over the years. I have also held on to many of the ones I did not destroy while testing and still use them to this day. Many would say that the fact that I haven鈥檛 paid for these products would discredit my belief that the high price tag is warranted.

I have never, however, paid out of my pocket for any products I have tested for 国产吃瓜黑料 (I would hemorrhage money if that were the case). The fact that I have tested them all for free gives me freedom to address the price based solely on the merits of the product. The fact that I have not paid for the products does make the conversation about price more philosophical since my own bucks 补谤别苍鈥檛 in the game.

Yeti Products I’ve Tested

After a decade of dedicating my life and career to testing gear, I have gone the deepest on Yeti products, investing hundreds of hours to test dozens of products鈥攁nd opining on their value. If you have not been closely following my column for 国产吃瓜黑料 (don鈥檛 worry, my parents still tell their friends I work for Outdoor Magazine) here is a list of 15 times I weighed in on whether Yeti products are worth the price, and my verdict:

• Original Tundra Cooler review (): Oh, hell yeah.
• Rambler 18oz Water Bottle (): Body is worth it, lid isn鈥檛.
• Rambler 10oz Stackable Lowball (): Worth twice the price.
• First generation Hopper Tote (): Kinda OK?
• V Series Cooler (): Not really
• April Fools Casket ($4,114): Har har, but, well, yes?
• LoadOut GoBox 30 ($250): It depends (sorry)
• Roadie 48 Wheeled Cooler (): Yup.
• Rambler One Gallon Jug (): Totally.
• Rambler 36oz Water Bottle (): Sure.
• Roadie 24 Hard Cooler ($250): Yeah.
• Rambler 16oz Stackable Cup听(): Absolutely.
• Tundra Haul (): Sure.
• 1Rambler 10oz Stackable Lowball鈥攁gain (): Best for Rowdy Campers (only $20!).
• Hondo Base Camp Chair (): No.

As you can see, the overall result leans pretty heavily towards yes, the two exceptions being the V Series cooler and the Hondo camp chair. But to be fair, the V Series cooler got a rough treatment. And while I was diplomatic about my assessment of the original Hondo, I could have been quoted at the time saying, off the record, 鈥淥nly an asshole would buy themselves a $300 camp chair and watch their family sit in cheap ones, or pony up $1,200 for camp chairs for everyone.鈥�

Since Yeti products test so well, it’s tempting to want to jump to a simple answer to the 鈥渨hy鈥� question. If the end product is usually better than its competitors, it should be worth more. While that could offer a clean answer for individual products (particularly when comparing their first-generation Tundras to just about any other cooler on the market) it isn鈥檛 a satisfying answer when you look at Yeti as a company that posted 68 million dollars in sales internationally in Q3 of 2023 and now makes dozens of products beyond just coolers. I feel like completely focusing on individual performance to gauge value would demand a value call on each of the dozens of products they offer. But, before I take you all too deeply into those weeds, let鈥檚 take a quick refresh on the Yeti brand as a cultural phenomenon.

Behind the Brand

Brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders founded Yeti in 2006. The brothers were anglers and hunters based out of Driftwood, Texas, and their father, Roger, had seen success inventing super durable, high-performance, two-part epoxy fishing rods that sold at a premium price point. Because Roy was initially in the boat business, he wanted to make a super durable cooler that could also serve as a casting platform鈥攕omething that would be virtually indestructible and irreplaceable. To achieve that goal, the brothers聽eventually landed on using on the exterior of the coolers鈥攖he same technology that made whitewater kayaks exponentially stronger in the 90s鈥攁nd jamming them full of a shit ton of insulation. The result was insanely durable and lightyears better than most of its competition. It was also way more expensive.

I brought up covering Yeti coolers in an editorial meeting in 2011 while I was a junior member of the staff at 国产吃瓜黑料. My pitch was clumsy and utilized my signature brand of rapid-fire, sweaty upper-lipped excitement鈥攁nd I got crickets.听 I remember one editor, who happened to be one of my idols, looked down and shook his head in painfully visible disappointment. At the time, they were just coolers. Or were they?

Whether or not people asked for a $400 cooler, they have proven willing to pay for one in the past 14 years. I feel personally vindicated by Yeti鈥檚 bonkers success. In 2023, Yeti launched 15 new products. Their investor report for Q3 expected that for the 2023 year, they would have, 鈥淐apital expenditures of approximately $55 million (versus the previous outlook of $60 million) primarily to support investments in technology and new product innovation and launches.鈥� Yeti now has dozens of communities of superfans ranging from Grand Canyon raft guides to octogenarian golfers. The company鈥檚 main business campus takes up 175,000 square feet. In other words, Yeti is massive.

Superior quality is a huge part of the story of Yeti鈥檚 success. I don鈥檛 think it is the entire story, but it most certainly is the foundation on which this juggernaut was built. I had heard of a low-key secret testing facility that Yeti had built to stress test their products somewhere in the mid-aughts and had pitched touring it for years. Last fall I had an opportunity to go see it and judge for myself how much effort they put into making sure their products could withstand abuse.

Their Innovation Center is an unmarked warehouse attached to office space, part of a sea of barely distinguishable buildings outside of Austin, Texas. When I entered, I was greeted with the noises of Yeti products getting their asses lightly and repetitively kicked everywhere. The first noise I heard was a Roadie Haul handle being extended and dropped by a robotic hand named Tripp every ten seconds. Tripp is one of the three UR5 Robotic arms that are in near constant use and are named for the heroic interns of yore (in this case: Tripp Arnold) who were employed to hand zip the original Hopper Soft Coolers 2,500 times, keeping track with a baseball clicker.

Throughout my two-hour tour of the facility, I saw dozens of machines that gave me more existential fear about robots replacing my job as a gear reviewer than any AI writing software has. There was a machine that dropped coolers from very precise heights over and over again. A robot that opens and closes four cooler lids at a time. A carousel that took rollie coolers on a circular course over obstacles like slatted decking and climbing holds before giving the wheels a stamp of approval. All told, there are 21,120 square feet devoted to testing Yeti鈥檚 vast range of products.

