Today on the show Colin is joined by Producer Dave and Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford to take a look a bigger look at the outdoor industry.
Optimism was high at the end of 2024 that the outdoor industry was due for a come back year. Inventory issues had improved and open to buy was increasing. But with the end of the first quarter just a couple of weeks away things have fallen off of a cliff. We take a look at what happened and what to expect. (07:25)
Then the crew turns their attention to a new backpack by Yeti (that looks an awful lot like something made by Mystery Ranch) and the recent news that two outdoor parent companies, Solo Brands & Pelican International, are experiencing financial distress. Is this related to the other issues the industry is experiencing? We take a deeper look. (24:59)
Lasting for The Parting Shot Colin looks at the new footwear collection launched by Stio. Will Stio's Mahomes like luck continue? (43:08)
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Episode Transcript
Colin
00:00:00.400 - 00:02:29.716
All right, folks, let's talk about a game changer. Literally, if you're a brand or retailer in the outdoor industry, think of Endeavor like the ultimate power up for your sales game.
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But there's also a couple of other power ups you'll want to consider. First is their partnership with locally, so online shoppers can instantly find a knowledgeable staffer in a nearby store ready to seal the deal.
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If your retail game is feeling like it's stuck in easy mode, Endeavor is the upgrade you need to unlock next level sales, max out your team's knowledge and beat the boss when it comes to customer experience. Head to Endeavor. That's End VR IO to learn more today.
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 True. It's St.
Patrick's Day, so get your Guinness and your shamrocks ready because joining producer Dave and myself is a legit Irishman, Owen Comerford, and we're going to talk about the state of the outdoor economy. But before we get to that, come back to the Rock Fight this Wednesday, when outdoor journalist Justin Hausman will be off this week.
So I'll be joined by outdoor journalist Shantae Salibair to talk through recent headlines that come out of the outdoor community and and then also come back on Friday, where I'll probably be rolling solo with a hot take.
Lastly, it's time for you to subscribe to this show and also to Open Container, the newest Rock Fight podcast that is hosted by outdoor industry legend Doug Schnitzman. All you have to do is tap the follow button on whatever Podcast app you are listening to us on and also subscribe to News from the front.
Rock Fight's weekly newsletter that comes out tomorrow. So head to Rockfight Co and sign up now and stick around. We'll be right back.
Chris DeMakes
00:02:29.788 - 00:02:33.840
Welcome to the Rock Fight. Rock Fight. Rock Fight.
Colin
00:02:35.900 - 00:02:51.800
You're listening to Rock Fight Radio. No fit Socks is riding high with a string of number ones.
And because of that success, they were able to get super producer Rick Albini to remaster this hit. We Believe in the sock. Here we go. It's time for Fitz.
FITS!
00:02:52.700 - 00:04:12.940
We believe in the sock to make you happy. We believe in the sock whole foot comfort. We believe in the sock that don't have to bunch blister off all.
We believe in free range toes and having room to roam and fine gauge merino wool as comfortable as home. We believe in Made in USA and we believe in doing what we say Wear fits. We fit that's right, that's right Wear fits.
We fit that's right, that's right and then believe in the sock Fits, fits, fits we believe in the sock Fits, fits, fits we believe in the sock we believe in the sock Fits, fits, fits, fits we believe in the sock fits.
Colin
00:04:15.280 - 00:04:28.776
And now back to the show. All right, we're here on St. Patrick's Day with Owen Comerford, who's actually Irish, and producer Dave, who's actually a mix of.
You changed the outline. That's not fair. You're not allowed to change the outline. Norwegian and Oregonian.
Producer Dave
00:04:28.808 - 00:04:35.750
I'm sorry. To be factually correct. Then you're just made up shit that you just put. Yeah, right. But just made up.
Colin
00:04:37.330 - 00:04:38.570
What's up, guys?
Producer Dave
00:04:38.730 - 00:04:40.506
Nothing. Nothing is up.
Eoin Comerford
00:04:40.578 - 00:04:43.674
I'm wearing green. Are you? Are you wearing green? I think.
Colin
00:04:43.842 - 00:04:45.670
Well, it's technically Friday now.
Eoin Comerford
00:04:47.410 - 00:04:48.330
Exactly.
Colin
00:04:48.490 - 00:04:54.490
How do we greet an Irishman from Ireland on St Patrick's Day? Is there a way to do it? Are we supposed to, you know, Is there a method?
Eoin Comerford
00:04:54.570 - 00:04:56.864
You raise a Guinness and you say slauncha.
Producer Dave
00:04:56.962 - 00:04:58.356
Slaunch. Fantastic.
Colin
00:04:58.388 - 00:05:03.236
All right, there we go. We should all gotten Guinness for this at, you know, 11:00 in the morning on four days before.
Producer Dave
00:05:03.388 - 00:05:09.572
I'm super down with that. And I want you to know I'm wearing the American Irish version of army green. So there we go.
Eoin Comerford
00:05:09.756 - 00:05:11.316
Okay. All right.
Colin
00:05:11.468 - 00:05:21.080
Hey, before we get into it, I had to take one opportunity, Dave. The ultimate brand asshole opportunity came out this week. Did you see the hats that Major League Baseball released?
Producer Dave
00:05:21.740 - 00:05:23.812
Yes, I did. Yes, I did.
Colin
00:05:23.836 - 00:05:24.696
Did you see it, Owen?
Eoin Comerford
00:05:24.788 - 00:05:25.860
Yeah. Yeah.
Colin
00:05:26.680 - 00:05:27.488
Amazing.
Producer Dave
00:05:27.584 - 00:05:28.080
Yeah.
Colin
00:05:28.160 - 00:05:48.700
I mean, like I talk about Owen for the listener. Maybe didn't missed it.
Major League Baseball released hats that basically had the team names written across the front of the hat within the logo imprinted right in the middle across that team name, which then resulted in a lot of inappropriate words. So Google it if you want to see what we're talking about.
Eoin Comerford
00:05:49.240 - 00:05:59.110
Yeah, I think the one that, the one that, the one that broke the Internet was, it was Texas, but the X was replaced by the T as the, as the logo.
Colin
00:05:59.190 - 00:06:05.510
So yeah, so yeah, titas. And then you had the other good one was the Angels, which then became anals.
Producer Dave
00:06:05.670 - 00:06:10.810
Yes, yes. And the Astros become assholes. Yeah, assholes.
Eoin Comerford
00:06:11.550 - 00:06:35.500
So I think the funny part is this is actually really talks about the need for more inclusivity in our industry because if you actually had Spanish speaking people that worked for whoever the hell it was, fanatics or new era or something. New era, maybe I think, okay, maybe they would have figured out that, oh shit, we're just like cursing all over the place right now.
