[00:00:00] Tayson: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Live Ultralight Podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals. Today we're doing a very special episode that we've kind of made a tradition here at Outdoor Vitals, which is a state of the union address. We talk about where we were last year, where we've, you know, what we've been going through highlights, lowlights, and we talk about where we're going to be going in 2024. And yes, that does include some sneak peeks on products, events and things of that nature. So if you're interested to know kind of the state of Outdoor Vitals, but also a little bit of the state of the industry and then where we think things are going, stay tuned. I think this will be really insightful and I think it will give you some great takeaways just for decisions you might be making that's buying or traveling or different things. So with that, we'll go ahead and dive right in. But if you are new to this podcast, again, this is the Live Ultralight Podcast. Typically the episodes here are all about helping you be more comfortable and more confident on trail. We do interviews with elite athletes, backpackers, FKT guys. We do a lot of R &D ourselves and we share results of that and help you to build a lot of confidence in getting yourself on trail, eliminate those unknowns, build your confidence in the gear that you have or can be purchasing so that you are getting out on trail more often, which is really our primary goal of helping people disconnect from tech and everything else, get out on trail, reconnect with themselves, whether that's on a daily basis or on big trips throughout the year. We just believe to our core that getting outside is critical and something that we're passionate about trying to help you with. So that's what we typically are talking about, although today it's going to be slightly tweaked to talk about the state of things. So most of you guys have heard our backstory and I don't know that I'm going to dive too deep into that, but we are a private company. I am the sole owner of the company and we do that very much on purpose. We also are a direct -to -consumer brand, which means we only sell on our website or on a couple small channels where we control everything and we still own that inventory before it's sold. And that allows us to avoid extra retail markups that, say, REI would be placing on products and we've got some good reasons for that, which we'll dive into. And we're coming full stride. This year in 2024 will be our 10th year in business, which is so strange to say. A full decade of business seems non -realistic, although I've said this before, I'll say it again, those first years of business were very humbling. It was more like testing the waters than really rolling out a business, per se. In fact, there's products that no one will ever know we sold here at Outdoor Vitals in those very, very beginning days before we really caught traction and I realized the full vision of where we wanted to take Outdoor Vitals. And that's what's kind of fun about some of these episodes is we get to see that full picture and reminisce a little bit. So 10 years of business is coming up. So let's talk about 2023, what kind of a year it was and just general thoughts on the year. The reality is it was a tough year. Obviously, many of you at home are aware that from a macro economic standpoint in the United States, the economy has been suffering. It's been coming down, interest rates are very high, you know, real estate purchases are low, car purchases have slowed down and things like that. And that has trickled its way into all consumeristic behavior. But then from a micro industry standard of the outdoor industry, we're getting hit a second time. You see in 2020, there was a massive boom in the outdoor industry where when COVID hit, everyone rushed outside and everyone was buying everything they could get and companies couldn't keep anything in stock. They had record years. But the thing is, anytime something comes up, it usually has to find a new normal, right? And that new normal, what we've been essentially trying to figure out what that is over the last year. All of these companies, you know, typically this has been the cycle of things in 2020. You know, you couldn't even find product, everything was out of stock 2021. Similar situation for us, it was very similar for some companies, it was very similar. Some had, you know, enough inventory to just kill it in 2021. But basically, what happened is in 2022, everyone caught up on inventory. But you've also got to keep in mind that everyone was looking at revenue numbers and growth. 