Today on THE ROCK FIGHT (an outdoor podcast that aims for the head) Colin sits down with Toby Ryston-Pratt, the founder and CEO of Australia's Adventure Entertainment.
Do you know about Adventure Entertainment? If you do, you are one up on Colin.
AE was founded by Toby in 2016 and has made remarkable strides since its inception, acquiring multiple outdoor magazines, creating it's own streaming platform, and launching a successful adventure film tour series. And today Toby joins THE ROCK FIGHT to talk about the company he has built.
Toby shares insights into AE's commitment to print media and community engagement, emphasizing the importance of quality storytelling. The conversation also touches on the current state of outdoor media, the need for in-person events, and the potential for revitalizing print publications in the industry.
Click here to learn more about Adventure Entertainment.
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Episode Transcript
Colin True
00:00:00.520 - 00:02:20.649
Hey, you outdoor retailers, listen up. You're sick of it, aren't you? Another sales rep walks in.
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Get in touch by sending an email to infooortorthwestalpine.com and set up a line showing today Northwest Alpine made here for all the right reasons. Welcome to the Rock Fight, where we speak out truth, slay sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree.
This is an outdoor podcast that aims for the head.
I'm Colin True, and today on the show, I'm shining a light on an outdoor media company that you may not know about, but absolutely should be following. Today on the show, I'm joined by the CEO of Australia's Adventure Entertainment. But first, have you subscribed to rockflight's weekly newsletter?
It's called News from the Front. It comes out every Tuesday. And in that newsletter there is stuff that you can't get anywhere else in the Rock Fight universe. So head to Rockfight Co.
That's our website. Click join the mailing list and sign up so you don't miss another issue of News from the Front. Rock Fight's weekly newsletter.
And lastly, if you're new around here, man, we'd love for you to subscribe and join the Rock Fight by lobbing a stone at the follow button on whatever podcast app you are listening to us on. Also, please leave us that five star rating. It is the single best way to help out the podcast aside from mailing us a very large check.
So please subscribe, please follow. All right, let's start the show.
Chris DeMakes
00:02:20.697 - 00:02:24.725
Welcome to the Rock Fight. Rock Fight. Rock Fight.
Colin True
00:02:25.825 - 00:04:20.858
You know guys, every so often something comes along that knocks us down a few pegs.
We all get a little too high on our own supply, we think we know everything, and then you're faced with something that reminds us that that will never actually be the case. You know, it's a good thing to be humbled every so often. And I really thought I knew just about everything there was to know about outdoor media.
I've been consuming or working with outdoor media companies and PR folks since the 1990s. Over recent years, as print magazines, blogs and websites came around, I was constantly seeking them out, especially as we looked to grow. Rock Fight.
So how could it be that there would possibly be something out there that I didn't know about? Right.
Well, and then a few months back on LinkedIn, I saw some posts by a guy named Toby Reistan Pratt about a bunch of outdoor magazines I'd never heard of.
Well, a little Internet sleuthing revealed that Toby is the founder and CEO of Adventure Entertainment, an Australia based outdoor media company that has been around for about eight years and in that time has acquired eight different outdoor magazines that they still produce and print, launched an adventure based streaming service, and has acquired or regionally manages 15 adventure film tours. So yeah, consider me humbled. I don't care where these guys are based. They were not just some little startup media company that had slipped by me.
This was a full on outdoor media conglomerate. Now maybe you're aware of Adventure Entertainment from attending one of their film tours. I mean, they all have multiple stops in U.S.
cities and towns, but I figured there were probably others like me who needed to be brought up to speed about their efforts. And that is today's show. Toby is here to talk about his company and his view on the state and future of outdoor media.
Welcome back to the Rock Fight where today it's Adventure Entertainment, the biggest outdoor media company you may not have heard of. With my guest, Toby Reistan Pratt.
