S N E W S®

O U T D O O R 2 0 0 7

RETAILER SURVEY RETAILER SURVEY RETAILERS WEIGH IN ON 2007’S WINNERS AND LOSERS.

» W W W . G E A R T R E N D S . C O M7 2 » O U T D O O R » W I N T E R 2 0 0 8

r e t a i l e r s u r v e y

Welcome to the 2007 SNEWS® Outdoor Retailer Survey summary, where outdoor specialty retailersget to speak their minds and offer industry observations and commentary on what is great, good, so-so ordesperately needs improvement. As we do each year, these two pages in GearTrends® are only a summary.

To view the full survey—complete with expanded and detailed analysis of each category result—you’ll needto be a SNEWS® subscriber. Subscribers can access it at www.snewsnet.com/surveys. As always, there’s a lotof information packed into both this summary and the full survey results on SNEWS®, offering the industryplenty to digest, discuss, ponder and also view with pride.

Keep in mind that although SNEWS® sends the questionnaire to hundreds of outdoor specialty retailers allover the country, this survey is by no means scientific in its approach. We certainly do believe the results arequite representative of the outdoor specialty retail market as a whole, and those who participate in the surveyare consistent from year-to-year, so comparing answers from past surveys presents a useful picture of trends,market conditions and retailer moods.

The survey was available for retailers to fill out online from Oct. 8 to Nov. 30. Those completing the surveysrepresent approximately $3 billion in outdoor specialty sales. At no time do we include sporting goods chains,discounters, department stores or big boxes in our surveys. The majority of respondents represent busi-nesses with three or fewer storefronts. Results are representative of the U.S. market in 2007.

Finally, while we regularly receive some truly tantalizing offers from those who want to know which retailersaid what, we never disclose who responded to the surveys since that is the promise we make our retailersfor their honest responses. One final point of importance: SNEWS® only poses the questions and does notpredispose retailer answers by providing a list of choices.

For a summary look at some of the cheers and jeers from retailers this year, simply read on. »»»

Hobie, Marmot, Osprey Packs, Outdoor Research, Sea To Summit and Vasque.

With a record number of retailersresponding to the survey this year,

we again saw no dominant player and awider spread of best company nominationswith no fewer than 38 companies getting atleast one vote. Patagonia continues to ownthe top spot as a best supplier to do busi-ness with, but it only hangs on by a threadwith its percentage dipping slightly over lastyear. Cascade Designs keeps gunning for theNo. 1 spot, but got pushed back to thirdplace this year by none other than NorthwestRiver Supplies, which leapt from the sixthposition last year into No. 2 in 2007.

Hats off to Werner, which appears on

our top 10 list for the first time—a tributeto company management for ensuring high-quality customer service and production.Johnson Outdoors climbed into the top 10this year as well and is worthy of a nod anda salute for effort—although the companyalso garnered a top 10 position for mostdifficult to deal with, leading us to believethe company may need to ponder whichparts of its business units (camping orpaddlesports) are in need of dramaticimprovement. We also should applaud TheNorth Face, which garnered more “bestcompany” votes than ever and increased itsshare of percentage points from 5 percentlast year to 6 percent in 2007. Columbia,too, vaulted up the list from an also-ran in2006 to the No. 6 position in 2007.

WHO DO YOU RATE AS THE “BEST”SUPPLIER TO DO BUSINESS WITH?

Patagonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.4%Northwest River Supplies . . . . . . 12%Cascade Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%Werner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9%The North Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%Columbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%Mountain Hardwear . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Johnson Outdoors . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Aquabound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Kokatat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%

*Tied companies are listed randomly and all are consideredstatistically equal in terms of ranking.

Also receiving multiple votes were: Black Diamond, Carhartt, Darn Tough, Deuter,

64-75_WinterAccess_Survey_WG.qxd 12/19/07 12:38 AM Page 72

Raise the heat in your store with Sierra Designs product, stop by our OR booth #26015 or call us at 800.736.8592

Phot

o: C

amp

1, A

bruz

zi Ri

dge,

K2,

Pak

ista

n (6

700M

)Ph

otog

raph

er: B

ruce

Nor

man

d

W W W . G E A R T R E N D S . C O M » 7 3» O U T D O O R » W I N T E R 2 0 0 8

64-75_WinterAccess_Survey_WG.qxd 12/19/07 12:38 AM Page 73

» W W W . G E A R T R E N D S . C O M7 4 » O U T D O O R » W I N T E R 2 0 0 8

We find it interesting that this year thetop 10 includes no less than four compa-nies that predominantly serve the paddle-sports market. That could be in part to anincrease in the number of specialty retailersresponding to our survey who told us theyalso sell paddlesports. Or, it could be repre-sentative of a general trend where specialtypaddlesports dealers are outperformingtheir non-paddlesports specialty brethren.We find it hard to draw firm conclusionsfrom this survey, but will be watching thetrend into next year.

In all cases, as in years past, retailersacross the board cite the following reasonsfor voting a company into the top spot: openand honest communication, consistent on-time and complete delivery, good marginsand good quality product. It’s not that hard,really, and yet so many companies seem tostruggle with these concepts each year.

WHO DO YOU RATE AS THE MOST DIFFICULT SUPPLIER TO WORK WITH INTHE BUSINESS?

Confluence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.5%Johnson Outdoors . . . . . . . . . . . 12%Too damn many! . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5%Crocs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5%Northwest River Supplies . . . . . . . 6%The North Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%We stop doing business with any . . 4.5%Arc’Teryx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%Under Armour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%Cloudveil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%

*Tied companies are listed randomly and all are consideredstatistically equal in terms of ranking.

