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CES 2019: The Latest and Greatest from Outdoor Tech

Did you get a chance to swing by booth# 44770 at the Sands Expo during CES this year? Well if you didn’t don’t worry, here is a quick recap.

Take a look at some new Wireless Earbuds and True Wireless Helmet Audio below.

CES 2019 electronics
New Wireless Earbuds and new Helmet Audio

Here is a closer look at the new Chips Ultra. These are True Wireless Helmet Audio. You probably want to have these next snow season.

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The Chips Ultra

So many options for retailers to carry our stuff and show it off. Check out some of the branded displays we have.

CES 2019 displays
Retail Therapy

Yeah, some really cool stuff. We can’t wait to get them in your hands.

The OutDoor Show Friedrichshafen 2015

With Long Beach in the rear view, and Germany on the horizon, we were off once again to trade show heaven. Day 1 of OutDoor Show Friedrichshafen has just come to an end, and we are only just getting started. With two more days to go, we are beyond stoked to see what else is in store for us.  So far, so good.

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The vibes are on point this year at our OutDoor Show booth

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Just some of the rad #stuffyouprobablywant

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Thus far, we know the people of Germany are very friendly, very funny, and very much into faux taxidermy, which we obviously specialize in…totally kidding. If you so happen to currently be wandering the streets of Friedrichshafen, stop by booth B1-110.  Auf Wiedersehen, for now.

Agenda Long Beach 2015

Just as we suspected, Agenda day 1 was a success. People up in the booth, people up in the booze, it was exactly what we pictured. Despite the fact that the Agenda Show has become frighteningly similar to Coachella, and you can clearly see that most everyone has planned their outfit for the event months prior, it only adds to the sights. We will all just have yet another thing to look forward to each Agenda Show to come. Anyway, our booth was definitely the most fun, seeing as being serious comes second to the majority of us. Take a peek if you’d like.

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Once you see this sign, you immediately hear the angels singing. You made it.

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Working hard // Hardly working

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You can’t eat them, but you can use them while you’re eating.

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Hot heads.

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There is always a good time to lock-it-up.

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The beer was gone, but the fun was just beginning.

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At the end of it all, we were tired, excited, and eager for day 2. What you don’t see is us, and everyone else who is cool in this world, heading to Panama Joes for some open bar and playful boxing…you had to be there.

 

Press Release: Outdoor Tech® Enters 2015 with a Bang

Outdoor Tech® Enters 2015 with a Bang from the Buckshot Pro to the Extended Kodiak Powerbank Line and CHIPS® All-in-One Headphone Accessories

CES Booth #36805 – Come on by!
LVCC South Hall 3/4, Upper Level

Media Contact:
Tara Yant
Hayter Communications
tara@hayterpr.com
360.313.7070, ext.7

If you’re not already familiar with Outdoor Tech®, we think you probably should be. It is one of the fastest growing brands in America and has been busy at work making Stuff You Probably Want®, which means your audience probably wants to hear about it, too! The brand is represented at REI, Sports Authority, Nordstrom, Quicksilver and West Marine to name a few of its 2,000 North American doors; so while it is a relative newbie to the CE game, people seem to be into it. We have several new releases for CES that we’re stoked to share with you. Please see below and reach out anytime with questions or requests.

Topping the 2015 new product list, Outdoor Tech’s brand new 3-in-1 Buckshot Pro (SRP $79.95) functions as a portable rugged speaker that has a passive bass port for bigger sound, a 2600mAh powerbank for charging devices, and a flashlight with three different settings (torch, lamp and strobe). Point the speaker end towards you when you fasten the Buckshot Pro to your bike handlebars using the included rubber mount strap, and add the flashlight accessory to the other end for dawn and dusk rides. You can also use the end with the USB output as a portable powerbank. And it features a built-in mic for hands free calls.

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Next, Outdoor Tech® holds the power with its all-new pocket portable Kodiak Mini 2600 (SRP $19.95) that becomes your most trusted friend when you’re in a bind and need to charge your device. Its big brother, the slim and sleek Kodiak Plus 10000 (SRP $79.95) is also new and boasts 2.4A output as well as a 2nd USB port so you can share your power (if that’s your thing). This shockproof and waterproof portable power source is the envy of every bar-goer and outdoorsman when it comes to reliability in unpredictable environments.

