The Rock Fight: Outdoor Industry & Adventure Sports Commentary

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin, Eoin Comerford, and Producer Dave put three buzzworthy trail running brands to the test in the first-ever America’s Next Top Trail Running Brand showdown.

Focusing on Brand Position, Retail Appeal, and wear test performance, the trio have a look at Speedland, Norda, and Mount to Coast to crown one who will move on to the next round (provided there will be a next round).

But before the big shoe showdown, they have a look at a couple of stories that have come out of the outdoor trade show sc...

The Brief is back! Today on The Rock Fight Colin and Producer Dave break down Mammut’s Mountain Wear Rescue campaign.

They’re joined by Mammut’s Chief Marketing Officer Nic Brandenberger, who shares the inside story of how the campaign came together, from the insight that “8 out of 10 jackets never see a mountain” to the decision to embrace humor.

Episode Topics:

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin, Eoin, and Producer Dave return with Outdoor Industry Buy or Sell as they name what’s hot (and what’s not).

Here's the rundown!

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin is joined by Shawnté Salabert to break down her trip to Title Nine’s Pitchfest 2025, where women founders are reshaping the outdoor industry from the ground up.

Since 1989, Title Nine and its founder Missy Park have been putting money behind women-led brands; more than $1.7 million in Pitchfest investments and $72 million in total purchasing power.

Shawnté attended this year's edition and shares what makes this event different: collaboration over competition, community over ego, and a focus on solving real problems.

The conversation covers:

Introducing The Rock Fight Deep Dive! A new series where we team up with a partner for a deeper look at an outdoor industry topic.

Today Colin takes an unfiltered look at the state of fabric innovation in the outdoor industry by heading to the Functional Fabric Fair in Portland, Oregon.

Prompted by a listener letter asking whether the industry’s obsession with lifestyle over performance has killed innovation, Colin hits the trade show floor to find out for himself.

He’s joined by:

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin, Eoin, and Producer Dave tackle a chaotic week for outdoor retail, from store closures to corporate pivots and questionable marketing moves!

On the docket!

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin digs into the question: what the hell is an “emerging brand” anyway?

Joined by Emily Holland (Founded Outdoors) and Lloyd Vogel (Garage Grown Gear), the conversation talks about what life is really like for small outdoor businesses.

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin, Eoin Comerford, and Producer Dave tackle a packed week of outdoor industry news!

First up, the crew reacts to the latest ripple effects of Outdoor Retailer’s Minnesota move and whether the industry is being too quick to jump on the “OR is back” bandwagon. With questions around the “Leadership Village,” the role of run and lifestyle categories, and whether the show truly knows who it’s for, Colin and Eoin argue that defining the audience is the only way forward. (05:56)

Next, the conversation turns to Bass Pro’s acquisition of...

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin and Eoin Comerford break down the breaking news about Outdoor Retailer’s big shake-up. After years of controversy, shrinking attendance, and competition from upstart shows like Switchback, OR has announced a dramatic reset.

Colin and Eoin debate whether these changes are enough to reestablish OR as the national gathering for the outdoor industry, or whether the momentum has permanently shifted away from the iconic show.

Guests Sunny Stroeer and Lindsay Hubley (Emerald Expositions) join to explain the vision behind these moves, why Minneapolis won out, and how they plan to...

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin and Producer Dave break down the latest headlines in the outdoor industry with a game of Good News or Bad News. From new products to hilarious marketing campaigns (and one massive brand blunder in the Himalayas), they separate the wins from the fails in a wild week for outdoor brands. On the docket:

Good News or Bad news?

Could Outdoor Economy Conferences be the future of industry gatherings?

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin sits down with returning guest Darren Josey (First Seed Sown, Founded Outdoors, Great Malden Outdoors) to unpack what went down at the National Outdoor Economy Conference in North Carolina.

Unlike trade shows, these conferences bring together governors, policymakers, state OREC directors, economic developers, tourism leaders, trail builders, and healthcare advocates. All of them focused on one thing: using outdoor recreation to strengthen communities and economies.