All right, well, we're joined today straight from the future here in the US because it's tomorrow at his home in New South Wales, Australia. Toby Reiston Pratt, who's the founder and CEO of Adventure Entertainment. Welcome to the show, Toby. We've been planning on doing this for a while.
I'm so glad you're here.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:04:21.036 - 00:04:22.714
Thanks Colin. Yeah. Happy Friday.
Colin True
00:04:23.294 - 00:04:34.118
Yeah, it's not Friday yet, man. I don't know what you're talking about. And it's also. So now, wait a minute, it's November here, so. Wow, you're just getting into spring and summer.
Is it starting to get nice?
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:04:34.286 - 00:04:38.670
Absolutely. It's beautiful and warm and I'll be popping out for a swim after this, I think.
Colin True
00:04:38.742 - 00:05:10.887
Well, right on, man. Well, I appreciate you joining us because we first spoke a month or so ago and I was very late to your party.
I only recently discovered you in adventure entertainment, but. And I figured there were others here in the US who were probably in the same camp, so.
And also with our outdoor media scene, I feel like I've talked a lot about the show being kind of diminished. I was super inspired by what you guys are doing, so. But just to kind of start broadly, because I, you know, does from my lens, this is something new.
Just give us a quick history of adventure entertainment. You know, what are the outlets you own, like, you know, or you manage? What's the whole story with adventure entertainment?
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:05:11.031 - 00:06:24.545
Yeah, for sure. So adventure entertainment is a business that I started and I continue to own myself back in 2016.
Since then, we've basically started out with some aspirations to build a digital app, probably somewhat similar to the direction Outside's going at the moment. But we ended up running some film tours as a way of engaging with the audience and bringing the community together, and those went very well for us.
So we initially were a film tour business. Started out running a handful of those, developing some of our own brands, and then branched into magazines, live events, and ultimately streaming.
We moved into the US in 2018 with some film tours and continue to operate film tours in the U.S.
in Australia, we are fully multimedia, so we're print digital film tours, the whole works and operating seven print magazines, five of our own film tours, plus three or four other licensed film tours, including things like Real Rock and Warren Miller down here in Australia. So, yeah, fully, fully fledged media business, 100% focused on adventure and the outdoors.
Colin True
00:06:25.085 - 00:06:30.925
So, I mean, yeah, Your website lists 15 separate film tours. Is that. So that's kind of the global footprint of the film tours.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:06:31.045 - 00:06:57.325
Yeah, global footprint. Some of those are feature films.
So as well as running annual tours like the fly fishing film tour and those sorts of things, we will release a feature film from time to time. We did a lot of that pre Pandemic when the Dawn Wall and Free Solo were going off. So we worked on both of those projects in a number of different.
But yeah, continue to Work on features as well, which is a good, fun piece.
Colin True
00:06:57.625 - 00:07:12.153
I want to talk a little bit about all the aspects you listed, but, I mean, so you start this more on the interest and on the film side, I mean, did you have any idea, kind of going. Did you have aspirations going into it of like, we'd like to do other stuff as well, or was it more like, oh, man, adventure films are great.
We could build a business off of it.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:07:12.289 - 00:08:38.705
Yeah. Look, to be honest, it's been a bit of a journey that's evolved naturally and I've followed the bouncing ball with it. The films.
I'd always love magazines, so I've read outdoor magazines from going back as far as I can remember, and we did somewhat fall into the print.
The film tours were going really well for us and I had a print media partner for those film tours and he was struggling a little bit with them as a good friend, but was operating them on his own and struggling a little bit. So we found a synergy in offering those magazines to the film tour audiences.
And one thing led to another that allowed us to start to acquire some of those titles. And the magazines have been done that way in Australia. We've.
Yeah, we've acquired seven different titles and brought them into the business predominantly with the objective of being able to continue them and make sure that they stay available to the community here.
And I think, you know, that's probably something that, you know, outside looking in, you might go, this is a company that's just buying up these assets. But actually, in our case, it's been very much, if we didn't do that, the magazines often wouldn't still be here.