I have toured factories before鈥擨鈥檝e watched Keen employees carefully place soles on work boots and the folks at Benchmade expertly craft kitchen knives in state-of-the-art facilities here in the US. I have never seen anything close to this type of rigor on the industrial testing side, though. This whole space, the size of many factories, was devoted solely to testing and prototyping the gear. It was truly incredible and I desperately wanted its awe-inspiring magnitude to directly assign value to the Yeti products I have spent so much time testing.

In service of that goal, I badgered Matt Bryson, Senior Manager of Innovation and Validation Engineering at Yeti, for superlatives throughout the tour. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the most weight you have placed on a product?鈥� 鈥淎re there any products that took an incredible beating but failed at the last second?鈥� 鈥淲hat is the craziest test you have performed on a product?鈥� His answers were both incredibly smart and very unsatisfying in the way only a hyper-intelligent corporate product specialist can deliver.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 know what somebody is going to do with a product. It could be wild, something that you never even thought of. We have to prepare for anything. Since you don鈥檛 know everything someone can do, we typically over-index on everything,鈥� Bryson said. 鈥淵ou can break anything. There is a point we call something abuse. You can鈥檛 set a cooler on fire and expect it to still work. We balance that fine line between heavy use and abuse really well.鈥�

For the record, I think that is a fabulously smart answer. But it wasn鈥檛 enough to satisfy my obsession. I was begging him to give me a quote that would not only answer the 鈥渨hy鈥� for this article, but for me, personally, as well. Honestly, I wanted the onus to be on him to assign value to this iconic outdoor gear category.

I was asking for more than manufactured tests could deliver. I was asking not just for impressive proof of the Yeti products鈥� performance and durability, but a statement that would sum up their significance in people鈥檚 lives. Honestly, though, a real-world scenario months before my visit had given me the answer. A solid cooler did benefit my life in ways that actually matter.

The Impact of a Well-Built Product

During a decade of testing, I have tested the crap out of Yeti products I have written about. I have thrown them from cliff tops, drug them behind moving vehicles (please note the plural), and filled one with hundreds of pounds of a fabrication shop鈥檚 debris and dropped it from a fully extended forklift. I have burned through at least six kitchen thermometers and hundreds of pounds of ice performing backyard thermoregulation tests.

While I took pride in the rigor of these contrived tests, it had been years since I depended on a cooler to show up for me performance-wise. Due to my life as a dad and waning desire to take risks, it had been a while since I had a real-world stress test scenario. Until last summer.

Last August, my then five-year-old daughter Josie and I found ourselves lightly stranded on the far northern California coast when wildfires shut down the highway that is the most direct arterial from the beach to our home. The town adjacent to our campsite, Crescent City, lost power for over a week. I heard reports from town asking people to stay out to keep the scarce resources open for firefighters.

I had a special week planned with my kiddo, however, so I checked in with the camp host to make sure that we weren’t taxing community resources if we kept to our site and the beach, and decided to wait until we ran out of ice or the road opened back up to head home. To be clear, this was not a real emergency鈥攚e could have driven the ten-hour drive home on the detour routes. The length of our trip, though, depended on the performance of our cooler.

Yeti Roadie 48 Wheeled Cooler

We had brought two coolers, an and a . Both coolers had an even distribution of food, root beers, and La Croix鈥檚, and each held a block of ice tucked into their right corner. I used the ice-maintenance tools honed over 20 years of multi-day rafting trips (basically, keep the fucking cooler shut!) to maximize our ice use, and we went about our solitary business.

It became clear on day two that the Yeti Roadie was doing its job better. I began moving prize cooler items鈥攖he block of Tillamook Cheddar, ravioli, Kerry Gold butter鈥攐ver to the Roadie to hedge my bets against losing them. Every morning, Josie and I would eat the highly processed donuts in our sleeping bags (I called it her raft guide training), walk outside, take a super quick peek at our ice situation, and then make the call if we would take the long route (lengthened by about five hours from shut down roads) home or stay and surf for another day.

That trip was the most magical one of my year. I kept my phone charged using a solar panel and bank and we checked in with my wife in the mornings and evenings. Otherwise, it was just Josie and me. I talked and played with my five-year-old in the sun for hours with zero distractions. One day we played on the beach for nine hours and saw three other humans and two dogs.听 Another day, we didn鈥檛 leave a 200-foot radius and remained completely entertained with conversation, art projects, and learning tricks on her new bike. I spent as many uninterrupted and fully present minutes with her during that trip as I normally would in weeks鈥攎aybe even months.

Every morning I would silently pray that we鈥檇 still have ice in the coolers. By day five, the ORCA鈥檚 ice disappeared. On day seven the Yeti cooler still had a baseball-sized chunk in it. Josie and I could have easily stuck it out for two or three more days if we didn鈥檛 get called back home by a surprise visit from relatives.

I arrived at my parents鈥� house in Ashland utterly exhausted, with a truck bed full of camping supplies and a spectacularly dirty and happy five-year-old. I gave the dinner party a light recounting of the previous week鈥檚 challenges鈥攁n adventure that was really just an inconvenience mitigated by good gear. Somewhere in the middle of my story, Uncle Bob made eye contact with me over his slice of pepperoni pizza, and I saw it coming.

鈥淚鈥檝e gotta ask, Joe. Are those Yeti coolers worth the money?鈥�

I invited Josie to sit in my lap and looked down at our dirty feet.

鈥淵es, Bob,鈥� I replied. 鈥淵es, they are.鈥�

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Yeti got its start making coolers so useful and durable they were proudly . When it began making coffee mugs, we made sure they would survive a shotgun blast (why not?). We never expected Yeti to make a cast-iron skillet, but the company has come so far from its days as a cooler brand, we鈥檝e stopped scratching our heads as to why it chooses to enter new categories of gear. We just see how the new products stack up.

Last year, Yeti teamed up with cast-iron company to lend its name to a limited edition 12-inch Butter Pat iron-cast skillet that sold out quickly despite its $400 price point (which wasn鈥檛 much higher than or ). While the sticker price was criticized (a , after all), the partnership went so well that Yeti purchased Butter Pat and rebranded its skillet, which was renowned for having a hyper smooth surface and lighter feel than competitors.

Yeti was not a cast-iron-skillet manufacturer. Now it is. The Butter Pat skillet is reborn as Yeti’s new American-forged cast-iron skillet collection. It鈥檚 available in three sizes, starting at , , and .

