SOAR Blog

Credit Matthew McDermott

Outdoor Retailer ended in late January on a high note with both industry attendance and optimism up from winter 2009. In the midst of writing orders and thinking about upcoming selling seasons, though, the industry as initiated dozens of efforts to provide relief for Haiti after its devastating earthquake.

Manufacturers across the Winter Market show floor offered product to an industry Haitian relief effort coordinated by Terramar, Sierra Trading Post & Eric Larsen. The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) also partnered with Americares to get first aid kits, water purification systems, headlamps, tarps and hydration containers willing donated from manufacturers in the outdoor industry to Haitians in desperate need of essential supplies. (See below for more information on getting your product to Haiti via Sierra Trading Post and Americares).

In an industry that highly values authenticity and social responsibility, it’s no surprise that the outdoor industry mobilized so quickly to aid Haiti. It employs individuals with just as much strength and heart as the products it manufactures- prepared to be put to work at a moments notice. These qualities and others make SOAR super proud to be part of the outdoor industry.

In fact, we see these qualities in the outdoor industry year round. We associate with outdoor industry leaders that support advocacy groups and let their passion for their sport drive their compassion. SOAR has had some fun and rewarding opportunities to work on a pro-bono basis with non-profits like Bikes for Kids Utah and Trips for Kids. We get to see how much work goes into each event and initiative. Every donation, vote of confidence, re-tweet and sponsorship makes a difference.

Let’s all continue to heed OIA’s call for the industry to “dig deep” during this and every time of crisis and need.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Click here to read about the partnerships forming in the outdoor industry to help Haiti.

To donate this urgently needed product/equipment contact Randy Weiss at Americares at (203) 658-9527 or rweiss@americares.org. All donations will be delivered by air and sea directly to the region by Americares.

Outdoor Retailer exhibitors are invited to donate show products to Haiti via Red Cross if it can arrive at Sierra Trading Post by FEBRUARY 8, 2010. All packages should be sent to  Sierra Trading Post Robin Jahnke/Haiti 5121 Campstool Road Cheyenne,  Wyoming 8200.

I pledge to reduce my greenhouse gas emissions by 450 pounds during May, which many U.S. cities, including Salt Lake City, recognize as Bike Month.

I have the farthest commute of all the SOAR team members (about 30 miles), so I’m not going to attempt to commute the entire way by bike. But I will take the bus two to three times per week, and stop asking my husband to drop me off and pick me up from my home bus stop (I learned at the Bicycle Leadership Conference that 40 percent of trips in the U.S. are just two miles and are the most polluting). If I do this during the month of May, UtahCommuter.com tells me that I can reduce my vehicle trips by 450 to 680 miles and my greenhouse gas emission by 380 to 575 pounds.

Me prepping for the Momentum bike fashion show at Interbike

I first started using mass transit because it was cheaper than buying snow tires for my 1988 California-raised Volvo. Even though the threat of snow is gone (let’s hope), I still try to commute by bus twice a week. The entire commute from point to point takes about 30-40 minutes longer than it would if I drove by myself, but I think it is worth the extra time spent. One-way bus fare cheaper than a gallon of gas and the time I have on the bus to read Newsweek and study Portuguese is priceless. Plus, I get home to my husband in a much better mood not having fought traffic for 45 minutes.

I’ll also reduce my green house gas emissions by biking around town more. I’ve been assessing every road I drive on for its bikeability and often think, “I could totally bike this. Why am I even driving a car?” I see bike trips to the gelaterie are in my not-so distant future.

You can learn how many pounds of carbon emissions your commute reduces by registering at UtahCommuter. com (hint: if you only commute by a car alone, your commute reduces NONE! Think about it.)

“My bikes goes hard, don’t need no car” says the scraper bikers of the San Francisco Bay Area hyphy movement.

The scraper bike movement that originated in Oakland, Calif. is now sweeping the world. “Scrapers” in the hip-hop world are huge cars with rims so big they scrape the inside of the wheel well. According to a NRP story aired last year, Tyrone Stevenson Jr. (better known as “Scraper Bike King”) first thought to apply the aesthetic of the scraper car by fitting large wheels on small bike frames and painting the frames to match the rims, accenting them with colorful foil wrappers from food like Oreos, Doritos and Lemonhead. I saw several scraper bikes on display at the Oakland Airport on a recent trip to my hometown in the South Bay. They’re works of art as much as they are vehicles.

Stevenson made his first scraper bike because he couldn’t afford the car version. Now he makes a living designing them, while giving teenagers in his community creative and healthy ways to channel their energy.

