John Rogers
Salt Lake’s prodigal son is on his way home.
The Outdoor Retailer trade show, the nation’s largest outdoor recreation trade show, is leaving Denver and moving back to Utah five years after it bolted for the Mile High City, despite boycott threats from major recreation companies and an environmental conservation group over the move.
The twice-yearly show, which has been in Denver since 2018, will move back to Salt Lake City after this year’s June event, according to Jeff Davis, group vice president of Emerald X, the company that owns and manages the show.
“Salt Lake City and County is our hometown, and we’re going back with a commitment to effecting meaningful change,” an Emerald X release said. “It would be wrong for us to leave the way we did and simply go back as if nothing happened. In reality, leaving after 2017 has not brought the change we had hoped for, so we will push back, not pull back. We firmly believe that staying engaged and collectively contributing to the ongoing discussion, no matter how difficult, is far more constructive.”
Davis said in an interview with the Associated Press that the company hopes to convince skeptical participants to stick with the show and mount exhibits. He said Emerald X consulted with hundreds of firms and exhibitors and considered multiple locations, including staying in Denver. An “overriding majority” of outdoor retailers wanted the event moved back to Utah, he said.
“We’ve talked to all the brands, and while we cannot speak for all the brands, our tent is open,” Davis said. “We want as many participants as possible to contribute to what we believe is a positive change.”
The Conservation Alliance, the Oregon-based conservation group threatening to boycott, is accusing lawmakers in Utah of chipping away at protections for national monuments and public lands, the Associated Press reported. Other big-name outdoor products companies like Patagonia, REI and The North Face said they too would boycott the show over the move.
Welcoming OR’s return to Utah, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson urged its vendors to recognize the work of environmental allies along the Wasatch Front, reminding them that federal public lands debates too often overshadow other key environmental initiatives.
“I’m thrilled Outdoor Retailer is returning to Salt Lake County. They will again be an economic anchor for our county and bring increased revenue and job growth,” said Wilson. “I agree with those seeking to protect Utah’s precious natural resources and in the five years since Outdoor Retailer left, Salt Lake County has led in environmental protection and conservation. We welcome Outdoor Retailer’s return and its partnership to benefit our broader community.”
The biannual OR show will return to the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center, which is owned by Salt Lake County.
Wilson said that over the course of its 20 years in Salt Lake, Outdoor Retailer generated more than $565 million in local revenue, which included $52 million in city, county and state taxes.
In its announcement, Emerald X also praised Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, “whose values align with ours following tremendous investments in clean energy and a strong commitment to public lands. This proved to be a real turning point in our recent negotiations.”
Mendenhall’s office said in an open letter that Utah has created a stand-alone Public Lands Department since Outdoor Retailer left the state and is on a path to 100 percent renewable energy.
“If there are some who look at Utah’s state politics around our public lands and wonder if this move back to Utah is right, I have two words for you: Join us,” Mendenhall said.
Marisa Nicholson, senior vice president and show director for Emerald X and Outdoor Retailer, told the AP it’s easier for exhibitors to demonstrate their skiing, snowboarding, kayaking and other products in Utah. That’s because outdoor venues where the products can be used or tested are closer and easier to get to than in Denver, where travel to the Rockies from the downtown convention center where the show has been based can take hours.
Nicholson said organizers also plan to make the winter and summer shows more accessible to consumers instead of just commercial buyers and retailers. She told AP, without providing specifics, that Outdoor Retailer plans to commit revenue from its Utah events to fund efforts to protect public lands with involvement from local, state and federal officials plus state tourism and business officials.
Outdoor Retailer was moved to Denver after Utah lawmakers asked Pres. Donald Trump in February 2017 to repeal the newly designated Bears Ears National Monument. Emerald X decided to leave Utah after then-Gov. Gary Herbert signed a resolution calling on federal officials to rescind the monument that Pres. Barack Obama designated on 1.3 million acres of land in southeastern Utah considered sacred to Native American tribes.
Later that year, Trump reduced the size of Bears Ears and Southern Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, prompting a lawsuit from California-based outdoor apparel company Patagonia over the reduction and a declaration on its website that “The President Stole Your Land.” Pres. Joe Biden has since restored the two monuments to their former sizes.
Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert responded to Emerald X’s decision to move back to Salt Lake City in a strongly worded statement. “We are disappointed the owners of Outdoor Retailer are blatantly ignoring the indigenous peoples, local activists and outdoor athletes who spent years working to conserve and protect wild lands in Utah by moving the show back to Salt Lake City.”
Gellert said the retailer would not return to the trade show “until we hear a firm commitment to protect our national monuments.”
Current Utah Gov. Spencer Cox welcomed Emerald X’s decision. “This is great news for Utah’s expanding outdoor industry and all those who love getting outside and experiencing the state’s natural beauty.”
Cox struck a more confrontational tone during an interview with KSL Radio while talking about the companies that threatened the boycott. “You don’t get to come in and threaten us and tell us how to do things. That’s not how this is going to work,” he said. The Republican governor asked the show’s organizers last year to return the event to Salt Lake City, saying the location offered economic benefits for the state and for outdoor retailers.
Publicly traded Emerald X told stakeholders in a letter announcing the move that it can better promote the outdoor recreation industry and fight for environmental protections from its longstanding base in Utah — where the show was held for decades before moving to Denver in 2018.
Colorado contributed $1.7 million to help relocate the show from Salt Lake City, with the understanding that organizers would hold three outdoor retail conventions in Denver each year for five years. That commitment expires after this summer’s show, which will still be held in Denver ahead of the show’s winter 2023 event in Salt Lake City.