Colin
00:06:35.800 - 00:06:46.224
They had anals and they missed it. This is what I mean. The ultimate brand asshole opportunity.
Someone had knocked down, I would have taken what, half a second, walked in like, yeah, you can't do this. You can't do this.
Eoin Comerford
00:06:46.312 - 00:06:56.812
The funniest part is that they've taken them all down. But these things are like selling on ebay for a grand a pop. I mean, everybody wants, it wants a Tate ass hat right now.
Colin
00:06:56.996 - 00:07:09.320
You know, the funny thing is you don't even need to have the dirty ones. Like if you look at the Boston one because it's the B, it looks like Bobin. I mean, it's just like, it's just the dumbest thing.
How do you not see that you're creating words by what you're doing?
Producer Dave
00:07:11.860 - 00:07:24.206
It's amazing that the front page story on USA Today is baseball caps yanked from shelf because they're risque. That's just fantastic. Oh my gosh.
Eoin Comerford
00:07:24.398 - 00:07:25.182
So good.
Colin
00:07:25.286 - 00:08:27.032
All right, well, let's get into what we're going to talk about today, which the opening shot today is presented by Garage Growing Gear, your hub for ultralight gear. Learn more by heading to garagegrowinggear.com and we're going to talk a little bit about the state of the outdoor economy today.
Because heading into 2025, the general consensus was that this year would be somewhat of a return to form of sorts for the outdoor industry. The prevalent inventory issues being resolved, open to buy on the rise, participation hitting all time highs.
Many, including our own own Cumberford Felt, you know, optimistic, you know, back at the end of 2024, that by the time we got to the end of this year, we would have, you know, maybe come back a little bit. But something funny happened on the way to the gear shop.
In January, we got a new presidential administration who seems to be hell bent on sewing chaos everywhere. And apparently things look a little different than we expected them to be as we sit here in the middle of March.
So, Owen, why don't you take us through this. You and I were chatting a little bit yesterday about this.
You know, let's start with where things were at the end of 2024 and the optimism we, the optimism we felt just a few months ago and kind of where we've ended up now a few months into this new year.
Eoin Comerford
00:08:27.136 - 00:10:20.464
I mean, really, the beginning of 2024 was, was still pretty rough. I mean, you look at everything that happened, you know, the REI results and how they were feeling.
You look at, you know, EMS and the bankruptcies in Basque and all the things, right, so. And it felt like just we had really been through it as an industry since 2023, really mid-2022, so two years of really, really rough stuff.
But it felt like the pall was lifting in the second half of 2024 as I think finally we were through the worst of the inventory glut, I would say. You know, brands weren't being quite as incredibly discounting on their own websites.
Retailers were kind of pulling back a little bit for a lot of the publicly traded companies that you were starting to see a combination of a return to comp growth with margin expansion, which really talked to a reduction in discounting. And actually, if you look at some of the publicly traded stocks, like I was looking today at VF Corp.
At Columbia, Wolverine Worldwide and Dick's Sporting Goods, if you look at those, on average, between July 1 and the end of January, they were up like 21%. And a lot of them, it was just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like a steady rise.
And really, really, I think the overall mood was, okay, we're through the worst of this. 2025 isn't going to be like a banner year.
I don't think anybody was saying that necessarily, but they felt like, okay, I think we may have some stability here. We've kind of found bottom and we're going to kind of get the inflection going back up again.
And since, since the end of January, I don't what happened at the end of January, I don't know. But since the end of January solicit.
Colin
00:10:20.512 - 00:10:21.072
Little thing.
Eoin Comerford
00:10:21.176 - 00:10:38.178
Little thing. You look at the stock price and it has fallen off a cliff.
We're actually, if you take that, those, that's those same four basket of stocks, we're down 19%. So seven months, we grew 21%. Boom, boom, boom. Six weeks we're down.
Colin
00:10:38.234 - 00:10:39.170
Giving it all back.
Eoin Comerford
00:10:39.290 - 00:10:57.554
Giving it all back. And, and, and, and it's, and it's like, it's like a, it's like a cliff. Right.
And you, you listen to, you know, you know, what, what I hear privately from folks and also just public statements from companies, and everyone's like, spooked. It's like, whoa, what is going on here?
Colin
00:10:57.642 - 00:11:04.398
Yeah. Every category isn't just like one category is like, oh, they're struggling over there. Right. It's like it's seemingly everything is impacted.
Eoin Comerford
00:11:04.594 - 00:11:18.886
Yeah. I mean, if you look at Citi just came out with some of their results that said quarter to date for apparel. Quarter to date.
And that's, you know, the retail quarter. So the beginning of January 1st.
Colin
00:11:19.038 - 00:11:19.734
Yeah.
Eoin Comerford
00:11:19.862 - 00:12:25.070
Apparel is down 12%. Athletic footwear. Okay. Down 22%. That's. Wow, those are huge numbers. And so really, really struggling.
And then you have folks like Walmart who obviously are more at the, you, the lower income side of things.
They're talking about the fact that people are buying smaller pack sizes of things at the end of the month because they can't afford to get the regular pack size because they're running out of money before they get paid. Airline bookings, way off.
People are just saying, well, I don't know, I'm going to hold off on that trip to Europe or whatever and wait and see what happens here.
And then even luxury, which over all of this luxury has kind of been untouchable in terms of its sales because we've got this whole income in quality thing going on. Even luxury spending. Luxury spending was down 9.3% in February.
And, you know, that's actually probably the scariest one from an outdoor perspective because let's face it, a lot of our consumers are actually in the 100,000 plus and up range. Right.
Colin
00:12:25.110 - 00:12:27.390
Those are a lot. The luxury purchases. Right. Exactly.
Eoin Comerford
00:12:27.470 - 00:12:30.734
They're the ones buying the $500 shells. Exactly. Right.
Colin
00:12:30.822 - 00:12:31.326
Yeah.
Eoin Comerford
00:12:31.438 - 00:12:33.730
So, yeah, it is rough.
Colin
00:12:34.430 - 00:12:44.530
So what's driving it? What are the things you think that are really. I mean, obviously it's a lot of things. Right.
Because it's crossing so many categories, but specifically, kind of drilling down on it. What do you think is really driving this?
Eoin Comerford
00:12:44.910 - 00:14:35.484
Well, some of this had been kind of building up for a while. Like, for example, all of that stimulus money has been slowly ebbing and ebbing and ebbing.
And if you look at savings levels for people and credit card debt, we're basically kind of back to where we were pre pandemic, roughly. Okay, so people got all that money, they kind of saved it or they paid off their credit cards. That's all gone. Right? So that's gone out of the market.
There's a lot more job uncertainty now because of everything that's going on with federal employees, obviously, but just an overall feeling of, is anybody safe in their current role? People are switching jobs less. People are seeing less. Less wage increases going on.
