The Rock Fight: Outdoor Industry & Adventure Sports Commentary

Today on the show Colin is joined by the regular Rock Fight Monday crew of Producer Dave and Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford (aka The Consigliere). And this week that crew hits the following topics! Which brand would you resurrect? On the heels of last weeks Top 5 Outdoor Apparel Brands episode, the good folks at the Utah State Outdoor Archive reached out and asked us to memorialize the ou...

Today on the show Colin is joined by the CEO of Reju , Patrik Frisk. Started in 2023, Reju is a "textile regeneration company" that is trying to create a circular system for polyester by taking existing polyester garments and turning them back into reusable polyester components that apparel brands can then make into new garments. On today's episode Patrik talks about the mission of the brand, the...

Today Colin is joined by outdoor journalist and host of Open Container Doug Schnitzspahn to talk about a couple of stories to come out of the outdoor community before taking a look at the current health of outdoor media. Here's today's docket! Everest season comes to a close with multiple FKT attempts. (05:39) Pickleball Corner returns because campgrounds are now building pickleball courts. Colin...

We've made you wait long enough! We've finally made it to the conclusion to 2025's 'Top 5 Brand' episodes and we saved the biggest category for last. After ranking the top 5 footwear , gear , and accessories , today we're listing the Top 5 Outdoor Apparel brands! While completely subjective, the mission is simple: determine the top 5 outdoor apparel brands of the moment. Colin is joined by Shawnté...

After months of rumors and speculation, on May 16th MEC finally announced that they have indeed been acquired. One of the group that has purchased MEC from Kingswood Capital Management is also their Chief Merchandising Officer, Chris Speyer. Today on the show Chris sits down with Colin and Eoin Comerford to talk about MEC's new ownership group, where the brand is and where it's going. (04:00) Then...

Today on The Rock Fight Colin and Shawnté dig into some stories to come out of the outdoor adventure community. On the docket: 100,000 new mountains were discovered below the ocean's surface. No one tell Killian Jornet. We don't want him to drown trying to run all of them in a single day. (07:14) One person died and 3 others went to the hospital due to excessive heat during a recent trail half mar...

Today on The Rock Fight we dig into last week's news that Dick's Sporting Goods has acquired Foot Locker. Colin is joined by Producer Dave and Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford to discuss and answer the following questions: How does this acquisition play into Dick's long term strategy? (06:45) How has the market reacted to the acquisition? (19:25) What will be the fallout to footwear brands?...

Why make a list of the best outdoor towns when you can draft them instead?! Today on the show Colin is joined by outdoor author and journalist, Shawnté Salabert, and the host of Open Container, Doug Schnitzspahn to draft the best outdoor towns in the US! Round by round they'll draft outdoorsy locales from all across the United States. In the end they'll each have a list for you the listener to vot...

Today on The Rock Fight Colin & outdoor author and journalist Shawnté Salabert the following topics: MLFNOW on MyOutdoorTV! Yes, we also thought it said what you thought it said, but don't worry the link is completely SFW. (06:07) Resale platform ThredUp raised its sales and earnings targets for the year after a strong first quarter. Secondhand FTW! (10:30) 300 billboards in 40 different citie...

Today on the show we have updates on two topics that have dominated the outdoor industry discourse over the past few months. First Tania Lown-Hecht from the Outdoor Alliance sits down with Colin to talk about the congressional midnight vote that happened last week that is threatening thousands of acres of public land in Nevada & Utah. (01:19) (We need the Rock Fight Army to show up and make th...

Welcome to Monday's on The Rock Fight your home for the best outdoor industry discourse! There are two big topics on the docket today. First! After checking in on the recently released Outdoor Retailer floor plan (04:59), Colin, Producer Dave, and Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford go through the key takeaways from the annual REI members meeting that went down last week. Here are the topics t...

Today Colin is joined Adam Cramer the CEO of the Outdoor Alliance to talk about what is happening with our public lands. And there is a lot happening. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen or heard the following: A leaked document from the Department of the Interior. Last week the administration released their budget guidelines for 2026 which included upheavals for the Park Service including things...

