Who is an outdoorsman? Sportsman? And what about the women? The people that climb, kayak, fish, hunt, camp out in RVs, and do everything else outside are as different as the places that they go to enjoy them. How are we alike? How can we help protect the places that we all love to escape to?
People who enjoy the outdoors have a lot of different views on trail usage, firearm restrictions, and development questions (i.e. ski resorts vs. backcountry). Marketing can do a lot to unite us, and Yeti coolers may be leading the trend.
I came of age just outside of San Antonio, Texas. From my neighborhood, I could get on my bike and explore the brushy hills of South Texas and look for rattlesnakes, cactuses, and the skinny whitetail deer with big antlers that characterize the region.
As a 9 and 10 year old, I wanted to be a hunter. I studied the Cabela's catalogue and planned my packing list for an elk hunt in Wyoming, a grizzly hunt in Alaska, or whatever else I could fantasize. My dad isn't much of a hunter, but he took me with his friends to scan the scraggly landscape at golden hour for our quarry.
As I got older and moved back to Tennessee, I gradually left hunting behind. I never quit it all together, but the solace of a tree stand didn't appeal to me as much as a lonely bald in the Great Smoky Mountains or a rushing stream that carried my kayak. Plus, I erroneously started to generalize hunters as folks that focused on the killing of the animal rather than the experience. As public land becomes more and more scarce, its hard to find ways in which all people that enjoy the outdoors can push for the same objectives of conservation and preservation.
Yeti coolers stands at an interesting crossroads. Based out of Austin, Texas, the company primarily serves hunters and fishermen, but their recent content appeals to all sorts of outdoor enthusiasts. With a new promotional video featuring the surfing and adventuring Malloy brothers, the video depicts the trio exploring the coastline of British Columbia, spear fishing in Baja, and filling in a map with all the places that they have wandered.
At the end of the video, the brothers are seen bass fishing, working their family's ranch, and even bow hunting. While it all seems like a part of the brothers' personality, we don't see this side of them when they do videos and photo shoots for Patagonia, a company that does not draw a connection between adventure sports and other outdoor pursuits.
To me, this video is not only striking because surfing, fishing, hunting, and ranching are all lumped together, but its the fact that the brothers moved along a progression of ways to engage themselves in the outdoors.
When they were younger, they wanted to explore the world's undiscovered coastline for up to 10 months out of the year. As family men, they wanted to reconnect with their roots of working the land, hunting wild game, and just enjoying a pond with their kids.
Now, I'm not going to have a life like the Malloy brothers, but I can still relate to the message. I first experienced the outdoors with hunting and fishing because that's the only way my dad knew how to get me outside. Then, I found backpacking, and then fly-fishing, and then mountain biking; I found ways push my limits and take me to places I would have never known about.
I'd like to think that I am still in this stage, but I rest in the fact that I will be able to give my kids the same kind of respect for wild places with a quiet morning hunting turkeys or finding golf course ponds to fish out of.
The outdoor industry is booming, but its not a good sign. Market research appears to show "active lifestyles" on the rise, but this does not necessarily mean that people are going to wild places and enjoying them.
Who knows how this will affect the protection of public land, but there are still those of us who need these escapes. Perhaps we could reach across the lines that divide the country hunter and fisherman from the young city climber and kayaker to enjoy the wilderness and accept our differences as a strength for protecting the landscape.
Can marketing help? Thats a big dispute. Frankly, it has just as much potential to do damage. However, nothing is going to be accomplished if we can't protect the land that we explore for different reasons.
Click here to see the new Yeti video, and then comment below with what you think.