So everyone's feeling a little bit scared there in terms of their roles. Like, is I going to take my job? You know, what's going on? Right. So there's that piece you've got. Housing costs remain very high.
People have been hoping, oh, this is the year that mortgage rates come down, because the Fed's going to act there. The Fed's not going to act because they're worried that tariffs are going to blow things up. Right. So housing costs are super high.
But the really big one, though, is just the overall level, the tariff uncertainty thing. Right. It's on again, it's off again. And so people are like, what is going on? And so this is. And this is affecting business as well.
And so business is feeling really just whipsawed around because of the whole tariff thing. That affects the way business leadership acts.
That affects the way people feel about where they work, and that also affects people's feeling about, you know, am I. Am I going to be able to afford stuff if. Yeah, everything goes up 25%.
So it's just creating this really weird moment where people just feel like, what the f is going on right now, Dave?
Colin
00:14:35.612 - 00:14:53.186
This isn't. It doesn't get talked about a lot with us, but, you know, if you're sitting at a brand, like how you.
How messaging goes, and messaging is always a topic, but like, when you sit here in this kind, how do you present your brand?
How do you kind of go out in the public and, like, you know, either inspire people to support you or kind of like, what message do you even send from a brand at this, at a time like this?
Producer Dave
00:14:53.338 - 00:15:55.722
Yeah, that's a good. That's a good question. I think obviously you kind of where your brand is on its life cycle is certainly important to this.
I think that the bigger brands have a different playbook. If you're at a smaller brand you're kind of always living in a challenger mindset. And so you're kind of always having to do more with less.
You're trying to carve out niche opportunities within this larger kind of group.
And so I think those are the types of strategies that probably play well for times of economic downturn, but like I said, they kind of already play into your challenger mindset. The outdoor is not a monolith. Right. From a psychographic perspective as well as an activity perspective.
So this idea that there's going to be an downturn for all of these macro reasons, there's still bits of positivity that you've got to go find and places and really more important to find people who are your types of folks, your types of enthusiasts, your types of.
Colin
00:15:55.746 - 00:15:57.770
Life, how you endear yourself to folks. Right.
Producer Dave
00:15:57.810 - 00:16:21.196
It's kind of, this is good advice anytime, but right now it becomes very crucial because those dollars are important and those, those committed customers are fewer. So you've really got it. You can't waste your time with too much waste in your messaging or your communication budget.
You've really got to really hone who you're talking to and make sure that they are on the, on the likely list.
Eoin Comerford
00:16:21.348 - 00:17:38.776
Typically when things are rough and the consumer is feeling spooked, that's usually the best time to actually give them a little bit of escapism. Yeah, right.
And to talk about the restorative nature, being outdoors, really inspire them with really aspirational type things, really get people excited about the outdoors. Give them something else to think about than the economy or the administration or whatever. So that's one element of advice I think, which is good.
But then if that's all you do and you're not speaking out against some of the things that are impacting the outdoors and our access to public lands and to the employees that work those public lands, then is that short sighted? It's a tough balance.
And what I'm seeing right now is, and I've looked across the social media of most of the leading brands just to see what the mood is out there right now. And it is like all steam ahead. It's products, it's vistas. I mean, nobody's talking about anything related to, outside of maybe REI and Patagonia.
No one's talking about anything about what's going on in like the serious stuff. No one's talking about that. It's all, oh, here's our latest, you know, Gore Tex, ba ba da ba. It's just, yeah, how much is that?
Producer Dave
00:17:38.848 - 00:18:05.356
The scope of I was gonna say, how much is that. The fact that a lot of these. A lot of these campaigns and communication, you know, were set in motion a couple months ago.
And so they're just not even reacting or set up to react to these changes that are only four weeks old, five weeks old, if you will. So there's that just kind of the inertia of the system, but then there's also just. I think you're kind of getting at the reluctance to.
To even take some of this stuff on. And.
Colin
00:18:05.428 - 00:18:52.284
Well, the scope is so much bigger this time. Right. I mean, a lot of. A lot of you think back to Trump 1.0, and it was like, oh, bears ears.
And we had something we could really latch onto and everything. And now it's just like, to Owen, to your point, like, we're just crossing so many different. Where do you want to put your attention?
You know, is it public lands? Is it just, you know, sales? Is it. Where do you want to. How do you kind of. Where do you want to speak out?
I mean, a friend of the pod, Wes Allen, you know, the retailer out of Wyoming, he wrote a piece on LinkedIn this week, kind of talking about this from his perspective and kind of offering his point of view. And he's kind of seeing a lot of the same things coming from the retail point, point of view. I mean, who does. Who's at the most risk right now?
Is it, you know, the brands, retailers, consumers, all the above? I mean, because this is.
I hate to use the word unprecedented because it sounds like a hyperbolic, like, podcast thing to say, but this kind of unprecedented in a lot of ways.
Producer Dave
00:18:52.332 - 00:19:00.160
Actually, unprecedented doesn't mean what it used to mean anymore, Colin, because now everything is unprecedented. Yeah, it's not hyperbolic at all. It's actually understating.
Eoin Comerford
00:19:02.340 - 00:19:17.694
I would say that word back. I mean, it's definitely one of the great points, actually, that.
That west brings up in his piece is the potential impact on international travel and people coming in to the US to visit our national parks and just to recreate in general. Right.
Colin
00:19:17.782 - 00:19:23.502
We're already seeing it. There was an article this morning about how Canadians aren't coming to our Western US Ski resorts this winter. Right.
Eoin Comerford
00:19:23.526 - 00:20:59.542
But it's not only that, because I think we're a little bit blind to the degree to which the rest of the world actually does pay attention to what's going on over here.
I would say, quite frankly, there's a lot of people that I know in Europe that are better informed of what's actually happening than Quite a few Americans, which is kind of scary at least.
But, but what I would say is the rest of the world is really shook by what they're seeing right now in the US and some of the headlines over there are about, about people like, like I just reading today about two German tourists who ended up being detained for two to six weeks in a detention center near, near where you live, Colin. And so it's because they were trying to cross the border from, from Tijuana. Both had their, you know, documents or whatever, whatever.
You know, there was maybe some, some irregularity, but you get thrown in a detention center without any access to a lawyer or anything. And, and this is creating real trepidation for Europeans who are, who are potentially who were thinking of traveling and coming over here.
So yeah, I think we're going to see a big impact there in terms of just, of those folks coming in to, to visit and then, you know, and if you're flying in from Europe, you know, you may want to, you may not want to, you know, lug all your stuff with you.
So yeah, maybe you are going to hit the gear, the gear store on the way to Yosemite or whatever and you know, pick up your, your, your meals, your, your, your fuel, your whatever else, whatever. Right? Yeah, it's not good.