2020 2021 when they're projecting their 2022. Inventory levels. So they're seeing this massive level of growth at the same time that everyone's catching up on inventory and all of that came to a loggerhead in 2022 about halfway, through the year about halfway, through the year, we started to see a lot of retail Brands, get way way Overstock on product. They started to cut, purchase orders with factories, they started to run some sales and there was just basically rumbling within the industry. There was companies big retailers that we're looking to go public that had to put all those plans on pause because of that. And so they started on about 2022. We didn't feel much of anything and tell a ways into 2023 but other direct to Consumer Brands. You know, about q1 quarter. One for a few months of 2023, when they started to feel this decline in demand, so Decline in demand because everyone's kind of gone outside. Maybe they've bought a bunch of the stuff that they needed covid is going away. So, everyone's being able to go back to typical events that they maybe were doing before the big out outside. Boom. So demand economy and microeconomics start to go down at the same time that everyone else is inventory is rising at a substantial rate and that built a perfect storm for a very turbulent and tough time in the outdoor industry. That's why if you've been paying attention, all of 2023 say, REI if they used to run a weekend sale on Labor Day, well now it's a week-long sale. If they used to run a week long sale, now it's like a month long sale. It's it's just astronomical the amount of sales that have been going constantly at these retailers. We've, we've heard stories and Rumblings through, you know, very good sources that some companies were saying things like this, you know? Hey, for the amount of Revenue sales that we have right now, we should have about 6 million dollars worth of inventory. And instead we have 18 million dollars of inventory in the bike industry, we've heard, it's even worse than that. In fact, if you want right now, I believe Specialized Bicycles are buying are doing a buy one, get one, free bike sale. We're talking seven thousand dollar bikes. They're liquidating and fire selling everything. They have because they have so much inventory. And the demand is so low right now. So, That's created a very turbulent time in 2023 and we're not sure what that's going to mean for 2024. But to give you some just some high-level points, as I was kind of preparing for today. I thought I'd just share a few numbers at least two publicly traded companies that have a lot of businesses in their portfolio, in the outdoor space. So, VF Corp, they're the ones who own The North Face, and The North Face is known to be the biggest outdoor brand as far as Revenue in the world and right now, Well, just to give you some some idea in 2021 they had a stock price of ninety dollars per share. Halfway through 2022. It was down to fifty dollars a share and today their stock price is 17 dollars per share. That means that from 2021 till today, their stock is gone down by 80%. And from halfway through 2022. It's gone down 66%, you know, more than half. So if that doesn't tell you a little bit about the state of things in the outdoor industry, Another one, Helen of Troy, who owns Osprey backpacks for them. They from 2022. Like, January 1st of 2022 till now their stock price went from 245 to 1:23, I believe. And basically exactly a 50%. So their stock went down by half in, you know, I guess, I guess that would be two years now, but you also saw that boom on the other side. So to give you some perspective, the outdoor industry's been getting hit hard. How did that affect Outdoor Vitals?, I know you guys really care about this. The biggest thing here. Takeaways, I want to make sure we're creating value for you guys all the time. The takeaway here is there is definitely if you're agnostic to what you're getting. There are some opportunity out there to get some liquidated products. I don't know, I would imagine it. I mean, like, I say, if you want a new bike, now's a great time to look at a new bike, because you're buying it at like their costs in a lot of these places. Or if there's things that maybe don't matter as much to you and maybe a good time to look and see if you can get some deals on things. Especially from the big publicly traded companies, they are liquidating and fire selling things way fast companies like us. Privately held companies we don't have to be as aggressive. We didn't overextend to begin with and we don't have to You know, essentially do anything drastic to to manage the situation for us but something to know. So yeah. What did that mean for us? That definitely meant a year that was created some more tougher Dynamics for us to hit our goals. So goals are definitely hard to hit, you know, profits are down, things like that, but we were able to manage that very well. And that's a big thanks to you guys that are listening to this. I'm sure many of you guys listening to this are Live Ultralight members and and you guys obviously are just so consistently buying from us in supporting our brand and that, that says it all we were, I would say that we were likely in the top, tier 90th percentile of Brands as far as not being. So negatively affected. Think, there are many other brands that were under massive amounts of stress. We may see some Brands even fail before things go too far. Especially some of these newer brands that maybe started in the last three to five years, big, big changes. But again, thanks to you guys. Those of you listening to this Live Ultralight members, Etc. We had a pretty dang good year. Something that we can hang our hat on.
[Editor’s note: The economic conditions, inventory examples, stock prices, promotions, shopping suggestions, company performance, and membership-support claims above reflect Tayson’s January 2024 account of 2023. They are not current market, financial, or purchasing guidance.]