鈥淲e truly believed Butter Pat makes the best pan that鈥檚 out there because of their engineering practice and how it is a simple product that is straightforward,鈥� said Steve Barnett, Yeti鈥檚 Principal Product Manager for these skillets. 鈥�… We want to keep the same manufacturing process that they had at Butter Pat. We don鈥檛 want to change anything but we do need to scale. We partnered with a foundry that we think is the best in the world and happens to be here in the US, in Wisconsin.鈥�

Yeti Cast-Iron Skillet

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Testing Yeti鈥檚 New Skillet

翱耻迟蝉颈诲别鈥檚 Mary-Frances Heck, a James Beard Award winner, , and former senior food editor of Food & Wine, has spent the last few days cooking all kinds of things on the new Yeti Cast Iron Skillet 10 and 12.

Her first takeaway was the incredible seasoning and hyper-smooth finish it has right out of the box. 鈥淵ou put a little bit of fat in the brand new pan and crack a couple of eggs in, they are just going to slide around. It is amazing,鈥� said Heck, who has restored dozens of heritage cast-iron skillets and loves talking about the reactive nature of cooking on them. In her experience collecting vintage cast iron and cooking with new and old pans, only Butter Pat (now Yeti) and Smithey cook like vintage cast iron. At 6.25 pounds, Yeti鈥檚 new 12-inch pan comes in lighter than Smithey鈥檚 high-end model, which also has a handle design that makes it difficult to maneuver the heavy pan over the stove with one hand.

鈥淚t is surprisingly light for its size,” Heck explained. “You don鈥檛 pick it up and think your wrist is going to break.鈥�

The skillet鈥檚 hyper smooth finish comes from a ceramic-like mold rather than the sand molds often used for standard cast-iron skillets. The process creates a surface that can slide an egg like teflon but also maintains cast iron鈥檚 ability to hold on to seasoning. It also makes the skillets considerably more challenging to manufacture. 鈥淚t takes weeks, not days to make our pans, but it is worth it for the end product,鈥� said Steve Barnett. 鈥淲e got down to the microstructure and worked to have the pan hold on to the seasoning better from the start.鈥�

The distribution of cast iron throughout the pan was another touch that we noticed and appreciated, much like we did with the Butter Pat model. It鈥檚 thicker and heavier at its base to help put a serious sear on steaks, but its sides are thinner than you鈥檇 expect. This subtle geometry was made possible by the manufacturing process and high-end molds used.

鈥淭hese are the nicest cast iron skillets you can buy new, probably, period,鈥� explained Heck. 鈥淯nless you can get a skillet that was forged a hundred years ago鈥攏othing on the market right now is like this.鈥�

Yeti鈥檚 Journey into Cookware

Though we weren’t startled by the decision, we did wonder why Yeti decided to buy a cast-iron pan maker to get into cookware. So we asked Barnett: 鈥淲e鈥檝e always been in the culinary space. People eat chili out of our mugs and the pros use our coolers to keep briskets warm.”

It also looks like you should expect more cooking products from Yeti, much like how its coffee mugs grew into a full drinkware line. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 get into specifics about exact products but we do see this part of the business growing for us,鈥� Barnett said. 鈥淚f it is a tool that works exceptionally well and we are able to lean on really high quality manufacturing processes and the right materials then we are looking at making it.鈥�

I have a 20-year-old cast-iron pan that has never seen a centiliter of dish soap but has seen dozens of hours of tender care. It sears steaks perfectly every time and is the only surface I can cook fresh tortillas on with any success. It is honestly more like an old friend than a piece of cookware.

Personally, I like the idea that the company that made my first forever-cooler is also making my next forever-skillet. 鈥淭here is something very inherently Yeti about having a product that you can use forever. This one truly gets better with age,鈥� Barnett said.

The post Yeti鈥檚 New Cast-Iron Skillet Is the Best You Can Buy鈥擧ere鈥檚 Why appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Austin, Texas-based cooler company Yeti has recalled nearly two million of its soft-sided coolers and gear cases after the they pose a health risk. According to the CPSC, the Yeti products in question contain high-powered magnets that, if ingested, can cause injury or even death.

The recalled Yeti products include the Hopper M20 Backpack, SideKick Dry gear case, and two iterations of the Hopper M30 tote-style cooler. The problems impact all colors for each product. The CPSC advises consumers to immediately stop using the products and contact Yeti for a full refund.

Each of the four products feature closure systems that utilize the magnets, and the CPSC reports that 鈥渄egrading or failing鈥� products can release stray magnets. 鈥淲hen two or more high-powered magnets are swallowed, the ingested magnets can attract to each other, or to another metal object, and become lodged in the digestive system,鈥� the CPSC said in a statement. 鈥淭his can result in perforations, twisting and/or blockage of the intestines, infection, blood poisoning and death.鈥�

According to the CPSC, no injuries or ingestions have been reported, but the group has received 1,399 reports of complications with the magnetic closures. The recalled products were sold between March 2018 and January 2023 at various retailers, including Dick鈥檚 Sporting Goods and ACE Hardware.

In a statement provided to聽翱耻迟蝉颈诲别,听Yeti said: 鈥淲e made this decision after learning the magnet-lined closures of these products can fail and result in detached magnets, which poses a risk of serious injury or death if two or more are ingested. While we have not been made aware of any injuries as of the time of the recall, the safety of our customers, the quality of our products, and the integrity of our brand are non-negotiable. We ask that any customers who currently have these products to immediately stop using them and follow the recall instructions, which can be found here: | CPSC.gov.鈥�

The impacted products are below:

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Cooler lovers, listen up. There鈥檚 a huge sale on Yetis happening right now in various parts of Alaska that we simply have to share. All models are 100 percent off鈥攜es, that鈥檚 right. Free! All you have to do is pitch your body into the icy chop of the North Pacific to get one.

All along the Gulf of Alaska, denizens of the Last Frontier are living out what we can only assume are the wet dreams of old, sunburned beachcombers everywhere. Dozens of expensive Yeti coolers are on shore after a cargo ship 109 containers of them near Washington鈥檚 Olympic Peninsula last year. And what do you know鈥攖hey鈥檙e in great shape! (The possibility of Yeti鈥檚 marketing team , and perhaps even driving the tanker, now tops our list of most suspicious outdoor conspiracy theories.)

