Outdoor Industry Association will host an Outdoor University® online session on Tuesday, March 22: How to Find Opportunities in a Volatile Supply Chain. This session will explore the ongoing issues of rising material costs and labor shortages in China, alternatives to sourcing in China, federal trade programs that can benefit your business and opportunities to reduce your costs through increased supply chain efficiencies.


Panelists on the live trade and supply chain webinar include two leading experts in the outdoor industry, joined by the primary trade advisor to Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Participants will learn about the steps industry leaders are taking to combat rising costs and supply chain instability and how using U.S. free trade agreements, preference programs and other tools can help your company’s operations.


Moderated by Alex Boian, OIA director of trade policy, panelists include:



  • David Hampson – Global Manufacturing Director for Rofu (H.K.) Limited, parent company of Keen, Inc. David’s expertise in footwear sourcing, current trends and potential short-term challenges, such as labor disruption, continuing commodity price increases and other factors, will provide useful insights to webinar attendees. David will be participating from Hong Kong.

  • T.S. Cheah – Vice President, Asia Sourcing, for VF’s Outdoor Coalition’s Apparel and Equipment, specifically The North Face, Jansport and Lucy. In apparel sourcing for the outdoor industry, the decisions that T.S. makes and the direction he decides for The North Face’s product sourcing, ripple throughout the industry. Most other outdoor apparel manufacturers seek to emulate the sourcing strategies of The North Face and often piggy-back on TNF in sourcing countries around the world. T.S. will be participating from Jakarta.

  • Behnaz Kibria – Democratic Trade Counsel for the Committee on Ways and Means at the U.S. House of Representatives. Behnaz will discuss U.S. trade policy specific to trade preference programs, free trade agreements and other options for companies as they seek to diversify their product supply chains beyond China. Behnaz will be participating from Washington, D.C.
    How to Find Opportunities in a Volatile Supply Chain is scheduled for 2 pm (Mountain) on Tuesday, March 22 and is free for OIA members and non-members. Register Now

To view the full schedule of OIA Outdoor University workshops and sessions, including recorded webinars available for on-demand viewing, visit outdoorindustry.org/ou.


Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) is a national trade association whose mission is to ensure the growth and success of the outdoor industry. OIA provides trade services for over 4,000 manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, sales representatives and retailers in the outdoor industry. OIA provides industry defining resources and support in government/legislative affairs, market and social research, business‐to-business services and youth outreach initiatives. Ongoing education opportunities and strategic business workshops provided by OIA include the annual Rendezvous, Outdoor University® sessions, and the Capitol Summit. Outdoor Industry Association is based in Boulder, Colorado, and is the title sponsor of the Outdoor Retailer tradeshows. For more information about OIA go to outdoorindustry.org or call 303.444.3353.