And in most cases, we were able to bring the founders and the editors into our company and allow them to keep doing what they do and make sure that that content remains available to the community.
Colin True
00:08:39.045 - 00:08:54.969
Yeah, we'll talk about outside in a minute. But the. You sent me a few examples of the issue of the print titles you guys publish. I mean, was that. So was there.
Were there gaps for some of these things? Like, had they gone out of business or was it all just more.
They were a little distressed and you were able to kind of figure out a way to make it keep them running?
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:08:55.117 - 00:09:25.765
Mostly just distressed. Some of them had what. There's been one or two that we've picked up that had stopped and we were able to restart them.
But predominantly they were just distressed and operating very much as independent, you know, very small operations that were struggling with the operations and the logistics and struggling to get the.
I Guess the partnerships that you can get when you have a bunch of different media assets to offer to a company rather than just pitching them one print title?
Colin True
00:09:26.615 - 00:10:15.019
Yeah, I mean here in the US US print has become much more niche and premium and some of that is, you know, I mean, because the titles you sent me were great and they really, we talked about before we hit record how it just really brought me back to the print titles that I really loved, you know, that existed through my early time in the, in the, in the industry or just even as an enthusiast.
And you know, I always did wonder, you know, I, I did they, are they niche and printed like on a less regular basis here simply because that's what it costs to print a magazine or is it because the things were just being mismanaged before? So I mean, have you had the change in terms of how often a magazine gets published? Is it still monthly? Is it a.
Like how, how has that changed for maybe when you took the titles over to what you guys are doing now? And I mean, I understand everyone might be a little bit different, but just kind of generally speaking, yeah, they're all different.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:10:15.107 - 00:11:49.769
It's a good question. I think the movement towards niche premium publications is definitely the case here as well and not just in the outdoor industry.
I'm seeing it across a range of different titles.
The magazines that are succeeding are the ones that are printed on better quality paper, come out a bit more, a bit less frequently and are pitching that more coffee table style publication. And that's definitely something we've pursued.
Each of the titles we've acquired has different frequencies, but for anything that was periodic, I've dropped them all to quarterly. So some of them were six or seven times a year.
And what I've found that allows us to do is tell deeper stories, longer format stories, have more time to breathe between each edition. So we're putting out mags that are, you know, anything up to 150 odd pages but doing it slightly less frequently.
And I find the audience is like that.
And it also for me distinguishes print from digital in that I don't see, you know, content that you're consuming in a snackable format as necessarily even competing with what we're doing in this space because it's completely different.
You're consuming bite sized pieces of information online and I think by not trying to compete with that imprint, you know, and that's why it doesn't need to come out as frequently, we're not telling the news in the magazine, we're telling stories and sharing community interest. You know?
Colin True
00:11:49.937 - 00:12:57.593
Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, I think when you, you think about what you lost when the.
Maybe magazines go from, you know, monthly to quarterly or even twice a year, and it's usually just the, the crap that you don't even like on digital now. It's like, it's the listicles. It's just, it's the filler, right? Like, how do we fill this magazine?
We have, we have 30 days to do it quick, whip something up and put it in there.
And I don't know, and I'm sure, and I understand the people, you know, the way we, the approaches, you know, the classic, you know, we've always done it this way. Well, magazines come out either weekly or monthly, and that's the way it is. And we can't do it unless it' that, you know.
And so now to hear or see like folks like yourself or then again in here in the us the folk, the folks who are publishing magazines now, you know, I, I like getting Mountain Gazette twice a year. I'm not sitting here calling Roguie going, hey, man, I need another one next month, you know, because I know that I won't get that product.
So it's great to see people finding a path back to print because it was just so fun, like sitting in like, and obviously, like, frankly, the funny thing is, like, yeah, this comes from Australia. It easily could be published. You could change. You just publish it here and I'm sure you would find an audience.
