Letter from Knoxville: In search of the outdoor industry heartbeat

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE — I had three big thoughts after completing a 120-mile group ride ahead of last week’s Grassroots Connect show.

First, that chamois butter is amazing.

Second, that nothing tastes better while camping than coffee somebody else makes for you.

And third, that the heartbeat of the outdoor industry is still strong, after all.

The structure of the ride itself was a familiar thing – a multi-day event modeled after the legendary Smartwool rides, which used to cycle from Steamboat Springs to Park City ahead of the summer Outdoor Retailer shows. But instead of pedaling through the Rockies, this one took a path through the Tennessee countryside, rolling from a woolen mill outside of Chattanooga to downtown Knoxville (hence the name, the “Mill to Ville Ride.”)

At the same time, however, the whole thing felt unusual … even special. 

Because at this time, in this post-pandemic phase of the still-pretty-young outdoor economy, things like this just aren't happening very often. If at all.

While there were plenty of super cool things about the ‘Mille to Ville’ ride … the picture perfect terrain, the mixing of traditional bikers and Ebikes, the peach scones, the surprise three-piece band at the campsite, the river swims … what really set it apart was the breadth of people who joined in.

When the event’s first invites went out a couple months ago, organizer Rion Smith of Outdoor Sports Marketing said he expected that 20 at most would come along for the adventure. But by the time the first wheels started turning, the group had blown up to 49 and included far more than just a few retailers from his group’s territory. There was the owner of a retail shop in Arizona, trade show friends made decades ago, brand managers and company owners, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, a member of the local Tennessee Land Trust, and even a definitely-out-of-shape PR consultant for the Grassroots Connect team. 

In other words, the ‘Mill to Ville’ ride wasn’t “just” a sales event.

It was an outdoor industry gathering.

“We’re in a time when everybody’s just a little bit too … I don’t know … people aren’t together,” said Smith. "And in our industry, that’s kind of foolish. We need to practice what we preach by getting outside, doing outdoor things, and remembering why we got into the outdoor industry in the first place. I’ve been pleased with how many people said they’re coming. People are making time for it.”

To people of a certain age who attended a certain trade show for most of the last 30 years, the words “outdoor industry” will always mean something. And typically it means that group of companies, organizations and individuals who grew up around the Outdoor Retailer trade show between 1990ish and 2020ish. But at this very moment, as the trade show landscape has been evened out like a smooth rake across a bumpy sandbox, it’s a worthy question to pause and wonder what “outdoor industry" means right now. Is it just nostalgia for days long long ago at a trade show far far away? Or is there more to it?

In the last few years, despite the pandemic-fueled boom that brought out the best for outdoor recreation businesses pretty much everywhere, outdoor companies (and their employees) have largely retreated inside their own borders, investing more in themselves and less in doing things with others. At the same time, the rising tide that once marked the growth of the somewhat-easy-to-identify “outdoor industry” has been swallowed up by a far larger body of water known as the outdoor recreation economy – a monstrous category brimming with hundreds of slightly related neighbors, from wake-surf boats and model airplanes to motorcycles and outdoor concerts. So as the outdoor recreation economy continues growing and widening every day, it’s easy to see how the island of the outdoor industry might be getting a little tougher to find.

And yet, there are plenty of reasons to be bullish on the idea of the outdoor industry. There’s the increasing awareness (and financial support) of the outdoor economy on a national level. There’s the eagerness of young people who want to be a part of it somehow somewhere. There are a number of anchor brands and legendary retailers who see it, get it and live it every day. And there are a bunch of big brains who are striving to make the outdoor industry easier to find in their part of the world: some adding slight new twists to thriving events, some adding big changes to not-so-thriving events, and some definitely swinging for the fences (side note: drink every time you hear “SXSW of the outdoor industry”). 

And there are also some — like the organizers of the Mille to Ville ride — who are delivering a timely reminder that it’s actually not the events that give shape to the outdoor industry, it’s the experiences.

Ahead of the “Mille to Ville” ride, a welcome dinner was held at the home of Ed McAlister, owner of River Sport Outfitters, and repeat participant in the original Smarwool rides. Ed is credited as being the primary instigator for the event, having discussed it many times over the years with Smith and the OSM crew (“we should do something like that in the Southeast”). But when it came time to say a few words to the gathering of riders on his riverside deck in Knoxville, Ed didn’t talk about growing sales or new products or trade shows gone by. He talked about people.

“I feel honored to go to work every day, and feel lucky to work in this community. This is about the power of shared experiences, and about sharing that idea with the next generation,” said McAlister.

Well said, Ed.

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Ride details: ‘Mill to ‘Ville’ ride support provided by Knoxville Adventure Collective with mechanical assistance from Tennessee Valley Bicycles. Participants either shipped their bikes to Knoxville ahead of the event, rented bikes locally, or rode e-bikes provided by LeMond cycles.

On Friday (June 9) after a mill tour and catered lunch, the riders cruised through a 21.5-mile segment from the Renfro mill in Cleveland, Tenn., to Delane, Tenn., where they camped at the Fireside Outpost on the banks of the Hiwassee River. 

On Saturday (June 10), the 100.5-mile ride began at 7 am and included four segments of approximately 25 miles each, with water and food rest stops set up along the way. After the final stop (and river swim) the riders rode into the city as a pack, finishing at the Marriott across from the Knoxville Convention Center.

Photos courtesy Gaston Farmer, The Land Trust for Tennessee