Today Colin and outdoor journalist and author Shawnté Salabert run through the following recent stories that have come out of the outdoor adventure community: Aspiring Mt. Everest climbers will now have to climb another 7,000m peak in Nepal before attempting the world's highest mountain. Progress? (05:20) A team has successfully completed an expedition to drive to both the North and South Pole. Th...

Today on the show Colin is joined by outdoor industry insider Eoin Comerford to check in on Eoin's 2025 predictions for the outdoor industry given how things have gone off of the trails over the past month (05:56). Then Eoin walks us through the model he put together to demonstrate the impacts the current tariffs that are in place are having on a small outdoor brand(16:15). That leads to Colin &am...

Colin is rolling solo today and he starts the show reflecting on an early episode of The Rock Fight where he defended his anti-Dawn Patrol stance before reflecting on a recent Dawn Patrol experience that didn't really change his mind but was still worth it. Then for The Parting Shot he pays tribute to one of the original Rock Fighters our own, Justin Housman. Check out hundreds of wildly cool prod...

Today on the show Colin is joined by outdoor journalist and author Shawnté Salabert to talk about some recent headlines to come out of the outdoor community! On today's docket: Paddler Kyle Parker is looking to paddle across the United States from "Tip 2 Tip"! (06:55) Injinji released a line of tech tees. Is this a sign they're going to take on apparel? (23:33) Strava announced a new subscriber fe...

Colin is joined by Producer Dave and Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford for an update on who might be buying Canada's MEC. (04:47) Then they're joined by independent retailer Wes Allen to get his reaction and thoughts to last weeks rumors that REI is putting the squeeze on their brand partners to get new product exclusivity. (21:33) Lastly for The Parting Shot, Eoin focuses on a leaked presen...

"Are you not entertained?!" Today on the show Colin is joined by outdoor pop culture aficionado, Shawnté Salabert, to talk through some of the more quintessential outdoor movies of the last 25 years: A Walk In The Woods, Wild, Touching The Void, and 127 Hours. The two talk about what works about these movies from and outdoorsy perspective and some outdoor movies simply fall flat. Then in a new seg...

Today Colin and Justin Housman hit the following outdoorsy topics and headlines! Colin caught a great inside wave and Justin has rave reviews for Priority Bike's belt drive and gear box! (05:48) Two divers off the coast of Australia were left in the water by the boat that brought them there. This is objectively funny and terrifying. (16:25) A new wave pool is being planned to be built near St. Geo...

Today on the show Colin and Producer Dave address rumors that have been sent in by listeners of The Rock Fight that REI is looking for more new product exclusivity from at least some of their vendors. (04:40) They also talk about the recent report that Passenger is pausing their launch into the US market due to the issues being caused by the Trump administrations tariff policy. (16:42) This leads...

Today Colin reflects on this past week when he and Producer Dave attended Functional Fabric Fair in Portland (Oregon) and takes a deeper look at what National Trade Shows should do in a world where the smaller shows are so effective. Then Colin is joined by Producer Dave and outdoor journalist and host of Open Container Doug Schnitzspahn to reflect back on the role Bob Woodward played setting the...

Today on the show Colin is joined by Producer Dave and Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford for a Wednesday edition of our normal Monday show! On the docket today: The crew reacts to last week's rollback to all but 10% (unless you're China) of Trump's tariffs (05:00) Will the tariff situation help boost secondhand business (17:24)? The other big story of last week was the acquisition of Jack Wo...

Today Colin and Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford are joined by Jonathan Cedar, BioLite's founder and CEO to discuss the breaking news that BioLite is acquiring Goal Zero. Jonathan talks about the background of BioLite and why this deal makes sense particularly due to the alignment in mission and product offerings between the two companies. Lastly during their conversation news breaks about...

Today on the show Colin and Justin Housman open things up by talking about the news that scientists have brought back the extinct dire wolf and read a pretty epic listener defense of Colorado. Then they're joined by the owner of Garage Grown Gear, Lloyd Vogel, who lists off five US made outdoor brands that many of our listeners have likely not heard of. Check them out! Igneous Gear Chicken Tramper...

Today on the show we start by helping to break the news about Brands For Public Lands , a coalition of outdoor industry businesses who are speaking up on behalf of our sacred public spaces. Colin is joined by the Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance, Paul Hendricks, who gives the background on this new coalition, how it came together, and what will happen next. Then Mountain Gazette's K...