I mean, I'm sure there are some little, like, specific things in it that make it more regionally focused, but even then, that is a travel piece, like, oh, good, this is something in Australia that I want to go see.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:12:57.729 - 00:12:58.785
I'd love to.
Colin True
00:12:58.945 - 00:13:10.845
Yeah. Right. So I mean, has this become. Knowing you started from on the film side and now you've kind of found your way into this.
Has this now become more your passion in the business? Are you excited more about the opportunity and the print side of things?
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:13:11.225 - 00:15:18.511
For me, it's all of it. To be honest.
I think that's part of the strength of Adventure Entertainment is that we are diversified so we have an ability to be in whichever part of the industry we need to be at the right time.
And also for the partners, like being able to have a unique conversation about how to activate for a partner, which is part of what I love most about the business and where I spend a lot of my time.
And the mixture of events, digital print product activations that we can do at those events through print partnerships and Distribution, it's that stuff that's, that's super fun. And I think if you were just one part of it, you couldn't do any of those things. So yeah, for me, the diversity is super, super important.
I love the print, the print thing. I think approaching it differently is key to it. And I'm not as close to the economics of print magazines.
In the US we have one which goes out with the fly fishing film tour, but it's annual. And I think for us it has been very much about approaching it differently. And focusing on quality and less frequency was a big step in that.
I think also focusing on the way that we source the content and the editorial teams. We don't have a big office, we don't have people coming in working as full time editors or those types of things.
What we've been able to do is allow the communities to be part of those publications and have editors that live in the places where this stuff happens and work casually as they need to to get the publications done and engage contributors from across the community to work freelance to help supply content and for us to give something back to those people. And you know, if you looked at the wages bill of all of that compared to a traditional magazine back in its heyday, it's vastly different.
But making that choice has allowed us to be able to continue to run them and have them be part of those communities. And yeah, that, that's really been the key to how we've been able to keep them going.
Colin True
00:15:18.663 - 00:15:29.375
All right, well you, those, those were great answers, but like, where does your heart lie? Come on, if there's one title or one activity, what is it? What is the one? You're like, oh, I can't wait. Like Amp's coming out next week.
Like next week. You know, there's got to be one, right?
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:15:29.415 - 00:15:30.755
Which one is it? Which one?
Colin True
00:15:31.895 - 00:15:32.911
Your kids here?
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:15:33.023 - 00:16:24.063
Yeah, yeah. I mean, Wild magazine, which I think I sent out to you is. You did? Yeah, in Australia, is probably the one that, that I do love the most.
It's, it started in 1981, so its birthdays not dissimilar to my own. And I read that magazine for years.
You can see, and for the video behind me, you can see copies of it all the way back to 1981 on the bookshelf there. And you know, it's like a, it's like a time warp of the history of the outdoors. You know, I love going back and looking at the old ads and things.
But yeah, today that magazine is very much about the environment and Wilderness and conservation issues as well as being a general adventure magazine. And yeah, I love it. The editorial team that puts that together, James McCormack and his crew, they're just outstanding.
So yeah, can't wait for the next one.
Colin True
00:16:24.199 - 00:16:28.435
All right, I'm glad you answered. Glad he didn't give me some lame answer like, oh, they're all great. You know.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:16:30.175 - 00:16:32.555
They are all great. But that's the, that's the.
Colin True
00:16:33.175 - 00:17:20.591
Yeah, well, I mean, and it's, it's kind of like what Outside was here, right? And I think that's easy.
We mentioned it earlier, but it's, it's, it's difficult to see what you're doing and not probably compare Adventure Entertainment to Outside because both companies have acquired titles.
Like you said, you're kind of going about it in a different way, but on the surface it's a lot of content that was for human powered outdoor enthusiasts and now sort of all living under one banner.
I mean, the biggest difference is, does seem your commitment to Print and obviously things more like the film tours that engage with your audience while attracting new folks, while what Outside is doing seems to be a little bit more interested in the tech side of things. How do you view Outside of this? Are they a competitor? Do you keep tabs on what's going on Outside?