Colin & Darren discuss:

Today on The Rock Fight, Colin, Eoin, and Producer Dave are joined by Darren Bush, longtime owner of Rutabaga Paddle Sports in Madison, WI, to talk about his decision to close one of the most beloved specialty outdoor retailers in the U.S.

Here is the full rundown for today's episode:

Today Colin sits down with Lindsay Shumlas, CEO of Cotopaxi, for a conversation about the brand’s evolution, impact, and future.

What we cover:

It's Monday on The Rock Fight! Which means that Colin is joined by outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford and brand & creative expert Producer Dave to run through the following topics that have emerged over the past week (or so):

Today on the show Colin is joined by longtime journalist and former Outside magazine editor-in-chief Chris Keyes to discuss his new venture: RE:PUBLIC, nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to covering the policies, people, and forces shaping America’s public lands.

What we cover:

Today Colin and the Monday Boys (outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford and brand & creative expert Producer Dave) talk through some stories making waves in the outdoor industry before predicting who will be the "Mountain Hardwear of 2026". Here's the rundown!

On this episode of The Rock Fight, Colin sits down with Todd Frank, owner of The Trailhead in Missoula, MT, and board member of the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, to dig into the state of specialty outdoor retail.

With recent closures like Summit Hut and Next Adventure , the question looms: what’s the future of independent gear shops? Todd shares what makes specialty retail resilient, the challenges of D2C and online competition, and why resale programs could be a lifeline for shops like his.

They also dive into:

Today Colin is joined by The Monday Boys (outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford and brand & creative expert Producer Dave) to talk about the following topics and news to come out of the outdoor industry over the past week!

Today on The Rock Fight, The Brief is back!

The Brief is a look at the brand and creative efforts of the outdoor industry as broken down by our brand and creative expert, Producer Dave. Today we're taking a look at Columbia's recent (and maybe controversial?) campaign: Engineered For Whatever.

And we have a special guest as Colin and Producer Dave are joined by Columbia's SVP of Marketing, Matt Sutton.

Matt talks about the origins of Engineered For Whatever, how he and his team were empowered to go big, and what the campaign...

Today on the show Colin & Shawnté bid farewell to the Wednesday episodes of The Rock Fight and welcome in the forthcoming Gear Abby.

The Rock Fight is moving to two episodes a week with episodes dropping on Monday and Friday. Fans of the adventure sports and outdoor community topics we typically covered on Wednesday should run right over and follow Shawnte's new podcast Gear Abby. The trailer is now live and the show debuts on September 4th! Colin will be cohosting so you'll get your outdoorsy banter fix on Gear Abby going forward.

Today Colin t...

Today on the show Colin convenes with The Monday Boys (outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford and brand/creative expert Producer Dave) to run through the following headlines to come out of the outdoor industry:

Today on The Rock Fight Colin & Shawnté discuss the following topics that have come out of the outdoor adventure community over the past week:

Today Colin along with Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford and Brand & Creative Expert Producer Dave dig into the following topics and headlines that have been percolating in the outdoor industry:

Today Colin sits with OG Rock Fighter Justin Housman to discuss his career pivot from a journalist in the human powered outdoor media world to his new role in conservation at Save the Redwoods League.

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

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Today on the show Colin and Shawnté get into the following topics that have come out of the outdoor adventure community!

Today on the show Colin, outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford, and brand/creative expert Producer Dave hit the following topics!

A few weeks back on the show Colin, Producer Dave, and consigliere to The Rock Fight Eoin Comerford had some choice words about a new product line that had just been announced from outdoor brand Ortovox.

Ok to be fair, they mostly poked fun at the press release, but still they were not optimistic about Sequence, Ortovox's forthcoming lineup of outdoor apparel and gear.

Tom Mason, the US Brand Manager for Ortovox, heard their comments and today he is on the show ready to throw some rocks of his own!

Thanks for listening...

We've talked about all sorts of outdoor pop culture on The Rock Fight-movies, TV, books-but music has been somewhat neglected. Today, we fix that!