Also receiving multiple votes were: Icebreaker,Macpac, Marmot, Merrell, MountainHardwear, Patagonia and Timbuk2.

While Confluence’s top position (bya landslide) may not be a surprise

to some, especially to those who have beenclosely following the company’s manychallenges over the last several years,SNEWS® believes there is finally a reasonfor optimism. Tom Nathanson fromAmerican Capital Strategies (Confluence’sinvestment owners) took control of thecompany in June 2007, and Sue Rechnerwas named president and CEO in earlyDecember. It appears that the right thingsare being said AND also now being done.

Several retailers responding to our surveywrote in comments that reflect what wasexpressed by one retailer: “Of all the boatmanufacturers that I deal with, Confluenceis still the most difficult, although they areshowing signs of improvement in all areas:quality, timely shipping, customer service.

Confluence recently accepted all responsi-bility for the problems they have beenhaving for the past two years and describedthe steps (to us) that they are taking to makeimprovements. I am hopeful that they willfollow through.”

In addition, several key East Coast retailerscontacted us by phone and email after ourSNEWS® story ran on Rechner in Decemberto say they were excited and more optimisticthan ever following personal visits fromRechner. We’ll go out on a limb here and saywe will be very surprised to see Confluenceanywhere near the top of the “most difficultsupplier to work with” list next year.

We are continually disturbed that retailersresponding to our survey still write in “toodamn many” or something similar as theirtop vote in the category, increasing againin percentage over 2006, which was also upfrom 2005. New this year—and perhaps asign of things to come, as well as a warningto those who do make this list—is our para-phrase of a write-in comment retailers notedfor the first time this year: “We stop doingbusiness with any” who are most difficult.Now that is voting with your dollars. Thereare simply too many brands and choicesthese days to be sloppy or difficult to dealwith. Seems retailers are starting to decideenough is enough.

Overall, what we said in last year’ssurvey—and the survey before that and theone before that—apparently bearsrepeating: If your manufacturing companywas listed among those as a “most diffi-cult to deal with,” you are failing yourspecialty retailers if you break promises,refuse to take responsibility for youractions or inaction, make life difficult fordealers, fail to deliver, come through withpoor-quality product, do not communi-cate, lie about what you have or have notdone, and fail to show respect. And moreoften than not in 2007, retailers told usabhorrent customer service alone put manycompanies into the top 10 of this list.

If you’re on the list of most difficult todeal with for 2007, read the paragraph abovecarefully and then look in a mirror. You’re onthis list, retailers told us, because more thanone of the reasons above applies to you.

WHAT ARE THE TOP-SELLING HARD-GOODS CATEGORIES THIS YEAR?

Rec Kayaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.4%Backpacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4%Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%Daypacks (includes hydration) . . 4.5%Sleeping Bags. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Backcountry Skiing . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Sport Racks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%Stoves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%

r e t a i l e r s u r v e y

Climbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%Sit-on-Tops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2%

WHAT ARE THE TOP-SELLING SOFTWEARCATEGORIES THIS YEAR?

Women’s Sportswear. . . . . . . . . . 15%Technical Outerwear . . . . . . . . . . 12%Footwear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%Men’s Sportswear . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%Underwear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Fleece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%PFDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Merino Anything . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Paddling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4%Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%

WHAT ARE THE FASTEST-GROWING PRODUCT CATEGORIES THIS YEAR?

Footwear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12%Rec Kayaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%Kid’s Outerwear . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5%Women’s Sportswear . . . . . . . . . 7.5%Underwear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Merino Anything . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5%Climbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%Men’s Sportswear . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%Backcountry Skiing . . . . . . . . . . . 3%

HOW ARE YOUR SALES THIS YEAR COMPARED TO LAST YTD?

Up between 1% and 10% . . . . . . 45%Up between 11% and 20% . . . . . 23%Up between 21% and 30% . . . . . . 3%Way Up! (over 50% up) . . . . . . . . 5%Down between 1% and 10% . . . . . 9%Down between 11% and 20% . . . . 3%Even . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%

Where Are the Full Survey Results?» To read all the results of the 2007 SNEWS®

Outdoor Retailer Survey—including moredetailed analysis from the summary resultsprinted here, as well as all the best-sellingbrand results from climbing, Nordic skiing,paddlesports and camping, as well as re-sponses to our questions about trade showtiming, go to www.snewsnet.com/surveys.Yes, you must be a subscriber to read thefull results, and if you are not yet, simply goto www.snewsnet.com/subscribe.

THE FINE PRINT» All answers have been rounded up tothe nearest 0.5 percent, and since we don’t name everysingle company name or category with a percent, the per-centages may not total 100 percent.

» The SNEWS® Retailer Survey may not be reproduced forredistribution of any kind, in whole or part, including forpromotional or sales purposes of any kind, to consumersor the trade, without the written consent of SNEWS® LLC.Contact SNEWS® at survey@snewsnet.com for reprint details and restrictions.

64-75_WinterAccess_Survey_WG.qxd 12/19/07 12:38 AM Page 74

828.252.7956 ph 828.252.3145 fax

www.eora.org

Southeast Region

Crowne Plaza Resort

Asheville, NC January

14-16, 2008

Carolina First Center

Greenville, SC February

10-12, 2008

Mid-AtlanticRegion

Riverside Sports Scranton, PA

January15-16, 2008

W W W . G E A R T R E N D S . C O M » 7 5» O U T D O O R » W I N T E R 2 0 0 8

64-75_WinterAccess_Survey_WG.qxd 12/19/07 12:38 AM Page 75