Do you kind of look at them as like, well, they're kind of, they got to have the US Locked up. I'm not sure if we try to expand to the U.S. yeah, good question.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:17:20.663 - 00:19:34.035
I mean, so Outside is a partner of ours, obviously. We do distribute Warren Miller in Australia and I've been working with those guys way back before Outside acquired that business.
And more recently we did acquire the Fly fishing film tour from Outside in the US and continue to have some relationships with them for the fishing tour to appear on Outside Watch and a few things like that. So very much a partner.
And the team there have been super supportive of what we've done and friendly with us, which has been fantastic in terms of competitive landscape. I mean, Outside is not in Australia other than what we do for them through Warren Miller.
And Pinkbike obviously has some connections back into Australia as well. But the Outside brand itself doesn't really exist down here other than people finding it online. So not really a competitor here.
And I would say in the Australian market, if you looked at our business, we would be the closest thing to an Outside or a comparable business to Outside and really the only company covering print, digital, film tours, events streaming, the whole lot down here. In the same way that they have done at different stages in the U.S. in the U.S.
you know, we're predominantly a film business at the moment and you know, really, the Fly Fishing Film Tour, which comes out annually and has its next tour coming in Feb. Is our biggest thing in the US for sure. And, you know, we've got a couple of other film tours. The Women's Adventure Film Tour starting Feb.
And the Climbing Film Tour, which is on basically now. So, you know, we're more a film business than anything else today in the States. I'd love that to change.
I'd definitely like to see more of our business in the US and the strategy of leading with film is it worked for us down here.
That's my intention, is that by bringing people, bringing communities into those film events, over time we'll be able to add more of our other assets and make those other assets available to people in the States. So, yeah, that's. That's sort of where we're heading.
Colin True
00:19:34.615 - 00:19:51.515
Is it. Is it an opportunity? Do you feel like on the print side, do you feel like there's.
The demand would be there for even, I mean, I guess the titles you currently print.
But I mean, I feel like there's definitely some of the things that are no longer in print that even maybe Outside already owns that the people would welcome back. Right. In some form.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:19:52.295 - 00:20:55.033
Yeah. I mean, I think there's a clear demand for. For that type of business in the States. I know there's plenty of people that miss their print magazines.
And some of the titles you mentioned, like Trial Runner, for example, I think is a good one. It had a good following. Ski Mag, some of those titles are outstanding and I would always buy them when I came to the States.
So I think there's definitely some opportunities there. And you're seeing. I think you're seeing it gradually filled.
Arena Group's obviously brought some of its titles back recently and then there are some independents that have spun off out of, you know, out of outside even to start titles. So I think you'll see print come back in the U.S. you know, we'd definitely be keen to be part of that if there's an opportunity. The.
The Stone Fly Mag I mentioned, we do put that out through the Fly Fishing film tour.
And, you know, if we can get our other tours to grow in the States, then we'd be able to do similar things with some of the other magazines and the content we have here. For sure.
Colin True
00:20:55.169 - 00:21:20.525
Yeah, I was at a little. There's a little bouldering gym just like. Well, I guess there are some rope climbing there.
But like my daughter and I were there and they had old copies of CL Climbing. And I was never a climbing guy. Like a magazine. Like, I climb.
I tell people like I like to climb, but I don't consider myself a climber because I just don't do it enough. But I still kind of picked it up and you just start kind of flipping through and it's just like, I'm like, oh man.
Actually, I really, I should have subscribed to this magazine back in the day. I would have enjoyed it probably even if I wasn't much of a climber.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:21:20.645 - 00:21:38.839
So yeah, I thought their epic titles, Rock and Ice was another one. Yeah, they're all still there.
I did find myself in the warehouse of Outside when we were, when we were completing the fly fishing film tour and all the old titles were there and I was flicking through them, I saw such, such a treasure trove. The one wonderful backpacker was mine.