By all accounts, they鈥檙e going fast. One greedy collector has reportedly nabbed 20 of them. (Why this Alaska man needs the kind of cooler space that could keep 1,140 beers cold simultaneously eludes us, but it sounds like a great time.) Before the rush is over, we wanted to share some photos of folks gleefully unearthing their new $400 hunks of plastic from the sand.

As accidents like this continue to fill the oceans with trash, a few free coolers are more or less a cold comfort. Still, these people seem to be having a grand old time of it. So, without further ado, scenes from the frenzy. Maybe an Airstream trailer ship will go down next.

In October, the spilled 109 shipping containers near the WA/BC border. Debris has floated north ever since, onto beaches on Vancouver Island, then Haida Gwaii, then SE Alaska, and most recently the Kenai Peninsula (top of the Gulf of AK).
A debris thread鈥� 1/n

鈥� KUOW Public Radio (@KUOW)

But Alaskan beachcombers have been thrilled to find in working condition. The high-end coolers retail for hundreds of dollars. 3/n

鈥� KUOW Public Radio (@KUOW)

Found a yeti in Alaska !!! Unreal !! A shipping container tipped over and we found this gem on the beach !! @YETI

These were all found on beaches near Seward, Alaska: ~1,000 miles from where the spilled containers off WA鈥檚 Olympic Peninsula. Pics courtesy Duke Marolf. 4/n

鈥� KUOW Public Radio (@KUOW)

Marolf has been flying the coast and offshore islands of Alaska鈥檚 Kenai Peninsula in his small plane with fat tires this summer, looking for beached treasure. He says he needs just 200 feet of beach to take off and land. 5/n

鈥� KUOW Public Radio (@KUOW)

Hannah Richter uses two beach-found coolers as a platform for cutting salmon in Craig, Alaska. Courtesy . 7/n

鈥� KUOW Public Radio (@KUOW)

Treasure hunting for yeti coolers that fell off a cargo ship! @yeti

Steven Peavey finds a Yeti cooler on Alaska鈥檚 Suemez Island in April, kicking off a 鈥渇un frenzy鈥� of cooler hunting in SE AK.
Melissa Nagamine Peavey pic. 8/n

鈥� KUOW Public Radio (@KUOW)

A Yeti cooler found on a remote beach near Elfin Cove (across from ), Chichagof Island, Alaska, in July. Courtesy Chris and Serena Lillehoff 9/n

鈥� KUOW Public Radio (@KUOW)

The post Yeti Coolers Are Washing Up on Alaska Beaches. Get Yours Today. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

鈥淪ee space. Save billions.鈥澛�

Austin, Texas-based Yeti Coolers last week unveiled a billboard over its flagship store in Austin emblazoned with those words, set against a backdrop of mountains and starry skies.

The apparent butt of this joke is the space race between billionaire Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Musk鈥檚 SpaceX announced this year its plans of building a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Austin. Bezos recently took an 11-minute flight to space that cost over $2.5 million per second, as the El Paso Times reported.听

“With SpaceX and Tesla and everyone trying to get to Mars out of Texas it seems, we love the outdoors, and there’s a lot of space out there,” Paulie Dery, Yeti鈥檚 vice president of marketing, told Business Insider last week. “There’s a big chunk of the world on this planet, and we think it’s pretty special and it doesn’t cost you billions.”

This is not the first tongue-in-cheek billboard that Yeti has placed over its property. A past ad, also apparently Musk-related, depicted migratory ducks with the caption 鈥淭hey鈥檙e probably from California too.鈥� Ostensibly, that joke referenced the many business leaders who have relocated to Austin in recent years, including Musk himself, who moved in 2020 due to disagreements with California鈥檚 COVID-19 policy.听

With a new Tesla factory under construction just outside Austin and an industrial site nearby that Musk is eyeing for The Boring Company鈥攁 new creator of transportation, utility, and freight tunnels鈥攖he billboard jabs from Yeti are likely just getting started.

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As of October 2020, Instagram registered over a billion unique monthly users. If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, then a wide-reaching Instagram account is鈥攚ell, it鈥檚 valuable. But how can outdoor companies make the most of an audience waiting on the other end of a screen?

We examined and chatted with some of the biggest outdoor brands on the photo-sharing platform to find out what works for them.

GoPro (@gopro)

Follower count: 17.7 million

Date joined: March 22, 2012

Total posts: 6,120

Account Overview

When it comes to outdoor brands on Instagram, GoPro easily leads the pack. Almost four times more users follow GoPro than other brands like The North Face and Patagonia. The company keeps its users engaged, too鈥攙ideos on GoPro鈥檚 page regularly notch hundreds of thousands of views, and photos generally amass close to one hundred thousand likes, outperforming brands with similar follower counts like Starbucks and Calvin Klein. GoPro generally posts on the account twice a day, with posts spaced apart by several hours.

Useful Strategies

There鈥檚 one thing you won鈥檛 see on GoPro鈥檚 Instagram: Any of the company鈥檚 products. Rather than focusing on the cameras themselves, the page highlights what鈥檚 in front of them, posting everything from skiing backflips to scuba dives to airplane stunts. GoPro saves the flashy product photos for its website, but on Instagram, the brand sells experiences鈥攅xperiences their cameras can document.

The North Face (@thenorthface)

Follower count: 4.8 million

Date joined: February 14, 2011

Total posts: 427

Account Overview

The majority of The North Face鈥檚 Instagram posts can be broken into two categories: product-focused and athlete-focused. The brand鈥檚 product-focused posts look like a classic advertisement: The product and TNF logo are front and center. Captions for these posts tell users what the product is, how it works, and where they can get one. Athlete-focused posts feature partnered athletes in action, and don鈥檛 stress as much about brand recognition鈥攊n most of these posts, it鈥檚 tough to tell whether the athlete is even wearing TNF gear. The account posts three to four times a week, and mixes up video and photo content.

Useful Strategies

Senior director of digital brand management Zeena Koda says the alternation between product advertisement and 鈥渂rand content鈥濃�攁thletes, outdoor images, and storytelling鈥攊s intentional. In fact, while it鈥檚 not an exact science, Koda has a rough benchmark for the breakdown.

