Several outdoor companies announced Monday they would boycott the Outdoor Retailer (OR) trade show events if they were moved from Denver to Salt Lake City. Their reasoning is that they suspect the Utah state government has unacceptable plans for some state national monuments and public lands.
The announcement came after The Conservation Alliance wrote in a press release that Emerald Expositions, the organizer of the OR shows (and others), had expressed continued interest in moving OR to Utah, despite widespread industry objections.
The Conservation Alliance, along with 24 outdoor companies, said they will not support or attend a Utah trade show as long as the state’s elected officials continue their attacks on national monuments and protection of public lands. These companies include REI Co-op, Patagonia, The North Face, Public Lands, Keen Footwear, Oboz Footwear, Kelty, Sierra Designs, Peak Design, Toad&Co, Scarpa, MiiR, Nemo Equipment, Backpacker’s Pantry, Smartwool, Therm-A-Rest, MSR, Timberland, Helinox USA, GU Energy Labs, La Sportiva N.A., Alpacka Raft, Icebreaker and Arc’teryx.
“We stand with our colleagues in The Conservation Alliance,” said Todd Spaletto, president of Public Lands. “It’s incredibly disappointing that Utah’s elected officials are seeking to tear down the protections for Grand Staircase Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. We love the outdoor opportunities Utah has to offer and would consider a move to Salt Lake if we saw a true commitment from the state’s leadership to align with our values and those of the outdoor industry.”
Utah had lost the $45 million trade show after state lawmakers asked President Donald Trump in February 2017 to unlawfully reverse the designation of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante as national monuments – against protests from the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and more than 3 million Americans who filed public comments. President Barack Obama had previously declared Bears Ears – including federal land and interests in land encompassing approximately 1.35 million acres – a national monument in late December 2016. The subsequent reduction in land protections was the largest loss of federally protected land in U.S. history. Although those protections have since been restored under President Joe Biden, Utah’s elected officials, led by Governor Spencer Cox, are once again trying to strip federal protections from these lands, while also trying to get Emerald to relocate OR from Denver to Salt Lake City.
“Our position on the location of the Outdoor Retailer trade show remains clear and unchanged: The show belongs in a state whose top officials value and want to protect public lands,” commented Ryan Gellert, CEO of Patagonia.
Emerald had asked its exhibitors last year whether moving OR to another city would be an option, offering Anaheim, Houston, Las Vegas and Orlando as options in addition to Salt Lake City. Emerald has not yet clearly commented on the relocation plans. There has also been no new comment on the events from Governor Cox.
