Grassroots Outdoor Alliance wraps Fall 2024 Connect Show with more than 9,300 meetings

November 21, 2024

Along with ongoing strong attendance at Connect, Grassroots welcomes five new members, offers retailer education sessions.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (Nov. 21, 2024) /OUTDOOR SPORTSWIRE/ — Along with providing a venue for more than 9,300 meetings between outdoor product vendors and specialty retailers, the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance Connect Show in Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 11-14 put major focus on educational sessions designed to support the retail community. At the show, Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, the national organization dedicated to the health and growth of specialty outdoor retail, also welcomed five new member retailers in November.

The addition of new retailers along with two new vendor members in recent months brings the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance member network to 100 retail members with 221 locations in 45 states. New Grassroots retail members include:

• Bearcub Outfitters, Petosky, Mich.
• Chopwood Mercantile, Crested Butte, Colo.
• Mountain Sports, Flagstaff, Az.
• Out There Outfitters, Wayne, Pa.
• Saratoga Outdoors, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Guest retailers and vendors also attend the Connect Show. Last week’s show hosted 376 retail attendees representing 152 retail operations, along with 132 exhibiting product manufacturers. The show’s primary purpose is providing a well-timed venue for specialty retailers to see new product collections from brands in advance of vendor order deadlines. To that end, Connect provided a venue for 7,938 hours of brand-retailer meetings last week over its four days.

Education and data serving the retail community — and informed by feedback from retail members — is a major component of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance’s work. In an additional day prior to the first day of Connect, Grassroots Outdoor Alliance hosted a range of sessions for its retail members. Topics ranged from the specialty retail outlook based on input from the Grassroots member community to a Q&A session led by vendor sales executives about the product design and demand-planning processes, and how those affect retailers.

“We talk frequently with our members about what resources will help them run their businesses more effectively. An area of opportunity we see is for more interaction and discussion between specialty retailers and vendors about how decisions facing one group affect the other,” said Dana Howe, Vice President of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance. “Working together more effectively begins with a greater understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing both.”

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance also hosted an additional 61 outdoor brands at Discovery Marketplace, an event that took place the night before the Connect Show. Given the show’s focus on line showings between long-established brand-retailer relationships, Discovery Marketplace offers new and emerging brands the opportunity to interface with specialty retailers, and retailers the opportunity to see what’s new and exciting in the industry.

About Grassroots Outdoor Alliance

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is a retailer-owned network of 100 independently owned outdoor retailers and 67 vendor partners, working together for the health and growth of specialty outdoor retail. Through data collection and analysis, direct member support, specialty events and deep vendor partnerships, Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is creating both a vision and roadmap for the long-term success of independent specialty retail. Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is recognized as a catalyst for the success of its retailers and vendor partners; an advocate for specialty independent retail; a promoter of education and community within the specialty channel; and a key influencer of the national outdoor industry. Grassroots Outdoor Alliance also operates Connect, a twice-annual legacy show experience that spans four days, offering an efficient and structured format for retailers to conduct pre-season line showings and business conversations.

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