As a general rule, sports in this industry see their future as intimately related to the use of public wilderness land, public forests, and public natural parks. Table 1 and Figure 1 are adapted from a 1993 report by ORCA on the state of the industry. Table 1 shows the variety of recreational uses of public lands. Figure 1 shows the demographics of participants in outdoor sports activities. Table 1 is particularly interesting in that it illustrates the heavy recreational use of public lands that underlies the industry’s perception that maintenance and accessibility of these areas is a key public policy issue.

There are exceptions to this definition, however. For example, rock climbing clearly is, in the industry’s vernacular, an outdoor sport, even though much of the recent growth in climbing has been fueled by indoor climbing gyms. In-line skating (a sport that requires a great deal of concrete or asphalt) is often included among outdoor sports while biking, except off-road mountain biking, is excluded. Also, the exclusion of hunting equipment companies is an economic mystery if not a political one.

The 1993 ORCA report, drawing on U.S. Department of Interior data, estimated annual consumer expenditures for outdoor recreation at $15.1 billion. Of this, equipment was estimated at $6.85 billion; trip-related food, lodging, and transportation totaled $7.16 billion; and miscellaneous (including specialty magazines, membership dues, and land-use fees) accounted for $1.1 billion (Outdoor Recreation Coalition of America, 1993). These estimates diverge considerably from estimates by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) of industry sales, by broad product category, for 1993 (see Table 2). In Table 2, the value of U.S. manufacturers’ shipments is considerably lower than the ORCA estimate of nearly $7 billion for equipment: SGMA estimates total revenues for camping, in-line skates, scuba and skin diving, skiing, fishing, skiing and outerwear, and hiking/outdoor footwear to be $4.5 billion. Using these estimates, then, the U.S. outdoor sporting goods industry may be valued at between $4 billion and $7 billion (Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, 1993).

A second definition of outdoor sporting goods that is perhaps more useful and consistent comes not from the products, but from segmentation in the consumer market and the segmentation in retail stores and trade shows that, presumably, mirrors consumer segmentation. The outdoor sporting goods industry’s largest U.S. trade show is the Outdoor Retailer Expo, which is sponsored by Outdoor Retailer magazine and attracts manufacturers who make products that are sold in outdoor specialty stores. Outdoor Retailer is a trade magazine aimed at the approximately 9,000 U.S. retail stores that define themselves as outdoor specialty retailers. The show they put on twice a year seems increasingly to define, through its exhibitors (mostly manufacturers producing products for the sports listed above) and attendees (mostly retailers), the rapid expansion of the outdoor sporting goods industry. From its inception in 1989, the show targeting summer sports has grown from 585 booths and 282 exhibitors to 1,727 booths and 683 exhibitors in August 1994; the show for winter sports has grown from 271 booths and 128 exhibitors in 1990 to 1,727 booths and 650 exhibitors in 1995. Retail buyer attendance