Outdoor Retailer Show 2011: Featuring Northside

By: Jon Njos VP/Media Director

Hello from the Outdoor Retailer Winter show in Salt Lake City. I attended the show with our client, Northside, manufacturer of outdoor footwear, and was quite amazed with the spectacle. With 921 exhibitors and over 16,000 attendees, I’d say the economy is looking quite promising. This was the opportunity to introduce the new Northside brand with a completely new booth design, and brand story.

We kicked off the pilgrimage to the Winter’s biggest trade show, with a little direct-mail piece that was a “S’mores” kit in a cylinder container. These were sent to current and potential customers prior to the show. We also secured an outdoor bulletin display along the freeway from the airport into town featuring Northside and it’s booth location for attendees as they arrived in town. This was supported by mobile truck display through Intran Media where the Northside message existed on three sides of the truck box and drove around the Salt Palace Convention Center for the first two days of the 4 day show.

Even with the immense size of the Salt Palace, walking in the aisles was shoulder to shoulder and the atmosphere was carnival-like. The exhibitors included many manufacturers of shoes along with high-tech camping, hiking and mountain-climbing gear and apparel. Booth design for many of the big players was something to behold with tremendous detail and presentation. It was good to see people milling around all of the booths and watching tables of retail buyers watching presentations of sales reps of the new lines coming out. It’s an exciting time for all of these companies, and as I said before, made me feel excited for Northside and for business in general. Hope would be the operative word here, and it made the show electric.

Northside was very excited and pleased with the OR Show and experienced the positive effect the new Brand presentation had on their industry profile.