Colorado Companies Vie For Outdoor World's Attention
By Joel Hillan
DENVER (CBS4) - The first winter Outdoor Retailer show hosted in Denver opened Thursday at the Colorado Convention Center and runs through this weekend.
Among the businesses vying for the outdoor world's attention are several Colorado-based retailers.
"I'd just love to see our label on everybody's backs," said Sean Han.
Han works for Denver-based Topo Designs. Their bags are for the true adventurer.
"People that really like to carry things on their backs and get around town and really explore when they are out there," he said.
Han said having the Outdoor Retailer show in Denver is great.
"Gives us an opportunity to get in front of European buyers, Asian buyers, Canadian buyers and then all of your major retailers across the country as well," he said.
Audrey Smith, with Boulder-based Lems Shoes, www.lemsshoes.com said, "Getting that face-to-face interaction and being able to talk to someone is really rewarding for us."
Smith came to Colorado from Ohio three years ago to help start the company.
The company's founder was a decathlete at Purdue University. That meant ten different pairs of shoes.
"One day just started ripping apart shoes and trying to understand why this was here that was there, taught himself how to design shows and started sketching and that's how it came about."
The lightweight boots is where the company started, but they expanded to shoes as well.
When asked if her vision was a Lems on every limb, "Yeah," she replied, "that would be ideal, I don't know how realistic it is, but that would be great."
Joel Hillan anchors CBS4 This Morning on weekends as well as reports stories for CBS4 News at 5 and 6 p.m. Follow Joel on Twitter @joelhillan.