Colin True
00:21:38.887 - 00:21:57.015
I went out. That was one of my, like the outside itself.
And then Backpacker, when I was sort of coming into the space was just like I remember seeing there was an article about some rafting trip that somebody did in Idaho and I just remember being like, oh my God, you could do stuff like that. It was so cool, you know, like. So that's the one that always like stuck in my heart after that.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:21:57.175 - 00:22:00.115
Yep, yep, for sure. Now. Wonderful titles.
Colin True
00:22:02.495 - 00:23:59.585
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Well, I don't think it's really controversy, controversial, or even a hot take to say that outdoor media has been in a bit of a rut over the last half decade or so.
And hearing stories like what you guys are doing is really inspiring and it makes me optimistic for the future, you know, but what would you like to see happen in the next five years or so, either for your company or also just the outdoor space in general like it does feel. And I've described it at this, and I've been, you know, pretty hypercritical outside on the show, if I'm being honest.
But I kind of described it as like the outside sized hole. And I say that not to take a shot at them. I mean, look, if it's all working out for what they've pivoted to, good for them.
But I talked to folks on the PR front who brands still want to see their products placed in areas now that are really diminished, you know, and nothing has really kind of stepped forward to kind of take that spot. I mean, it's partly what we're trying to do here at rockflight in a way.
So, you know, what would you like to see happen in sort of the outdoor space in general?
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:24:00.445 - 00:26:46.605
Yeah, good question. I mean, look, I hope the path that outsider treading does work.
I think the concept of a really awesome, integrated way of engaging with the outdoors is amazing if it can come together in a way that's authentic. And certainly some of those ideas were part of what I had in mind when we started.
So, you know, I hope it does work and I hope it can deliver and make the outdoors more accessible, because the more people that get outdoors and are part of the environment and care for the environment, then the better hope for both our outdoor industry and for the environment generally. And that was key.
That was our mission statement when we started and it is today, which is to inspire people to get out and adventure and hopefully in doing so, to care more about the environment. I think more broadly, I think I'd love to see more. More events, more. More in person events and more community engagement on the media side.
I think that's definitely where I see the future of it. That's the parts of our business that I love the most.
And, you know, the film tours are a great microcosm of that because, you know, we'll roll into a town like Bozeman, Montana, and the entire fly fishing community comes out to These events and adjust frothing and you know, locked on a screen with us in a room basically having a mini festival for a few hours. And to me, to me there's nothing like that. And I'd love to see more of that happen in the States, particularly in Australia too.
I think our outdoor industry here has some holes, but even things like, I don't know, you talk about it a lot on the show, the outdoor retailer events, I'd love to see those things get back to their heyday and you know, particularly for people like us coming into the country for industry events, like, I feel a bit of a void at the moment in terms of, you know, what's the right thing to come to, where can you go and engage with the outdoor industry in one place? So I'd love to see more of that and a lot of that sort of in person engagement and event side of things come back print for sure.
But you know, for me, and I think I agree with you, I think the partners are looking for it. I often get advertisers that we work with on the film side in the U.S. say to me, oh, is there any chance you've got some print coming?
Because we still want to run our print, but. So I'm surprised it's not there. I would love to see that come back too.
But for me it's probably more the community and what it all stands for that I think is critical and the format of it is important but somewhat incidental in many ways.
Colin True
00:26:46.685 - 00:28:29.873
So yeah, yeah, I think the, and I've talked about this a lot on the show too, about how the way we definitely need to get together, I mean, I think for a long time the central gatherings, we all got a little jaded about what they were and you know, definitely working at brands. We were always questioning like when I was working at brands, like what the value was and how do we justify the expense and all that kind of stuff.
And then now over the last few years seeing, attending some of these things and starting to understand that, you know, actually it doesn't almost, it almost doesn't matter what happens when you're there. It's just the being there that really does matter. Like I was at an event in Montana last month and it was, that was truly the case.