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And last but certainly not least, Outdoor Tech’s CHIPS® and Wired CHIPS®, famous for their performance and universal compatibility in snow helmets, can now come off the mountain into every day life with the addition of a new universal K-Roo Pouch that attaches onto almost any bike or skate helmet with a V-strap; a headphone Exoskeleton and a CHIPS® Headwear line that includes two beanie styles and a headband. Drop either CHIPS® (wired or wireless) into any of the CHIPS® All-In-One Headphone Accessories (SRPs ranging from $19.95 – $29.95), and take your tunes and mobile calls to the streets, skate parks, trails and anywhere life leads. The patented control interface of the CHIPS® changes tracks, plays/pauses music, takes calls and activates voice command with glove-friendly (if needed) buttons, without having to remove your phone from your pocket – ever. Complete with a built-in microphone and IPX4 sweat and water-resistant rating, these are also tested to work flawlessly down to -20°C/-4°F.

About Outdoor Tech
Founded in 2010, Outdoor Tech® is an outdoor designer brand creating accessories for an action-filled lifestyle. Packing the world’s most complete line of Bluetooth audio built for reveling in the open air and on the road, Outdoor Tech® proves there is a way to stay connected but not tethered. For more on Outdoor Tech® and the rest of its line including rugged portable power and the potentially iconic Yowie® Logo apparel collection go to OutdoorTechnology.com.

Hanging Out with Ernest Gagnon At Interbike 2014

Hands down the best part of this year’s Interbike was getting to know one of our newest athletes, Ernest Gagnon. Although it was hard getting from point A to B without a handful of photo op requests from fans, we made our way around the show, cycling events & the strip, of course.

Ernest Gagnon Interbike 2014

Upon landing in Vegas, after a long 12 hours of travel from Boston (with a 70 pound bike box in hand) we got a little rest in before sushi dinner. Outdoor Tech sushi dinners typically start with instructing the waiter to bring us 4 of everything on the menu and sake bombs until someone says stop, but Ernest inspired us to cut back just this one time.

Day 1 of the show consisted of more photos, a little helmet shopping and of course, the big cyclocross event, CrossVegas. CrossVegas is one of the largest cyclocross races in America, so Ernest and I got there early to check out the scene and prelap. The event brings out the top cyclocross athletes from all over the world, and the course was tough – lots of hills, turns, ramps and obstacles. It was 102 degrees and rising, so we took to some shade whenever we could, thanks to the many Sierra Nevada tents set up around the course. Cyclocross athletes are super impressive, beyond talented, and very supportive people. It is a special community to say the least, and I am so thrilled to have learned more about the sport and witness the support received by Ernest.

Ernest during cycle cross at interbike

We Spent day 2 at the show rocking the kit, taking more pictures, promoting our stuff and learning more about the bike industry.  After the show, Ernest and I participated in the Pedal Palooza ride from Mandalay Bay down the strip. With the Buckshot bike speaker blasting, riding down the strip at night was pretty awesome, especially with such a rowdy group of people. The ride ended in a big party in Fremont, but we dipped early to enjoy a fabulous dinner at Otto inside the Venetian and party to Diplo and Morgan Page with the rest of the ODT crew!

Outdoor Tech Interbike Dinner

Ernest had so much fun in Vegas, we forgot about his departure. Literally. Just before heading to the show on the last day, we realized he should have been landing in Boston instead. Oops! Since trade shows never get old, we were happy to hit the show for a couple more hours before saying goodbye for an afternoon flight back to Boston.

Ernest is an impressive guy, and we are thrilled to support him on his journey to inspire himself and others to lose weight through cyclocross. You also probably want to follow him on Facebook and Instagram https://www.facebook.com/ernestgagnoncyclist, @erniegagnon2013.

The Beer Marathon at Outdoor Retailer 2014

Some people think trade shows are boring. Those people probably don’t come by the Outdoor Tech® booth. Not only do we have all kinds of rad stuff like bluetooth speakers, headphones, earbuds and other wireless audio devices; we have fun. A lot of fun.

For example, we went to Outdoor Retailer this year and held our first Beer Marathon. It’s pretty simple, you consume 26.2 ounces of beer in the fastest time and you win a prize. Keep in mind, you are going head to head with an opponent. #exciting

Outdoor Retailer Beer Marathon

You can’t blame us if you didn’t go. We got the word out everywhere. You probably want to make sure you follow us on Instagram and Twitter. We for sure let everyone know what we are up to.

Beer Marathon Card

So what is the Beer Marathon?

Step 1: Beer Pong – Sink one and pond it.

Step 2: Quarters – Sink one and pound it.

Step 3: Beer Bong – Take that funnel full of beer to your domepiece.

Since you are going head to head with someone, the person that completes the Beer Marathon first, wins some #stuffyouprobablywant from Outdoor Tech®. It may sound a little confusing but Charlie explained the rules before every match.

