Beginning in 2026, Outdoor Retailer will again pull up stakes and start anew. But this time, the vaunted industry event will leave the friendly confines of the Mountain West and head north to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, organizers confirmed today.
The change of venue will see more than a new skyline. In a call with GearJunkie, show organizers outlined the show’s renewed focus on specialty retailers, emerging brands, industry innovation, and a steering committee made up of outdoor advocates from various industry sectors.
The event will also move to later in the summer than it has in the past. For 2026, Outdoor Retailer will take place August 19-21.
“This is all about community, engagement, innovation, connection, and repositioning the show in such a way that it’s what it has been in the past and what it is intended to be — a gathering place for the industry by the industry,” Sunny Stroeer, who’s signed on with the event as part of its new “Leadership Village,” told GearJunkie.
Here’s what to expect from the new-look OR in 2026.
Outdoor Retailer 2026: What’s New
Leadership Village
While the show’s location and timing will be most visible to those on the outside, perhaps the biggest change is internal. OR’s Leadership Village will comprise “brand leaders, designers, sustainability experts, athletes, and emerging voices to shape the next chapter of the show,” according to a press release.
“With the Leadership Village, we have a formalized and deeply embedded way to ensure that the way the show is programmed, the way the show is built, reflects all of the voices and perspectives of the industry and the very people that the show is there to serve,” Stroeer said. In 2024, Stroeer, also an industry entrepreneur, became the first woman to ski the 1,000-mile Iditarod race.
In addition to Stroeer, the Leadership Village includes renowned climber Sasha DiGiulian, former LOWA Boots general manager Peter Sachs, veteran industry executive Paul Gagner, Locally founder Mike Massey, and longtime sales and marketing expert Dana Caraway, founder of Caraway & Co.
The group’s purpose is to keep OR on track and serving its intended purpose: supporting specialty retail, amplifying product innovation, and serving as the industry’s community gathering spot, according to Lindsay Hubley, who oversees OR and other sports-themed trade shows for Emerald Expositions.
“This is really a grounding back of OR to the outdoor industry and ensuring that we are building this show in a way that [the Leadership Village] sees fit,” Hubley said.
‘Reimagined’ Show
While inside the Minneapolis Convention Center, the show will still provide booth space to exhibit new products for retailers, brands, and media, OR will carry some new structural elements.
There will be an “innovation district for emerging brands” dubbed Ascent. Startup pitches and keynote talks will take place at Camp Forward, while an Outdoor Lab will present more conceptual “forward-thinking product design.”
The 2026 event will also include the Innovation Awards, and a partnership with the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance (GOA) will provide a scholarship fund to help offset costs for specialty retailers.
An Industry Day conference will lead conversations around pressing topics, like tariffs, AI, sustainability, and more.
Six Questions About the New Outdoor Retailer
GearJunkie: What will be the same, and what will be different?
Lindsay Hubley: What we want to be the same, and what I anticipate will be the same, is the energy, the connection, the engagement, the enthusiasm, and the attendance. OR has been the gathering place for the outdoor industry nationally. We know there’s a need for that, and we have the infrastructure, ability, and leadership to fill it. In the past, Outdoor Retailer didn’t have a very structured Industry Day program like Sunny and Chris are developing for us.
We also haven’t provided the kind of in-depth retailer education. That’s a fundamental difference, and we want to center conversations around thought leadership and invest back in the community. This will be a different way of addressing the community.
We hope to bring back not-for-profits that helped develop the show floor and are substantive in the outdoor community. We’re in conversations with groups like the OIA and the Conservation Alliance to open the dialogue again that has been closed [over the last few years].
GJ: Who is this new show for?
Hubley: Our focus is on outdoor specialty retailers and the retailers that serve the market. Outdoor Retailer in the past had many brands building double-decker tall booths with check-in stations at the front, like a reservation desk. There was so much on the show floor that wasn’t exactly what we needed from a retail standpoint. These resources we’re developing are to serve the community, the industry, and to focus on retailers and drive that conversation.
GJ: Will this show attract some of the larger brands that had stopped attending?
Hubley: We are extremely hopeful. We have had some initial conversations with a lot of brands that have not supported OR in the last few years. And we do think that moving the venue and really giving that a fresh perspective will give us a greater opportunity to address those brands, yes.
GK: OR used to be the singular event for the industry, but shows like Outdoor Market Alliance and Switchback have sprung up in recent years as new gear exhibitions and industry gathering places. Is this multi-show calendar the new norm, or is there a reason OR could again be the one show for industry participants?
Sunny Stroeer: I don’t think that it’s an either–or, to be honest. The answer is “yes.” If there is one show that people are going to, I think Outdoor Retailer is going to be it. And I also think that Outdoor Retailer is one of several players in a healthy ecosystem of community building and business events that the industry needs.
With one show, it is very, very important to have a national and concentrated, comprehensive gathering place for the industry. [But] that’s not going to replace regional shows. It’s not going to replace specialty shows. It is not going to replace other opportunities for the industry to come together and connect on a different scale.
GJ: If a brand or business could only afford to attend one industry show, why should they choose Outdoor Retailer?
Hubley: I think there’s a lot of shows right now that are really servicing the traditional brands that have been a part of the industry for a long time. But this new and discovery piece is really important to Outdoor Retailer’s evolution.
We really want to be the place where you launch — that used to be Outdoor Retailer’s motto! We were part of the development of the backbone of development on a lot of brands that are top brands in the industry today. They launched at Outdoor Retailer. We really want to go back to that philosophy.
[And] the August dates give us a chance to do that. We think that June is a real crowded month, and outdoor specialty maybe needs a breather from June. Let’s give them an opportunity to come in August, ’cause let’s face it, they’re very, very, very busy in that June timeframe.
GJ: You mentioned this reboot as a means of “grounding back OR to the outdoor industry.” How did OR find itself in a place where it had lost that connection?
Hubley: I think, over time, we’ve lost some of those very pivotal voices as a part of our ecosystem, whether it’s them on the show floor, being exhibitors, or them actually attending the show. That’s where we’re really making an effort to rebuild those relationships.
And I would say that we are finally in a place with the move, bringing on Sunny and Paul [Gagner], and really investing in making sure that those conversations happen. Let’s just face it, we haven’t been able to get those people to engage with us the last few years, and I think that they’re very important voices.
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