SOAR Blog

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

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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.

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I have to admit it: I love Man vs. Wild.

I saw my first episode in a hotel room in Oakland, California, and I was soon mesmerized. Whether Bear Grylls, the star of the Discovery Channel show, was dropped off in the arctic, on a deserted tropical island or deep within the Amazon rain forest, his weeklong struggles against nature and the elements were fascinating.

The few times my wife and I have both caught an episode together, we’ve wondered aloud afterward if Grylls is actually on his own or not. Turns out, the answer is most of the time.

For a great exclusive with the British Special Forces chap, check out the Outside magazine article in the November 2007 issue or the full interview here. Great stuff!

Okay, this is part two of my morning-long visit to the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2007 show in downtown Salt Lake City.

Again, there were tons of exhibitors so this is by no means conclusive, but it certainly shows the extent of the show and the fact that there were exhibitors there representing all kinds of stuff. Here’s the second half of what I saw while strolling along.

GoPro HERO camera. You’ve probably seen all those homemade stunt and extreme sports videos on the Internet or in your e-mail, well these guys are facilitating these videos. The HERO cam is currently available with wrist attachments and will be available later this year with attachments for your head — or helmet. In this picture, Neil Dana, was kind enough to model the upcoming head and helmet mounts for the HERO camera.

This really is a cool concept and can provide almost an hour of TV quality recording on a 2GB memory card.

Next up is another ‘green’ product. the SOLIO hybrid solar charger is a must-have for anyone who hikes and has a bad sense of direction or is being led by the Cheshire Cat. This gadget uses solar panels to recharge various portable consumer electronics, from iPods to cell phones and maybe more. Their current, classic, model is already on the market but they will soon be launching the H1000 that appears to be more rugged and durable and has a carabiner clip to hook to your belt, backpack, etc.

(Photo Credit: Atomic MPC)
Suzanne informed me that not only is the SOLIO a green way to recharge your devices in the wild, but it is also made of very green materials.

In the world of the incredibly-shrinking gadget, Industrial Revolution’s grilliput was definitely cool. Ever thought that a portable BBQ didn’t have to be the size of your kitchen sink? Well these guys’ grill fits into your pocket, practically.

Another cool gadget from Industrial Revolution was the Spork. Now this is different from the cafeteria creation of a spoon with fork prongs on the end. This spork may in fact be a true spork. And I thought it was a nice touch to put the serrated edge on the fork, who couldn’t use that already?

And last, but not least, some of my fellow statesmen, Adventure Trading Inc., from Washington State were selling Hacky Sacks and other Guatemalan imports. If you thought the Hacky Sack craze was over, you’re dead wrong. General Manager Luke Lawson told me he braces every year for the drop off in popularity and every year it doesn’t come; I guess there’s just something catchy about a little woven bag with beads in it you bounce off your foot.

Their display was, by far the catchiest most creative one I saw while walking around, wall-o-Hacky-Sack!

Well, that’s it for Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2007. There were definitely some cool products and exhibits for vendors, media and other attendees to peruse. I can’t close without mentioning the schwag we got, I’ll simply list them.

Keep2go (product), Hi-Tec (shoulder bag), Eagle (poster & badge holder), Patagonia (stickers), Crazy Creek (stickers), scarpa (stickers), H2O Guides (cool stickers)

At Poppa P’s invitation I headed downtown to check out the Outdoor Retailer summer market show at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. It’s obvious but this is definitely a place for all things sports, outdoor, athletics, recreation and travel. I got there early and there were still tons of people.

My goal in going to Outdoor Retailer was to check out cool new gear, snap some photos and pick up some schwag! Well I have to say that I accomplished all of my goals and want to run down some of the unique, cool gear I saw. I’m sure there were tons of cool things that I missed because I only spent about two hours at the show, so if I don’t mention your products I am in no way saying your products aren’t cool, I just didn’t get over to check them out. So here’s my list of cool gadgets from this summer’s Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City.

Swiss Army’s “World’s Largest Pocket Knife,” according to Guinness Book of World Records.

After drooling over this pocket knife that isn’t really a “pocket” knife — unless you’re Paul Bunyan, the company rep proceeded to show me some of Swiss Army’s newest knife designs including the Ranger series they are promoting; nice looking knife, a bit of a move away from the traditional Swiss Army design, but still a very nice looking knife. (The Swiss Army logo is the release button of the locking blade, how cool is that?)

After looking at the Swiss Army knives, I came across Zing and their ZeeBeez toy. This is cool and although it took a couple tries to get the hang of how it worked, the guys at Zing sent me off with a ZeeBeez. Zing is a toy company with some cool, catchy little toys. Needless to say their toys would keep me occupied for a little while.

Being the owner of several iPods and one who gets a kick out the third-party iPod accessory industry Pelican and h2o Audio both have cool, rugged outdoor-proof iPod cases. Although I have to admit h2o Audio’s is cooler because it’s actually waterproof down to ten feet, and at Outdoor Retailer they announced the first waterproof iPod case for the 2nd generation iPod Shuffle. Ron told me he would hook me up and I think it’ll be cool to go swimming and listen to toons — oh yeah, h2o Audio also sells waterproof earphones (I didn’t get a picture of them).

The iS2 comes with an arm band which Ron didn’t mind modeling for me even with his colleagues razzin’ him.

Pelican’s iPod case. Although it isn’t waterproof, it sure looks rugged and I was told it could withstand upwards of 200+ pounds of pressure, yeah, that’s pretty rugged if you ask me! And just like the iS2 it has a built in water-tight headphone jack. The Pelican is a one-size-fits-all iPod case.

Well I think I’ve put enough stuff into this one post for now. I have more pictures that I’ll put into part two of this post later today or tomorrow.

A bit dried out after several hours in the sun/wind, I’m now back from Open Air Demo, the “try it out in the wilds” outdoor portion of the 2007 Outdoor Retailer, Summer Market trade show.

Of the dozens of participating/exhibiting companies at OAD, four really caught my eye, specifically: SPOT, Inc. (Milpitas, Calif.); Ergon (Irmitz, Germany & Waterloo, Iowa); Boat in a Bag, Inc. (Vancouver, Wash.) and Malone Auto Racks (Westbrook, Maine).

The coolest product was SPOT’s first offering: the SPOT Satellite Messenger, a hand-sized device able to send static emergency assistance and track-me messages to Search & Rescue personnel, family members and friends.

Measuring 4.38- X 2.75- X 1.5-inches and weighing 7.37 ounces (including the two AA batteries required to power the device), the SPOT device is connected to global positioning and communications satellites around the world, all connected to on-the-ground monitoring/communications centers. Hence, when an outdoors adventurer breaks a leg while backpacking in the Sierras or loses a food cache in Alaska to a marauding black bear, a simple push of a button sends an emergency 9-1-1 call or a help me call to to emergency responders or family/friends in moments.

There’s much more to tell about this very exciting device/service from this subsidiary of Globalstar, but time and space will not allow me to go on.

Look for the SPOT Satellite Messenger in stores November 1. Retail pricing for the device will be under $150, with the satellite/communication service from Globalstar slated at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year for unlimited service.

(NOTE: Although the FindMeSpot.com Web site wins points for its fun use of Flash programming, the actual level of detail on the site is sorely lacking. The only way I was able to get as much detail as I did was to get my hands on a press kit. SPOT execs tell me this will be fixed shortly.)

I’ll write about the other cool products I found at OAD in future posts.