Colin
00:20:59.646 - 00:21:06.130
Well, so what are our predictions? Like what are your predictions for the rest of the year? How does this play out? Is there any way to even tell how this plays out?
I mean, there's just so much uncertainty right now.
Eoin Comerford
00:21:07.110 - 00:22:42.690
Yeah, there isn't.
And the challenge for some of these public companies, like Dix as an example, they had a record fourth quarter, I mean just off the charts good sales up 6%, margins were up. It was just great. But then all they did was say that their guidance for the year was a little soft.
So they still said they were going to grow 1 to 3%. But the margin guidance or the profit guidance was a little soft. They got absolutely killed. Their stock, stocks down like I don't know, 18%.
And that's actually, they're being, I wouldn't say they're being alarmist in what theirs is. And I think it's tough for some of these companies because they're worried. They have a huge amount of uncertainty as well.
But they also don't want it to become a self fulfilling prediction if a bunch of companies come out and say, well, we think it's a shit show, our sales are going to be down 5 to 10% this year. Well, suddenly the stock market just starts to crash. Everybody feels like the world is ending. And it really does become.
We go from a little lack of consumer confidence straight into a recession. So it's tough right now, but then you've got the administration that is basically saying, hey, maybe we need a recession. Maybe we need that.
Because what's really important is we get these tariffs in place. That's what's important. It's kind of nuts.
Colin
00:22:43.590 - 00:22:47.770
All right, Dave, pull us out of the muck here. Say something. What do you got for us?
Producer Dave
00:22:48.790 - 00:23:49.320
Where's it going? Well, I mean, look, let's think the repair and rental market should be doing well. We're going to start to see doubling down. Maybe that's not so bad.
As much as we're hearing the doom of our public lands and the layoffs at parks, I think some of that's gonna be clawed back. But I do believe the entry level and accessible will still be a focus of people because that's the options we're gonna have.
And so even though we're talking about that doom and gloom of that, I do think that that's still gonna continue to rise and new people getting into the outdoor or just again, that entry level, the pinnacle is always going to be there. They're going to find their money.
The dirtbags are going to find their way to the places they need to go to and do the great things that kind of keep that engine of the outdoor going. So, yeah, I just, I think some of that could be okay for us. We just, if we get, if we're doing more with less, that's a positive thing.
Colin
00:23:49.700 - 00:23:56.656
Well, and if you're looking for, you know, positivity, go no further than the lord of Dyneema garage grown gear.
Producer Dave
00:23:56.828 - 00:23:57.704
There you go.
Colin
00:23:57.792 - 00:24:38.906
Who is your hub for all things ultralight backpacking? And they've got an epic thru hiking giveaway running right now. They are over 15,000.
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Head to garagegrowinggear.com and click on the links there you'll find all the stuff you need to. All the things you need to. To enter that by going over there. Yeah. But, yeah, a bit of a serious episode today, folks.
So thank you, Lloyd and the crew at Garage Room Gear for giving us a little, a little bright spot as our partner in this so thank you. Thank you, guys.
Eoin Comerford
00:24:39.018 - 00:24:46.250
I assume we can't win, right, because we're kind of part of the gig because that's 15k in gear. That's kind of sweet.
Colin
00:24:46.410 - 00:25:31.808
I already entered like 16 times. Is that all right? Let me know. Garage drone gear. I'll give it to somebody else. I'll share, I'll share it with these guys.
All right, so next up, we've got a few quick hitting brand and product stories to run through.
And this part of the show is presented by Oboz, who loves hiking, wants us to talk more about hiking, you know, the activity that we all do but no one talks about. So we're going to count the ways we love hiking in a minute. But first up this week, Yeti recently released.
Well, Yeti recently released a new backpack, the Ranchero 27. Literally, that's eerily similar to the Mystery Ranch Catalyst 26. And this week, Gear Junkie did a breakdown of the pack.
Oh, and you posted about it on LinkedIn, which I went looking at that this morning. You got a lot of commentary about this pack review. I was kind of surprised actually.
Eoin Comerford
00:25:31.864 - 00:26:06.406
It got a lot, a lot of, a lot of love. Yeah, it was interesting. The comments were all over the place. Quite a.
Quite a lot of people were like, yeah, that's, that is Yeti's brand equity and that's how Yeti prices stuff. And by golly, it makes total sense. And then there were other people that were more like, well, the Mystery Ranch one, it looks like shit.
You know, the Yeti one looks really cool. And like there was one guy that was like, well, the Yeti one has those straps.
Those straps, I mean, you get in the backcountry, those straps are worth the $96 difference. Oh, oh, yeah.
Colin
00:26:06.438 - 00:26:11.654
So, okay, the 15 cent, you know, webbing is right. It's a nice, it's a hell of a margin on those straps.
Eoin Comerford
00:26:11.782 - 00:27:05.014
But so the reality is, and I think what I wish I had done actually is show that really the Yeti piece is somewhat of a combination of the. The two day assault, which is another 27 liter pack, also has a laptop pocket and is 229.
So it's kind of in between, but is actually a far superior pack to the, to the, to the Yeti piece. The Yeti piece is much more of kind of a lifestyle element. The Two Day Assault does have those straps that apparently are worth $96.
It also has, you know, pals webbing, but it has a full plastic backplate. It's got a much better, you Know, SC strap system. It's got a waist belt, removable, much, much better padding and wider back panel.
I mean, it's just a much better gear.
Colin
00:27:05.062 - 00:27:09.890
Nerd. You are such a gear dork. I didn't know you were this deep on this stuff, man.
Eoin Comerford
00:27:10.190 - 00:27:30.270
Well, yeah, hey, I, you know, I had to sell this stuff. You know, you can't just. Just fake it. I mean, you got to know what it is that the. You got to know your merchant. But I mean.
Yeah, so for them, for people saying that. Well, yeah, the Yeti one, because it's 700 during your Cordura versus 500. Junior. I mean, stop. Just stop. And.
Colin
00:27:30.970 - 00:28:05.854
But I did like friend of the pod, Kevin Joyce. He meant a good, good point about the potential margins being off versus Mystery Ranch versus Versus Yeti. I thought that was an interesting point.
But the. My question is, how do we think this plays into yeti's plans, the Sunset Mystery Ranch, later this year? I mean, I think it's a. I don't know.
Do we feel like they're. Do you think they might backtrack? Do you think there might be sort of a.
A way where they're going to kind of coexist and they're sort of testing the waters on that? Because this is like they kind of put a similar silhouette of two different backpacks out there and see how it goes. Or is this.
Is this priming the pump for. Oh, don't worry, Mystery Ranch is going away and this is what you're going to have going forward.
Eoin Comerford
00:28:06.022 - 00:28:17.626
Oh, yeah, no, this is priming the pump.
