JORDANELLE STATE PARK, UT (BRAIN)—Dennis Holliday, Raleigh’s territory manager in Utah and Nevada, said he was surprised at the interest outdoor retailers expressed when visiting the Raleigh booth at Outdoor Retailer’s Open Air Demo at Jordanelle Lake. The Outdoor Retailer trade show opens today at the Salt Palace in downtown Salt Lake.
“I’ve had more bikes out with dealers here than I did at DealerCamp,” said Holliday (pictured), who was pleased with the number of retailers showing interest in his demo fleet. Holliday added that he would confer with his boss at Raleigh about reconsidering how he manages his territory. “It won’t hurt for me to call on a few of these retailers,” he added.
“I have more than 50 signed waiver forms on the table plus a half-dozen business cards from dealers who are interested in bikes,” he added. That was at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Holliday said he was skeptical at first about spending another day on the road at a demo event, especially one where the focus was primarily on stand-up paddle boards, kayaks and other waterborne activities.
Holliday also had distributors from Ecuador and Korea express interest in distributing the line in their countries. Helping Holliday with the traffic was Zack Wood, a wrench at Slim and Knobby’s Bike Shop in nearby Heber City, Utah. “I think this is excellent. We’ve seen far more people than I would have thought,” he said.
Adrian Montgomery, Scott’s marketing and public relations director, said there was enough interest in bikes that he plans to attend again next year. But, he pointed out, he doesn’t expect to open up outdoor retailers—although that’s always a possibility—instead he wants to position the Scott brand in the outdoor market.
While Scott had some two-dozen bikes on hand, the company's liability waiver prohibited Scott staff from sending out bikes with retailers who weren't wearing a helmet. Montgomery said no one thought about bringing helmets. "I remember when Interbike hosted the first Outdoor Demo at Blue Diamond, dealers really didn't know that they had to bring helmets, shoes and pedals. No one really thought about it. But the next year everyone was prepared. The same thing will happen here. We'll just have to make sure we get the word out to interested parties to bring the proper equipment to the show if they want to ride bikes," he said.
Both Scott and Raleigh brought bikes to the OR event after attending DealerCamp the week before. Park City, where DealerCamp staged, is only a few miles from Lake Jordanelle.
Kenji Haroutunian, Outdoor Retailer’s show director, said it was unlikely that many retailers in the outdoor industry would add bicycles and parts and accessories to their stores, but that outdoor retailers and bicycle dealers should consider working together on events like the Bike-Paddle event held at the lake. “They should consider doing more co-promotions and that would help everyone’s business,” he said.
—Marc Sani
msani@bicycleretailer.com