[00:11:20] Tayson: We gave it a great effort and we still are in a great position. And that's again, some of the benefits of being a privately held company. And a company who doesn't need to grow 100% year over year, we can be more level-headed. We know that we're in this for 50 years, you know, not three to five years before we try to sell the company and make all of our money and go sit on a beach somewhere. So things that happened in 2023 for us. We did attend PCT Trail Days. That was a really good time. It was great to come out meet. A lot of you guys over on that neck of the woods, get some personal feedback and just show a lot of our products. We did execute another, 100 Mile Challenge, and we 5x the attendance there. So, we had many, many of you guys joining in on that. And taking part on that which was really awesome and we have some plans which I'll talk about in a minute to grow that even more We as a team we executed 100 mile. Backpacking trip through the San Juan Mountains on the Colorado Trail. And that's that was, you know, excellent. We executed a lot of R&D trips. We documented a lot of those trips and and shared them with, with the channel, our YouTube channel. So if you're not a member of the YouTube channel, definitely go check that out. And we also document him here on the podcast, so make sure you subscribe here. We release I have noted down eight products last year, but that's there's also like little or ones that I probably don't, you know, take the time to label down such as like carbon fiber poles for the CS40 or some accessory style ones. But beginning of the year, we released the Oblivion sleeping pad We released the Nebo. Can't even. Can't even say my own product names here. The Nebo windbreaker. We released the CS40, backpack the Skyline 30 Fastpack Altitude T-Shirts, short, and long sleeves. the Skyline Trail Shorts, Highline Thermal Leggings, and we did update our pillow, which so many of you guys know us for Um, a really solid year of product launches we had, you know, product launches essentially trickling out through the entire year, which which is always fun. And, you know, it's it's it's also just fun to share. You know what? We've been working on our R&D Cycles, now have gotten longer and longer You know, product Cycles to, you know, from ideation to release it. It really is getting longer and longer. And in some cases, you're talking two to three years of product development, and testing, and whatnot to get it out. And some of those ones, maybe we're not putting as much pressure on. So, like the Highline thermal leggings, you know, that's one that that personally I've been working on using that fabric and whatnot for I mean, I guess you could say five years, it's been, it's been a product that's a long, long time in the works, and it's a phenomenal product. But when you work on something for five years, it's exciting to finally be able to release that product. So it's always a lot of fun to release products. We had a tremendous amount of PR attention, you know, callouts and magazines callouts and webs, websites influencers Etc. And it's and it's always fun to get their feedback. We've we won awards throughout the year from Outside Magazine, Backpacker, and others. And we've just continued to, to push the envelope and get Outdoor Vitals more and more on the map. For those of you that have not seen some of these products, I'd highly advise you to check those out. Each one of them is, is just a phenomenal product in its own vein and that goes down to the pillow, you know, something as simple as a pillow all the way up to you know 300 plus dollar, CS40 backpack, The fast pack is another just tremendous product, really hope you guys are checking these out and reading, you know, like, going through the details on this podcast. We do a deep dive. Every time we release a product to talk about the backstory, we talk about all the details we've worked through, you know, we try to be as transparent as possible. Not transparency, should give you a lot of confidence in your gear and a decision you make which is really why we why we do that, right? You guys, this is this is our passion. This is what we're everyone's excited to do whether you're on this side of the mic or on that side of the mic. And so we try to offer as much as we possibly can because you guys I mean you guys love those product deep Dives. So not only are they fun but they are useful and I hope that you guys take advantage of those um, other things in 2023. A lot of a lot of good.
[Editor’s note: The events, challenge participation, trips, product releases, prices, awards, media attention, product claims, and calls to view product content above are historical to the 2023 recap and are not statements of current availability or performance.]
