Post Link: The Best of Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2015

The Best of Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2015

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2015 has come and gone, and we had the chance to head outto Salt Lake City to check it out. At the world's largest trade show in the outdoor industry,1,036 brands were battling for attention in a sea of over 20,000 attendees. Here are a fewhighlights from the four-day event.

Best Product Focus: SuperFeet

How do you one-up yourself after last year? Stick with the theme and add some color.SuperFeet, a brand that makes high performance insoles for everything from dress shoes tohiking boots, launched their REDHot insoles at ORWM this year as a throwback to their firstproduct, orthotics for ski boots.

Last year, SuperFeet raffled off a carbon mountain bike in conjunction with their new CARBONlightweight insoles. Since REDHot insoles were designed for winter sports footwear like ski andsnowboard boots, they raffled off skis. A great example of maintaining focus on the productwhile bringing people into the booth.

Best Koozie: OluKai

OluKai is a footwear brand with Hawaiian roots that prides itself on offering style, durability, andcomfort. They took the same handcrafted approach they apply to their shoes and applied it tothat most common of trade show giveaways: the koozie.

I've got more koozies than most guys (actually we all have more koozies than most guys...ifthat's possible), but OluKai's leather koozie wrapped around a hot cup of Kona coffee was agame changer.

Best Booth Draw: Royal Robbins

You went out to Red Iguana last night. You waited in line for an hour in the cold, and youcaught up with some mole and a few Presidente Margaritas...completely forgetting that you hada 9:00 AM meeting the next morning and wouldn't have the time or patience for the Starbucksline at the Marriott.

Enter: Royal Robbins and their espresso machine.

Best Floor/Innovative Booth Design Feature: Ahnu

In an ocean of concrete floors and threadbare carpeting, the mysteriously--and invitingly--softfloor at the Ahnu booth made it a frequent stop throughout the week for most attendees. I don'thave a photo for this one, but major points go out to Ahnu for giving attendees a great reason tostick around.

To this day, I have no idea what that floor was made of, but it was one of the best investmentsat the show and a great example of thinking out of the box with booth design.

Best Show Special: Sherpa

I'm partial to anything that wins me brownie points when I get home0--especially when I arriveback and tell my better half I had a great day at Snowbird to wrap up the week. Handing over aSherpa Nangpala Hooded Down Jacket as a peace offering was all it took for her to forget thatI'd been in the best snow on earth a few short hours ago.

I'll spare you the details on what a great deal it was, but my Uber bill from SLC was higher. TheHandshake crew all grabbed one, and most considered a second.

Best All You Can Drink Beer Cup: Hydroflask

While other water bottle brands may have been giving out drinks and water bottles, Hydroflaskcame out of nowhere at this year's Winter Market with Hydroflask pint cups, free beer, and alive DJ.

Bonus points for the by-the-front-door location, where you could grab a pint for the road and alasting impression of their brand.

Best Context: Osprey Packs

Apologies for the blurry photo, which doesn't do this idea justice. Osprey Packs makesbackpacks for long treks and travel, and they did a great job of contextualizing the use of theirproducts. In this case, it was the idea that you could carry enough gear for a long backpackingtrip in one of their packs, and still bring it onto the plane as a carry-on.

To drive the point home, they had a makeshift plane in their booth, with overhead bins featuringtheir packs. Brilliant.

Hope those ideas proved inspiring for your next trade show. If you have any questions orhappened to be in Salt Lake City this year and have more to share, let us know in thecomments. For more ideas, check out some of our observations at last year's Outdoor RetailerSummer Market.

Post originally located at: www.handshake.com/blog/best-outdoor-retailer-winter-market-2015

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