I mean, you don't make two products that look almost the same and then like, ah, you can get this one, or for 50% more, you can get this one that has the same product.
Colin
00:28:17.698 - 00:28:18.378
Why are they waiting?
Producer Dave
00:28:18.474 - 00:28:33.482
This is where we praise the benevolence of Yeti because in days of yore, they just would have ripped them off and not even said anything. But at least they bought the brand before that. They marginalized it and took their ip. I think there's a real kindness going on there.
Eoin Comerford
00:28:33.666 - 00:28:49.772
I think the answer to your question, though, Colin, is why I have them both running is just because Mystery Ranch already has a ton of inventory and they, you know, and a ton of on order from their retail partners. So it's not, it's not a spigot you just turn off overnight.
Colin
00:28:49.836 - 00:28:50.440
Right.
Eoin Comerford
00:28:51.140 - 00:29:03.900
But.
But clearly the yeti is going to completely replace it with a, you know, very similar product line, just a little bit more expensive that is in line with yeti's own, you know, margin expectations.
Colin
00:29:04.060 - 00:29:06.080
So $96 straps.
Eoin Comerford
00:29:06.830 - 00:29:08.650
They're really nice straps.
Colin
00:29:11.070 - 00:29:47.352
Also this past week, there were two stories of outdoor industry parent organizations in distress. First, it was reported that Solo brands acknowledged they may be at a point where their, quote, ability to continue is a concern.
And then one day later, Pelican International made moves towards a potential bankruptcy filing in Canada. To clarify, Pelican International is the owner of water sports brands such as Dagger Wilderness Systems and Perception Kayaks.
This is not the case brand Pelican that we're talking about. So let's start with Solo. They were the first ones out. They own Solo Stove, Chubby's and ORU Kayak. They are mostly a. Or entirely a DTC business.
Is it mostly or entirely? Are they all dtc?
Eoin Comerford
00:29:47.416 - 00:29:49.192
No, no, they're in wholesale. Yeah.
Colin
00:29:49.256 - 00:29:52.776
Okay, so some wholesale as well. They're known for their DTC business.
Eoin Comerford
00:29:52.848 - 00:30:15.564
Yeah. And they started in D2C. So like Chubby's for example, that's one of the brands under their umbrella.
Started as a D2C brand, but now is really big in wholesale. They have a huge presence in Dick's Sporting as an example.
And obviously Solo brands started as Solo Stove, which was totally D2C, but then got into wholesale.
Colin
00:30:15.612 - 00:30:29.788
That's right. Now they're like in Target and Places as well.
But even with that wholesale presence, I think you wrote in your post on LinkedIn about it that all their revenue coming in Is accounting for 96% of their operating expenses or something. Is that a piece?
Eoin Comerford
00:30:29.884 - 00:30:40.224
No. So basically, if you look at the financials, the. Their Gross margin is 61%, which is actually. That's solid.
Colin
00:30:40.272 - 00:30:40.432
Right.
Eoin Comerford
00:30:40.456 - 00:32:06.330
I mean, if you can have a 60%, 1% gross margin, which usually includes the product margin plus like shipping and handling costs and those sorts of things, that's the basis of actually kind of a decent P and L. Right. And even their marketing expense is not insane. It's about like 20, 21% of. Of sales. Okay.
Which, you know, even for the companies that I work, the smaller companies, like, you know, 20% is like the very upper end. I'd much rather see it closer to 15%, but it's not. You could potentially get there right to profitability. So, okay, so we've got 61% take away 21%.
We've got 40% left to cover all of our other expenses. Usually you'd say, hey, that's great. 40, 40, 40%. We should be able to make that work.
Especially, you know, when we're a, you know, 400 plus million dollar company. You know, 40% of that is like, you know, 240 million. You're like, okay, that works. Unfortunately, their actual operating expenses are 96% of revenue.
Not 40% is 435 million, which is like, woof. You know, and so it's really like, where. How do you manage to spend that?
Now, in fairness, a chunk of that, of the 135, 136 of that is actually restructuring. Restructuring, contract termination and impairment charges.
Colin
00:32:06.990 - 00:32:09.654
Part of it was they're blowing through CEOs over there.
Producer Dave
00:32:09.742 - 00:32:13.974
Well, look, they've got a hearty lead budget for their. Their influencers.
Colin
00:32:14.022 - 00:32:15.910
I'll get into Snoop Dogg. Don't worry.
Eoin Comerford
00:32:16.070 - 00:32:17.622
So he had to come up.
Producer Dave
00:32:17.646 - 00:32:19.450
That's all cash. It's out the door.
Eoin Comerford
00:32:20.750 - 00:32:41.566
But. But they. But part of that is also the fact that I think they shut down one of their acquisitions, Icy Breeze. And so there's a major hit from that.
But. Yeah, but even taking all that aside, you still have a huge.
I don't understand how you spend that money, quite frankly, because you take that piece out of it.
Colin
00:32:41.638 - 00:32:46.542
You have to try to. Right? I mean, how do you. You have to be like, what are you writing checks for? Right.
Eoin Comerford
00:32:46.566 - 00:33:32.824
So they're sga, right? So not marketing, not product. None of that. Just SG and a $180 million. Okay. And I think part of that is just kind of a broken DTC model.
And we've seen this story before, right? The whole DTC darling thing, which they were. They were like the outdoor D2C darling.
But, you know, we've seen it with Allbirds, with Peloton, with, you know, Casper Outdoor voices, yada, on and on, right? All of these brands that were just really ascendant in the late teens and now rough. They really thought of themselves as a D2C brand.
In fact, when they went public in 2021, they chose the stock symbol D2C. Right?
Colin
00:33:32.912 - 00:33:34.856
Hubris will come back and bite you every time.
Eoin Comerford
00:33:34.928 - 00:33:41.352
That's amazing, because what they thought was, we have cracked the code on D2C.
Colin
00:33:41.376 - 00:33:42.008
Yeah, we got it.
Eoin Comerford
00:33:42.064 - 00:34:28.798
We have got this. This solo stove thing. Killing it.
And so we're going to just buy up a bunch of these outdoor active D2C brands, sprinkle our D2C magic on them, and we're just going to be rolling in the cash. So we're going to buy. They bought our Oru Kayak. They bought Aisle, which is like another kayak brand.
They bought Chubby's Icy Breeze, you know, and it's. And it's Been. It's been not good. So the stock peaked shortly after the IPO at $21. Yesterday it was 22 cents. Yeah.
To the math math geniuses on amongst our listeners, that is a drop of 99%.
Colin
00:34:28.974 - 00:34:37.770
Who's going to be representing them at the bankruptcy hearings with a B. Snoop Dogg or you know, wearing chubbies. Right. Well, they just to gain favor with the judge, you know.
Producer Dave
00:34:38.390 - 00:35:28.940
So let me ask a question to that though.
