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Today on THE ROCK FIGHT (an outdoor podcast that aims for the head) we take a look at a new outdoor organization and the impact it has had on the business of going outside.
The Outdoor Market Alliance is a group of Rocky Mountain based independent sales agencies that have established a permanent showroom for the more than 175 outdoor brands that they represent. Established as a non-profit, OMA has changed how outdoor business gets done in the region.
In this episode OMA President Steve Copeland joins Colin to talk about why OMA was formed and the impact the organization has had on the industry at large.
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Episode Transcript
Colin (00:00):
Welcome to the Rock Fight where we speak our truth, slay sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree. This is an outdoor podcast that aims for the head. I'm Colin Tru, and today we're going to highlight an organization that is changing the business of the outdoors, even though that's not what they set out to do. Today we're talking about the Outdoor Market Alliance. But first, please be sure to follow and rate the rock fight wherever you are listening. If Apple Podcast is your preferred podcast app, please leave us a written review with your rating, your five star rating, and send a screenshot of that review to My rock fight@gmail.com and we'll send you some gear and beer and rock fight stickers. And hey, you want to reach out to the show? Email us, send your emails to My rock fight@gmail.com. Alright, it's time to talk about this little organization in Denver. Let's start the show.
Chris DeMakes (00:46):
Fight, fight, fight.
Colin (00:51):
Regular rock fight. Listeners will remember a couple of weeks ago when I referenced attending a media show in Denver held at the showrooms of the Outdoor Market Alliance. Ooma or OMA, whatever you want to call it, is kind of turning the business of going outside on its head. The organization is a collective of competing sales agencies, and as most of you listening to this probably know a lot of outdoor brands use independent sales agencies to sell their products to retailers. Rather than hire in-House employees, these agencies cover specific regions of the US and usually represent several different brands. The Outdoor Market Alliance is a nonprofit entity that has 27 member sales agencies that all told cover almost all of the most relevant outdoor brands that you would find in a typical outdoor shop. The reason why OMA is different is that while many of these agencies and any other territory are friendly with each other, they're still competitors.
(01:42):
So coming together to offer a permanent showroom for the Rocky Mountain region has been a boon to retailers in the region, but it has also shaken things up by creating competition for their local trade shows put on by the Western Winter Sports Rep Association. And the success of the OMA has reps in other regions of the US questioning if something similar can be created in their neck of the woods. So how did all of this come together? Well, to find out, I reached out to Steve Copeland. Steve is the principal of Granite Marketing, a Denver based outdoor sales agency and the president of the Outdoor Market Alliance. He was there at the start and he's now shepherding the OMA through their success. Welcome back to the Rock Fight, where today it's all about the Outdoor Market Alliance with Steve Copeland. Alright, well, we're joined today by Steve Copeland, who's the principal at Granite Marketing and the president of the Outdoor Market Alliance. This is our second attempt at this conversation. The first time we were betrayed by technology, but even though no one heard that first attempt other than me, I can still say Welcome back to the show. Steve, this is technically your second time, even though no one heard the first time. I'm warmed up
Steve (02:43):
Now, buddy. I'm warmed
Colin (02:44):
Up. That's right. We're going to cover a lot of the same topics we did the first time. It's going to be weird, but that's all right. So we're here to talk about the Outdoor Market Alliance, kind of why does it exist? What is happening in Denver with the organization? I mean, largely speaking, how business gets done in the outdoor industry has been established for some time. We have brands who make things, who deploy sales agents to sell those things to retailers and then onto consumers. The buying process for retailers has largely been steady as well as the primary points of engagements being in store visits and regional trade shows and national trade shows. All of that's pretty well established for some time. And I look at the creation of the Outdoor Market Alliance and it's kind of turned some of this process on its head almost entirely in a good way. So I guess to start, how did the Outdoor Market Alliance come to be and what was missing from the regular cadence of what I just described, that you feel like necessitated something different?
Steve (03:38):
Yeah, so it all came about the Rocky Mountain Territory is unique. A lot of the retailers, sorry, a lot of the reps, sales agents live along the front range of Colorado. And so because of that, we were, a lot of us were already established at the Denver Mart. That Denver Mart was another showroom. It had Western jewelry, t-shirts and gift stuff, as well as some outdoor guys mixed in. And so the outdoor folks that were there, we were loosely connected. We knew each other, but we weren't really a group necessarily. It was also where, yeah, yeah. And it was also where the W-W-S-R-A shows were being held at the Denver Mart, so it was kind of very convenient, and so a lot of us saw, and the rent was really inexpensive. So at the time I had a fairly large showroom there. It was because it was cheaper than a storage unit, and this was an old building, et cetera.
(04:29):
Long and short of it was in 2020 or thereabouts, we got notice that the mart was going to be shut down. So we got notice in December of 2020, so through the beginning of 2021, which we all remember as the pandemic, it started and we were told, Hey, you got to be out of here by May. Now the pandemic's raging and a group of us within the mart at that time got together, seven of us got together, we had a principal rep from an agency, Axel now with Stanley. He was kind of our principal go-to guy. He was helping organize, he was helpful in talking with, Hey, what are we going to do as a group? So he became kind of our ringleader and we started having regular meetings at this time, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Started asking ourselves, what are you going to do?
(05:16):
We knew that we were better together than apart. We said, gosh, we've got to find something. And we did this big search about during the pandemic, it was a total nightmare to be truthful, but we ended up landing here at our current space through a series of connections, and we were called OMA at the beginning. We didn't know what we were going to be called. We didn't actually have an organization. Really what happened was we had the idea, a lot of us were talking at the time, the seven kind of leadership team, what we call our board members, were talking at the time, and we recognized at that time that we could form something, we could establish trade shows altogether, we could do this sort of thing. And then the Marshall Fire, the over in Boulder took place, and that was pretty devastating, but it really catalyst, it was a catalyst to bring our group together and be a little more pointed and say, yes, we're going to be a 5 0 1 C nonprofit.