Click here to watch the YouTube rap music video that started the now world-wide scraper bike phenomenon.

Salt Lake has some die-hard cyclists. I met some of them at the SLC Critical Mass meeting/ride last week while conducting research for a Momentum Magazine assignment. The weather conditions that day weren’t particularly brutal, but the participants told me they stayed true to their bike commutes even through the bitterness of the Utah winter. One rider vowed to ride to school every day. And he had, even when the snow-covered ground required a unicycle equipped with a mountain bike tire. Another cyclist recently sold his car and instead tackles snowy paths with a studded bike snow tire.

SLC Critical Mass in March

I don’t envy the chilly weather conditions the SLC Critical Mass folks cycle in for a good part of the year.  But I do envy the city they get to navigate. I think I would have a richer appreciation of Salt Lake if I could experience by bike more often. The brightly-lit, snowy Wasatch Mountains were dead ahead of us when we started out. As we passed by an Eastern Orthodox church, a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace” pumped out of the stereo of one rider’s homemade tall bike (like a horse, but with less stability). The stone and stained-glass Cathedral of Madeline was on the right as the mass headed west.

My photographer, McKenzie, was a hardcore as the cyclists she was following. Still, she and her driver, Austin, had trouble keeping up with the speedy pack because Critical Mass doesn’t have a set route. Simultaneously using my mobile and riding urban streets required more coordination than I had in that moment, so I had to pull over to update McKenzie on the riders’ location. Given my difficulties, I was pretty sure McKenzie would have had an even greater struggle managing both handlebars and an SLR. At least in the car she could leave the driving to someone else. Thanks, McKenzie, for your stealthy cameras kills and to Austin for chasing down the pack!

Keep your eye on this blog for more updates on my Momentum article research.

Efforts to restore Utah Lake to its former beauty and pristine state are well underway, with the preliminary draft of a Master Plan unveiled this past month by the Utah Lake Commission.

Utah Lake covers more than 150 square miles, is 14-feet deep at its greatest depth and when full contains more than 870,000 acre feet of water.

Utah Lake during winter

According to a 2005 lake-wide study (the most recent such study conducted), it was estimated that non-native common carp constituted 91 percent of all fish within Utah Lake, with a projection of more than 7.5 million two-year-old (or older) carp inhabiting the lake.

Unfortunately, as bottom feeders, carp are also one of the greatest contributors to most public complaints surrounding Utah Lake - its turbidity (or murky) coloration. Carp are not the only culprits of the often cloudy condition of the lake, however, as manmade contributors (agricultural and factory runoffs), algae blooms and high-winds can combine to stir up the shallow waters to create less than attractive waters.

As a shallow habitat Utah Lake can and does support a variety of warm water gamefish, including white bass, walleye, channel catfish and several panfish species, including crappie and perch (each of which have been introduced to the lake).

Nevertheless, the list of Federal and state agencies that have a say in the management of Utah Lake is almost overwhelming and includes the

• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
• U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
• U.S. Bureau of Land Management
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• National Parks Service
• Utah Reclamation Mitigation & Conservation Commission
• Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands
• Utah Division of Water Resources
• Utah Division of Water Rights
• Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
• Utah Division of Parks & Recreation
• Utah Division of Water Quality
• Utah Division of State History

All told, six federal agencies, eight state divisions, and dozens of other local municipalities, governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations, each have a hand in what happens to Utah Lake.

On top of these organizations, the Utah Lake Commission was

“formed to promote beneficial utilization of the natural resources of the lake . . . in keeping with the Public Trust Doctrine.”

As noted above, the preliminary draft of the commission’s Master Plan has been written and is now available for public comment and feedback. Reed S. Price is the Executive Director of the Utah Lake Commission and he can be reached by phone at 801-851-2900 or by email at rprice@utahlakecommission.org.

In addition, interested individuals are also invited to participate in the following online survey to provide public input to the commission.

Mimi McDonald holding her daughter, Mia, post-op

Mia McDonald spent her first few months in the world with congenital heart defect. Fortunately, on Nov. 10, four months after her birth, Mia underwent a successful heart transplant. Mimi and John McDonald are overjoyed about their daughter’s recovery and at the same time overwhelmed with steep medical expenses associated with it. Friends of the McDonald family have collaborated to create the Mia McDonald Fund to help the family deal with its financial burdens.

