neal's blog

Some people never learn.

Remember last winter when The Enthusiast Group (publishers of YourMTB) sent Yann and me to Salt Lake City to check out the Outdoor Retailer Winter Show?

Well, not only are they sending us again, but the folks who run the show are actually letting us back in. Outdoor Retailer Summer Show, here we come!

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Hey kids!

Finally - we've got all the product previews from the Outdoor Retailer Show finished. Click here to see short video features highlighting the coolest gear Yann and I found. You can see why it was almost torture being there: all that cool stuff, and we couldn't have any of it.

Most of this stuff is coming out soon, if it's not already!

Enjoy...

I'm not sure if this makes any sense at all, but last weekend at the 2007 Outdoor Retailer was the longest blur of a weekend I've experienced in awhile. It feels like just hours ago I was packing for the trip, but yet reflecting on the weekend's humongous amount of tomfoolery finds me thinking it was three times as long as it actually was.

I've never seen so much outdoor gear and so many outdoor-loving people in one centralized place. It was bordering on ironic how many outdoor-related people and events were taking place in what was essentially a sealed off bunker flooded with fluorescent lights.

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Their products may be pricey, they might be the target of some resentment among their peers, and one can get the sense that they're a little too into themselves...but you've got to admit - they've got balls.

At the super-secret media-only Patagonia press conference at the 2007 Outdoor Retailer, president and CEO Casey Sheahan announced that the Ventura, California-based company would launch a bold advancement to their clothes recycling program. They've been offering to recycle consumers' old and no longer used Patagonia gear for years, and now they're taking a step further and really stepping on others' toes. They will now be accepting ANY old Polartec garment, not just their own, for their recycling program. If you've got a North Face, Cloudveil, Arc'teryx, or any other company's gear that has Polartec, they want it, and they're going to turn it back into Patagonia gear.

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Green is king here at the 2007 Outdoor Retailer.

THE theme of this year's show is the number of outdoor manufacturers, from the ma and pop canteen makers to the corporations outfitting elite athletes, is sustainability. From carbon-neutral travel to 100% sustainable production, green is the key word. There are seminars, there are demonstrations, there is green beer (mmmm)...everyone is on the green train. It's not just Patagonia, Timberland and the like focusing on eco-friendly commerce anymore- a slew of companies are initiating a fundamental shift in industry mandates.

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To quote the opening line of Van Halen's Hot for Teacher: "Uh, WOW, man."

Yann and I finally landed in a foggy Salt Lake City (the captain couldn't see the runway so he put it on "auto-pilot" - good times) and found our way to the motherland: the Outdoor Retailer Show. I'm currently in the Press Room trying to keep my HEAD FROM EXPLODING!

THIS PLACE IS NUTS!

Even if you're just remotely interested in anything that has to do with outdoor sports, you can't walk ten feet without being open-mouth mesmerized by a blitzkrieg of cool new toys that you just have to have. Unreal. Even if you didn't stop at any booths, you couldn't walk through the place in a single day. It's like an endless underground lair of adult toy temptation.

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Road trip!

Yee haw! The Enthusiast Group is letting me out of my cage and sending me to Salt Lake City, Utah this weekend for the 2007 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market convention! I'll be accompanied by fellow Enthusiast Groupie Yann Ropars (otherwise known as Quasimoto), and we'll be checking out what hundreds of outdoor equipment and apparel manufacturers are showcasing for the upcoming year. There'll be booths (and you know what booths mean?! FREE STICKERS! Yay!) (Geez...how old am I again?), demonstrations, seminars, and even a faaaaaabulous fashion show (I know what you're thinking, and no, I'm NOT too sexy to streak it - just kidding Enthusiast Group!). We wanted to get a first hand look at what to expect this year from the world's leading and most innovative outdoor companies - and you'll be the first people we tell about it!

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Hello MTBers!

Allow myself to introduce...myself. I'm Neal Young, the newest member of the Enthusiast Group and newly-ordained Editorial and Community Manager of YourMTB.com. You'll see me popping up throughout the site, posting forum questions, running contests, blogging about my latest mountain biking adventures (mishaps really), and sharing photos and videos of my favorite moments on the trail. I'll also be helping Walker and Steve corral you crazies, so feel free to drop me a line with questions or feedback.

Excited to be here!

Neal