Host of Open Container, Doug Schnitzspahn, joins Colin & Shawnté as they each take a look back at the 1990's and assemble a playlist inspired by adventure. Each of them built a list of 10 songs from the 1990's (one from each year starting in 1990 and ending in 1999) to be the soundtrack of a their chosen activity.

3 activities, 10 years, 30 songs. Get ready of the ultimate outdoor playlist, 1990's edition!

Listen to t...

Today on The Rock Fight we're drafting the best of the best!

Throughout 2025 The Rock Fight crew has named the 20 best brands in the outdoor industry when they created top 5 lists of the best outdoor brands going in footwear, apparel, gear, and accessories.

And on today's episode, Colin is joined by outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford, brand and creative expert Producer Dave, and outdoor journalist and author Shawnté Salabert to draft from those 20 brands and see who can assemble the greatest team of outdoor brands!

Can't remember who those brands were? Here's a rem...

Today on The Rock Fight we debut The Brief!

The Brief is a look at the brand and creative efforts of the outdoor industry as broken down by our brand and creative expert, Producer Dave.

A few weeks back Producer Dave noticed some billboards popping up in his hometown of Portland, OR for running shoe upstart Speedland. Today we take a deep dive into the creative of the Speedland campaign and determine if billboards were a good idea at all to support that campaign.

We end with Produce Dave debuting The Brief Final...

Today on the show Colin & Shawnté run through the following topics and headlines to come out of the outdoor adventure community:

Today on The Rock Fight Colin is joined by outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford and brand and creative expert Producer Dave (aka The Monday Boys) to hit on the following headlines and topics that are percolating around the outdoor industry:

Today on the show Colin introduces you to an old friend. The original Rock Fight, LAYERS.

He kicks things off by level setting what Rock Fight is going to be up to in the coming months and then reflects back on LAYERS; the show he and Producer Dave first did under the moniker of Rock Fight.

And because it's the dog days of summer, your favorite podcasters are also trying to get some time off. So enjoy the first episode of LAYERS and we'll see you back here on Monday morning!

Thanks for...

Today Colin is joined by outdoor journalist Shawnté Salabert who is off of the trail and back on The Rock Fight to run through the following topics:

Today Colin and outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford recap their time at last week's Outdoor Market Alliance Media Event. Here is the rundown!

Today's show was recorded in Colin's Denver hotel room during this week's Outdoor Market Alliance Media Event (don't worry, it's not as sexy as it sounds).

Colin is joined by the Editor-In-Chief of Gearjunkie, Adam Ruggiero, to offer their initial thoughts on the OMA Media Event and use it as a springboard into a conversation about the "new" phase of outdoor media and how legacy media entities are responding to the rise of Substack, podcasts, and YouTube.

They wrap up their conversation with the favorite thing they each saw at this weeks event.

...

Today we're dipping our toes back into the trade show world as Switchback and The Running Event show director Christina Henderson joins Colin to take analyze last month's inaugural Switchback Spring.

They talk about what worked, what didn't, how the standalone show will impact Switchback at TRE, and what the outdoor industry can expect next year in New Orleans.

Click here to help those in need after the flooding of Texas' hill country.

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Today on the show, the Monday crew (the Monday Boys?) of outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford and brand/creative expert Producer Dave join Colin to talk through the following topics:

Today Colin is joined by the host of Open Container, outdoor journalist Doug Schnitzspahn, to check in on where outdoor culture sits halfway through 2025.

Since the launch of Open Container in January Doug has had 26 conversations with artists, musicians, authors, brand founders and many others who operate in or around the outdoor community. Today he and Colin find out what he's learned so far and how it reflects on the broader outdoor world.

For The Parting Shot, Colin previews his trip to next week's Outdoor Market Alliance Media Event and makes a prediction about Superman.<...

Today on the show former Rock Fight guest Emily Holland ascends to the co-host chair to fill in for Shawnté who is out hiking the JMT!

Colin & Emily hit on the following topics: