Pelican International acquires Advanced Elements
Pelican International Inc. of Québec, Canada, a paddle sports manufacturing group that includes brands such as Pelican, Wilderness Systems, Perception, Dagger, Mad River Canoe, Harmony Gear and Boardworks, has acquired California-based inflatable watercraft pioneer Advanced Elements Inc. through its wholly-owned subsidiary Confluence Outdoors Inc. Details of the transaction were not ...
Lockdown life drives demand growth for Johnson Outdoors in Q2
Pent-up demand from people stuck indoors during the Covid pandemic has helped Johnson Outdoors report a surge in second-quarter sales and profits. Total company net sales in the second quarter to April 2 rose 26 percent year on year to $206.2 million. Operating profit for the period rose to $36 ...
Aquapac invests in growth during lockdown
U.K. outdoor and watersports accessories brand Aquapac has reported strong sales performance in the last nine months. The best performance in the first half of the fiscal year in four years is attributed to investment in new products, a new marketing manager and the Covid-19 pandemic, which is bringing more ...
ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships 2021 postponed to next year
British Canoeing and the International Canoe Federation (ICF) have confirmed the postponement of the 2021 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships, which were scheduled to take place July 12-17, 2021, at Holme Pierrepont Country Park in Nottingham. The postponement of the event to June 28-July 2, 2022, is in response to ...
Hobie Cat sold to executives from Maynards Industries
Hobie Cat Co., the U.S. company operating in the surfing, paddle sports, sailing and SUP markets, has reportedly been sold to a private equity group consisting of executives from Maynards Industries, an industrial auction house. According to a report in SGB Executive, Hobie Cat “was discretely sold” to a team ...
BCF posts 50% revenue increase, with online sales more than doubling
Boating Camping Fishing (BCF), the Australian retail chain owned by Super Retail Group, recorded a sales increase of 50.9 percent in the first half of its financial year ended Dec. 26, 2020. The performance was largely driven by a 113.1 percent increase in digital sales as compared to the corresponding ...
U.S. open-air outdoor trade show to debut in August in Park City
The first edition of The Big Gear Show (BGS), the first open-air outdoor trade show in the U.S., will be held in the mountain resort town of Park City, Utah, with the support of the Utah state government. The organizers of this new show, which is a year late because ...
Starboard and ICF partner up for the environment
To make future paddling competitions more environmentally friendly, SUP and windsurfing board manufacturer Starboard, founded in 1994, and the International Canoe Federation (ICF) have entered into a partnership that focuses on climate and water protection. The federation joins Starboard’s already extensive activities and will calculate the CO2 footprint of its ...
Shimano reduces water use and pledges plastic reduction
In its latest “ESG Sheet,” the company’s annual report on environmental, social and corporate governance initiatives, Shimano said it would reduce water consumption in its factories by about 7 percent by 2020, continuing a trend that began at least four years ago. The Japanese company that develops, produces and globally ...
New River Gorge becomes newest U.S. National Park
The U.S. has a new national park: the New River Gorge in the state of West Virginia, about an hour’s drive from Charleston, is now considered the country’s 63rd national park, thanks to the latest Covid-19 stimulus package. It has also been designated as the 20th Nature Preserve. Environmental protection ...
Garmin acquires GEOS Worldwide
Garmin has acquired GEOS Worldwide, a company based in Montgomery, Texas, that provides emergency monitoring and incident response services, including search and rescue services for skiers, outdoor adventurers and boaters. The terms of the asset deal were not disclosed. Garmin plans a more extensive integration between its own capabilities and ...
ISPO Munich 2021: What to expect from the online show
As reported earlier, for the first time in its 50-year history, ISPO Munich will be held purely digitally from Feb. 1 to 5, 2021. Last week, organizer Messe München reported that numerous international brands have already registered to present themselves and their products in the Expo Area and revealed further ...
Nixon releases watch made from reclaimed ocean plastics
The California-based watch and accessory brand Nixon has introduced the High Tide, a new tide watch tailored to the needs of surfers and made from upcycled ocean plastics. The High Tide, which is at the top of Nixon’s tide watch collection, follows Nixon’s redesigned H2O Yeah! recycled-ocean-plastics bags collection. The ...
Globetrotter opens city store in Dortmund
Globetrotter, the German outdoor retail chain, which opened its first store in Hamburg in 1979 and was bought by the Swedish Fenix Group in 2014, is opening a new city branch in the city of Dortmund in spring 2021. On almost 800 square meters of sales space across two floors ...
SOG is climate positive, will focus on circular economy and turns 20 in 2021
The Scandinavian Outdoor Group (SOG), comprising 74 Scandinavian outdoor brands, had its Fall Networking Day at the beginning of October. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was held digitally, with a total of 85 participants. Sara Wänseth, who has been the general secretary of the group for six years, ...
Ispo Munich will be hybrid
Messe München has announced that its next Ispo Munich show will be a hybrid event – on-site and digital. It will be smaller and more digital in physical terms, but it will be intended to reach a more international audience through the internet.
Canada’s MEC to be taken over by U.S. investor; co-op owners feel betrayed
The announced sale of Canada’s best-known outdoor equipment retailer, Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), to Kingswood Capital Management, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, has sparked widespread discussion across Canada. MEC was founded in 1971 in Vancouver, British Columbia. To be able to shop in the store, customers had to purchase ...
NatureTrack Film Festival goes virtual in October
The third annual NatureTrack Film Festival (NTFF), usually taking place in Los Olivos, Calfornia, is going virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Dozens of documentaries and short films from 21 countries will be available online for a global audience Oct. 9-18. Individual tickets for single program blocks are sold for ...
Second annual SUP Cleanup in Germany Sept. 5-6
According to Boardsport Source, the outfitter SUPscout and the paddle board e-tailer Starboard SUP are coordinating a nationwide effort to clean up the lakes, rivers and beaches of Germany this weekend, Sept. 5-6. The second annual SUP Cleanup provides a list of meeting points for everybody who wants to participate. ...
PaddleExpo is history
After the PaddleExpo in Nuremberg, originally planned for Sept. 25 to 27, had to be canceled this year due to the corona pandemic, a posting on the exhibition website now announced that “PaddleExpo is history, the 2019 edition was the final PaddleExpo”.”