At the OIA Industry Breakfast that kicked off Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, the collective message from a number of speakers was “collective action.”
But while the industry has collaborated in recent years to make significant progress on sustainable initiatives as well as policy issues, particularly marked by last year’s fight to save national monuments, the industry overall has failed miserably at driving outdoor participation.
The Outdoor Foundation Board Chair, Sally McCoy, noted at the session that the Outdoor Foundation was created 10 years ago to specifically focus on participation. While the organization has made progress over the years securing deeper insights into participation through research funding as well as around diversity, “what we have not done and what we’re here to discuss is to really create systemic change.”
Likening outdoor participation to a “leaky bucket,” she said organizations, including the Outdoor Foundation, have been able to “get some people in but we’re losing more out the bottom.”
Moreover, she said, Outdoor Foundation research confirms “we’re late in the game” as far as reversing trends. Half of U.S. adults participate in outdoor activities (walking, hiking, etc.) less than one time a year. Also, only 18 percent of adults and 21 percent of children participate in outdoor activities once or more per week.
While thanking those in the industry who have orchestrated trips to get kid outdoors, cleaned up trails and donated time and money over the years, she added, “We have to do more. We have to really figure out how to create systemic change for our ourselves, for our industry and for the country.”
Referencing OIA’s three objectives focusing on government affairs, sustainability and participation, McCoy further believes participation “will come to be the most important pillar and the hardest pillar.” While the industry continues to face a number of politically-driven crises, including still over federal lands, reversing outdoor participation declines “is the long game” overall for the industry.
McCoy said, “If we want land stewardship, people have to know the land. If we want social justice, people have to experience the land differently. If we want the industry to thrive, and frankly if we want the American character to have be informed by the resiliency and the interdependence of a relationship with nature, then we have to be successful in this effort.”
The Outdoor Foundation’s recently-hired executive director, Lise Aangeenbrug, said there’s a greater “sense of urgency” around outdoor participation because the industry is risking seeing two generations disconnected from nature.
She noted that Millennials went outside half as much as their parents when they were kids and now Millennials are becoming parents. Aangeenbrug noted that studies regularly show that people that participate in outdoor activities as kids are three to four times more likely to go outside as adults.
Addressing the industry crowd, she noted that it’s easy to assume the situation isn’t as bad as it appears. Having long been an outdoors advocate all her life, Aangeenbrug said she herself had a “huge wake-up call” about eight years ago when she heard that the majority of Denver public school graduates had never been in the mountains despite being able to easily view the mountains from downtown Denver. She realized she had “lived in a bubble” given her interests.
She said, “I assumed everybody in Colorado got outside and when we talked to people around the state we heard in almost every community–rural, urban or suburban–that getting outside was no longer the norm, that the experiences that we had as children were no longer what were the common experiences for families and children across Colorado. I thought that if this is true in Colorado, what’s it like for the rest of the U.S.?”
Amy Roberts, OIA’s executive director, said McCoy was brought on to head the Outdoor Foundation and Aangeenbrug was hired late last year as the association’s first foundation executive director in part because while the OIA was able to help the industry rally around policy and sustainability causes, youth participation was falling short.
“We also know that those people are going to be voters in the future and so our public lands work will not be successful down the road,” added Roberts. “We will lose America’s heritage.”
One way to support participation is to double-down on donations.
Towards that end, Roberts announced that VF Corporation, the parent of The North Face, Timberland, Jansport and many other brands attending the show, had pledged $1 million to support OIA’s “We Thrive Outside” campaign, the largest commitment so far to the effort.
She said VF hopes that other industry partners will make similar donations and Roberts noted that the campaign had also recently secured significant multi-year grants from Patagonia and Thule as well as a commitment to invest from REI. Beyond monetary donations, Roberts said efforts to ramp-up participation require a higher level of mentors, volunteers and gear contributions.
Said Roberts, “We really think of this as an all-hands on-deck effort to dramatically increase participation for all people. It’s the way we’re going to weave this into the fabric of communities. It’s the way we’re going to increase diversity and it’s the way we’re going to ensure people know, love and care about the outdoors.”
As far as strategies to drive people outdoors, particularly youth, Aangeenbrug said the Outdoor Foundation hasn’t come up with a “perfect prescription, the silver bullet.” However, she added, “We do know enough to do something and to do it more and do it strategically. We know that making small grants spread across hundreds of organizations across the U.S. is not moving the needle. We know that providing a one-time experience for a child or family to a faraway place is not moving the needle.”
Highlighting some possible strategies was Chris Castilian, executive director, Great Outdoors Colorado. The state has found a strong response to last year’s launch of its “Generation Wild” campaign designed to address the issue of kids spending too little time in unstructured, outdoor play and not connecting with nature.