鈥淚 think a 60-40 balance is healthy, but it鈥檚 never that clear-cut,鈥� Koda said. Her goal is to feature 鈥渂rand content鈥� in about 60 percent of TNF鈥檚 posts, while the other 40 percent highlights specific TNF products.

Patagonia (@patagonia)

Follower count: 4.6 million

Date joined: May 17, 2012

Total posts: 2,757

Account Overview

Like TNF, Patagonia posts content three to four times per week. The page is extremely photo-heavy, and video content generally involves some sort of call to action. Patagonia also posts a significant number of call-to-action graphics highlighting the climate crisis and environmental justice.

Useful Strategies

Patagonia鈥檚 Instagram bio simply reads, 鈥淲e鈥檙e in business to save our home planet.鈥� The philosophy is evident in the brand鈥檚 posts, which tend to focus on sweeping natural landscapes. If humans are in Patagonia鈥檚 posts, they鈥檙e often small or far away, framing the outdoors as a space commanding awe, wonder, and respect. True product advertisements are rare on Patagonia鈥檚 Instagram鈥攅ven Patagonia鈥檚 well-known logo barely makes an appearance on the page.

Timberland (@timberland)

Follower count: 3 million

Date joined: June 23, 2011

Total posts: 3,671

Account Overview

There may not be a more direct opposite to Patagonia鈥檚 Instagram page than Timberland鈥檚. Timberland鈥檚 Instagram is about one thing: boots. Boots on models, boots floating in mid-air, boots in boxes. Name a way to display a Timberland boot and it鈥檚 probably on the company鈥檚 Instagram. Posts come like clockwork鈥攅xactly one post a day, usually hitting the profile by mid-morning.

Useful Strategies

鈥淲e want people to arrive at our social media pages and see what they love [our products], but also learn about what we stand for,鈥� senior director of marketing Mike Isabella said in a statement.

Timberland does feature a number of social-justice-focused graphics on its page, but products drive the majority of the brand鈥檚 content. It鈥檚 a strategy that seems to work, in terms of engagement. When the boots take up nearly the entire frame, posts regularly hit tens of thousands of likes, and posts that feature models鈥� full bodies or otherwise draw away from the boots generally struggle to crack ten thousand likes.

Tentree (@tentree)

Follower count: 2.4 million

Date joined: March 30, 2012

Total posts: 568

Account Overview

The eco-focused apparel brand has a unique distinction as the only company on this list younger than Instagram. Like The North Face, tentree uses Instagram partially as an advertising venue鈥攖he page displays models wearing products from sweatpants to face masks. The rest of the account鈥檚 posts feature landscape shots and deforestation-awareness graphics similar to TNF鈥檚 鈥榖rand content.鈥�

Useful Strategies

In terms of engagement, tentree鈥檚 nature-focused content significantly outperforms product advertisement on the page. Posts like this one depicting a glass-walled forest bedroom amass likes in the tens of thousands, while product-focused posts usually top out at several thousand.

REI (@rei)

Follower count: 2.3 million

Date joined: July 30, 2012

Total posts: 4,791

Account Overview

REI鈥檚 Instagram feed is all about people in the outdoors. This may not seem revolutionary for one of the country鈥檚 largest outdoor retailers, but as other brands have opted for product-focused posts or landscape photos without people, most of REI鈥檚 posts bring humans and natural spaces together. These posts generally perform well, usually reaching five-digit like counts. REI鈥檚 less frequent, landscape-only posts perform similarly, while the account鈥檚 few product advertisement posts hover around five thousand likes.

Useful Strategies

There鈥檚 a not-so-secret weapon at play in boosting engagement on certain REI posts. Every so often, REI will caption a photo with a question, like 鈥淲hy do you hike?鈥� or 鈥淲hat are some of your silver linings from 2020?鈥� Posts with a simple question in the caption drive hundreds of people to the comments section; by comparison, most other posts see between 30 and 50 comments. Questions boost likes, too鈥攑osts captioned with questions generally rack up thousands more likes than similar posts without questions.

Oakley (@oakley)

Follower count: 2.2 million

Date joined: January 19, 2012

Total posts: 184

Account Overview

Like Timberland, Oakley鈥檚 Instagram page is dominated by product-focused posts. Goggles and sunglasses are always the focal point, and while accounts like Patagonia and TNF place their products against a natural backdrop, Oakley鈥檚 posts are mainly close-up facial profiles. The eyewear brand is one of the least prolific posters on this list, uploading content at most three times a week.

Useful Strategies

Rather than models, Oakley leans heavily on the allure of professional athletes wearing its products to boost engagement鈥攁thletes like cricketer Rohit Sharma, the focus of three posts that each cracked one million likes. It certainly helps that Oakley is partnered with the NFL, and superstar players like Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are featured prominently on the page. NFL-related posts often rack up hundreds of thousands of likes, a massive engagement number for an account with just over two million followers. Non-NFL athletes help engagement numbers, too: Snowboarder Jamie Anderson and other snowsports pros appear in several well-performing posts.

YETI (@yeti)

Follower count: 1.5 million

Date joined: July 20, 2012

Total posts: 2,413

Account Overview

Like many of the outdoor apparel and gear brands on this list, YETI鈥檚 Instagram posts focus on its products in use. In terms of engagement, most of YETI鈥檚 posts perform similarly, hovering around six to nine thousand likes. The account doesn鈥檛 flood the timeline with posts, sending an image or video out roughly once a day.

Useful Strategies

When it comes to product advertisement, YETI鈥檚 posts are reminiscent of product placement in a movie or TV show. Posts don鈥檛 advertise a specific product like The North Face鈥檚 do; instead, most posts focus on a larger scene鈥攁n ice fishing trip, a duck hunt, a day at the beach鈥攚ith a YETI product included and prominently displayed. The YETI logo catches the eye in almost every post, but rather than advertise a specific cooler, say, posts advertise YETI as a brand.

Salomon (@salomon)

Follower count: 933k

Date joined: July 24, 2013

Total posts: 2,270

Account Overview

Salomon鈥檚 Instagram focuses heavily on the company鈥檚 two best-known product lines: skis and running shoes. The page is image-heavy, generally using video content to profile featured athletes. Likes are generally consistent between five and ten thousand, and the account generally posts once per day.