(06:06):
We're going to make donations to these guys. And it was really the start of our philanthropic work at Outdoor Market Alliance or OMA. So super cool. We understood that the better together, once we had about 12 of us signed up to be in our space, it basically took off. The FOMO was real with this group. Everybody wanted to be a part of it. We didn't still know what we were all doing at the time. We just thought, Hey, we're going to have a marketplace where our retailers can come meet with us. And it definitely worked. The first market show that we did, I believe was in June of once we got established, and it worked fantastic. We recognized, one of the things we saw though was that everybody was leaving our space to go eat lunch. And it was like, so we were like, Hey, let's keep the retailers here.
(06:53):
So we all decided we should just pay for lunches here. Let's have a pizza day, a taco day, whatever during our market weeks and keep those retailers here, make it easy for them to do business with us. And then we started establishing weeks during the year that made sense. We have two market weeks each season for the traditional outdoor space. And then we have footwear now, which is a component that goes on twice a year as well. So we have a footwear show. And then, so it's a total of six shows a year that we're hosting here at Ooma. And it's really done a lot of great things for the folks that are within the building. I think it's also great for the retailers. Every time we talk to the retailers, they're so thankful that what we're doing here that they can come and do their commerce, get their business done. It's super easy. It's relaxed. One thing that's been awesome for me is the camaraderie amongst the various agencies. It's been great to see the relationships, the personalities, how helpful everybody is. This is, nobody's getting paid a dime to put on these market weeks or anything. And we have tremendous support throughout our channel here at OMA 25 rooms, over 200 brands.
Colin (07:58):
What we're looking, it seems like a almost very true outdoor story. I mean, because you said on paper your competitors, I'm sure there's times when your partners at OMA you would potentially fight over if a new line came up that two of you would want or more of you would want, those kinds of things. But it is, so much of what we do in the outdoor industry is solving needs, right? It's like, oh, I need to stay warm, dry, cooler, safe in the back country. These are the products that will help you do it. And this feels like an outdoor story. It's like, no, there's people, actually, hold on a second. Let's take a deeper look at what we're doing and where, yeah, we're competitors, but where do our goals align and how do we do that? And yes, we can put on our hats sometimes and say, Hey, we need to kind of duke it out for a line or something like that. But then 98% of the time we're coworkers and we're in the same building, and we actually get along and we have more common interests than we don't. So it feels like an outdoor story more than anything else to me.
Steve (08:53):
Yeah, that's great that you see that the more and more I've been a part of this. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. It's competition, right? It's competition, cooperative competition, right? I think that competition has been infectious here. We all know that we're competitors and to a certain degree in certain areas, but overall, I don't think people, the beauty of the outdoor space is that there's a lot of great people in this business. It just reinforced what I already knew. And the beauty of having us based here is that we're not trying to cram everything into a really tight timeframe. Our regional shows why we, many of us still participate at the Utah W-W-S-R-A show. We're still members of WSRA. We just find it really difficult to do all of our business in a three day window. And so we're needing more time to do that.
(09:39):
And that's why a lot of us established at the Denver Mart. That's why it made a ton of sense to be here at OMA. It allowed us to just do a better version of what we were doing at regional shows. And at the end of the day, I can just turn on the light. I don't have to break down grid. I can go home, that's nice and be back. Yeah, it's really convenient. It's really, the convenience factor is I, we're all paying for it. This is not an inexpensive endeavor. It's definitely a pretty substantial investment for each of the agencies that are here. But we were just querying a number of our rooms and OMA members, and hearing from them that they're super jazzed. They're ready to sign up for another three, another five, et cetera. So we're very pleased with where we are right now.
(10:23):
Having the media event that we are hosting fall into our lap. Really, Dave Simpson with verday was a super catalyst to get that done, and he bumped into another OMA member, lead it with Mountain stuff, and then bumped into me at our Gregory sales meeting, and we started talking about, Hey, how does that look? What's going on in oma? And then, Hey, do you think there would be a place for media? And he indicated that there might be an opportunity for one or two of the PR groups to do something here. And we were trying to figure out how to raise money at the same time. We were like, how do we keep funding and do these donations and how does that look? And so I created a partnership with Elastic who saw the value in what we were doing, and so there preferred what we call a preferred partner. So they pay us some monies to be a part of that and to get that recognition. We also believe they're doing a great job. And then we talked to the PR guys, like, Hey, do we have a situation? Does this make sense? And of course it did. We did our first trial and error. We had 50 media or so sign up, which was awesome. It's all about bringing media here. They're the retailers for the PR folks and the brands and awesome engagement. You've had a chance to see us now in action.
Colin (11:35):
Well, so that's a good point. So you mentioned number one that the OMA was found that as a nonprofit, the big part of the organization focus on community initiatives and then yeah, you're providing, it's not just the sales retail piece of it. You have this media event for PR agencies and journalists. I got a chance to go. I talked about it here in the rock fight, and it was a great event. I mean, it checked all the boxes of what you'd want. But just to start with the community piece, how did philanthropy in addition, maybe it was just the fire, but how did that play into the goals for what did you want Oma be from the Get-go, and how does community involvement shape the organization going forward?
Steve (12:12):
Yeah, great. We knew that we had a powerful voice after doing that donation to the Marshall Fire Victims, where we donated over a hundred thousand dollars with our brands in product, and we donated a large sum of cash to these folks to help them out. It was really hit our community. A lot of us knew somebody who was connected to that fire or got devastated by that fire. They're still in rebuilding mode today, so almost
Colin (12:37):
Four years. My old apartment building, I lived in Superior for a year. I think it may have burned out or it was real close. I know that,
Steve (12:43):
Yeah, there was a lot of devastation there. So we knew after that that we could do some cool philanthropic stuff here and that we could have an impact locally and locally for us is our Rocky Mountain Territory. This includes Utah. Everybody is, we're all connected in this, and we do business in a lot of these locations, so it made a ton of sense, but we didn't know how to raise money. All nonprofits, I think most of them are doing all the time, is trying to figure out how to raise money. And I mean, that's their objective and that's ours as well. We're trying to figure out revenue streams. And so we connected, again, I said about the Elastic Connection. They've been awesome to us overall. And then we were looking around going, all right, well, how else can we do this? In the PR event that we talked about just a minute ago, landed in our lap, and that's how we fund a lot of these events that we do post all our lunches, et cetera, but also allows us to donate.