In the sense like you've got their holdings and Chubby's does seem to be doing well at least from a visibility and product and you know, do we know that that brought that that brand is necessarily unprofitable? Could that be sold off like a bright spot? Yeah, instantly, like because you know, I look at the other brand like kayaking.
We know this category is in trouble and it has been for a while. And Solo Stove is, is a backyard stove. Like I, you know, I cannot ascribe that to any kind of long term, you know, massive growth potential.
It's a backyard stove. But Chubby's is solidly the lifestyle apparel category that has a pretty good handle on who they're consumer is in their community.
So I just, I feel like that that's a potential valuable, valuable property.
Eoin Comerford
00:35:29.600 - 00:37:36.690
I would, I would say that the most likely scenario here is that they to stay out of bankruptcy. They basically sell off the Chubby's brand. They bought it at a real premium a couple of years ago. So they'll probably take a big hit for that.
But from a cash perspective I think they could still get a pretty decent number for Chubby's. And you know it's high margin.
They actually pretty efficient from a marketing perspective and as I said really taking off in wholesale right now and in a lot of bigger players. It's premium price but not crazy premium, very accessible, cool, fun.
So yes, I do think that Chubby's is probably the most valuable piece of the puzzle. And the other thing that they did was they actually drew down their line of credit.
So I think they had what's called a cleanup provision where you have to get your, their credit credit line down to zero. So they kind of cleaned it up towards the end of the year but then they maxed it in January.
So they took out like 277 million on the credit line because base and then they basically said oh by the way, you know we're, we're in all of it. We're good under our covenants right now.
So just a little background when you get a line of credit or a loan, you have these agreements with banks to say, hey, listen, we got to do certain things and hit certain financial thresholds. Otherwise you can call the loan. Right. So that's a covenant.
So what, what they're now saying is we're not going to be able to keep our covenants going into next year.
So we basically, we took all the money we could to basically, you know, sort of stockpile it for a, you know, for, for, for the, the tough times ahead. Yeah. So, yeah. And the thing of it is, I mean, it's, they are good brands. They're great products. You know, there's a lot here, here.
It' whether they are going to have the Runway to be able to right the ship outside of a bankruptcy process.
Colin
00:37:37.870 - 00:38:00.790
Well, Dave, you mentioned the struggles of the kayaking category. Pelican, the next one we were talking about, they're a little bit of a different situation than what was going on solo.
The struggles seem to be more related to those struggles in the kayaking category and also the uncertainty presented by. Here it comes again. The Trump administration's tariff will we or won't we situation. This just came out last night as we were prepping this episode.
What did you learn about what's going on in Pelican there, Owen?
Eoin Comerford
00:38:01.290 - 00:40:17.460
So with Pelican and actually, I heard about this, I think before it really broke in the news through somebody on LinkedIn. But yeah, so they're based in Quebec, and so they have filed a notice of intent to make a proposal under the Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
And, and I'm not an expert in the Canadian bankruptcy law, but from what I gather, this is kind of like a chapter 11 versus a chapter 7. So in other words, it's a restructuring versus a liquidation.
So they're really going to look to renegotiate their debt, what they owe their vendors, et cetera.
Also worth noting that Confluence Outdoor, which includes Dagger Kayaks, Perception Wilderness Systems, GSI Advanced Elements, like a bunch of brands, the US Subsidiary that they're part of is not included right now. But they're not saying it won't be included or that they won't do something separately there.
But yeah, it's obviously, it's a really tough time in the kayak space right now and a lot of deals happening here and there.
And the kayak industry is still one of the ones that even going into this year probably was still going to be rough because, you know, I think I've talked about this before, but, but really the, the length of, of the hangover is directly proportional to the cost of the product. So you know kayaks where if somebody in 21 went out and bought a fifteen hundred dollar or two thousand dollars kayak.
Kayak, they're not going to be in the market for another kayak for quite a while. Same thing with $2,000 bikes. So that's why those two categories are in such rough shape.
Even today and even going into this year when we were thinking things were going to be good, it still wasn't going to be good in those categories.
So, yeah, it's tough and hopefully this will give them the air cover to be able to reorganize and keep these important brands in good space, in a good place and supporting the industry.
Colin
00:40:20.160 - 00:40:34.280
Today's episode of the Rock Bite is presented by Oboz, who is helping us ask the question, how do I love hiking? Let me count the ways. Number one, the unholy power of duct tape on blisters. You don't question it, you just trust it.
Producer Dave
00:40:34.320 - 00:40:38.220
You know, Colin, if you're wearing Oboz, you don't need to worry about blisters.
Colin
00:40:38.970 - 00:40:40.178
Can you prove that in a court of law?
Producer Dave
00:40:40.234 - 00:40:40.990
I can.
Colin
00:40:41.370 - 00:40:42.310
Okay.
Producer Dave
00:40:43.290 - 00:40:47.190
Yes. It's podiatric jurisprudence.
Colin
00:40:47.770 - 00:40:55.378
Number two, feeling like a hobbit on a grand quest, even if the quest is just a loop trail. And number three, mid hike.
Eoin Comerford
00:40:55.474 - 00:41:00.750
Hobbits, though, don't wear anything on their feet. We're doing this for a boot brand.
Colin
00:41:01.610 - 00:41:04.114
They wear oboes. I think I was in. That was in Tolkien's.
Producer Dave
00:41:04.242 - 00:41:06.382
Yeah, you're clearly not shooting the.
Colin
00:41:06.426 - 00:41:06.630
The.
Producer Dave
00:41:06.670 - 00:41:09.574
The Oboe's Clan of the Shire in.
Colin
00:41:09.582 - 00:41:11.250
The appendices, I think. Or the.
Producer Dave
00:41:12.110 - 00:41:16.534
Yeah, in Frodo's birthday party. They were off to the left, the Oboe's clan. And they were the ones.
Colin
00:41:16.582 - 00:41:17.878
There was, there was the Proud Foot.
Producer Dave
00:41:17.934 - 00:41:18.850
Yeah, that's right.
Colin
00:41:19.150 - 00:41:20.854
And then the oboe is. What?
Eoin Comerford
00:41:20.862 - 00:41:23.222
It was the oboe.
Producer Dave
00:41:23.286 - 00:41:24.278
Okay, absolutely.
Eoin Comerford
00:41:24.374 - 00:41:26.006
Just, just checking. I just want to make sure.
Producer Dave
00:41:26.078 - 00:41:26.374
Yeah.
Colin
00:41:26.422 - 00:41:30.070
No, they didn't. They weren't. They weren't. They didn't destroy the one ring or anything, but they, they were there.
Producer Dave
00:41:30.110 - 00:41:32.650
No, they were hiking. I mean, they had. They were busy.
