Grassroots Spring 25 Connect Show Sees Flat Vendor, Retailer Attendance, 6% Uptick In Buyers

With six weeks until its twice-annual Connect retail buying show, Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, the national organization dedicated to the health and growth of specialty outdoor retail, is reporting a 6 percent uptick in individual buyers attending the show, amidst flat vendor and retail business attendance. The Spring Connect Show takes place June 9-12, 2025, in Reno, Nev.

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance also released details on a number of education sessions geared toward retailers the day prior to the show on Sunday, June 8, Those include sessions on how specialty retailers can compete more effectively with national retailers, insight into the go-to-market process around how and when brands create their seasonal collections, and the role that small and emerging brands can play in the specialty retail curation process. There are also site visit opportunities to Cascade Designs and Patagonia, both of which operate production and distribution centers in Reno, and alpinist Conrad Anker will give a talk on 40 years of transformation in the outdoor industry. 

Retailer and vendor attendance will be flat with 148 retail businesses and 147 exhibitors, while total buyers in attendance will be up 5.9-percent to 391, compared to numbers at last Spring’s Connect Show. 

In all, Connect will provide a forum for 10,874 appointments between retailers and brands, a 7.5-percent increase over last year, and 8,229 hours of meetings, a 2.2-percent decrease. The Grassroots Outdoor Alliance team has tracked buyer engagement statistics since they began pre-scheduling all appointments for retailers and brands in 2016. 

“Retailers being able to write well-informed orders for subsequent seasons requires a dedicated chunk of time with their core vendors at the right time of year, and these numbers tell us that Connect is still providing that as its core value proposition,” said Gabe Maier, President of Grassroots. “Along with that, we have a great lineup of education sessions this spring aimed at helping retailers grow their knowledge base, stay up to date on trends, and deepen their connections with the Grassroots community.” 

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance will host 104 outdoor brands at Discovery Marketplace, an event that takes place the afternoon of June 8, the day before the Connect Show. While the Connect show focuses on line showings supporting long-established brand-retailer relationships, Discovery Marketplace offers new and emerging brands the opportunity to show product highlights to specialty retailers. For retailers, it offers them a chance to discover new and exciting brands and products. 

Along with Discovery Marketplace, the following sessions take place on Sunday, June 8, prior to the show: 

• How specialty outdoor retailers can effectively compete with large national retailers — This session, led by former Moosejaw CEO Eoin Comerford, now of Outsided Consulting, will explore strategies to leverage strengths, mitigate disadvantages and carve out a thriving niche in the market when competing again large retailer like REI, Backcountry, and Dick’s. 

• A look behind the scenes at how brands manage the go-to-market process — The goal of this session is providing retailers visibility into the key moments of creating a seasonal product collection, offering clarity on when feedback is most impactful, and highlighting the symbiotic relationship between vendors and retail partners when developing a seasonal launch. Led by two executives from Outdoor Research, Andy Burke, VP of Commercial Sales, and Schuyler Schuster, Supply Chain Director, this will be a presentation with dialog and Q&A. 

• Why small brands can yield big wins — This panel explores how carrying emerging brands keeps a retail product selection fresh, attracts customers eager for unique finds, and sets a shop apart from big-box retailers. Featuring insights from a small brand CEO, a specialty shop owner, and a specialty shop buyer, the discussion will focus on how small brands foster innovation and create a discovery-driven shopping experience. 

• A site visit to the Cascade Designs factory in Reno — A unique opportunity to see how products are manufactured in the U.S., this session will also highlight Cascade’s manufacturing process around air mattresses, stoves, water filter, snowshoes and storage products. It will also cover the 50-year history of Cascade’s brands and product categories, how the company manages service and repairs, and how it can help dealers around that process. 

• A site visit to Patagonia’s site in Reno — Following a presentation from the Patagonia team, retailers will tour the distribution center to see how products are picked, packed and shipped. They will also visit Worn Wear Repairs, which is the largest apparel repair facility in North America. There will be time for Q&A. 

• Four decades of adventure with Conrad Anker — During a morning breakfast session on Tuesday, June 11, legendary alpinist and The North Face Captain Emeritus Conrad Anker will offer a compelling journey through 40 years of transformation in the outdoor industry. Anker will reflect on how gear, values, and culture have evolved — and how the power of the outdoors remains constant. 

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is a retailer-owned network of 100 independently owned outdoor retailers and 67 vendor partners, working together for the health and growth of specialty outdoor retail. Through data collection and analysis, direct member support, specialty events and deep vendor partnerships, Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is creating both a vision and roadmap for the long-term success of independent specialty retail. Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is recognized as a catalyst for the success of its retailers and vendor partners; an advocate for specialty independent retail; a promoter of education and community within the specialty channel; and a key influencer of the national outdoor industry. Grassroots Outdoor Alliance also operates Connect, a twice-annual legacy show experience that spans four days, offering an efficient and structured format for retailers to conduct pre-season line showings and business conversations.