(13:37):
We donated $20,000 the next year to Outdoor Labs, which is an organization that's based here in Jefferson County, Colorado that allows sixth graders to go and get access to the outdoors and teaches them they get to come up for a week. My daughter, who's now 21, got a chance to be a part of that organization was wonderful. We as a group all vote on who's going to get the monies, the donations. This last year or here in 2024, we just donated $30,000 to local nonprofits, save A Brain, and Utah got monies. We donated a total of $30,000, so 20 grand went to Save Our Rivers, which is an awesome organization. And then 7,500 went to Save a Brain, and then 2,500 went to Women's for Wilderness here out of Boulder. And so we allowed them to come to the media event so they can get exposure if that's what they're looking for. And then of course, they get a check from oma and it feels good for us. It feels like the right thing. We want to have an impact. When we hand this money out, we don't want to have it as a drop in a bucket. We actually want to have an impact. And so we're definitely looking at the smaller group, but it's all voted on by the members here at OMA. They pick who these players are. We all vote as a group, and those are the three that rose to the top.
Colin (14:53):
That's amazing. So as though Ooma has established itself, and you mentioned the W-W-S-R-A, the Western Winter Sports Rep Association before, I mean, it is probably you are kind of, you're doing something new, and I detailed at the beginning, that's been a long history of this pretty established way of doing business. It's hard not to think there or may not have been some friction that has arisen as a result. Right? So do you guys play nice with the W-W-S-R-A? Has there been any bad blood created as a result of you guys becoming a more established player in the region?
Steve (15:26):
I would say there's no bad blood from our end of it, whether there's bad blood from dubbed dub at some point, there might've been some friction early on, but I think we've kind of navigated some of that situation. There's only so much room here for reps. There's a demand list that we're sitting on, so a lot of those same participants are participating in the dub dub shows, so there's no relevant, we host our shows at the same time so that we can cooperate and trade amongst retailers who are coming and they need to visit both locations, I think. Yeah, of course, we're a competitor in some ways, for sure. And I think, but I have a good direct line with some of the folks there that we communicate back and forth with what's happening. And at first there was some bumpy roads, but we've now ironed those out, I feel like. So I have no contentious relationship from my side. I am a WW SRA member. Many of the folks are here, and we do go still to a traditional WW show in Utah that many of us participate in. It's a fantastic show. It's really well run.
Colin (16:27):
Yeah, tough to get mad if you're paying dues, right? I mean, come on. Yeah.
Steve (16:31):
Yeah.
Colin (16:32):
How about from the retail side? Have there any feedback from how they're choosing to engage now that Oma exists in somewhat their backyard, depending on where they are in the territory, but either with the regional or national shows? Have you heard any kind of anecdotally folks who are like, I don't have to go anywhere else anymore, or more like I come see you guys, or I don't need to. I have the regional show nearby. What's the feedback from the retailers been?
Steve (16:55):
Yeah, as predicted, it's very positive. The retailers love coming here. It's super easy for them. We make it easy for them. We're open for two weeks a season for them to come see everything. We're open here actually 24 7, 365, so they can make appointments here at any time, ideally during our market week so that we can get all that business done when we need to get it done. But there's a lot of rooms here that are rocking weeks before the shows and rocking weeks after the market weeks that we host. So yeah, I mean, I think they're very, very happy. The local retailers and the retailers from further away. It's more relaxed environment. Here at Oma, we have a full bar, up front, coffee, et cetera, that you can host and hang out. You get meals every day, it, it's a pretty awesome scenario and it's so different than what was out there. So we know that it's a better showcasing of brands. You get to see brand without a ton of around you. It's just a better presentation all the way around.
Colin (17:52):
Yeah, whoever's doing your food there is doing a great job. It was quite tasty. I was not disappointed with, I mean, sometimes you get like, oh, I'll eat here because it's convenient, but it's not great. The food was really good during the media event. Nice work.
Steve (18:03):
Oh, cool. That's great. We have some volunteers who help with that, and Sarah and Shand are rock stars for us, two reps who are putting in time to help us out, and it's fantastic. And then at the media event, we have a caterer, a local caterer is around the corner from us that we've established a strong relationship with, and they are all on board for making this a great event. So we're super happy to have them help host it.
Colin (18:28):
Yeah, being fed is never to be underrated, I feel like. No,
Steve (18:31):
No. That's what you remember from weddings, right? You don't really care what they wore, all the other
Colin (18:35):
Stuff. Yeah, of course they got married. That was the whole
Steve (18:37):
Point. That was some killer food. Yeah, that was great.
Colin (18:39):
Oh God, why did I choose the fish? Yeah, that's what you remember.
Steve (18:44):
Yeah.
Colin (18:44):
Well, I think one of the biggest conversations that comes up though when I talk about Oma with other folks is how can it be replicated in other regions? I'm sure this is something you get asked a lot, asked about a lot. As a former brand sales manager, my gut reaction to that is not super optimistic. I think the way things are laid out in the Rockies makes it a perfect fit for what you've built. It doesn't mean it can't happen, but I don't think there's a one for one that you can say, here's how we did it, roll it out in the Southeast or the Southwest or the Northeast or whatever. I guess just speaking largely, do you believe that the Outdoor Market Alliance is replicable in other territories?