You know, I think you can, I could nitpick, you know, maybe some of the programming or something like that.
But then you kind of get to the fact that I still had good takeaways because I met people I didn't know before and connect with people I knew before and, you know, I think that almost needs to be put front and center. And there's definitely a period of time where I'm like, that's a little. Is that really? It's a little. We could just, we could solve for that. Really.
It's like, no, actually, we really kind of need it. Even the film festival is a good point. Like, I've never really understood, you know, watching other people recreate. Right.
You know, occasionally you see something that kind of catches your eye.
But going to a ski film festival, and I'm like, I don't like skiing that much, you know, but then it's not about, frankly, the skiing, it's about everybody sitting in the audience and having this shared experience and, you know, and the trade show thing will sort itself out and frankly, outside too. And that's the. By all accounts, the, the most successful part of the outside festival last year was the music fest piece of it. Right?
Just everybody getting together and having a good time. So. Yeah, I agree. I'd love to see more of that. And I think it's.
I do think we probably do need more because we all have so many freaking opinions about, like, what an event should be. So it's almost like we need a little bit for everybody so everyone can stop bitching about what they're not getting.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:28:30.009 - 00:29:52.825
Yep, yep, for sure. For sure. And yeah, we definitely needed in Australia too. As I said, bit of a gap entirely, really, in the outdoor industry down here.
And we're, you know, it's a funny, funny space in Australia because you're dealing with distributors a lot of the time. So some of the brands are here in Australia directly and otherwise it's distributors. And, you know, that changes the dynamic a lot.
I think the other thing I'd love to see in the future as well is just a continuation of, you know, organic and niche brands emerging. I think one of, one of the fears I have is just the homogenization of all of the outdoor brands that we've loved growing up.
And I still get off on going into any outdoor store and having a look around and the inevitable investment of private equity and offshore funds and all of those things. I think there's a risk that these brands, a lot of them end up becoming quite same, same.
I love looking for those up and coming niche brands that are doing cool product and I think seeing more and more of that in the future is fantastic and I'd love that to continue and I hope that that does continue and can survive the investment from these bigger companies.
Colin True
00:29:53.245 - 00:30:59.071
Yeah, I Agree. We talk about a lot on the show.
There's a, there's a lot of same and a lot of big, you know, corporate overlords who have brands that were once cool who maybe aren't so cool anymore. But I think that a lot of those brands are becoming vulnerable.
And as you start to see, we're going to start featuring over on Gear and Beer podcast, you know, some, some smaller brands that are starting to get some traction and you kind of start seeing that like, oh, they got that hunger that maybe, you know, hardware or North Face or everybody had back in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s. And yeah, I think it will.
It's the people who are going to realize that the innovation, the innovation back then was truly, oh, this is technically different than anything we've had before that allows us to go outside. And now the innovation is design and color and fit and vibe and all that kind of stuff.
And how do you apply that and get people to have it resonate, especially with young people? Because we're kind of an old space right now, you know, a lot of old people.
So I guess the last thing, man, is like, you know, you're talking about all the plans and everything. When are you launching podcasts? You know, it's like, you know, I think you guys would crush it. Everyone in America loves Australian accents.
You get some outdoor podcasts going in Australia, everyone here would eat it up. It'd be great.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:30:59.223 - 00:31:02.951
For sure. For sure. Well, we need to get the rock fight out to Australia for a start.
Colin True
00:31:03.023 - 00:31:09.799
Hell yeah. I gotta start doing my weekly Australian check ins. You guys have a reason to start tuning in a little bit more, I guess.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:31:09.927 - 00:32:03.695
Yeah, for sure.
But yeah, it's funny you say it, a lot of people have asked me and I definitely love to do something, particularly something in the industry side of it. I think those brand stories excite me.
I love talking to founders and hearing the stories of people that have created these companies and business businesses and how they've done it. So I think that's certainly one side of it that I'm thinking about doing something with. And then the athlete stories as well.
