Outdoor and 'The New Localism' from Surfing Magazine
As much criticism that gets aired out about industry leadership, associations, working groups and media pundits, you'd think we're a bunch of self-serving market share warriors, blind to the big picture of how our collective strength can be leveraged for the greater good. An article I read in Surfing Magazine, though, puts some perspective on outdoor's plight .... apparently we are actually quite functional and pulling effectively together in the right direction, relative to our wave-riding brethren.
Take the surf industry... calling itself 7B (author Matt Walker quotes that number), it would seem that they would be able to swing a pretty heavy bat in the political realm, at least where there are many quality breaks (Cali, NC, Jersey Shore, FL, etc...). The potential for partnership is widespread, after all who doesn't want to keep access to historically significant surf? So many examples exist about once great surf breaks turned flat (Mundaka, Killer Dana, ??) from short-sighted dredging and construction projects near the sensitive shoreline ecosystems.
But the surf crowd has been ineffective at organizing, linking arms and charging forward with a unified voice; it seems the history of 'anti-establishment' and 'bad boy' attitudes (as well as extreme local provincialism) doesn't feed into political power very well. In order to leverage political muscle, organizational strength is A-1 on the priority list. Converting that into data points that matter (read: $$) is next. And then coalition partnership to assemble the armada is the third leg of the triangle. Surfers could learn a lot from the Outdoor Industry about this.
Sometimes a quick glance side-to-side can reveal and inform an industry's struggle. Given our simple goal of selling more outdoor stuff to more people, how much do you think it matters how we leverage political gain locally, and nationally? Globally?
