Hunting’s athleticism trekking into spotlight
Boulder-based Slumberjack to capture “serious” side at trade show
salt lake city» Hike the continuum that is the annual Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show and the rows upon rows of bright billboards, dazzling displays and glossy gadgetry eventually converge to create the featureless blur of digital camouflage.
As the pods of mod outdoor gear swirl and blend with a community of similarly cloaked consumers, oddly enough, it is the kiosk boasting the largest swath of genuine camo-treated equipment that may stand out the most.
There is a spectrum to the Outdoor Retailer, or OR, color palette of more than 1,000 outdoor brands and 20,000-plus attendees sweeping across the Salt Palace Convention Center, and Boulder-based Slumberjack, which debuted its redesigned SJK Hunting brand at the show last summer, can lay claim to one cutting edge. The contrasting border is fringed by the fashionable residents of the pod dubbed “Hipsterville,” including a branch of denim — and plaid-clad trendsetters sometimes referred to as “Lumbersexuals” for their rugged fashion sensibilities and implied ability to wield an ax at any moment, in spite of the urban environment.
And although SJK Hunting might be accused of similar reinvention, the distinction is that the brand founded in 1957 is simply returning to its roots.
“Hunting has always been in our DNA,” company vice president Russell Rowell said. “This is who we are.”
Bolstered by a newfound recognition and respect for the rigorous demands of big game hunting in particular, Slumberjack stepped into the spotlight with its line of performance technical gear designed for the modern hunter/ athlete. The focus is primarily upon functionally detailed backpacks, tents and sleeping bags, along with an attitude that readily distinguishes SJK Hunting from the surrounding outdoor lifestyle market and places it within the subset of outdoor athletes.
“All these outdoor shops have hunters coming in. They just don’t necessarily know how to address them,” said Rowell. “But a lot of these guys are serious athletes. We sponsor the Train to Hunt 3-D Bow Hunting Challenge series that started last year, and it’s one of the greatest things I’ve seen for a long time. Just the ability to control your heartbeat like that, and, oh, my God, the shots they make.”
The Train to Hunt series, which drew about 100 registered competitors to its Colorado event in Sedalia on Saturday, is something of a bowhunters biathlon, with a crossfit twist. Competitors carry weighted backpacks through a 2-mile course that includes six physical challenges and six targets. Challenges include everything from sets of 15 burpees and lifting a 50pound sandbag overhead 15 times to a 100-meter tire drag, all before taking aim with your bow for a heart-pounding shot at the bull’s-eye.
Created for hunters by hunters, both the series and sponsors build upon an increasingly prevalent theme designed to rebrand the image of sportsmen as athletes.
“People need to understand some things about hunting. For one, I want to know what I’m putting in my body. What better way to do that than to go out and get it myself?” Rowell said. “And then you have to be athletic enough to carry the animal out. So these hunters are conscious of the wilderness, health addicts who want to know what they’re putting in their bodies, and athletes.”
Not to be outdone, a faction of Colorado’s fly-fishing community will head to the tiny town of Saguache on Saturday for the second annual Rocky Mountain Flyathlon, a Colorado Trout Unlimited fundraiser that rolls with this tagline: Run. Fish. Beer.
Capitalizing on three of Colorado’s perpetually trending pastimes, the sold-out Flyathlon combines trail running, fly-fishing and craftbeer consumption into a relaxed sort of race. After running several miles to a designated fishing hole, the clock is paused once a competitor assembles a fishing rod and catches his or her first trout. Racers have a chance to relax and catch a few more fish before restarting the timer and running back down the mountain to drink a locally designed brew.
Then again, the fly-fishing fraternity is generally more comfortable straddling that hipster line than its hunting counterpart in the hook-andbullet collective.
“We are right in this middle area where it’s really a crossover. We thread the world of hunting, where we go to the International Sportsmen’s Expo and tell hunters, ‘Hey, you can bring this on your next hunt,’ ” said Daniel Galhardo, founder of Boulder’s Tenkara USA flyrod company. “But we also talk to stand-up paddle boarders like, ‘Hey, if you are going to go paddle a lake, bring this along just in case.’ So we thread these two worlds really well, and then the regular fly-fishing market too.
“There’s something to be said about being part of this cool millennial demographic that has taken up simplicity. They are craving the outdoors, but in a little different way than their parents did it. They don’t want to carry a lot of gear with them, and they are not too interested in killing animals anymore.”
Decidedly outside the hipster demographic, SJK Hunting’s Rowell has a different take.
“The hunting industry grew about 25 percent from 2006 to 2013 or so. It’s been flat since then, but it’s still a $38 billion industry,” Rowell said. “I think you are going to start seeing it take off again because more and more people are beginning to understand what’s happening with the GMOs and steroids they’re putting in cattle and things like that. I think as more and more people figure that out, they’ll decide: ‘You know, maybe hunting really is a good idea. This is how our fathers and grandfathers did it.’
“I’m not trying to convince anybody. They kind of figure it out on their own.”