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sportstylemag.com March 2021 ~ sportstyle 17 importance of maintaining inventory health is critical, for at least the next few seasons, they're weighing it against the risk of empty shelves. "You gotta replace the stuff that you sold so you get a chance to sell it again," Gibbons said. Part and parcel with the changes in ordering, retailers told Outdoor Insight that they're rethink- ing their relationships with vendors after a year of challenges — and that brands with more secure supply chains and greater visibility are the ones with which they want to work. "Brands that are transparent are going to be favored," Gibbons said. "If I know what you're doing and you know what I'm doing, then we can work together." "We'll be shifting some of our orders to people who are better at supply chain issues than others," Darren Bush, owner of Madison, WI-based Rutabaga Paddlesports, agreed. 2. The New Real Estate Reality There's no doubt that the pandemic and associ- ated shutdowns roiled the commercial real estate market, which was hit hard by increased vacancies and a destabilized market. That upheaval, however, has meant opportunities. Minneapolis, MN-based independent Mill City Running opened its second location, Saint City Running, in neighboring Saint Paul at the end of 2020, thanks to what co-owner Jeff Metzdorff said was a marked change in the landscape. "We'd always been priced out of Saint Paul, and anytime anything came available, it would quickly go off the market," he said. But after coming out of Minnesota's two-month shutdown last spring, Metzdorff said he and his wife, co-owner Bekah Metzdorff, found a "fantastic real estate opportunity" for a 1650-sq.ft. storefront in Saint Paul in an area with lots of development, new restaurants and shopping and close to running and walking spaces. "People are looking for solid tenants," he said, noting that shops that have weathered the pandemic (especially in resilient channels like running and outdoor) are especially desirable. "You're able, if you're a strong retailer, to dictate terms," he said. "We're looking at this as a chance to double down and get into an area that's historically been extremely tight. We want to take advantage of something that others might see as a tough, negative situation and use it to our advantage." 3. Maintaining Sales Flexibility The many paths to make a sale were never wider for many shops than during the pandemic, when shutdowns and restrictions meant getting creative. Curbside pickup, online/web stores, social media sales, local delivery and virtual consultations all opened up new sales methods, and most stores said they continued to see consumer appetite for them in 2021. "It's been dramatic — if we offered people a way to shop with us, they would," Rutabaga's Kate Westphal said of the shop's customers. Bush said appointment-based shopping, in particular, has been a upside to the store that will carry forward. "Appointments help the staff be prepared for what the day will bring, and the customers appreciate it. Some of the sales are really involved here; it lets us assign people so you get the right person for you, right now," he said. 4. Opportunity Ahead As stores move through 2021 and beyond, retailers said they see opportunity, even as other categories, like travel and restaurant meals, retake some of the share they may have ceded to other categories. Outdoor Gear Exchange's Donohue said he thinks the deeper connections consumers forged with the outdoors will be a boost for shops in 2021. "We need to learn how to be adaptable and continue to learn. Once this things come back, there's gonna be less money for outdoor recre- ation," he said. But there's opportunity, he said: "People were able to reconnect with nature and the outdoors and discover new things, and some of those were changes in lifestyle to hopefully last a lifetime," he said. What outdoor stores can be proud of and benefit from, he said, was "our ability to give some normalcy and stress relief, and to be a place where people are working on personal goals and achievement." Rutabaga's Bush said he's planning positively for 2021. "We learned more this year than we did in the last five," he said. "We're going to move forward as if everything is going to go great, because we're retailers — that's what retailers do." l Opposite page: Shipping at Rutabaga Paddlesports. Above, clockwise from top left: Retail life at Rutabaga Paddlesports, Saint City Running, Outdoor Gear Exchange and Rutabaga Paddlesports.

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