Steve (19:20):
So I've had some conversations with other agencies in different parts of the country already, and I would say universally, there's an idea there that people would love to replicate this. They don't all have to live in this same geographic area, and I won't speak to anyone particular territory, but I mean, we have reps who live several hours away that only come in. We have reps who live in other states that come over to work the facility. So I think it is replicable. I don't know that we're ready to just do a turnkey, here's, here's the Oma Magic package and this is what you need to do. We're not quite said, not franchise, no. Again, this is all volunteer. I probably don't have the bandwidth to create that right away. We have some ideas. The board and I have had some great talks about where this could go and what we could do with it. And there's two specific territories that I will leave off the naming, but that are very interested in doing something right now, and they're looking to pull together in a smaller fashion to start and then maybe build it out as it goes from there. And it could be, we'll call it Oma Light, OMA East Oma, what have you.
Colin (20:33):
Sure. Yeah. I think the thing that was surprising to me seeing the facility when I was there for the media show is just the convenience it brings and the opportunities that can come with it. To your point, it doesn't have to be a day-to-Day. You're in another state and we need to have you here, sort of showroom. It's not that kind of thing. But if you have, like you said, you have regular shows, regular few weeks a year where we're selling to retailers and it's kind of its own version of a show, then you could commute to it and spend a week there. The media show specifically, I was talking to the organizer of that event, Evan, and his point was like, look, the big expense and a lot of these things is the space is the time and effort to set up booze to, there's the drayage.
(21:11):
All the stuff that comes with a show has been solved because this is just here now and whatever, like 85% of the open to buy in an outdoor retailer is represented in this building. So even on the media side, it's like, well, great. All the big brands that everyone wants to talk about anyway are already here. So it makes a ton of sense. And my point I'm making is, I think if you take those lessons from it and say, where do those kinds of things make sense in your territory, then absolutely it could work. I think the Rockies does have a bit of a, and you're in Denver and you're like, oh, we got to drive to Salt Lake. You're like, okay, it's not that big a deal. It doesn't feel like that far away. If you're in the Northeast and you have to drive eight hours, now you're in the Mid-Atlantic. So it's just a different kind of, it's not a one for one in terms of how it's laid out, but there are absolutely lessons from what you guys have done that could apply everywhere.
Steve (22:02):
Yeah, right. Yeah, no, I agree. Totally agree. Yeah, it's been an interesting experiment really. I wasn't sure if I was to sit in my same seat three years ago and think about where we started and what was in my head. It's definitely evolved dramatically from where we were then to where we are today. And the opportunities that I think are still available to us here at oma, we have an opportunity where we might be able to expand next door. We're investigating that situation. We do have a waiting list. We are prioritizing independent rep agencies, number one to be a part of oma. So that's our kind of preference right now. We'll see what happens if we do engage in this other 32,000 square foot space, exactly what that looks like, what that turns into, et cetera.
Colin (22:49):
I guess last thing, man, when you look at what you built, it is pretty special and unique and mostly a good, entirely in a good way. You've taken something that was pretty well entrenched and made it even better. When you sort of hang up your samples and you look back maybe even more so than the business you built at Granite Marketing, what do you hope the legacy of OMA is? Have you had any thoughts of that about that? What do you reflect on what you've been a part of creating? It's pretty cool.
Steve (23:15):
I guess I'm so close to it and so in depth in it right now that I don't, no, don't be humble. I don't have that 20,000 foot view, Hey, if I retire in the next two years, which is definitely on the horizon for me as I get age up in this business and I've looked at it and thought, I just want it to still be engaging. I want it to be relevant for the retail experience. The retailers are the ones we work for to be truthful, in my opinion. Brands can come and go, but those retailers are the most important component to all of this.
Colin (23:50):
Well, that is true.
Steve (23:52):
So as long as they're happy and coming here, then I'll feel like we did a good job. My team did a good job. The board that I work with, they're phenomenal. They're all excellent. The three officers that I work really closely with, pat Davis, the vice president, Tim Hat trip, our treasurer, awesome folks, so engaged, so dialed in what they're doing, it really lifts me up. Seeing their engagement lifts me up. And then the board is, these are all seasoned professionals. They all have great points of view and it's fun. It's been really fun. Honestly, it doesn't end felt like work. It is a side job. I feel like it's a bit of a side job that sometimes takes over my regular life. It's a big juggling, just like time is always a big juggling situation. We have to juggle that as well. At some point. We would like to have somebody that we can afford as an intern and have them manage a lot of these day-to-Day type stuff. That goes on with OMA.
Colin (24:45):
The only thing I have to ask is of all the reps and agencies that are in the building, which one's the most likely to be the guy who comes in and heats up fish in the microwave and stinks up the place? And why is it Mountain Source and Bruce Gordon? I mean, that's the,
Steve (25:00):
I'm not touching that. There's
Colin (25:02):
One of them in there. I'm not touching that. The one the lacking of like who's heating up fish in the microwave?
Steve (25:08):
Yeah, who doesn't? No. Yeah, we definitely, it's funny to see the different personalities and recognize who's who and what's what. That's for sure.
Colin (25:19):
Alright man.
Steve (25:20):
And most of the time it's no surprise. Yeah,
Colin (25:24):
You hear that Bruce. We know it's you. Hey Steve, I appreciate you coming on and spending some time with me today man. And congrats on all the success and excited to come back for the next media show. I can't wait to be back there and spending a little more time with you guys.
Steve (25:36):
Yeah, super cool. Look forward to having you out. Yeah, for sure. Alright, thanks Pete. So thanks for the opportunity.