We brought Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgen down to Australia pre pandemic and that's one of the best things we've ever done in the business. And that was like a podcast on stage.
We designed the entire event with them and helped them tell their story behind the scenes of the Dawn Wall on stage. And there's a huge appetite for that stuff and, and yeah, really excited to do more for sure. Into the future.
Colin True
00:32:04.155 - 00:32:06.027
Did you see the doc that just came out?
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:32:06.051 - 00:32:06.331
I don't know.
Colin True
00:32:06.363 - 00:32:14.203
Maybe not just. But I thought it was pretty recent on Disney with Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:32:14.339 - 00:32:15.195
Yeah. Epic.
Colin True
00:32:15.235 - 00:32:16.323
Going up to Alaska.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:32:16.499 - 00:33:11.415
Yeah. Unbelievable. But interesting. So good.
But what's interesting to me about those as well is that that stuff is just ending up on streaming platforms and you kind of just stumble across it and go, oh, my God, those films need to back in cinemas.
And, you know, I'd love to see the streaming companies invest in that work to share those stories on the big screen before they end up on the streaming platforms. And it's certainly been a headwind for us as a feature. You know, as I said, we did a lot of feature films pre Covid.
Yeah, it's quite hard to do them now because when you approach a filmmaker who has one of those stories, they're very reticent to hand it over for cinema screenings because of a concern that that'll limit the ability to get a Netflix deal or a Disney plus deal. So that's definitely one gap that needs to get plugged.
Colin True
00:33:12.035 - 00:33:31.723
Yeah, that's a good point. And yeah, that's a good point. If you're. I mean, you have an adventure video streaming service and you have to like.
I literally find almost most of those kinds of films on Disney plus now because the National Geographic Channel or whatever it is and no, no, no, they're not always National Geographic films. I never would have thought, hey, go to that Disney app and you'll find all sorts of cool, like, adventure films. It's kind of crazy.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:33:31.899 - 00:33:34.615
It's crazy. I know. Amazing films.
Colin True
00:33:35.395 - 00:33:53.419
Yeah, absolutely. Well, hey, man, I really appreciate you coming on.
We'll definitely, you know, help you get launched down, get some podcasts, launch free down in Australia. We're here, we're here to help out.
But listen, we love, love what you're doing and anything we can do to help you make sure more people find out about it, we're happy to be part of your little ecosystem. For sure.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:33:53.547 - 00:34:00.697
Thanks. For sure, Colin. And yeah, make sure you get along to see the fly Fishing film tour and the women's adventure film tour from Feb. Next year.
Colin True
00:34:00.881 - 00:34:02.385
Sounds good, man. Thanks for coming on.
Toby Ryston-Pratt
00:34:02.505 - 00:34:04.153
Cool. Thanks, mate. Cheers.
Colin True
00:34:04.329 - 00:34:32.162
All right, that's the show for today. What did you think? Did you already know about adventure entertainment? And I was the only one who'd been missing out.
Send your feedback on this and every episode of the rock fight to myrockflightmail.com the Rock Fight is a production of Rock LLC I'm Colin True. Thanks for listening and here to take us out. Take us out shopping on a black Friday. It's our guy, Chris demakes.
He's gonna sing for you right now and he's gonna sing the rock fight fight song. We'll see you next time, rock fighters.
Chris DeMakes
00:34:32.218 - 00:35:30.615
Rock fight rock fight rock fight rock fight rock fight, rock fight welcome to the rock fight where we speak our truth Slay sacred cows and sometimes agree to disagree we talk about human powered outdoor activities and pic bites about topics that we find interesting like pop culture music the latest movie reviews Ideas that aim for the head this is where we speak our truth this is where we speak our truth Rock fight rock fight rock fight welcome to the rock fight rock fight, rock fight welcome to the rock fight rock light rock fight rock until the rat bite rat bite Rock.