Colin
00:41:33.940 - 00:41:40.588
And number three on the list today, mid hike, daydreams of the post hike feast. Are we talking burgers? Tacos? Maybe both.
Producer Dave
00:41:40.644 - 00:41:41.564
Yeah, I've been. I've.
Colin
00:41:41.612 - 00:41:43.560
Maybe some pizza too. Why not?
Eoin Comerford
00:41:43.940 - 00:41:47.520
Sure. I love a good burger taco.
Producer Dave
00:41:48.180 - 00:41:48.540
Right.
Colin
00:41:48.580 - 00:41:56.188
Burger taco. Yeah, I'm into that. I like how you said that too. Very, very St. Patrick of you. Right there. The. I don't know. How did you say that's how you.
Producer Dave
00:41:56.244 - 00:41:58.206
Keep the the warm Guinness down is.
Eoin Comerford
00:41:58.268 - 00:42:05.754
A every once in a while the, the, the Gaelic in this just creeps out tacos.
Colin
00:42:05.802 - 00:42:09.830
It's like you know the barrier between that is at its thinnest on St. Patrick's Day.
Eoin Comerford
00:42:10.530 - 00:42:13.710
Well, for many reasons, yes.
Colin
00:42:15.090 - 00:43:08.530
Number four, hiking means finding your soulmates. And in this case that means Roads, Rivers and Trails of Milford, Ohio.
If you find yourself in the greater Milford area, pop in and say hi to the folks at Roads, Rivers and Trails. And maybe like the obscure hobbits of the shire, buy a pair of Oboz boots.
And number five means the Oboes Katabatic collection which has added all new the all new Katabatic LT which takes the whole collection to a new level. With a lighter package, improved performance and additional environmentally friendly materials. They go fast packing day hiking, whatever your fancy.
The Catabatic LT is your hiking shoe of choice. And this hiking appreciation moment is brought to you by oboz, a Bozeman, Montana certified B Corp.
6 million tree planter and proud inhabitant of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Oboz is the maker of premium quality footwear for the trail and the cupid to the outdoor world. Oboz love hiking.
Chris DeMakes
00:43:09.430 - 00:43:11.890
It's time for a party shot.
Eoin Comerford
00:43:13.270 - 00:43:13.694
All right.
Colin
00:43:13.702 - 00:44:41.522
For my parting shot. I'm excited, excited to talk to you guys about this today. So last week outdoor brand Stio announced its first ever technical footwear line.
The Ridge Cap Collection is available to buy on Steo's website and in their locations throughout the U.S. the products are basically a low and a mid mid lightweight hiking boot.
Though interestingly the word boot is not used in the press release announcing the launch. Just shoe. But they basically, they're basically unremarkable shoes. I think looking at them I have some nits to pick on the design but.
But that's not why I'm bringing them up as the parting shot. Normally I would land base this move because breaking into footwear as I've talked about before is really challenging.
But this is from Steo, who seems to have the habit of just sort of chugging along, kind of untouched by whatever else is happening in the industry. So I suppose my parting shot is that I'm predicting that these new shoes or boots or whatever they're calling them from Steo won't catch on.
I mean it's a lot of inventory and investment to make and distribute them only via D2C which is what they're currently doing. So. So I think the smart money would say that's not going to happen, but because it's Steo. I don't feel good about that prediction.
I mean analyzing Steel was sort of like Nielsen trying to figure out who's watching what on Netflix. So I don't know. But I'm curious what you guys think. I mean, how do we. Steel just sort of. They just do their thing.
They just keep showing up like you know, opening new stores, new product collections. People love them. They're in. They. They do. They sell to wholesale.
They're around but they kind of little like arteryx have removed themselves from the conversation. So. So I don't know. What do you guys think of these. These shoes? Not boots.
Eoin Comerford
00:44:41.586 - 00:45:00.022
I mean, I mean from a look perspective, they do have that sort of interesting like sneaker meets hiking boot kind of thing. Like I think was it who. Who did that first? Well, all of them for. Well, no, there was like Forsake, I think was. Was. Was one of the.
Producer Dave
00:45:00.036 - 00:45:05.202
Forsake was one of them. Danner also played in that fairly early in terms of this.
Colin
00:45:05.386 - 00:45:14.816
I mean they're still. They're kind of on the, you know, the. The keen oboe's Merrell corner though, right. Of that kind of in between. Soft hiking shoe.
Eoin Comerford
00:45:14.928 - 00:45:26.768
Here's what I would say is I think Steel knows its customer. Okay. And its customer is a mid-50s white guy. That is. That is. That is. That is the CEO customer.
Colin
00:45:26.864 - 00:45:29.312
And this is as represented today by.
Eoin Comerford
00:45:29.416 - 00:46:02.006
By everyone on this phone call. But no, you. You guys aren't. Aren't as old as I am. But anyway, I mean this. This sort of. It. It feels like elevated dad shoe to me as I look at it.
And you know what? Maybe. Maybe that's what that customer wants, right? Like if they had gone like a. So like okay, Colin, if they come out with a Steo super shoe.
Okay, 300. No, but I mean that would have been like what I think a lot of companies.
Colin
00:46:02.078 - 00:46:03.046
Yeah. What do you do?
Eoin Comerford
00:46:03.198 - 00:46:15.030
We want to have this super shoe. And that would have been completely wrong for this customer in this demographic. So it's like Skechers by Steel. I mean it's.
Colin
00:46:15.370 - 00:46:43.380
Oh yes, that's. You just nailed it. It's really what it is. It is Skechers by Steel, But I think 160 bucks, not cheap. And I think the.
Well, I had kind of similar thoughts when Rabbit came out with their shoe last year. When Rabbit running. They came out with a shoe like one style. I don't know. Maybe they have one or two colors. Mostly just one color.
Shoes are just tough and they're expensive and you have. And the inventory all The. It's just a really hard category and I would just say this is a bad idea. Like why.
Eoin Comerford
00:46:43.420 - 00:46:43.636
Don't.
Colin
00:46:43.668 - 00:46:53.604
Don't bother. Why this is a hard, you know, road to hoe. Road to hoe. So why are we doing this? But to your point, Steo, they kind of know what they're.
It seems like they know what they're doing, let's say.
Eoin Comerford
00:46:53.612 - 00:47:28.528
I say, I think, I think it's probably great for that, that target audience. It's not cheap, but it's not insane. Right. You're kind of in there with the Hokas and the ons and the others. You've got a Vibram soul.
And so there's some technical aspects to this. Hey, you know. But I would agree with you about one thing though. It is super hard for an apparel brand to launch into footwear.
We've seen so many try and fail. I mean even arc'teryx, right, who I think is getting some kudos right now for their footwear collection.
Their first attempt at footwear did not go well.