Colin (25:43):
Alright, we're going to wrap it up there, but be sure to come back to the Rock Fight Podcast network tomorrow for a new episode of Gear and Beer. Over on the gear and beer feed. This week we're talking about Obras and drinking stone brewings arrogant bastard ale. The Rock Fight is a production of rock Fight LLC. Our producer today was David Kasad, art Direction by Sarah Genser. I'm Colin True. Thanks for listening. And big thanks to my guest, Steve Copeland and here to take us out as the voice of the Rock Fight podcast network Krista makes. He's going to sing the rock Fight Fight song right fucking now. We'll see you next time. Rock fighters. Rock
Chris DeMakes (26:15):
Fight, rock fight, rock fight, rock fight, rock fight, rock. Fight into the rock. Fight where we speak our truth, say sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree. We talk about human power, outdoor activities and pick bites about topics that we find interesting. Black culture, music, the latest Colin (00:00):
Welcome to the Rock Fight where we speak our truth, slay sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree. This is an outdoor podcast that aims for the head. I'm Colin Tru, and today we're going to highlight an organization that is changing the business of the outdoors, even though that's not what they set out to do. Today we're talking about the Outdoor Market Alliance. But first, please be sure to follow and rate the rock fight wherever you are listening. If Apple Podcast is your preferred podcast app, please leave us a written review with your rating, your five star rating, and send a screenshot of that review to My rock fight@gmail.com and we'll send you some gear and beer and rock fight stickers. And hey, you want to reach out to the show? Email us, send your emails to My rock fight@gmail.com. Alright, it's time to talk about this little organization in Denver. Let's start the show.
Chris DeMakes (00:46):
Fight, fight, fight.
Colin (00:51):
Regular rock fight. Listeners will remember a couple of weeks ago when I referenced attending a media show in Denver held at the showrooms of the Outdoor Market Alliance. Ooma or OMA, whatever you want to call it, is kind of turning the business of going outside on its head. The organization is a collective of competing sales agencies, and as most of you listening to this probably know a lot of outdoor brands use independent sales agencies to sell their products to retailers. Rather than hire in-House employees, these agencies cover specific regions of the US and usually represent several different brands. The Outdoor Market Alliance is a nonprofit entity that has 27 member sales agencies that all told cover almost all of the most relevant outdoor brands that you would find in a typical outdoor shop. The reason why OMA is different is that while many of these agencies and any other territory are friendly with each other, they're still competitors.
(01:42):
So coming together to offer a permanent showroom for the Rocky Mountain region has been a boon to retailers in the region, but it has also shaken things up by creating competition for their local trade shows put on by the Western Winter Sports Rep Association. And the success of the OMA has reps in other regions of the US questioning if something similar can be created in their neck of the woods. So how did all of this come together? Well, to find out, I reached out to Steve Copeland. Steve is the principal of Granite Marketing, a Denver based outdoor sales agency and the president of the Outdoor Market Alliance. He was there at the start and he's now shepherding the OMA through their success. Welcome back to the Rock Fight, where today it's all about the Outdoor Market Alliance with Steve Copeland. Alright, well, we're joined today by Steve Copeland, who's the principal at Granite Marketing and the president of the Outdoor Market Alliance. This is our second attempt at this conversation. The first time we were betrayed by technology, but even though no one heard that first attempt other than me, I can still say Welcome back to the show. Steve, this is technically your second time, even though no one heard the first time. I'm warmed up
Steve (02:43):
Now, buddy. I'm warmed
Colin (02:44):
Up. That's right. We're going to cover a lot of the same topics we did the first time. It's going to be weird, but that's all right. So we're here to talk about the Outdoor Market Alliance, kind of why does it exist? What is happening in Denver with the organization? I mean, largely speaking, how business gets done in the outdoor industry has been established for some time. We have brands who make things, who deploy sales agents to sell those things to retailers and then onto consumers. The buying process for retailers has largely been steady as well as the primary points of engagements being in store visits and regional trade shows and national trade shows. All of that's pretty well established for some time. And I look at the creation of the Outdoor Market Alliance and it's kind of turned some of this process on its head almost entirely in a good way. So I guess to start, how did the Outdoor Market Alliance come to be and what was missing from the regular cadence of what I just described, that you feel like necessitated something different?
Steve (03:38):
Yeah, so it all came about the Rocky Mountain Territory is unique. A lot of the retailers, sorry, a lot of the reps, sales agents live along the front range of Colorado. And so because of that, we were, a lot of us were already established at the Denver Mart. That Denver Mart was another showroom. It had Western jewelry, t-shirts and gift stuff, as well as some outdoor guys mixed in. And so the outdoor folks that were there, we were loosely connected. We knew each other, but we weren't really a group necessarily. It was also where, yeah, yeah. And it was also where the W-W-S-R-A shows were being held at the Denver Mart, so it was kind of very convenient, and so a lot of us saw, and the rent was really inexpensive. So at the time I had a fairly large showroom there. It was because it was cheaper than a storage unit, and this was an old building, et cetera.
(04:29):
Long and short of it was in 2020 or thereabouts, we got notice that the mart was going to be shut down. So we got notice in December of 2020, so through the beginning of 2021, which we all remember as the pandemic, it started and we were told, Hey, you got to be out of here by May. Now the pandemic's raging and a group of us within the mart at that time got together, seven of us got together, we had a principal rep from an agency, Axel now with Stanley. He was kind of our principal go-to guy. He was helping organize, he was helpful in talking with, Hey, what are we going to do as a group? So he became kind of our ringleader and we started having regular meetings at this time, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Started asking ourselves, what are you going to do?
(05:16):
We knew that we were better together than apart. We said, gosh, we've got to find something. And we did this big search about during the pandemic, it was a total nightmare to be truthful, but we ended up landing here at our current space through a series of connections, and we were called OMA at the beginning. We didn't know what we were going to be called. We didn't actually have an organization. Really what happened was we had the idea, a lot of us were talking at the time, the seven kind of leadership team, what we call our board members, were talking at the time, and we recognized at that time that we could form something, we could establish trade shows altogether, we could do this sort of thing. And then the Marshall Fire, the over in Boulder took place, and that was pretty devastating, but it really catalyst, it was a catalyst to bring our group together and be a little more pointed and say, yes, we're going to be a 5 0 1 C nonprofit.
