Outdoors still draws county youth

By Deborah J. Myers

Business Report Correspondent

Boulder County young people are buying more outdoors sporting goods now than ever, according local merchants.

Top-selling items include camping gear such as sleeping bags, hiking boots and tents, and mountain sports gear, including ski and snowboarding equipment. If youngsters are putting these items to use, they are defying the results of a recent study conducted by the Outdoor Recreation Coalition of America.

ORCA collected data for the study from a panel of youth at the organization’s regional meeting in Denver on Nov. 6. Results indicated that young people are less interested in outdoor, human-powered activities than they used to be. Reasons included such things as a dislike of being out of cell phone range or getting their shoes dirty and fear of being in the woods because of the movie “The Blair Witch Project.”

This apparent trend is bad news for ORCA, a trade organization for the outdoor equipment industry. ORCA represents retailers, distributors, manufacturers and marketers among others. The organization tracks trends in backpacking, canoeing, camping, cross-country skiing, hiking, kayaking, paved-road bicycling, rafting, rock climbing, single-track bicycling, snowshoeing, telemark skiing, trail running and dirt biking. And while ORCA finds that overall sales of outdoor equipment are up, sales among youths are declining.

Outdoor sporting goods retailers have reason to be concerned about youth’s attitude toward the outdoors because interest in these hobbies often starts at a young age, and retailers risk losing a potential lifetime of sales for each youth who doesn’t choose to explore the outdoors.

A generation’s health is also at stake. Fortunately for Boulder County teens, college students and the retailers who serve them, area young people are enjoying all the benefits of outdoor recreation. “We see quite a few young people,´ said Shonda Lehtola, owner of Backcountry Escape in Longmont. “It’s about 60 percent young people to 40 percent older ones.”

Sue Stapleton, owner of Play It Again Sports in Boulder, thinks young people’s fickle attitude toward the sport in which they participate keeps sales up in Boulder County. “It’s always been a strong age group, and we’ve possibly had an increase because many students cross over to new sports,” Stapleton said. Here in Boulder, new sports start up all the time. And we sell a lot of camping equipment.”

Skiing is also still a favorite pastime for Boulder County young people. “I don’t think people realize the kinds of kids who are skiing. A lot of them you’d think would be snowboarders by the looks of them, but they ski,´ said Erin Ehle of Boulder Ski Deals.

Brent Keith, manager at Longmont’s Gart Sports, said youth are buying sleeping bags, tents, hydration packs and hiking shoes over organized sports equipment. But other retailers see a different trend emerging.

“We see shifts in activity,´ said Scott Lee, general manager at Mountain Sports in Boulder. “A lot of people grew up camping and backpacking. It’s shifting to extreme sports, like climbing or snowboarding.”

Salesperson Bill Franz, also of Mountain Sports, added that more people are rock climbing now and that teens are a big part of that trend. “We certainly see the benefit from being in a college town,” Lee added.

Boulder Outdoor Center associate Zuzana Zamha said, “Dangerous (sports) have more appeal. People think they’re more glorified. Kids are more interested in the outdoors and signing up for classes.”

Instead of team sports such as soccer and basketball, Zamha said youth are more interested in learning how to paddle a kayak or climb a mountain with a smaller group of friends. With fewer rules and guidelines, outdoor recreation can provide more freedom than organized team sports.

According to Zamha, freestyle adventures also can fit easily into youngsters’ busy schedules since there are no tournaments, required practice times or team events. Young people participate because it’s fun, not out of an obligation to uphold school pride or to win a trophy. Their only competition is themselves. They challenge themselves to hike farther, climb higher and cycle faster. Or, they can just enjoy the beauty of the outdoors.

Boulder Ski Deal associate Erin Ehle agrees with the idea that Boulder County’s rural roots and close proximity to the mountains may have something to do with a love of the outdoors among area youth. “Kids are definitely more involved than they used to be. It’s the part of the country in which we live. I’d say half of all teens snowboard or ski at least one time per year. You wake up and look out and see those mountains, and you want to go do something in them.”

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