Yes, gear heads it’s that time of year again. Time to see what’s hot and what’s not in the outdoor gear world. I’m talking of course about North America’s geargasmic gathering of industry makers and shakers, the Summer Outdoor Retailers Show.

Held every year in the Salt Palace in beautiful downtown Salt Lake City, the Show attracts 3000 venders hawking every conceivable and imaginable piece of gear you could ever want. Which means that if just being out in the great outdoors is not enough to make you content — but if being outside with some bling new gear might make you happy — then this is the place to be.

However, all that outdoor paraphernalia got me thinking. I’ve always wondered why the indoor climbing industry somehow got lumped in with the outdoor retailers. It turns out some other people thought it was weird too, and it seems this year most of the indoor climbing industry decided to stay home (or where perhaps shamed or shunned away).

What I mean is, I went to Salt Lake as a representative of the thousands of climbing gyms that could not spare the outrageous costs associated with traveling to and getting into the OR Show. I hoped to find great gear that gyms would be able to buy and use to make their facilities that much better.

But what I found instead was a smattering of only the biggest players in the indoor game; only those that can afford the $$$$ price tag to even get a booth, get to the Show and make it worth it.

Perhaps I was naive to go; it is the INDOOR industry after all. What was I thinking? Well it wasn’t a complete loss. Here is what I found as I entered the cavern of Salt Palace.

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