(06:06):
We're going to make donations to these guys. And it was really the start of our philanthropic work at Outdoor Market Alliance or OMA. So super cool. We understood that the better together, once we had about 12 of us signed up to be in our space, it basically took off. The FOMO was real with this group. Everybody wanted to be a part of it. We didn't still know what we were all doing at the time. We just thought, Hey, we're going to have a marketplace where our retailers can come meet with us. And it definitely worked. The first market show that we did, I believe was in June of once we got established, and it worked fantastic. We recognized, one of the things we saw though was that everybody was leaving our space to go eat lunch. And it was like, so we were like, Hey, let's keep the retailers here.
(06:53):
So we all decided we should just pay for lunches here. Let's have a pizza day, a taco day, whatever during our market weeks and keep those retailers here, make it easy for them to do business with us. And then we started establishing weeks during the year that made sense. We have two market weeks each season for the traditional outdoor space. And then we have footwear now, which is a component that goes on twice a year as well. So we have a footwear show. And then, so it's a total of six shows a year that we're hosting here at Ooma. And it's really done a lot of great things for the folks that are within the building. I think it's also great for the retailers. Every time we talk to the retailers, they're so thankful that what we're doing here that they can come and do their commerce, get their business done. It's super easy. It's relaxed. One thing that's been awesome for me is the camaraderie amongst the various agencies. It's been great to see the relationships, the personalities, how helpful everybody is. This is, nobody's getting paid a dime to put on these market weeks or anything. And we have tremendous support throughout our channel here at OMA 25 rooms, over 200 brands.
Colin (07:58):
What we're looking, it seems like a almost very true outdoor story. I mean, because you said on paper your competitors, I'm sure there's times when your partners at OMA you would potentially fight over if a new line came up that two of you would want or more of you would want, those kinds of things. But it is, so much of what we do in the outdoor industry is solving needs, right? It's like, oh, I need to stay warm, dry, cooler, safe in the back country. These are the products that will help you do it. And this feels like an outdoor story. It's like, no, there's people, actually, hold on a second. Let's take a deeper look at what we're doing and where, yeah, we're competitors, but where do our goals align and how do we do that? And yes, we can put on our hats sometimes and say, Hey, we need to kind of duke it out for a line or something like that. But then 98% of the time we're coworkers and we're in the same building, and we actually get along and we have more common interests than we don't. So it feels like an outdoor story more than anything else to me.
Steve (08:53):
Yeah, that's great that you see that the more and more I've been a part of this. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. It's competition, right? It's competition, cooperative competition, right? I think that competition has been infectious here. We all know that we're competitors and to a certain degree in certain areas, but overall, I don't think people, the beauty of the outdoor space is that there's a lot of great people in this business. It just reinforced what I already knew. And the beauty of having us based here is that we're not trying to cram everything into a really tight timeframe. Our regional shows why we, many of us still participate at the Utah W-W-S-R-A show. We're still members of WSRA. We just find it really difficult to do all of our business in a three day window. And so we're needing more time to do that.
(09:39):
And that's why a lot of us established at the Denver Mart. That's why it made a ton of sense to be here at OMA. It allowed us to just do a better version of what we were doing at regional shows. And at the end of the day, I can just turn on the light. I don't have to break down grid. I can go home, that's nice and be back. Yeah, it's really convenient. It's really, the convenience factor is I, we're all paying for it. This is not an inexpensive endeavor. It's definitely a pretty substantial investment for each of the agencies that are here. But we were just querying a number of our rooms and OMA members, and hearing from them that they're super jazzed. They're ready to sign up for another three, another five, et cetera. So we're very pleased with where we are right now.
(10:23):
Having the media event that we are hosting fall into our lap. Really, Dave Simpson with verday was a super catalyst to get that done, and he bumped into another OMA member, lead it with Mountain stuff, and then bumped into me at our Gregory sales meeting, and we started talking about, Hey, how does that look? What's going on in oma? And then, Hey, do you think there would be a place for media? And he indicated that there might be an opportunity for one or two of the PR groups to do something here. And we were trying to figure out how to raise money at the same time. We were like, how do we keep funding and do these donations and how does that look? And so I created a partnership with Elastic who saw the value in what we were doing, and so there preferred what we call a preferred partner. So they pay us some monies to be a part of that and to get that recognition. We also believe they're doing a great job. And then we talked to the PR guys, like, Hey, do we have a situation? Does this make sense? And of course it did. We did our first trial and error. We had 50 media or so sign up, which was awesome. It's all about bringing media here. They're the retailers for the PR folks and the brands and awesome engagement. You've had a chance to see us now in action.
Colin (11:35):
Well, so that's a good point. So you mentioned number one that the OMA was found that as a nonprofit, the big part of the organization focus on community initiatives and then yeah, you're providing, it's not just the sales retail piece of it. You have this media event for PR agencies and journalists. I got a chance to go. I talked about it here in the rock fight, and it was a great event. I mean, it checked all the boxes of what you'd want. But just to start with the community piece, how did philanthropy in addition, maybe it was just the fire, but how did that play into the goals for what did you want Oma be from the Get-go, and how does community involvement shape the organization going forward?
Steve (12:12):
Yeah, great. We knew that we had a powerful voice after doing that donation to the Marshall Fire Victims, where we donated over a hundred thousand dollars with our brands in product, and we donated a large sum of cash to these folks to help them out. It was really hit our community. A lot of us knew somebody who was connected to that fire or got devastated by that fire. They're still in rebuilding mode today, so almost
Colin (12:37):
Four years. My old apartment building, I lived in Superior for a year. I think it may have burned out or it was real close. I know that,
Steve (12:43):
Yeah, there was a lot of devastation there. So we knew after that that we could do some cool philanthropic stuff here and that we could have an impact locally and locally for us is our Rocky Mountain Territory. This includes Utah. Everybody is, we're all connected in this, and we do business in a lot of these locations, so it made a ton of sense, but we didn't know how to raise money. All nonprofits, I think most of them are doing all the time, is trying to figure out how to raise money. And I mean, that's their objective and that's ours as well. We're trying to figure out revenue streams. And so we connected, again, I said about the Elastic Connection. They've been awesome to us overall. And then we were looking around going, all right, well, how else can we do this? In the PR event that we talked about just a minute ago, landed in our lap, and that's how we fund a lot of these events that we do post all our lunches, et cetera, but also allows us to donate.
