REI's Jewell Talks Green to Forbes

REI's Sally Jewell talked to Forbes magazine about - what else – the retailer's eco-policy. She also talked about her early years working for Big Oil and why REI is staying out of the debate in Congress over climate change.

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Ex-Columbia Execs Launch Inpirational Collection

Beth Brownlee, former director of apparel sales for Columbia Sportswear, and Ruth Nichols, also a former Columbia executive, have introduced "Trust Your Journey," an inspirational and eco-friendly apparel line. The brand's name was inspired by Brownlee's battle with breast cancer when a friend told her during chemotherapy treatments to "trust your journey." Said Brownlee, "When I heard those words, it just hit me, 'You can beat this awful cancer, Beth, you just need to believe in this and have the courage to staypositive,' I said to myself. I knew at that point I would heal and one day give this inspiration back."

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Cycling Takes Another Hit

Following adidas's lead last month, T-Mobile pulled out of its sponsorship of the Germany cycling team after cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz's admission that he used performance enhancing drugs. Said CEO Hamid Akhavan, "We have decided to take this step to distance ourselves and the brand T-Mobile from the latest doping confessions in sport and more particularly cycling."

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Just in time for winter snow sports season, a Bend, OR bartender has created a brand new shooter cocktail, "The ULLR SnowPak," in honor of ULLR, the mythical god of snow.

Welcome to the Conversation

Cara has had her blog for SGB up and running for a few weeks now - and she has talent! (she created the virtual video tour of Under Armour's new retail store herself...)

Outdoor Business Top 25

Last year the top 25 issue was based solely on revenues - Specialty, chain, bloodsports outdoor, granola outdoor - it didn't matter who you were, if you called yourself an outdoor store and you had the numbers, you made the list. Here's what was published:

1 Bass Pro
2 Cabela's
3 LL Bean
4 REI
5 Gander Mtn.
6 Sportsman's Warehouse
7 The Sportsman's Guide
8 Orvis
9 Timberland
10 EMS
11 Specialty Sports Ventures
12 Sierra Trading Post
13 Campmor
14 Sun & Ski
15 Backcountry.com
16 Christy Sports
17 Kittery Trading Post
18 Turner's Outdoorsman
19 The Ski Market
20 Bob Ward
21 Peter Glen Ski
22 Hudson Trail
23 Whole Earth Provisions
24 A16
25 Ramsey Outdoor Stores

This year we put a ton of work into re-building our top 25 retailers issue from scratch. We eliminated all of the bloodsports folks. We looked only at independent specialty retailers with strong ties to their local communities. We looked at retailers who were trying to be more sustainable in their business practices. We looked at the heart of the outdoor industry and sales volume really didn't play too much of a role in that. So, after dozens of interviews and conversations with retailers, sales reps, consultants, and pundits, this year the list will look totally different.

While sales didn't play much of a role in our criteria for the best outdoor retailers of 2007, we realize that there is more to the outdoor industry today, so we also did separate lists for the top 10 internet/direct retailers and for the top 10 outdoor retailers by sales volume.