Outdoor Industry Day celebrates NH businesses

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Imagine New Hampshire’s outdoor destinations and you’ll likely envision mountains, lakes and miles and miles of forested terrain.

While Mayor Jay Ruais made a strong case for Manchester’s abundance of parks, waterways and open space trails, the Queen City seemed an unlikely setting for the launch of Outdoor Industry Day, a gathering of the state’s apparel and equipment makers, rental outfitters, destination attractions and a related assortment of nonprofits, business groups and state agencies.

Holding the June 10 event in the state’s largest city rather than somewhere up north was designed to gain attention for Granite Outdoor Alliance. The 130-member trade group was founded in 2020 by Tyler Ray, a former corporate attorney who pined for a lifestyle where the sweet outdoors was always nearby.

It was nowhere close when Ray worked in D.C., Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. Ray found himself working on weekends, and missing great powder days during the week, conditions teasing him from his computer screen.

“I didn’t want to just watch that life anymore. I wanted to live it,” the Maine native told the group gathered at Veterans Park. “I found a small firm in North Conway. The attorney bios showed people biking, skiing, fly fishing. I’d never seen anything like it. In fact, it was the first time I saw a professional setting that matched the life that I wanted to live.”

Ray channeled that vibe five years ago when he founded Granite Outdoor Alliance, whose mission is “to make the outdoors a strategic driver of economic growth, workforce development and community wellbeing.”

New Hampshire’s outdoor recreation sector contributes nearly $4 billion annually to the state’s economy, supports 32,000 jobs and sustains over 1,000 small businesses, he noted.

“Make no mistake, this isn’t a hobby economy. It’s a cornerstone of local vitality and statewide opportunity,” he said.

Manchester native Cam Brensinger, founder of NEMO Equipment, a Dover-based maker of camping gear, was among the speakers gathered on stage with state and local government officials.

“I was asked to just take a minute and talk about why we chose New Hampshire. I’m going to admit from the outset that I was born here and grew up in Manchester, so it wasn’t even really a choice,” Brensinger said. “It was a bit of manifest destiny. But truly New Hampshire and NEMO are inextricable from each other in a number of ways. This state is our test lab. It’s our inspiration. It’s our cultural identity.”

For NEMO, a stable regulatory environment and the lack of an income tax or sales tax are key reasons for operating the company in New Hampshire, he said.

“It’s also strategically located, especially for someone who’s kind of always seeking a new adventure,” Brensinger said. The fact that within a couple hours you can be in the ocean, you can be in the White Mountains, you can be in a big city, you can be in Vermont is really a special thing about this part of the country.”

Ray told an anecdote about visiting Brensinger at NEMO and recalled him apologizing for the many bikes gathered near the entrance of the company’s Dover headquarters.

Then Brensinger quipped there would have been even more bikes if there were more local trails.

That’s the kind of perk New Hampshire needs to attract more like-minded workers.

The state department of Business and Economic Affairs (nheconomy.com), in partnership with the Granite Outdoor Alliance, prepared a guide to help employers in the outdoor lifestyle sector attract employees. The Workforce Toolbox features sections on benefits and programs, career and skills development programs, company culture and other subjects.

“Over these past five years, New Hampshire’s workforce has gone through a transformation. We saw this happening in COVID, and we saw shifts being accelerated,” said Janelle Lawton, director of the state’s Office of Outdoor Recreation Industry Development. “Today’s workforce no longer looks for just the paycheck. They’re seeking purpose. They’re seeking balance. And they want a lifestyle that really aligns with their values.”

The proclamation of Outdoor Industry Day by Gov. Kelly Ayotte included a ribbon-cutting for Rock City — the expo of alliance members who set up tented booths at the event.

Among them were Burgeon Outdoor, a maker of outdoor apparel that manufactures jackets, sweaters, base layers and other gear at its Lincoln headquarters and at a production site in Gorham. The company, which celebrated its sixth anniversary on Outdoor Industry Day, employs about a dozen people.

Founder Rudy Gocker noted the eclectic makeup of participants, which included companies like his but also groups like New England Disabled Sports and the Appalachian Mountain Club.

“There are people here who do many different things, and they do them all really well,” Glocker said. “The other thing that’s funny about it is a lot of them are small. Some of them are much larger businesses now but started as small businesses. There are great stories of entrepreneurship and figuring things out.”