Useful Strategies

Salomon鈥檚 page is one of the most product-focused on this list鈥攚hether on ski tips, shoe tongues, or bindings, the Salomon logo is visible in nearly every post. Most products are identified in the caption for consumers to find them easily, and almost all are depicted in action.

Arc鈥檛eryx (@arcteryx)

Follower count: 932k

Date joined: February 7, 2012

Total posts: 2,801

Account Overview

Arc鈥檛eryx, similar to brands like TNF and tentree, posts a mix of product advertisement and athlete-driven content. Engagement patterns for Arc鈥檛eryx鈥檚 content are opposite these other brands, though鈥擜rc鈥檛eryx鈥檚 product advertisement posts generally outperform landscape shots and athlete profiles by a few thousand likes or more. The account posts about once a day, and generally alternates posts between its content categories.

Useful Strategies

Like many of the brands on this list, Arc鈥檛eryx runs secondary, geographically-localized Instagram accounts alongside its main account, which director of brand experience Jurgen Watts credits with expanding the brand鈥檚 social media reach.

鈥淥ur strategy as a company is to develop鈥� localized Instagram channels for our communities,鈥� Watts said. 鈥淚f you live in the Bay Area, we want to make sure that there鈥檚 a Bay Area feed that is very localized.鈥�

Compared to Arc鈥檛eryx鈥檚 main Instagram channel, these localized accounts have significantly lower follower counts鈥攇enerally not more than a few thousand followers. Some posts from Arc鈥檛eryx鈥檚 main feed will show up in these smaller channels, but posts also feature athletes wearing Arc鈥檛eryx gear in recognizable local spots.

The post The Strategies Behind the Outdoor Industry鈥檚 Biggest Instagram Accounts appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

It鈥檚 countdown time to Outdoor Retailer + Snow Show, which stages in Denver January 29-31, 2020.

Thanks to collaborative efforts of Plastic Impact Alliance members, including the show management, there was a major increase in awareness around single-use plastic at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2019.

Let鈥檚 build on that as we approach the upcoming January gathering. Start planning your plastic-free show experience now with these tips.

1. BYO drinkware. Let鈥檚 stop amassing more bottles and cups from the generous companies who give them out at the show. We all have enough to last a lifetime, right? If you plan on drinking anything during the show, bring a vessel for it. That includes a water bottle, a coffee cup, and a pint glass for happy hours. Bonus points: bring your own reusable utensils, too.
2. Appoint a sustainability captain. Exhibiting brands should have one person in charge of communicating, facilitating, and driving sustainability efforts within your teams, which includes all of the below points.
3. Host a water station. If you鈥檙e an exhibitor, give your staff and booth visitors a place to tank up. The Plastic Impact Alliance has put together .
4. Plan happy hours and events with sustainability in mind. Plastic Impact Alliance members have pledged to reject single-use plastic drinkware at their events, which means brands have to come up with alternatives to the compostable (but still single-use) plastic cups that the Convention Center supplies. Here are some ideas:
   a) Tell people to BYO cup on your invitations. Start hammering this message home early and keep hammering, like PIA member Osprey did at the summer show.
   b) Order stainless steel pint glasses from Stanley, Eco Vessel, Klean Kanteen, Yeti,or GSI. The PIA has made it easy, .
   c) The PIA is partnering with Vessel on an awesome pilot program that will allow attendees to check out reusable stainless steel cups (for free) at various booth locations throughout the show, then return them at designated spots. This is the future of sustainable events!
5. Ditch the carpet. If you鈥檙e an exhibitor, embrace the industrial concrete floor, like Outdoor Retailer has done in the aisles and Patagonia has done it its booth. Booth carpet and the plastic underlayer eventually ends up in the landfill.
6. Use only clear, recyclable pallet wrap when packing your booth. Tinted and black plastic film cannot be recycled. Speak to your contractors and make sure to demand clear, un-tinted film, which can be recycled. Outdoor Retailer is working on establishing soft film recycling centers on the show floor, so we can divert all that material from the landfill.
7. Recycle your polybags. Many exhibitors bring poly-wrapped items to the show, but starting in January, we鈥檒l have the option to recycle them right at the Convention Center. Stay tuned for more info as the process develops.
8. Adopt a pack it in/pack it out mentality. Make sure everyone on your team understands that items left on the floor during take down might not make it to the proper recycling bin. Take responsibility for all your materials and trash and ensure it ends up in the right place.
9. Skip the hotel toiletries and the housekeeping service. If all 25,000 or so show attendees packed their own shampoo, conditioner, lotion for all three days of the show, we could spare roughly 75,000 mini plastic bottles form the landfill! Alliance member Matador makes awesome refillable toiletry kits and are offering them at a 50 percent discount for all PIA members and show attendees. Get the scoop .
10. Say no to junk swag. Do you really need that keychain, coozie, or yet another lip balm? Don鈥檛 accept something if it will just get stowed in a drawer (then eventually pitched). Send a message about needless logo鈥檇 junk. Just say no unless it鈥檚 really something you鈥檒l use.

Access our .

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Walmart was going to disrupt the outdoors. It was late August 2018, a year and a half after the retail leviathan purchased the online outdoor retailer Moosejaw for a reported $51 million. Walmart was ready to put its investment to work.

Walmart, as everyone knows, is the largest retailer on the planet. It sells everything from tire chains to whey protein at bargain-basement prices, but its focus in the outdoor space has always been more about car camping and hunting. Moosejaw, on the other hand, has sold high-end outdoor gear on its website for 27 years, growing its business from online only to 10 brick-and-mortar stores in the process. And now, with Walmart, it was poised to deliver on the industry鈥檚 long-held dream: to tap a staggeringly wider audience.

On March 10 2018, Moosejaw CEO Eoin Comerford told the Grand Rapids News that he was 鈥渧ery excited about the idea that [Moosejaw] can introduce high-end, premium outdoor products to people who perhaps have thought about getting into the outdoors, but haven鈥檛 been exposed to this product before.鈥� Walmart spokeswoman Jaeme Laczkowski said at the time that walmart.com reached about 100 million unique visitors each month鈥攁 potential gold mine. It seemed like exclusive brands would finally go all the way mainstream, picking up millions of new customers and welcoming them to the party of those who live for and love playing outside.