Charlie's In Charge

Obviously, this is exciting. You may be knocking stuff over just reading this, calm down. Seriously, count to 5 and breathe.

Check this video to see the rules and an example of some overexcitement.

Maybe it’s the pumping music from the Big Turtle Shell® that got Buck all giddy. I don’t know but pull yourself together man, we are trying to conduct some business here.

Wireless Speakers

Okay, okay, you want to see a real match? Watch this video and enjoy.

Hey, it’s not just a guy thing. Girls can compete too. #CrossingGenderBoundries I honestly think this event will be featured on Drunk History sometime in the distant future as a defining moment in equality. Watch this battle between two ladies.

After a few hours of head to head competition, the final results are….

Beer Marathon Final Results

Listen, if drinking isn’t your thing, that’s cool. You can still hang out. Our booth isn’t always super crowded with people. Here is a pic taken early one morning. It’s from that 30 minutes of calm right after they open the doors. But after that 30 minutes or so, yea.. it always gets super crowded with people learning about our brand and how rad our products are.

The Calm Before the Storm at Outdoor Retailer

All videos were shot on a GoPro, damn those cameras are pretty rad. Did you notice that the GoPro booth was across from ours? It looked like they were having a lot of fun watching all the commotion in our booth.

Go ahead and leave a comment to let us know which video was your favorite or just share this with 20 of you favorite bestie’s.

Trade Shows…ODT Style

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I have been doing trade shows for the better part of my professional career. When I was in the freight and customs brokerage business I would walk shows to look for prospective customers, I wore a jacket, sometimes even a tie, it sucked. I walked everything from SEMA to the CA Gift Show, I learned how the companies would market themselves, usually in an uncool but appropriate for the industry way. At SEMA and AAPEX for example this was common place.

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The car industry has made “booth babes” the norm, the expected, commonplace, and well, kinda cheezy and played out.

The next phase of my career I was in the promotional products industry, I owned a company that supplied Distributors who then in turn sold the product to large corporate clients like State Farm, HP and the like, its called the ASI or PPAI industry. I worked our booth for the better part of a decade reating relationships with the heavy hitters in the industry, it was a very corporate audience, dress was business casual or professional , this might help paint the picture.

All Biz Gear

All Biz Gear

While it wasn’t all bad by any means and we certainly found ways to have fun, get attention and stand out from the crowd, we were still confined by the standards and norms of the industry.

Well, then I started Outdoor Tech and our first trade show was SIA, it was, well, not super corporate. Production value of the booth were taken to the next level, the party WAS the show, on the floor, kids were hammered, athletes were doing dumb shit all  over the place, everyone was puffing, ON the show floor. It took a few years for me to make the full time transition out of the corporate show world, but I realized then, if you have to do 7 or 8 shows a year, you might as well make it as fun as possible and be a part of putting on a show, at the show.

Making your booth, products and marketing standout and having fun isn’t easy, trade shows are a grind, physically taxing, and you have to be “on” at all times, day and night. All the more reason you need to let go a little, make sure it’s organized in advance, and when it comes times for the show, let the games begin. Don’t give away a tote bag, give a vibrator like Trojan did at CES at got this response.

Photo Cred to tech.co

Photo Cred to tech.co

That leads me to Summer 14′, ODT Summer Show schedule:

Outdoor in Friedrichshafen,Germany

Agenda Long Beach and Agenda NYC

Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City

Surf Expo in Orlando

Interbike in Vegas

THAT ISN’T AN EASY SCHEDULE FOR ONE SUMMER!

Now back to the first photo , I have wanted to use this particular method of trade show marketing since a friend of mine drove traffic to his booth at a show I was at in Atlantic City in the midst of the Anthony Weiner scandal. I finally decided to get off the pot and get’er done and I called my buddy, Robbie, first he laughed at me, then he asked if I was serious, and then he asked if I knew HE PRODUCED the urinal screens in his facility in Texas. It was too perfect, so Purple G got our order, and we became the official sponsor of the Surf Expo urinals, the unofficial sponsor at Outdoor Retailer, and a new tradition was born at ODT. People loved it, it was fun, and certainly was a conversation starter.

Here is the short list of ODT Trade Show lore promos or events:

Bloody Mary Breakfast in the Airstream (a long standing and highly popular one)

Beer Bong Races and Marathons (with Charlie in his Unitard)

Shoelaces (seems innocuous, but we usually throw them at people and litter the isle with them, people love it)

Condoms for #SummerofHelmet (and my 13 & 15 year old nieces giving them out saying “have a safe summer”

Urinal Screens

So next week we go to a new show, one we have never done before, Surf Expo in Orlando, come see us at Booth 1475, see what trade shows are all about, ODT Style.