[00:16:22] Tayson: A lot of hard from. Yeah, just Dynamic changes, right? You're always whether that's business or personal a lot of changes in 2023 to to work through and navigate and Which makes me very excited for 2024. Right? We hope that we're kind of at the bottom, or the things are leveling off and we're back to a more, you know, normalized rate and and we'll be able to just continue to roll from here. And we've got a lot of great things under development. So, Um, one thing that I do like to do before I talk about 2024 where we're going things were releasing products, Etc. I do like to take just a second to talk about Outdoor Vitals and really our purpose as a brand, our purpose as a company. And make sure that that's just crystal clear to to everyone. So Outdoor Vitals, our purpose. Our reason for existence is to connect people to the vital Outdoors. Again, we believe that spending time, Outdoors connecting with yourself, connecting with loved ones to you is some of the most valuable time that you can spend in your life and it's also now more needed than ever with technological developments with smartphones Etc. We need that disconnect when we need time to step away and be present and the outdoors is a phenomenal tool for that. And I would say, even over the course of the last few years, I've learned that Seen a drastic change for me personally, and spending time Outdoors as much as possible, not just on weekends per se. I'm many, many years, I was a weekend warrior, but then, like, during the week, I would go to the gym, right? Or things like that, which I still love the gym. It's been a part of my life since like high school, but more. So, what I've done is, I've substituted a lot of that for trail running. Rucking right? Loading up a pack and just going up a trail. And I've seen tremendous benefits to that just getting outside breathing in that fresh air being in the sunlight. Things like that. Make a big, big difference for people. That's why you'll see that a lot of our products. Overlap now, right? If I'm going out trail running in a morning before I come into work, you know, I've got Skyline Trail Shorts on, I've got an Altitude Hoodie on, that's cold. I may have a Nebo windbreaker on. If I'm going far enough, I need to take stuff, I'm going to be bringing a Skyline 30 Fastpack. You know, just cinch down all the way and and just in basically what I'd call like vest form. I run a lot with that thing as a vest, I run it on my ultramarathons and all sorts of things. So, Um, there's a lot of overlap between what we're building for backpacking and what can be still used on a daily basis? And that all ties into our purpose of both, providing gear and education to connect. You guys to the vital Outdoors as much as possible. One change that you'll likely see this year is a change to just help people understand our brand a little bit quicker and that would be a change to our motto. We talk a lot about Living Ultralight. This is the Live Ultralight Podcast with a Live Ultralight Membership. However we've through conversations and and feedback. I think there can be times where people think that we are, what I would call like gram-weenie ultralighters. Where We Are? Doing everything we possible possibly can to shave every single gram and Oz out of a product. And that's really not our brand, right? Our brand is to Build the highest performing products that we possibly can and Ultra being ultralight. Being lightweight is a, is a massive pillar within that, but it's not everything. So typically we design the lightest product that we can and then we add a little bit of weight back for increased performance. I think there's been some times where people have gotten a little bit, confused, thinking that we are an ultralight brand. When, in reality, we are an ultralight brand but we're not the same ultralight brand that say, you know, maybe Zpacks is right? We don't make a They've got like a 17 Oz frameless pack right to us. That doesn't perform the way that we want it to perform for our brand values. So so we want to make that a little bit more. Clear, our focus on performance first and then ultra light. So you'll see some tweaks to our motto. And I think those will roll out pretty soon. So what you'll see is areas where we've put Live Ultralight in the past will now be putting performance-first ultralight gear, it's a very descriptive motto but also just tells that story that we are an ultralight brand, but it's all about the performance for different people. That means different things. Right? Performance can mean different things that can mean, That it is the lightest weight that can mean. Does it perform in the desert? That can be, does it perform in the mountains? Does that perform in a, you know, a rainforest or something like that? Obviously, everything is within its own perspective and and vein. And so but for us performance, really means just I guess the simplest way to describe that is in the real world for what it was designed and intended for. So if we're building a CS40 backpack, that means that everything we do with that backpack is going to be centered around being as lightweight as possible but still allowing it to perform in the real world. In the real world to us means long water carries at times big food carries at times. It means day hikes. It means it's 100 mile hikes, right? It means all of the above and so making sure that that backpack can carry the load comfortably, that it can be durable enough that it can be comfortable enough. That functionality of the pack is all there. That's, that's real world performance. And that's really where where we strive for thankfully, we're here in Cedar City Utah, Southern Utah and within 45 minutes of our office we can be down in the Mojave