That鈥檚 not what happened. On August 27, Walmart launched a 鈥淧remium Outdoor Store Curated by Moosejaw鈥� on its website. Brands who鈥檇 agreed to be sold through the store included industry heavyweights like Deuter USA, Katadyn, Leki, and Therm-a-Rest among 50 other outdoor companies. But on launch day, one brand balked.

When the store went live, it advertised several Black Diamond products, including climbing slings, carabiners, ATC belay devices, and a harness. Within hours Black Diamond distributed a press release stating that it had directed Walmart to 鈥渃ease and desist鈥� use of the Black Diamond庐 and diamond logo trademarks because the store鈥檚 use of them was 鈥渓ikely to confuse consumers into believing that Walmart is an authorized dealer of Black Diamond.鈥� Shortly thereafter, those four other high-end outdoor brands all pulled their products from the site, too.

The backpedaling was fierce and unexplained. Most brands gave canned answers that offered no insight into their thinking. Deuter USA president Bill Hartrampf said in a press release, 鈥淲hile we appreciate the concept of what Moosejaw is trying to accomplish with this new initiative, we have decided this is not the right time to participate.鈥� It was all slightly strange, since when Moosejaw first introduced the premium store idea, at the Summer 2017 Outdoor Retailer show, several participating brands seemed excited. 鈥淭he concept made sense,鈥� Hartrampf told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淲e would be exposing our brand in a premium shop to a new, diverse group of consumers.鈥�

But after Black Diamond鈥檚 response, Deuter USA, Katadyn, Leki, and Therm-a-Rest stood firm in their resolve to steer clear of selling directly on walmart.com.

So what happened? It had nothing to do with Moosejaw鈥檚 relationship with those retailers鈥攁ll of them still do business with the e-tailer. And it had nothing to do with discounts鈥攁ll products were listed full price. The catch seemed to be that these high-end outdoor products would now be marketed under the Walmart banner, and that clashed with how the brands viewed themselves.

In his statement, CEO John Walbrecht wrote, 鈥淏lack Diamond remains committed to its specialty retail partners,鈥� which, in an August 31 2018, column, Forbes analyst Chris Walton translated to mean: Black Diamond wanting to maintain its cachet 鈥渙n the principle of scarcity.鈥�

The wider problem, Walton added, was that 鈥淲almart can鈥檛 escape its brand connotations.鈥� Walbrecht declined to comment for this story.

Comerford, Moosejaw鈥檚 CEO, evidently thought that the way the entire situation played out whiffed of elitism. In an 鈥淥pen Letter to the Outdoor Industry鈥� published on his LinkedIn page, he argued that the Premium Outdoor Store was created 鈥渢o grow the industry beyond its exclusionary, historical [white, male] audience鈥� and echoed what has become a mantra in the outdoor industry: 鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to grow this industry鈥e need to reach new audiences…younger, more female, more diverse.鈥�

That鈥檚 true. But when the rubber met the road, the old troll named elitism emerged and with it, questions that have been plaguing the industry for years: Who are we? And perhaps more importantly, who 补谤别苍鈥檛 we?

In some ways, that sense of elitism is what drew many people to the outdoors in the first place.

I know it enticed me, back when I was a kid first learning my way in the world, in the mountains of southern Idaho. When I hiked the trails outside of Ketchum, I reveled in the fact that so few people seemed to know the trails existed. When I fished the Wood River with my dad or camped in the South Hills with a boyfriend, I celebrated the beauty we saw because we were bold enough to earn it.

I鈥檝e spent the ensuing 30-plus years living and recreating in a community of like-minded folks, and the outdoors have been central to who I am. And it鈥檚 not just me. A quick survey I posted on Facebook asking when friends first realized that the outdoors and the outdoor community was their 鈥減lace鈥� turned up several stories like mine.

Diehard mountain biker and former cycling tour operator Kelly Grebe answered, 鈥淚 started riding my freshman year of college and oh my, I was addicted. There鈥檚 this community created when you can look at a fellow rider and know that they know what others do not.鈥� This 鈥渟ecret frequency of stoke鈥� Grebe experienced keeps her in the outdoor community that values isolated places and outdoor adventure.

But how to maintain that feeling when the outdoor spaces are busier and busier? Over the past three years, according to Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), participation in the outdoors has been on a slow but steady upswing. In 2017, 49 percent the U.S. population ages six and older participated in an outdoor activity at least once鈥攁nd 13.6 million people tried outdoor activities for the first time or returned after a hiatus. Though 11.9 million people stopped participating last year, 1.7 million more people got out in 2017 than 2016 (the last year for which data are available).

The fastest-growing demographics are Hispanics and Asians, whose participation in activities like running, hiking, cycling, and camping has inched up about 1 percent over the last five years. But while the industry has been striving for greater inclusion, demographically speaking, the majority of outdoor users are white (74 percent) and 54 percent are male. Nearly one third of outdoor users have a college education, and a similar percentage has an annual household income greater than $100,000.

The second-largest grouping of outdoor users (22 percent) has less than three years of high school, and a similar percentage makes $25,000 to $49,999 annually. (The average Walmart shopper, by comparison, is a 50-year-old white woman with an annual household income of $53,125, according to a study by Kanter Retail in 2017.)

Outdoor brands, of course, have done well to market a relatable version of the outdoor ethos to the mass consumer. And not all brands herald 鈥渟carcity.鈥� As they鈥檝e grown, businesses like The North Face, Yeti, Marmot, and Spyder have increased their market share by selling outside specialty retail. Today, you can buy Spyder gear at Costco, a Yeti cooler at Sam鈥檚 Club, see a Patagonia Nano Puff vest on just about any guy who works in finance, and find more of The North Face on the quad than in basecamp.

Marketing is also pivoting from the elite to everyday. Merrell targets consumers who have real lives yet still enjoy being outside. Particularly popular are ambassadors who juggle full-time or multiple jobs while getting outdoors.

For Merrell, the decision to skew to a wider audience was an easy one. 鈥淧eople say hike is the new yoga,鈥� said Strick Walker, Merrell鈥檚 chief marketing officer. 鈥淔or us, this means making footwear and apparel for the trail. It also means inspiring folks to get out there鈥攁ll folks.鈥�

Anecdotally, the message is resonating with its target audience. 鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to track sales specifically from our DEI efforts,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat I do know is that the brand is growing and we have a clear mission. We know who we are, we love our ambassadors, and we will continue to tell stories about interesting people living interesting lives in the outdoors.鈥�

Lifestyle is a much bigger component of the industry than technical is. And maybe by viewing it that way鈥攍ifestyle first鈥攊t鈥檚 easier to understand how and where the industry needs to position itself to grow.