Though the McDonalds are based in Seattle, their friends in Provo, Utah have planned the “Help Baby Mia Bike-a-thon” to give baby Mia supporters a per-mile opportunity to donate to Mia’s cause. The riders will travel between 40 and 60 miles in two hours, starting in Provo and ending at the Alpine Loop by the Sundance Resort. For more information about the ride, visit the Facebook group: “The ‘Help Baby Mia’ Bike-a-thon” or email Dane at gdanesmith@gmail.com or Abbie at abbierufener@gmail.com. You can read more about Mia’s story at http://helpbabymia.blogspot.com/.

For more bike-related advocacy opportunities, visit the Bikes for Kids Utah website to learn about a non-profit organization with a mission to provide free bikes to underprivileged children in Salt Lake County.

Dear President-Elect Obama:

The price of unleaded gasoline has finally dropped below $2.00 per gallon here in Utah, a pleasant fact that dramatically hit home this morning when I filled the tank on my 1990 Mazda Miata for less than $20.00. Hooray!

Credit: New York Times, David Maxwell photographer

It’s clear that challenges in the global economy have contributed to this price drop at the pump, with multiple news sources say gas prices are at their lowest levels since  January 2007.  (For example, see this article in the San Antonio Business Journal.)

As happy as I am that prices have retreated as much as they have recently, I do have one nagging concern: Will lowered gas prices provide a disincentive for efforts to develop/create alternative energy options, particularly in the automotive/transportation industries? I certainly hope not.

So . . . President-Elect Obama (and the Democrat-controlled Congress) I urge you - do NOT let this be the case.

I’m keenly aware that we’re in the midst of an “economic slowdown” (née recession). I get that.

Nevertheless, please make sure that we do everything that we can as a country to reduce our dependence on both foreign oil and oil period.

Just because costs have dropped so much - both at the pump and by the barrel - do not let such falling gasoline prices thwart efforts to pursue and encourage alternative energy options (both here and abroad). Thank you.

Sincerely,

David (”Poppa P”) Politis

Samson Riders Bicycle Club

Considering the plethora of well-established mountain biking cultures that exist worldwide, it is telling that Trips for Kids (TFK) would establish its first international chapter in Israel. In addition to the typical complexities that challenge childhood, Israel’s youth faces the challenge of developing tolerance for the variety of ethnic, educational, socio-economic and immigrant groups in their communities.

I imagine this is true even in Beit Shemesh, Israel, where Trips for Kids Israel- Samson Riders Bicycle Club (TFK Israel-SRBC) has been established.  This community in the heart of the Judean Plains merits a group like TFK Israel-SRBC that encourages young people to understand and unite with their peers of all backgrounds. Before Samson Riders Bicycle Club became the foundational group for TFK Israel, it had already been successful in bringing Jewish and Arab youth together to ride, learn about each other, break down barriers, discover new interests and respect the land. The club’s new relationship with TFK will make it possible to expand this program, Riding for Co-Existence, to give more underprivileged youth in Israel a chance to experience mountain biking and involve youth from other local ethnic communities in the bike ride planning and implementation.

Come late November, riders with TFK Israel-SRBC will take their first tour of the monasteries, water springs and olive groves as an official chapter of the Marin County, Calif.-based non-profit organization. For many of them, it will be their first time exploring their historic surroundings. For some, it may be their first time riding side by side with a peer who claims a different culture than their own.

You can learn more about Trips for Kids at www.tripsforkids.org.

Well . . . it’s finally official: SOAR is now the public relations agency for Outdoor Retailer! Way, way cool!

I plan to write more about this in the near future, but for now, I’ve enclosed below the “official” text of the full news release announcing this news.

Later,

David (”Poppa P”) Politis

= = = = = = = = = =

Outdoor Retailer Signs SOAR Communications as its PR Agency of Record

SOAR Communications selected to manage public relations efforts for Outdoor Retailer, a division of Nielsen Business Media and producer of the leading trade show for advancing the active outdoor marketplace

DRAPER, Utah and SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. - Oct. 21, 2008 - Outdoor Retailer (OR), a division of Nielsen Business Media, today announced it has signed Utah-based SOAR Communications as its public relations agency of record.

Under terms of the multi-year agreement, SOAR Communications (a full-service marketing communications agency), will develop and execute public relations campaigns serving each of OR’s annual events, as well as all of its year-round PR needs.

“During the past three years, SOAR Communications has generated great results for our sister shows - Interbike and Health+Fitness Business Expo - so it’s clear they understand the specialty sports marketplace and our culture,” said Kenji Haroutunian, OR’s show director. “Naturally, we’re looking for similar results from SOAR with Outdoor Retailer, both in solidifying our support for trade media journalists, while also broadening our efforts to reach consumer-focused media outlets throughout the U.S. and abroad. As expected, SOAR has already hit the ground running on some key OR and industry initiatives. We look forward to a long and successful relationship with the SOAR team.”