Desert or we can be at 11,000 feet at a ski Resort or up on the Peaks and another hour and a half. We can be at 12,000 feet from the office. Not another hour and a half, but an hour and a half ish from our office, you could be a 12,000 feet. We have so many opportunities to test and a massively diverse environment. Some of the harshest, I would say conditions around at times and so that allows us to just put this extra effort on performance what that probably doesn't mean or what that probably does mean, excuse me. Is that if you're someone who's, who's hiking more basic Trails, not doing, as many miles between have frequent stops, you know, frequent resupplies and and tons of water availability. Then our products might be overkill for you. They really might, you might say, you know what, I just want to go with the most ultralight possible option or something along that those lines because our products may be Overkill, and you may not even experienced all of the benefits from them, I would argue, that's probably not true, but Definitely holding ourselves to a standard of performance that, you know, is our standard. And, and that might change from from company to company where they don't need a product that can go 100 miles through the Uinta Mountains, or the San Juan mountain range or, you know, between resupplies. They might, they just may not need that. They may not, you know, have the same expectations. You know, they may be fine with the 7D rain jacket. When to us, that's a huge risk. When the rain jacket is your lifeline in the backcountry, you know, we'd rather have a 20D rain jacket that just gives us added ability for, for waterproofness, but also durability and just just things of that nature. So you'll see some changes there. A couple things that make our brand unique number one, we do focus on performance, not price. And that really comes back to you, everything I just said about performance, but also because we're a direct-to-consumer brand, we can control everything. If we want to sell a $400 rain jacket, which we don't, we could, we just can't. But if you're a retail company, good luck trying to put that on a retail store shelf, right? You can't do it. What that allows us to do, because we don't have to pay that extra retail markup, right? Typically a product sold in REI has 40 to 50% extra markup over a product that we would sell. What that allows us to do is take all of that 40 to 50% extra. Some of that, put it into the product cost itself to make a better product, and then we sell it directly to the consumer. It means that from a design standpoint, we don't start off. Designing a product with the price point in mind. We literally have to train the factories we work with to That we not looking for a Target price. Point number one question. They say, when you start a new project, what's your Target price point, we don't have Target price points. We have Target performance metrics that we're looking for and that's what drives all of our decisions. Can that mean that we can release an expensive product? Yes, that can also mean that we can get a phenomenal product at a phenomenal price. And that's probably more of the case, across the line of Outdoor Vitals products. So performance not price. It's a big big part of what we do and how we design we try to inspire confidence through experience so that's a documenting ourselves on the trails and showing the R&D going into products. That's all. So using things like this podcast and doing education and we are ah we we pride ourselves in our Direct Customer connection. We have the ability to Speak directly with our customers. If there's an issue we hear directly about it. It can it work? You know it's it's it could be moments away from coming straight to mine or designers desk. If there's ever an issue going on. And that's a big deal because instead of someone returning a product to REI and REI handing it, then back to Osprey and Osprey, not knowing why it was returned to begin with or things like that. There's that factor. There's also the factor that you guys are literally on YouTube. You're staring at my face right now, you know who I am. You've learned a lot about my life. And in about the company itself and that's something we value. We've think that people more should be conscious but are becoming more conscious of everywhere that they spend their dollars. And everywhere you spend your dollars is where you're voting. And so there's more and more people that want to know where their money is going, what it's doing well values. We hold Etc. So, We really value our Direct Customer connection. One thing I wanted to bring up really quick is Outdoor Vitals Performance Promise something we don't talk about a lot, is that our products do carry a limited lifetime warranty? Which means that we warranty anything on craftsmanship of the product, you know, stitching and things of that nature. So know that we will we will make it right? We will repair or completely replace any products based on a lifetime warranty. So If you have any products that fall under that reach out to us, we want to keep our products on trails as long as possible. And even if, like, you damage this product, you burnt this product, you did something reach out to us because we may be able to help you repair the product. we don't Mark those things up so if we can help you repair something we will do our best to do so As a company, we do donate 1% to the vital Outdoors to trail associations and and companies like that organizations like that. And we'll continue to do that now and and going forward. So A little bit of brand history. All right, where we going in 2024, which you guys have really been waiting for here. What's to come? And yeah, let's just, let's just hash this out.