(13:37):
We donated $20,000 the next year to Outdoor Labs, which is an organization that's based here in Jefferson County, Colorado that allows sixth graders to go and get access to the outdoors and teaches them they get to come up for a week. My daughter, who's now 21, got a chance to be a part of that organization was wonderful. We as a group all vote on who's going to get the monies, the donations. This last year or here in 2024, we just donated $30,000 to local nonprofits, save A Brain, and Utah got monies. We donated a total of $30,000, so 20 grand went to Save Our Rivers, which is an awesome organization. And then 7,500 went to Save a Brain, and then 2,500 went to Women's for Wilderness here out of Boulder. And so we allowed them to come to the media event so they can get exposure if that's what they're looking for. And then of course, they get a check from oma and it feels good for us. It feels like the right thing. We want to have an impact. When we hand this money out, we don't want to have it as a drop in a bucket. We actually want to have an impact. And so we're definitely looking at the smaller group, but it's all voted on by the members here at OMA. They pick who these players are. We all vote as a group, and those are the three that rose to the top.
Colin (14:53):
That's amazing. So as though Ooma has established itself, and you mentioned the W-W-S-R-A, the Western Winter Sports Rep Association before, I mean, it is probably you are kind of, you're doing something new, and I detailed at the beginning, that's been a long history of this pretty established way of doing business. It's hard not to think there or may not have been some friction that has arisen as a result. Right? So do you guys play nice with the W-W-S-R-A? Has there been any bad blood created as a result of you guys becoming a more established player in the region?
Steve (15:26):
I would say there's no bad blood from our end of it, whether there's bad blood from dubbed dub at some point, there might've been some friction early on, but I think we've kind of navigated some of that situation. There's only so much room here for reps. There's a demand list that we're sitting on, so a lot of those same participants are participating in the dub dub shows, so there's no relevant, we host our shows at the same time so that we can cooperate and trade amongst retailers who are coming and they need to visit both locations, I think. Yeah, of course, we're a competitor in some ways, for sure. And I think, but I have a good direct line with some of the folks there that we communicate back and forth with what's happening. And at first there was some bumpy roads, but we've now ironed those out, I feel like. So I have no contentious relationship from my side. I am a WW SRA member. Many of the folks are here, and we do go still to a traditional WW show in Utah that many of us participate in. It's a fantastic show. It's really well run.
Colin (16:27):
Yeah, tough to get mad if you're paying dues, right? I mean, come on. Yeah.
Steve (16:31):
Yeah.
Colin (16:32):
How about from the retail side? Have there any feedback from how they're choosing to engage now that Oma exists in somewhat their backyard, depending on where they are in the territory, but either with the regional or national shows? Have you heard any kind of anecdotally folks who are like, I don't have to go anywhere else anymore, or more like I come see you guys, or I don't need to. I have the regional show nearby. What's the feedback from the retailers been?
Steve (16:55):
Yeah, as predicted, it's very positive. The retailers love coming here. It's super easy for them. We make it easy for them. We're open for two weeks a season for them to come see everything. We're open here actually 24 7, 365, so they can make appointments here at any time, ideally during our market week so that we can get all that business done when we need to get it done. But there's a lot of rooms here that are rocking weeks before the shows and rocking weeks after the market weeks that we host. So yeah, I mean, I think they're very, very happy. The local retailers and the retailers from further away. It's more relaxed environment. Here at Oma, we have a full bar, up front, coffee, et cetera, that you can host and hang out. You get meals every day, it, it's a pretty awesome scenario and it's so different than what was out there. So we know that it's a better showcasing of brands. You get to see brand without a ton of around you. It's just a better presentation all the way around.
Colin (17:52):
Yeah, whoever's doing your food there is doing a great job. It was quite tasty. I was not disappointed with, I mean, sometimes you get like, oh, I'll eat here because it's convenient, but it's not great. The food was really good during the media event. Nice work.
Steve (18:03):
Oh, cool. That's great. We have some volunteers who help with that, and Sarah and Shand are rock stars for us, two reps who are putting in time to help us out, and it's fantastic. And then at the media event, we have a caterer, a local caterer is around the corner from us that we've established a strong relationship with, and they are all on board for making this a great event. So we're super happy to have them help host it.
Colin (18:28):
Yeah, being fed is never to be underrated, I feel like. No,
Steve (18:31):
No. That's what you remember from weddings, right? You don't really care what they wore, all the other
Colin (18:35):
Stuff. Yeah, of course they got married. That was the whole
Steve (18:37):
Point. That was some killer food. Yeah, that was great.
Colin (18:39):
Oh God, why did I choose the fish? Yeah, that's what you remember.
Steve (18:44):
Yeah.
Colin (18:44):
Well, I think one of the biggest conversations that comes up though when I talk about Oma with other folks is how can it be replicated in other regions? I'm sure this is something you get asked a lot, asked about a lot. As a former brand sales manager, my gut reaction to that is not super optimistic. I think the way things are laid out in the Rockies makes it a perfect fit for what you've built. It doesn't mean it can't happen, but I don't think there's a one for one that you can say, here's how we did it, roll it out in the Southeast or the Southwest or the Northeast or whatever. I guess just speaking largely, do you believe that the Outdoor Market Alliance is replicable in other territories?
