trade shows

Greetings from Utah, and the Outdoor Retailer show. I have been on a travel trade show whirl wind - The snowsports show (SIA) in Vegas, Backcountry Base Camp demo day for Karhu at Brighton Utah, The LA Times Travel show in LA for National Geographic Adventure, and now the OR show. Whew... tired. I did manage to ski one fun day this week at Alta in the middle of it all. I was speaking at the Travel show with my Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History show, and was among speakers such as Rick Steves and Pam Houston.

The shows have been interesting. This year I have lots of new products hitting the floor that I helped design - Fox River Organic Socks, Fox River Women's and Men's Ski and Snowboard Socks, The Head Women's Ski line, The Dream Thang Head Ski boot (the first women's specific last to hit the market) The Karhu Women's line, Osprey Snowsports Switch and women's Aura packs (shaved pounds off the packs), and the Patagonia ski and snowboard line. What a feeling to see your product ideas come to life, and even better when they win pick of the show! I'm currently designing for the 2007-8 season, so sometime I forget what year it is when I sign a deposit slip at the bank!

Lots of cool products at the show - the fat ski trend is finally hitting the mainstream market (hard to imagine that it took a full ten years for that to happen). Women's products are going off, as dealers, reps and companies are finally getting what we girls have been telling them for years - women love to shop, and if you let us women design for women, they will buy, and buy more frequently than men.

Some cool new things I picked up.... The new Sweet Fat Thang (Head women's fat ski - green and white butterflys), Dynafit lightweight touring helmet, Kleen Canteen Stainless steel water bottle, Fortress women's sport watch, the new Suunto Observer, and a cool Crumpler messenger bag.