[Editor’s note: The performance and product-superiority statements, 7D-versus-20D rain-jacket safety and durability comparison, direct-sales margin explanation, target-performance claims, Performance Promise, limited-lifetime warranty, repair practices and costs, and donation statement above were Outdoor Vitals’ December 2023 statements, not current promises or independently verified conclusions. Check current primary Outdoor Vitals product information, terms, and policies before relying on them.]
[00:28:45] Tayson: Touched on some of this already. Just looking at some notes. Make sure I don't miss anything. You might see some changes to content creation just always trying to search and make better and better content. So Be aware of that, watch for that. We'll see what you guys think of any changes. We might make on content creation, YouTube podcast, Etc. We will be rolling out the 100-mile challenge again. And this year, we're going to do our best to make it even better. One of the tweaks, I believe that we are making will be an even longer trip window. So you guys have a bigger ability to squeeze those trips in, hopefully, we'll, we'll help people completely achieve the goals. There's a lot of people that get most of the way there, have issues come up and and maybe because of that trip window that we did last year, maybe it's not quite big enough for them to, you know, get back on trail again or something like that. So, we'll be expanding that. We'll be trying to improve that in every way that we can and have just a lot of excitement built around the 100 Mile Challenge, that's basically a DIY DIY hybrid challenge. Where we do live videos, we send you a workbook and we go through that together. We have a training plan involved. We help you set goals and execute hopefully just your dream hike. You're going out there trying to log 100 miles on your dream hike and that can be broken up over time or that can be all in one shot. Typically we're doing it all in one shot as a company. But you're you're able to sign up for for basically, those two different tiers of either 100 miles nonstop or the Stacked version, which is multiple trips to log up to 100 miles, Been a really, really cool thing. And it's a great way to motivate yourself throughout the whole year to prepare yourself to actually go and do the thing I know for me, personally, it can be very hard to Change my behavior. Let's say, or prepare for something if I don't have a big goal at the end. So for instance, right now, I have not signed up for a new ultra marathon and so I'm just not logging as many Trail miles. As I probably wish that I was, and I probably will stay the same until I figure out or get accepted into a race and have that goal and then I can basically work backwards from there. And so it's a great way to set that goal and help you just prepare for that all year. Instead of getting to June and saying, oh man, I was gonna go backpacking in July and or you know, whatever it is maybe get to July like, oh, I was gonna go backpacking. But now my trip was closing and I don't have enough, you know, PTO or time off of work or whatever it is, we just try to help you execute on that and It's a lot of fun, it's very interactive and I think a lot of people get a lot out of that. We're also going to be working with some other content creators out there to help them develop more-or-less courses, and that'll be a lot of fun. We'll continue that. And hopefully, we'll also get out on trail with with some content creators this year. We'll be continuing to film R&D trips and, and Sharing with you, the R&D that's going into all of the products. We are also expanding and continuing to expand our R&D abilities already touched on the length of time R&D takes now. But on top of that, the amount of testers, we have the amount of time mixed with the quantity of testing that we do is continuing to expand our product design Cycles are getting longer, and that's all good news for you. That what that means is that we're taking product, you know, to the highest possible Echelon we can or just always going to be pushing that farther and farther and farther This year, we're working really hard to try to get to all of the Trail Days events, so that would include us going back to PCT Trail Days in. It may also include the CDT Trail Days and hopefully the AT Trail Days. So cross our fingers that will be able to get to those, you know, some of those we will be able to, for sure. And some of those is still waiting on a wait list, per se. So hopefully we can, we can make enough noise with them to get us from waiting on the wait list another year to being at the event. Let's talk a little bit about product design.