Formed in 2004, SOAR Communications serves the Sports, Outdoor, Athletics and Recreation industries, thus the moniker SOAR.

“After attending my first OR (Summer Market) in 2004, I soon discovered that there wasn’t a single agency in recreation-rich Utah that focused specifically on servicing the sports, outdoor, athletics and/or recreation industries,” said David Politis, chief executive officer for SOAR Communications. “That led me to form SOAR in the first place, which is why it’s so cool to now be working with OR and the great OR team. I feel like I’ve now gone full circle back to SOAR’s very first beginnings, and that’s just awesome!”

As well as being the CEO of Draper, Utah-based SOAR Communications, Politis is the president and founder of Politis Communications (a long-time strategic communications and public relations agency focused on serving technology clients).

A year after forming SOAR, Politis invited Chip Smith to take the position of president at SOAR, thus leveraging Smith’s nearly 20 years of marketing and sales experience, including 10 years with bicycle industry leaders Shimano and Specialized and three years with Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest agencies in the world. The resulting combination of Politis and Smith has helped transform SOAR Communications into one of the up-and-coming sports marketing communications agencies in North America.

“We’re excited to take the lessons we’ve learned with Interbike and HFB and apply them to OR,” said Chip Smith, president of SOAR Communications. “Naturally, SOAR will continue to serve the media in a collaborative manner that best meets their needs, while always looking for the best ways to land positive media exposure for the show and its exhibitors. We’re also eager to help Kenji and his team achieve their goals of further strengthening the relationships between OR exhibitors and endemic media, while also expanding exposure to non-endemic journalists as well.”

About Outdoor Retailer
Outdoor Retailer (OR), produced by Nielsen Business Media of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., is a full service trade show company that creates, markets and produces high-quality expos and educational conferences. OR is the leading outdoor industry business-to-business event management company, bringing together manufacturers, retailers, industry advocates and media to conduct the business of outdoor recreation. Now celebrating more than 25 years of successful events, Outdoor Retailer (www.outdoorretailer.com) gathers approximately 40,000 attendees on a semi-annual basis for its Winter and Summer Market shows.

The next opportunity to preview the future of the outdoor industry will start at the 6th Annual Backcountry Base Camp at Snowbasin ski resort on January 21, 2009, followed by the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market at the Salt Palace Convention Center from January 22-25, 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Outdoor Retailer Summer Market will bring the best of summer outdoor brands to Salt Lake City, Utah at the Open Air Demo from July 19-20, 2009 and the Trade Show from July 21-24, 2009.

About SOAR Communications
Voted one of Utah’s top three marketing agencies of 2008 by the readers of Business Connect magazine, SOAR Communications is an innovative strategic marketing communications agency focused on the sports, outdoor, athletics and recreation industries. SOAR offers clients a variety of services including advertising, collateral development, database-marketing, graphic/web design, public/media relations, social media/networking campaigns and sales support programs. Visit www.soarcomm.com or call 801-556-8184 for more information.

# # #

The 2008 IMBA World Summit started in Park City Wednesday with several pre-conferences and opening ceremonies at the Utah Olympic Park. One of the conferences was for one of our clients Trips for Kids.

Close to 30 people representing 12 Trips for Kids chapters attended, and two attendees even came from as far away as Israel and New Zealand. Both of them want to open Trips for Kids chapters in their respective countries, which would be the first international chapters in the organizations 20 year history. Trips for Kids provides mountain bike rides for at-risk youth.

During the Trips for Kids conference topics such as how to start a chapter, how to find and work with volunteers, and how to effectively fundraise were discussed. Along with Jen Nibley, director of Trips for Kids Utah Valley, and Rick McFerrin of Two Wheel View/Trips for Kids Calgary, Canada, I spoke to the group about how to approach and work with a public relations agency on a pro-bono basis.

IMBA, which stands for the International Mountain Bicycling Association, is a non-profit association whose mission is to “create, enhance and preserve great trail experiences for mountain bikers worldwide.” Every two years, IMBA holds a world-wide conference bringing mountain biking advocates, land managers, ski resort professionals, trailbuilders, park and urban planners, tourism officials and the bike industry together for collaboration, planning, and celebration. This year’s Summit runs from Wednesday, June 18 through Saturday, June 21 at the Marriott-Park City.

Continue Reading »