Castilian noted there’s “no easy answers” with todays’ kids “over-screened, over-protected and over-scheduled.” Many also live in urban centers with little access to the outdoors. He also said Great Outdoors Colorado is finding that different approaches are required for different areas.
But he did list three takeaways from Great Outdoors Colorado’s success so far with the Generation Wild campaign.
First, he advised partnering with organizations already set up in communities to help build on their efforts. Said Castilian, “There’s a good chance they’re already connecting kids and families to the outdoors.”
Second, he advised collaborating with number of organizations outside the outdoors space that might share similar goals, such as schools, boys and girls clubs, YMCAs, health care providers, local government agencies and other non-profits.
Finally, Castilian advised including younger people in leadership roles to help drive planning and decision making. He said, “If you want to know what the next generation needs from you and your organization, go straight to the source. Ask the kids. They will tell you what they want and what they need.”
Also talking in the morning session was Florence Williams, author of the best-selling book “The Nature Fix,” which highlights the importance of nature to a person’s basic well-being.
“We are living in the middle of the largest migration in human history and it’s the migration indoors,” said Williams.
She largely talked about the health benefits of spending time outdoors and in nature that goes beyond exercise. She pointed to a series of studies showing that walking just 15 minutes in nature reduces an individual’s blood pressure and heart rate and leads to a 16 percent average reduction in the stress hormone, cortisol. Walking the same distance in in urban neighborhoods didn’t bring similar results.
She discussed the biophilia hypothesis that humans have a natural bond to nature. She said, “Even on a subconscious basis, our bodies are happy, our brains are happy when we’re outside.”
Beyond reducing stress levels to help with anxiety or depression, Williams talked about the adventure offered through the outdoors that supports self-reliance, leadership, teamwork, problem-solving and other life skills.
She further noted how the “aww” moments that come with experiencing nature have been shown to make people feel more empathy, more generous and “feel like we’re something larger than ourselves.”
Williams cautioned that with parents and guardians tending to be over-protective, excessive worrying can dilute the benefits that come from adventuring in the outdoors. She said, “If we’re going to be competing with video games, we have to provide some element of risk.”
She also said one the biggest challenges is that 80 percent of Americans live in cities and that challenges access to nature. Williams believes a much bigger effort has to be made to bring the outdoors closer to urban centers. Said Williams, “The bread and butter is where we live, in urban areas. And it’s repeated visits to nearby nature that are really going to make a difference in our daily lives and in our daily well-being. That’s why it’s really important that we rethink our concept of nature and concept of nature exposure.”
Some marketing approaches may have to be tweaked. McCoy noted that while the #vanforlife movement may be popular with many in the core outdoor crowd, one of the major providers of outdoor experiences for children told her she felt much of the population doesn’t “understand why you’d aspire to live in a car.”
Aageenbrug likewise pointed out the continued to need to make the outdoors inclusive, particularly for minority groups, and remove any other barriers, such as the outdoors being too expensive. She agreed access is critical. Aageenbrug said, “The outdoors as faraway wilderness is not going to work for the bulk of the population.”
At the event, OIA unveiled the recipients of the association’s first-ever “Together We Are A Force” awards to show how the industry can come together and collaborate on a wide range of issues.
Under the “policy” category, the winner was Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, Wilderness Classroom, Piragis Northwoods Company, MTI Life Jackets and Patagonia for the “Adventure Advocacy to Save Wilderness” project that looked to save the Minnesota Boundary Waters.
For “sustainability,” the winner was The North Face, Textile Exchange, Allied Feather & Down, Downlite and Control Union Certification for collaborating on the Responsible Down Standard. The initiative seeks to increase supply chain transparency and prevent animal cruelty.
In the outdoor participation category, the African American Nature & Parks Experience, American hiking society, Vasque and Patagonia won for the “Hike Like a Girl Weekend” project that focuses on inclusion.
Roberts particularly called the collaboration behind “Hike Like a Girl Weekend” that showed “what we can do when we work together on issues that are bigger than any one brand or any one category. What our industry can do when competitors come together to work on issues that are bigger than any one brand or company.”
Roberts said the success illustrates “how to use collective power to increase participation and make the outdoors a habit for all kids.”
Aageenbrug said the hope is that the industry’s “collective action and collective impact” on participation drives efforts elsewhere. She said, “We have the opportunity to do that through this ripple effect. If we invest deeply in communities and bring partners together, use the research and tell the story, we can impact beyond the community we invest in.”
Photo courtesy Outdoor Foundation