[Editor’s note: The content changes, 100 Mile Challenge format and timing, courses, creator trips, testing expansion, and PCT/CDT/AT Trail Days attendance above were plans recorded in January 2024, not current event or program commitments.]
[00:33:13] Tayson: So this year, we will not quite have as many new products to release. and that's just a factor of The cycle of R&D, that's not. A sector of a slowing down development or anything like that. That's just a factor of what it is. We typically are keeping I'll give you the exact number, but, but well, over 10 products are are constantly underdevelopment right now. We have well over 10 products that are under development, which means we're at different phases of development, different phases of R&D. And and that can mean everything, right? We've got some that are, we're still dialing in Fabrics. We've got some more, we're dialing in cut and fit, we've got somewhere, they're ready to go, we're just placing them with our R&D groups to spend, you know, to get them into 10 or 20 people's hands, and have them put in a month or two of hard use with them. And there's some that are that are basically just still, you know, working towards a first sample or All all levels of R&D, but we keep a lot of products under R&D. However, we don't push And we're extending lifecycles, aren't on R&D processes. So sometimes that means that we have like last year, eight products, to release and some years, that means we've, we've had more than that in the past too, but on a year, like this year, not quite as many So what are some of those on the first part of this year? We're going to have an updated Tern fabric and this is just going to dry faster. It's gonna stretch less and and just be a higher performance wool. Ultralight wool fabric Weight Wise, it's going to be the same weight. There will be some new colors, but we're really excited about this. This is something that we've been testing for a very long time, as well. In fact, when I was looking back at last year's recording of the State of the Union, Podcast. I was wearing a sample of that product then and we've placed, we've been testing it for a long time. I think you guys are going to really, really like it so that all those amazing benefits of wool but it's just going to take some of the some of the complaints people have maybe had with When you sweat a lot. Maybe it starts to stretch too much. And maybe how fast it dries, you know, compared to like the altitude. And so, we've made huge progress in that and it's a phenomenal piece. Phenomenal piece, you guys are gonna love that. Joggers, there's been talk, there's been questions around joggers. You've seen us hiking in joggers, they're a phenomenal piece to hike in and something that we've really adopted over the last couple of years and really enjoyed. And we have designed a, an amazing, an amazing set of joggers. We've put a lot of Trail miles in with those joggers as well and our very excited to release some trail joggers this year. I've got some new colors coming in some of our most popular products. Is Ventus and Altitudes in the second half of this year. We're going to have some changes to our sleeping bag, top quilt category. So there's some things to watch for there. We'll likely have some new apparel pieces and the second half of this year. You know, maybe even getting closer to the last quarter of the year would be most likely when we have some of those apparel pieces. And then, yeah, we'll continue to grow and expand things within the Live Ultralight Membership. So, retail wise, we've already been adding new food items in there. That's one of your guys's favorite things to purchase within the Live Ultralight Membership is food because you can get it at a discount, you can get rebates on things and that all adds into just, you know, the cheapest way to get backpacking food. And so we've continued to expand that category. We added in ReadyWise. We added in. Pinnacle. Man. Sorry, I'm blanking on this, but we've got it in another meal provider. We've worked on keeping things in stock a little bit better. We had some hiccups last year or some turnover of personnel here, but we're hopefully making improvements on making. Sure, we're not stocking out of things like Peak Refuel meals, or AlpineAire meals. We're gonna continue to expand in some of that and all. So not just in the food category but in a couple other category. So if you're Live Ultralight member, you'll be able to take advantage of those. If you're not, you should really look at signing up for the Live Ultralight Membership, 10 bucks a month, it just turns into store credit every month that builds into a bank. And then you can spend that whenever you want. And you're also going to get those those discounts sitewide, discounts, year-round discounts upgraded shipping, and some exclusive things behind that as well. So, check that out. This year again, I guess, I mentioned this already. It is our 10th year in business. We will cross that threshold in May, It's it's strange we'll have to figure out something to do to to celebrate that. But seems like A seems like other people make it a big deal. We'll see if we end up making it a big deal, it's it's definitely, it's definitely unique feeling, I guess as the founder of the company to To cross that threshold and to be still just as excited and passionate about the business as I was on. On day one. Right? Life Changes responsibilities change. Things like that. But I've I can honestly say that I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.