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What’s Next??

Agenda Long Beach 2014

We went to Agenda in Long Beach again. We have a booth every year and it’s always a good time. Luckily we had Ryan Hackbarth with us this time to take these photos.

What is not shown is how we ended up on someone’s boat in Shoreline village. Nothing special, just drank some beers and discussed business stuff. So exciting.

See you next year Agenda.

Outdoor Tech at OutDoor Friedrichshafen in Germany

Outdoor Friedrichshafen 2014

We sent Bobby and Charlie on a long plane ride from Los Angeles to Europe to man the booth at Outdoor Friedrichshafen. It’s a big outdoor sports show for Europe so naturally, we had to go.

The show went from July 15th to the 18th and apparently, was pretty good. Obviously the booth looks amazing so once the show started going, a lot of people stopped by to check out all the #stuffyouprobablywant. Not only were people loving our new Big Turtle Shell wireless speaker, they were into an authentic brand has a real lifestyle.

Bobby, Charlie, Jovan

We make friends wherever we go. It’s amazing how root vegetables, beer, and sausage can bring strangers together. Above is Bobby, Charlie and a guy named Jovan in an extremely blurry pic.

Below is an advertisement for the Ehrlich Brothers. Unfortunately Charlie and Bobby were unable to attend.

Ehrlich Brothers

Indeed it was glorious. Until next time Germany, auf wiedersehen.

SIA 2014 RECAP

 

My first trade show I have ever attended was a full of laughs, screams, rumbles, grumbles, jumbles and fumbles. This was also my first time ever in the growing city of Denver, CO

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Steam always rising on these cold, cold streetzsia2014iphone-23 lil tilt-shift from my iphone view from the roomsia2014iphone-18sia2014   sia2014-40 sia2014-45This guy from Alpine Initiatives had a Yowie (Yeti) tattoo!  Secret giveaway: if you send me a photo of an ODT related tattoo you will get free sh*t from us.sia2014-39 International Sales Bobby Ali explaining his privates to some bearded fellows.sia2014-42sia2014-38   sia2014-43Zander Blackmon stopped by to show us his new hair-dewsia2014-35 The boys of Strange Brew came by for some free beers and laughssia2014-34 Free protection was always available!sia2014-33 Friend of ODT Rob De Luca ladies and gentssia2014-32 sia2014-31 sia2014-30 sia2014-29 sia2014-28 Crippled sales rep Alex Albers has one functioning knee after his incident during our visit to Dew Tour when he skied into a tree!sia2014-22 sia2014-21 sia2014-20 sia2014-19 Bern TM Lando always being weird and creepy.  He’s good at it!sia2014iphone-12Po-lice tryna roll upsia2014iphone-20Electric’s booth was killer. Stuff I probably want. sia2014iphone-21delicious refreshment at Whole Foodssia2014-18 Team rider Cole Drexler being a poster-boi at the Line Skis Boothsia2014-17 sia2014-16 sia2014-15 New colorways!sia2014-14Thumb drives!sia2014-13

The Moment Skis crew was hard at work pushing their handmade skis!sia2014-12 sia2014iphone-15sia2014-36sia2014-37sia2014-11 sia2014moresia2014more-6And then it was Saturday…The Beer Bong races commenced….sia2014more-5our COO Charlie flew out just for the day to run the Beer Bong contest
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sia2014more-8 sia2014more-7 Caro came straight back from ISPO in Germany with a terrible illness, but managed to make it out to the booth for a few hours.sia2014more-4 sia2014more-3Tara from PR was a big help!
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Bobby rockin’ the (extremely) limited edition hoodie.sia2014-9 View from the hotel!sia2014-8 sia2014-5 sia2014-4

sia2014-3Dentist?sia2014iphone-6The show ended with a BOOM (Capri-sun courtesy of Celtek’s sack lunches which included a hand-made PBJ)
sia2014iphone-16In copper this board was on the wall of bar.
sia2014iphone-11 The on-snow booth at Copper Mtnsia2014iphone-4Neil from Candy Grind using his Safe5 while snowboarding
sia2014iphone-10 sia2014iphone-13 sia2014iphone-9….and while drinking the Ole Smokey Moonshine cherries.
sia2014iphone-7 sia2014iphone-2Copper Mountain has some gr8 tree runs and terrain so I didn’t have to dip into the park too often.  However, it is nearly impossible to find the terrain park at first.  Colorado is cold and beautiful.