The Rock Fight: Outdoor Industry & Adventure Sports Commentary

Today Colin is joined by Marmot's Vice President & GM of Technical Apparel, Jon Graden.

Marmot has been the poster child of what we've been calling the 'zombie brand' here on The Rock Fight. Not quite what it once was but not entirely irrelevant either, a zombie brand is a former 'it' brand that has fallen out of favor with retailers and doesn't have the juice it once did.

Marmot is one of the OG outdoor brands that the outdoor industry was built upon but after a series of acquisitions and big swings that didn't pay off, they've lost some of their clout. Jon, who comes from the fashion side of the apparel industry, has been working for the past 18 months to change that. And as the Marmot team heads out to sell for Spring 2026, Jon has something to say about where Marmot is today and where he thinks the brand is heading.

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's semi-weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].

Today on the show Shawnté Salabert joins Colin to run through the following topics to come out of the outdoor adventure community:

• People are using Fake My Run and hiring 'mules' to falsify their Strava feeds. And we want to hear from those who are doing it! If you have faked your run, hired a running mule or have been hired as a running mule email us at [email protected]. (06:39)
• The mother of a six month old won a 100k ultramarathon after starting 30 minutes late and stopped along the way to breastfeed her baby. Legend. (12:27)
• Two New York hikers called 911 from an Adirondack mountain to report that a third member of their party had died on trail. Only they weren't quite dead. Turns out the two that made the call? Were just high on mushrooms. (16:49)
• According to a new survey eBike injuries are on the rise! (25:38)

Lastly The Parting Shot covers the following: toilets, smartphones, hemorrhoids. 'nuff said. (33:19)

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's semi-weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].

Today on the show Colin is joined by the regular Rock Fight Monday crew of Producer Dave and Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford (aka The Consigliere). And this week that crew hits the following topics!

• Which brand would you resurrect? On the heels of last weeks Top 5 Outdoor Apparel Brands episode, the good folks at the Utah State Outdoor Archive reached out and asked us to memorialize the outdoor brands we've lost over the years. So we take a look at several of those names and talk about which brands we are missing the most. (04:38)
• Industry News Lightning Round! Next we take a look at some recent updates to three stories we've covered on The Rock Fight. The latest court rulings on the Trump tariffs, Dick's first earnings report post Foot Locker acquisition, and a change in CEO at Vail Resorts. (20:20)
• The Parting Shot! For this week's parting shot Eoin implores our industry to support emerging brands so we can help minimize the damage inflicted upon them by the decisions being made by our current presidential administration. (38:27)

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's semi-weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].

Today on the show Colin is joined by the CEO of Reju, Patrik Frisk.

Started in 2023, Reju is a "textile regeneration company" that is trying to create a circular system for polyester by taking existing polyester garments and turning them back into reusable polyester components that apparel brands can then make into new garments.

On today's episode Patrik talks about the mission of the brand, the challenges they face, and the need for these kinds of innovative solutions to solve our textile waste problem.

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's semi-weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].

Today Colin is joined by outdoor journalist and host of Open Container Doug Schnitzspahn to talk about a couple of stories to come out of the outdoor community before taking a look at the current health of outdoor media. Here's today's docket!

• Everest season comes to a close with multiple FKT attempts. (05:39)
• Pickleball Corner returns because campgrounds are now building pickleball courts. Colin will offer his opinion after the blood stops gushing from his eyes. (12:15)
• Is our outdoor media scene healthy? Colin and Doug take stock of the health of outdoor print, digital, and podcasts. (19:06)

Lastly for The Parting Shot, Colin reminds everyone heading to a trade show that you don't need to dress like you're about to go on an adventure. (44:17)

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's semi-weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].

We've made you wait long enough! We've finally made it to the conclusion to 2025's 'Top 5 Brand' episodes and we saved the biggest category for last. After ranking the top 5 footwear, gear, and accessories, today we're listing the Top 5 Outdoor Apparel brands!

While completely subjective, the mission is simple: determine the top 5 outdoor apparel brands of the moment. Colin is joined by Shawnté Salabert, Producer Dave, and Eoin Comerford to pick a brand from the following categories:

• Emerging/Small Brands
• Snow/Surf
• Lifestyle/Athleisure
• Euro/International
• North America Core Outdoor

Will you agree with the final list? Maybe? Maybe Not. But this is a list for all time! Or at least until The Rock Fight runs back this gimmick in 2026.

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's semi-weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].

After months of rumors and speculation, on May 16th MEC finally announced that they have indeed been acquired. One of the group that has purchased MEC from Kingswood Capital Management is also their Chief Merchandising Officer, Chris Speyer.

Today on the show Chris sits down with Colin and Eoin Comerford to talk about MEC's new ownership group, where the brand is and where it's going. (04:00)

Then Colin is joined by Tania Lown-Hecht from the Outdoor Alliance who has an update on the plan to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Utah and Nevada. Spoiler alert: It's actually good news! (38:00)

Click here to keep the pressure on congress!

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].

Today on The Rock Fight Colin and Shawnté dig into some stories to come out of the outdoor adventure community. On the docket:

100,000 new mountains were discovered below the ocean's surface. No one tell Killian Jornet. We don't want him to drown trying to run all of them in a single day. (07:14)

One person died and 3 others went to the hospital due to excessive heat during a recent trail half marathon and we're really hoping no one gets blamed for this. (11:20)

Outdoor Pop Culture Watch! Colin & Shawnté react to the following recently released trailers (17:00):

• The North Face Presents: Trango
• The North
• You VS Wild Season 8

Lastly for The Parting Shot, Colin reacts to news that skiing visitation numbers were up this year and hope isn't how people are discovering the outdoors.

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].

Today on The Rock Fight we dig into last week's news that Dick's Sporting Goods has acquired Foot Locker. Colin is joined by Producer Dave and Outdoor Industry Insider Eoin Comerford to discuss and answer the following questions:

• How does this acquisition play into Dick's long term strategy? (06:45)
• How has the market reacted to the acquisition? (19:25)
• What will be the fallout to footwear brands? (23:28)
• How will this acquisiton impact the broader outdoor industry? (28:07)

Lastly Colin wraps up the show with The Parting Shot with a tip for any of our older listeners!

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].

Why make a list of the best outdoor towns when you can draft them instead?!

Today on the show Colin is joined by outdoor author and journalist, Shawnté Salabert, and the host of Open Container, Doug Schnitzspahn to draft the best outdoor towns in the US!

Round by round they'll draft outdoorsy locales from all across the United States. In the end they'll each have a list for you the listener to vote on and determine who has the best team of outdoor towns for 2025! (Voting will begin on Monday May 19th on www.rockfight.co!)

Listen to see if your favorite outdoor town made the cut!

Check out hundreds of wildly cool products by visiting and shopping at Garage Grown Gear!

Thanks for listening! The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight, LLC.

Sign up for NEWS FROM THE FRONT, Rock Fight's weekly newsletter by heading to www.rockfight.co and clicking Join The Mailing List.

Please follow and subscribe to The Rock Fight and give us a 5 star rating and a written review wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to pick a fight with The Rock Fight? Send your feedback, questions, and comments to [email protected].