[Editor’s note: The product pipeline, testing stages, Tern fabric, trail joggers, colors, sleeping-bag and quilt changes, apparel timing, food brands, inventory, membership price, store credit, discounts, shipping, and other benefits above were historical plans or claims. Current products, availability, specifications, prices, and membership terms may differ.]
[00:39:02] Tayson: And I'm so, excited and happy with the progress we've made as a brand from Literally day one selling samples out of factories just to like, try to prove a concept. I mean, that was that that was day one. We were just trying to. I was just trying to prove a concept here. all the way to taking it to where we have, just some of the most high-performing products in our industry and our category and really in quite a few ways, pioneering new Innovations and just some some great things to come It's cool. It's very cool. It's humbling. It's exciting. And we've got a phenomenal team here at Outdoor Vitals as well. So if you don't know any of those guys yet, watch some of our other content, you'll get to know, you know, designers and marketing, guys. And operations, guys, that all take part and have a massive influence on our growth. And on who we are as a company today. But overall I'm excited for 2024. I think there's it's a year full of New Opportunities. It's a year full of those that are going to stick around in the outdoor industry to maybe maybe things will will slow down a little bit. Maybe Trails won't be quite as busy as they've been in the past. Maybe you'll still be able to you know, scoop up some gear and discounts. We definitely ran more sales last year than we've ever run. To try to keep up with everyone else that was just liquidating stuff. So, you know, if you followed us, you've you've been able to take part in getting some some great deals and that may kind of stick around 2024. So I think there's going to be Continued opportunity in 2024. You know, travel wise Trail wise, traffic wise Content wise, we'll be, we'll be working all of these different angles and I think you guys should have a lot of excitement for 2024. It's January. It's time to start setting some goals for yourself and some maybe dream trips. I know that's something I keep trying to to get some time to figure out. You know, obviously we will be heading back to the Colorado Trail as a team to do the next 100 miles section of that. Um, but, you know, there's there's other goals. I think I have another goals that I hope you guys have. So take a minute to sit down and do that, make sure to watch for us opening registration for the 100-mile challenge. I think that will be a little bit closer to March when we open the registration for that. And then like I said, we'll have a bigger trip window. Hopefully be a little bit more accommodating for more people to take part in that but still benefit from all of the good from that group. And the Big Goal, the community, the education, all of that will be will be a lot of fun and that is something that we don't run as a profitable. Part of the business. We try to cover costs and that's it, because we're so passionate about, you know, trying to get people on trail and it's proven to be a phenomenal way to get people out on Trails. We do hope you guys will join us with that DIY challenge. So but there you've got it, that's the state of Outdoor Vitals. That's the state of our little industry from, from our side of things. And what we're seeing we've we've, we've had a turbulent 2023. I think things are leveling off a little bit for 2024. We've got some new products coming, we've got new content coming, we've got all sorts of exciting things to be looking forward to and I think it's a year full of opportunity. So Thank you for tuning in. If you guys enjoyed this, let us know. You can let us know by either leaving a review or by jumping over to YouTube and leaving comments. We'd love to hear your feedback. Maybe what I didn't cover or just anything else you want to share over on YouTube. In the comments, make sure you guys are subscribed and we will be back shortly on the mic with more stories and interviews. And, and some, I mean, I guess, one of the next podcast, will probably be related to the Tern release of product deep Dives, and getting into the nitty-gritty of what makes a phenomenal high-performing product versus your, your average products out there. So make sure to stay tuned for that and we'll catch you guys in a future episode.
[Editor’s note: The tenth-anniversary ideas, Outdoor Vitals and industry forecasts, sales expectations, travel and trail outlook, 100 Mile Challenge registration timing, Colorado Trail plan, future content, and Tern release preview in this closing block were recorded in January 2024 and are not current commitments.]
