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By the looks on their faces, you might have thought Tim Coates and Mike Ulawski had a life-or-death decision in front of them as they pondered an order for 39 pairs of La Sportiva light hiking shoes at last week’s Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, the largest trade show for cold-weather products in the U.S.
In a way, you’d be right. Coates and Ulawski, manager and buyer for Real Cheap Sports in Ventura, were in Utah to select products for their small store, which sells about $1.5 million annually in gear and apparel for climbers, hikers and backpackers, as well as travel goods.
Only a month earlier they’d had to close their sister store, Mountain Outlet in Pasadena, after a five-year struggle. They didn’t need a reminder that longevity is rare for specialty shops in an era of big discounters.
The Outdoor Retailer show is a must-do -- and a must-do-right -- for small retailers such as Real Cheap Sports. Coates and Ulawski need to meet with vendors and hear their pitches to find steeply discounted closeout products and new fall and winter gear that can give them a profitable year.
The spotlight at the massive show usually focuses on the latest and flashiest products from premier manufacturers, such as the North Face, Patagonia and Marmot.
Yet it’s the several thousand retailers like Coates and Ulawski, who comb through the aisles trying to divine which items from the crush of options customers will buy, who make the show go. Real Cheap Sports’ path through the aisles is symbolic of the dice-rolling journey of small retailers, who are betting against big odds.
“More and more people think it’s fine to go to Target and get a tent and Penney’s to get tennis shoes,” says Michelle Barnes of the Outdoor Industry Assn., a trade group that represents 4,000 manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers and salespeople in the $20-billion-a-year outdoor products industry. The result: fewer sales at specialty stores.
Coates’ edge against the big boys is service. It’s easy for a customer to get the wrong product, or to get the right product but not know how to use it, he said.
“Say you’re going snow camping and you get a zero-degree bag,” he said, “but nobody tells you that the bag is rated at zero degrees with an insulated pad under it.”
At a smaller store like his, he maintained, you would leave with the right sleeping bag, know how to use it and sleep comfortably. But Coates has to have what customers want, or the service issue is moot.
Real Cheap Sports opened in 1981 as Patagonia’s first outlet store and split off on its own in 1987 to offer more brands and products. An avid climber, Coates, 38, has built Real Cheap Sports into a local institution that sponsors trail cleanups and hosts slide shows by pro athletes.
Before he arrived in Salt Lake, Coates wrote up a game plan. Among the objectives: increase sales by cherry-picking fresh, unique and desirable products, and pump up profitability by taking advantage of discounts. Like at previous Outdoor Retailer shows, the Salt Palace scene was frenetic. Booths and aisles bustled with sales reps, pitching feverishly to get browsers to the real action, the order-writing tables.
At the Kelty booth, Coates asked about closeout products and found the firm had a steep discount on some ’04 packs. It’s just what he was looking for: value in a product staple. He placed an order on the spot.
Fresh from that victory, Kelty rep Jeff Donoho steered Coates and Ulawski to a display of luggage, hoping for another buy.
“Prior to 9/11, we had an enormous travel line,” he told the duo. Now it’s back, said Donoho, who then pitched them on wheeled packs.
But he was met by silence from the Ventura team.
“For you guys we’re going to do 60 days,” Donoho suddenly chimed in, interrupting the dead air with the offer of a longer payment schedule.
But the Cheap Sports team didn’t bite, and soon they were on the move.
A revved salesperson at the La Sportiva booth offered them espressos. Rep Ed Sampson grabbed a Monarch Crest mountain running shoe off the wall behind him and fired off a pitch.
“Along the Pacific Coast Trail this has been a very popular shoe,” he said, displaying it proudly on a small table.
Sampson raved about its sticky rubber rock-gripping soles and the price the buyers could get it for.
Within minutes, Ulawski was writing up an order. “It was a no-brainer,” he said, “because it fills a niche for us.”
Coates asked Sampson if he could expect some promotional support from La Sportiva. Sampson said the shoemaker would provide runners at trail races in the Ventura area with coupons offering free La Sportiva accessories if they buy a pair of La Sportiva shoes at Real Cheap Sports.
“So we’re bribing them to come into our store? I love it!” said Coates. He ordered 39 pairs of the shoes.
Sometimes Coates and Ulawski will take a chance on a product that has the potential to stir up foot traffic. They found one at the Omega Pacific booth, where they were introduced to the Link Cam, an ingenious piece of gear that reduces a rock climber’s load.
“We might sell four of them in the season -- not many -- but it’s the type of thing that may get people into the store,” said Coates, who was leaning toward ordering some Link Cams when he got home.
The Omega rep handed out a couple of T-shirts and baseball caps.
“We wish our staff could come to these shows,” said Ulawski. “The least we can do is bring back some stuff for them.”
On the way to a Mountain Hardwear appointment, Coates and Ulawski ran into top climbers Mike Libecki and Wills Young, and Coates asked them to give slide shows at his store. Young balked, but Libecki immediately warmed to the idea. In no time he and Coates were talking dates.
Beyond the buying and selling, the retailers’ show is a hub for making contacts with leading figures in the outdoor world -- injecting a taste of what brings everyone together here.
By show’s end, Coates and Ulawski were in high spirits. They had ordered $200,000 in merchandise, and made good contacts. Many of the orders were for closeout items at big savings.
Back in Ventura, Coates said he and Ulawski “absolutely stuck to our game plan” and came away from the show confident that they’d ordered wisely.
Time will tell.
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Stuff that stands out
SHOWSTOPPERS
Every year a few favorites emerge from the crush of new product lines at the Outdoor Retailer show. Here are some items that leaped out of the aisles.
[see photos]