By wearing Patagonia, you can align yourself with the brand鈥檚 political and environmental work, even if you鈥檝e never set foot in Utah, caught a wave in California, or fly-fished a day in your life. Black Diamond jackets bestow the aura of elite upon their wearers鈥攅ven on the sidelines at soccer practice. Yeti coolers are a potent status symbol, whether you鈥檙e on the river or at a tailgate party.

Even without technical context, these things signify a certain value placed on outdoor experiences, a scrapper鈥檚 mindset for problem solving, and a view of the earth as something to be enjoyed and perhaps, protected. When it comes down to it, that鈥檚 not so different from what I felt all those years ago on the 鈥渟ecret鈥� trails of Sun Valley, and what I still feel to this day.

That鈥檚 certainly one argument for adopting an industry stance around inclusion rather than the exclusion that elitism implies. And that brings this whole thing back around to Walmart.

The millions of people who visit walmart.com are potentially millions of untapped outdoor users. And we need users, said Steve Barker, the founder of Eagle Creek and current Outdoor Foundation board member, to protect the outdoors and the environment. Though OIA鈥檚 statistics show an increase in overall outdoor participation, they also reveal a 鈥渓eaky bucket.鈥� While 10.6 million Americans returned to or started participating in one or more of the outdoor activities measured, 8.6 million stopped. That equates to a net gain of 2 million total participants and a churn rate of 8.3 percent.

We can鈥檛 continue to leak, Barker said, or fewer people will experience the outdoors, appreciate it, and advocate for its protection. That鈥檚 where Walmart could come in. 鈥淭here鈥檚 always been a variety of entry levels for the consumer wanting to get into camping,鈥� Barker added. 鈥淚f Walmart is having that conversation, then we need to engage them at a deeper level.鈥�

But Rich Hill, president of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, pointed out that having a good first experience with the outdoors is paramount for new customers鈥攖hat鈥檚 the reason they keep coming back鈥攂ut that鈥檚 something Walmart or Amazon can鈥檛 offer. Moreover, Hill said big-box retailers could put the entire industry at risk because they don鈥檛 understand how safety equipment works. 鈥淎 store like Amazon or Walmart is going to get someone killed,鈥� he said.

Hill realizes that sounds elitist, but, in his view, the outdoor industry has a responsibility to keep people safe. 鈥淚f that excludes some people from getting into the outdoors,鈥� he said, 鈥渢hen so be it.鈥�

While the connection between those who use the outdoors and those who advocate for it is notoriously difficult to quantify, there is no other widely accepted rationale for why it鈥檚 important to bring more people to our public lands. So let me offer one: all us lovers of the outdoors share something in common. Our connection to the wilds has to be earned individual by individual. But once it is, it doesn鈥檛 really go away. The world can do worse than to have more people feeling the outdoors in their chests and wearing it on their bodies鈥攁nd the future of the industry likely depends on it, too.

In the end, there鈥檚 probably room for both elitism and mass consumerism in the outdoor industry without one devouring the other. We鈥檙e just going to need a bigger tent.

The post The End of Elite appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Yeti Coolers is taking to Wall Street for the second time. The Texas-based maker of luxury coolers filed an IPO last week, just seven months after it withdrew its first filing with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Despite facing a number of challenges this year鈥攂acklash from the NRA and criticism for cleaning up distribution after rapid expansion鈥擸eti has managed to bounce back.

The brand is hoping to raise up to $100 million in its initial public offering鈥攖he same goal it had for its July 2016 IPO that was withdrawn this March due to market conditions.

However, the cooler category is surging right now, and new brands have entered the market, including some who have been sued by Yeti over trademark infringement lawsuits. Founded in 2006 by brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders, Yeti is still seen as the first luxury option.

According to the letter to the SEC, the 鈥淵etiNation鈥� has grown by 1.4 million new customers since 2013鈥�0.5 million in 2017 and 0.2 million in the first six months of 2018.

鈥淥ur loyal customers act as brand advocates,鈥� Yeti wrote in its prospectus. 鈥淲hile we have continued to invest in and remain true to our heritage hunting and fishing communities, our customer base evolved from 69% hunters to 38% during that same time period as our appeal broadened beyond those heritage communities.鈥�

Yeti鈥檚 reach has not only expanded from outdoorists to a larger mainstream audience, but also to more women and younger customers. From 2015 to 2018, the customer base evolved from 9 percent female to 34 percent, and from 64 percent aged 45 and younger to 70 percent.

The $400 coolers have popped up everywhere: in Costco, hardware stores, as well as specialty outdoor retailers鈥攚ho credit themselves with giving footing to the brand鈥檚 success. But in February, Yeti sent notices of termination to some of those retailers as part of its clean-up strategy. The retailers weren鈥檛 thrilled, and neither was the NRA when Yeti notified the foundation that it was eliminating outdated discounting programs. Some Yeti customers went so far as to blow up their coolers.

While this most recent IPO cites failure to effectively manage growth as a risk, Yeti also has plans to expand internationally and into new markets with new products.

Highlights from IPO:

> Yeti cut ties with 1,100 underperforming retailers.

> DTC (Yeti.com, Yeticustomshop.com, Yeti Authorized on Amazon) represents Yeti鈥檚 fastest growing sales channel, with net sales increasing from $14.1 million in 2013 to $194.4 million in 2017.

> In 2017, Yeti opened its flagship store in Austin, Texas. It also entered Canada and Australia.

> This year, Yeti entered the Japanese market.

Rich Hill, president of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, which Yeti is a member of, says that the brand deserves a lot of credit for managing its 鈥渞ocket ship鈥� growth, plus the expectations that come with that. He says, 鈥淵eti has been doing an amazing job recalibrating their expectations for the brand, and responsibility cleaning up some of the decisions that stretched the brand on their way to the last IPO.鈥�

If Yeti ends up on Nasdaq, you鈥檒l be able to find the brand under its four-letter symbol: 鈥淵ETI.鈥�

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