Colin
00:47:28.584 - 00:47:36.596
Terrible. Yes, terrible. Like, I mean, like, like it was a, like you should just scrapped it. You should not have brought it to market.
I don't care what you spent on that behind the scenes. It was that bad.
Eoin Comerford
00:47:36.668 - 00:47:43.252
Yeah. And for a brand that had Solomon as a stablemate to help them basically.
Producer Dave
00:47:43.316 - 00:47:47.412
Design it, that was the most inexplicable part of the whole thing.
Colin
00:47:47.596 - 00:47:49.520
That was the biggest miss of all time.
Eoin Comerford
00:47:51.020 - 00:48:05.696
But you know, Steo is not trying to reinvent the world here with like Arcteryx was with the booty and the whole bit. Right. This so bad. This is. I don't know. Yeah, it's a dad shoe.
Producer Dave
00:48:05.888 - 00:49:20.880
Elevated dad shoe is a great description of this and it does feel like I said, I also put faith in, I think they know their customer. They're going to have some. It's their expectations if they see this as a growth.
I don't know about that necessarily, but with like one of those challenges of building a footwear line out of an apparel especially mindset is the design language. There's just no new design language and it's really hard to get to a new design language.
So you need disruptors or performance brands that can use that form follows function as kind of a, as a reason to create some silhouettes and stuff that kind of defy convention. Right. Getting to that. And here these are clearly not built for that. These are just to be comfortable. They're. They're just like brown shoes.
I, I called them like steel. Kai's you know what I mean? Or, you know, just kind of. They're just kind of that lifestyle kind of brown shoe, like a performance loafer.
Totally makes sense with this crowd like that. That's what you should be seeing for sure. But, yeah, I think it's the Hocus Speed. Yeah, it just. It is. It's just. It's a product line. It is. It's a ste.
Yeah, that's nice. It's not another one. That kind of mitt, though, I think it will cut, tie back together. That's kind of like a steel Bose.
I think maybe that's kind of where we're going.
Colin
00:49:21.340 - 00:50:19.078
I think this. This is a little like people who are betting on the Chiefs before the Super Bowl.
Like, everyone's like, well, the Eagles have a better team, but, God, you can't. I can't bet against, you know, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Right. And then. And this is how I feel here.
It's like everything is lined up to say, you probably shouldn't have done this deal. But I kind of don't want to bet against them based off of, like, in the past. I'm like, what the hell are they doing?
They're not going to make it then. Look, they just kind of keep figuring it out. But, I mean, it is lined up again. You got two styles. You're in your own stores.
Like we said, expensive to produce, inventory, all those things. It is stacked against those. So it's kind of a weak parting shot that I'm like, I don't think it's gonna work. But I'm really.
If you made me put my money on it, I'd probably put it on them. So I don't know. We'll see how this one shakes out. Maybe. Maybe.
Maybe a year from now, all of a sudden, they have their next two styles that they're just gonna fill out their line. I have no idea. I will. I will throw a rock at the. I do not like the sidewall pinecone.
Producer Dave
00:50:19.174 - 00:50:19.850
Yeah.
Colin
00:50:20.670 - 00:50:21.788
I think that looks that.
Eoin Comerford
00:50:21.844 - 00:50:22.572
It looks like it's.
Colin
00:50:22.636 - 00:50:31.068
I didn't know what it was at first. I'm like, why are we putting a weird boulder? Why does it look like the thing from the Fantastic Four on the side of your shoe?
You're like, oh, that's. That's your pinecone logo I see now.
Eoin Comerford
00:50:31.204 - 00:50:31.644
Exactly.
Colin
00:50:31.692 - 00:50:32.764
Not a good design aesthetic.
Eoin Comerford
00:50:32.812 - 00:50:33.440
Yeah.
Colin
00:50:34.180 - 00:50:36.892
But to your point, better than other brands have done in their first attempt.
Producer Dave
00:50:36.956 - 00:50:40.720
It's like Geranimals, though. It's how you match them together. Make sure you've got the right pair.
Colin
00:50:41.220 - 00:50:42.240
Animals.
Eoin Comerford
00:50:43.140 - 00:50:43.756
Wow.
Colin
00:50:43.868 - 00:50:46.700
Okay. Another dated reference here on the rock.
Producer Dave
00:50:46.780 - 00:50:48.680
Yeah, well, you said dad shoes. Come on.
Colin
00:50:49.100 - 00:50:58.244
That's true. Good point. The dad Shoe podcast featuring us. That's all I got today, guys. Anything else, you guys, Anything else you guys have for the show today?
Eoin Comerford
00:50:58.412 - 00:51:01.412
No, no, that's. There's just way too much going on right now.
Producer Dave
00:51:01.516 - 00:51:33.940
Don't let the doom and gloom get you. We have a vital industry. Go outside and experience it. And you want to, you know, you want to do something.
Get our brands to pool their resources and fund outdoor jobs, outdoor events. Get outside. You know, they can't tear us down. They can't tear the parks down. Let's get out there.
And that's where the industry could play a part, because people working in the outdoor is the first step of a vital outdoor industry. So we've got to find a way to make sure that we keep people out there working.
Colin
00:51:34.060 - 00:51:37.540
It's my parting shot, producer Dave, with bringing the optimism.
Producer Dave
00:51:37.620 - 00:51:38.388
There you go.
Colin
00:51:38.524 - 00:51:41.800
Oh, and do you want to tell them again how we're all fucked like you said at the beginning of the episode?
Eoin Comerford
00:51:43.430 - 00:51:54.126
No, no, it's. He. No, that's the. That's the right approach, and I think that's the perfect approach for brands. Get your employees outside.
For retailers, get your customers outside.
Producer Dave
00:51:54.198 - 00:51:54.542
That's right.
Eoin Comerford
00:51:54.566 - 00:52:01.570
You know, let's come together. Let's have some. Some community here and build community outdoors.
Colin
00:52:01.990 - 00:52:36.080
We'll wrap it up there. Great job, guys. Come back on Wednesday to hear Shantae Salibar and I run through outdoor adventure headlines.
Check out the latest from the Rock Flight podcast network. Open container. New episode of that goes up tomorrow. The Rock Flight's a production of Rock Flight llc. Our producer today.
Producer David Karstad with art direction provided by Sarah. Where the hell is she anyway? Gensert. And for Owen Comerford, I'm Colin Truth. Thanks for listening.
And our guy Kristen makes he's back one more time like he always does, every single time to sing us right into another week. Get out. Oh, I scratched last week's script. I forgot I wrote that. We'll see you next time, Rock Fighters.
Producer Dave
00:52:37.780 - 00:52:39.000
It'll get out.
Chris DeMakes
00:52:47.060 - 00:53:39.560
Welcome to the Rock Fight where we speak our truth, slay sacred cows and sometimes agree to disagree.
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