Rebuilding Trade Through Hospitality, Culture, and Place

The Ask

Traditional trade shows had become transactional, crowded, and disconnected from how brands actually want to be experienced. The opportunity was to create a true alternative: a platform where outdoor and lifestyle brands could build real relationships with buyers, media, and cultural leaders through experience, not booths.

Our Point of View

We believed trade doesn’t fail because of scale, it fails because of environment. When people feel rushed, oversold, and overstimulated, meaningful connection disappears. By leading with hospitality, curation, and place, we could turn trade into something human again.

What We Did

Designed an Experiential Trade Model
Outpost Trade Retreats reimagined the trade show as a multi-day, all-inclusive gathering hosted in environments that reflected the culture of the brands themselves. Instead of fluorescent halls, we brought brands and attendees together in markets like the Northern California redwoods, the Joshua Tree desert, and the Catskills of New York.

Replaced Booths With Experience
Rather than navigating aisles of displays, attendees experienced products in context. Shoes were tested on guided trail runs. Apparel was worn in real conditions. Story, function, and culture were felt simultaneously, creating deeper understanding and stronger brand affinity.

Curated People, Not Just Attendance
Guests were hand-selected for cultural relevance, not job titles. Artists, athletes, designers, writers, chefs, publishers, and adventurers gathered alongside retailers, media, and brand leaders. The result was unexpected conversation and long-tail value for participating brands.

Led With Radical Hospitality
Outpost Trade Retreats were entirely cash-free. Lodging, food, drink, programming, and entertainment were fully hosted, allowing guests to stay present, open, and engaged. Hospitality wasn’t a perk, it was the operating system that made connection possible.

Created Culture, Not Just Commerce
Programming included live performances, panels moderated by leading media outlets, and hands-on workshops spanning design, food, photography, and exploration. Trade became a shared cultural moment, not a sales sprint.

“What Outpost is creating, is a place where brands can showcase new products and generate new experiences around them, thus creating new sales & marketing and publicity opportunities.”

— Forbes

Impact

Since inception, Outpost Trade Retreats have hosted more than 250 brands, driven millions of dollars in direct sales, and generated hundreds of millions of media impressions. More importantly, the platform proved that when hospitality leads, trade becomes a relationship business again, Video recap