Steve (19:20):
So I've had some conversations with other agencies in different parts of the country already, and I would say universally, there's an idea there that people would love to replicate this. They don't all have to live in this same geographic area, and I won't speak to anyone particular territory, but I mean, we have reps who live several hours away that only come in. We have reps who live in other states that come over to work the facility. So I think it is replicable. I don't know that we're ready to just do a turnkey, here's, here's the Oma Magic package and this is what you need to do. We're not quite said, not franchise, no. Again, this is all volunteer. I probably don't have the bandwidth to create that right away. We have some ideas. The board and I have had some great talks about where this could go and what we could do with it. And there's two specific territories that I will leave off the naming, but that are very interested in doing something right now, and they're looking to pull together in a smaller fashion to start and then maybe build it out as it goes from there. And it could be, we'll call it Oma Light, OMA East Oma, what have you.
Colin (20:33):
Sure. Yeah. I think the thing that was surprising to me seeing the facility when I was there for the media show is just the convenience it brings and the opportunities that can come with it. To your point, it doesn't have to be a day-to-Day. You're in another state and we need to have you here, sort of showroom. It's not that kind of thing. But if you have, like you said, you have regular shows, regular few weeks a year where we're selling to retailers and it's kind of its own version of a show, then you could commute to it and spend a week there. The media show specifically, I was talking to the organizer of that event, Evan, and his point was like, look, the big expense and a lot of these things is the space is the time and effort to set up booze to, there's the drayage.
(21:11):
All the stuff that comes with a show has been solved because this is just here now and whatever, like 85% of the open to buy in an outdoor retailer is represented in this building. So even on the media side, it's like, well, great. All the big brands that everyone wants to talk about anyway are already here. So it makes a ton of sense. And my point I'm making is, I think if you take those lessons from it and say, where do those kinds of things make sense in your territory, then absolutely it could work. I think the Rockies does have a bit of a, and you're in Denver and you're like, oh, we got to drive to Salt Lake. You're like, okay, it's not that big a deal. It doesn't feel like that far away. If you're in the Northeast and you have to drive eight hours, now you're in the Mid-Atlantic. So it's just a different kind of, it's not a one for one in terms of how it's laid out, but there are absolutely lessons from what you guys have done that could apply everywhere.
Steve (22:02):
Yeah, right. Yeah, no, I agree. Totally agree. Yeah, it's been an interesting experiment really. I wasn't sure if I was to sit in my same seat three years ago and think about where we started and what was in my head. It's definitely evolved dramatically from where we were then to where we are today. And the opportunities that I think are still available to us here at oma, we have an opportunity where we might be able to expand next door. We're investigating that situation. We do have a waiting list. We are prioritizing independent rep agencies, number one to be a part of oma. So that's our kind of preference right now. We'll see what happens if we do engage in this other 32,000 square foot space, exactly what that looks like, what that turns into, et cetera.
Colin (22:49):
I guess last thing, man, when you look at what you built, it is pretty special and unique and mostly a good, entirely in a good way. You've taken something that was pretty well entrenched and made it even better. When you sort of hang up your samples and you look back maybe even more so than the business you built at Granite Marketing, what do you hope the legacy of OMA is? Have you had any thoughts of that about that? What do you reflect on what you've been a part of creating? It's pretty cool.
Steve (23:15):
I guess I'm so close to it and so in depth in it right now that I don't, no, don't be humble. I don't have that 20,000 foot view, Hey, if I retire in the next two years, which is definitely on the horizon for me as I get age up in this business and I've looked at it and thought, I just want it to still be engaging. I want it to be relevant for the retail experience. The retailers are the ones we work for to be truthful, in my opinion. Brands can come and go, but those retailers are the most important component to all of this.
Colin (23:50):
Well, that is true.
Steve (23:52):
So as long as they're happy and coming here, then I'll feel like we did a good job. My team did a good job. The board that I work with, they're phenomenal. They're all excellent. The three officers that I work really closely with, pat Davis, the vice president, Tim Hat trip, our treasurer, awesome folks, so engaged, so dialed in what they're doing, it really lifts me up. Seeing their engagement lifts me up. And then the board is, these are all seasoned professionals. They all have great points of view and it's fun. It's been really fun. Honestly, it doesn't end felt like work. It is a side job. I feel like it's a bit of a side job that sometimes takes over my regular life. It's a big juggling, just like time is always a big juggling situation. We have to juggle that as well. At some point. We would like to have somebody that we can afford as an intern and have them manage a lot of these day-to-Day type stuff. That goes on with OMA.
Colin (24:45):
The only thing I have to ask is of all the reps and agencies that are in the building, which one's the most likely to be the guy who comes in and heats up fish in the microwave and stinks up the place? And why is it Mountain Source and Bruce Gordon? I mean, that's the,
Steve (25:00):
I'm not touching that. There's
Colin (25:02):
One of them in there. I'm not touching that. The one the lacking of like who's heating up fish in the microwave?
Steve (25:08):
Yeah, who doesn't? No. Yeah, we definitely, it's funny to see the different personalities and recognize who's who and what's what. That's for sure.
Colin (25:19):
Alright man.
Steve (25:20):
And most of the time it's no surprise. Yeah,
Colin (25:24):
You hear that Bruce. We know it's you. Hey Steve, I appreciate you coming on and spending some time with me today man. And congrats on all the success and excited to come back for the next media show. I can't wait to be back there and spending a little more time with you guys.
Steve (25:36):
Yeah, super cool. Look forward to having you out. Yeah, for sure. Alright, thanks Pete. So thanks for the opportunity.
Colin (25:43):
Alright, we're going to wrap it up there, but be sure to come back to the Rock Fight Podcast network tomorrow for a new episode of Gear and Beer. Over on the gear and beer feed. This week we're talking about Obras and drinking stone brewings arrogant bastard ale. The Rock Fight is a production of rock Fight LLC. Our producer today was David Kasad, art Direction by Sarah Genser. I'm Colin True. Thanks for listening. And big thanks to my guest, Steve Copeland and here to take us out as the voice of the Rock Fight podcast network Krista makes. He's going to sing the rock Fight Fight song right fucking now. We'll see you next time. Rock fighters. Rock
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