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The good blue sky turned a glowing white as snow packed round Penn Newhard’s head. Entombed in ice, he might wiggle his toes in his boots and fingers in his gloves, however in any other case was locked in a seated place as snow continued to crush down on high of him. Waves of claustrophobia spiked his coronary heart fee. He knew he needed to relax and management his respiration.
Anyone accustomed to avalanche search-and-rescue will probably be accustomed to the situation. It’s excessive on the listing of horrors for backcountry skiers and mountaineers who recurrently deal with the hazard of slides. But Newhard hadn’t been caught accidentally on that spring day; he’d been buried by alternative.
This was 1999, and Newhard’s upstart public relations firm, Backbone Media, had landed its first large consumer: Black Diamond. Newhard and his companion, Nate Simmons, had been tasked with selling Black Diamond’s latest piece of avalanche survival gear, the Avalung—a snorkel-like system that attracts oxygen from snow and permits an individual to breathe absolutely buried for an hour.
“If we have been going to be promoting this piece of gear, we needed to point out that it labored,” Newhard stated. “Several of the Black Diamond group had misplaced mates in avalanches, so this was a deeply private undertaking for all of us. We felt like we have been unlocking new territory that might save lives.”
So, on a transparent day at Utah’s Snowbird Ski Resort, Newhard, Simmons, and their group dug a deep pit in the snow at the base of the mountain, and Newhard lowered himself in. Snow wasn’t simply shoveled over him—it was packed tight round his head and physique as he breathed by way of the Avalung. Doctors on web site monitored his CO2 ranges and important indicators as he obtained his respiration underneath management. Through goggles, he might see nothing however white, slashed by the occasional shadow of somebody strolling on the floor above.
From then on, Newhard determined, he and Simmons would solely rep merchandise they each trusted, typically fairly actually, with their lives.
Twenty-five years after its founding in Carbondale, Colorado, Backbone Media is, by far, the largest and most influential advertising and marketing firm in the outside house. The company doesn’t even name itself a PR agency anymore, as a result of its work has expanded to incorporate media planning and shopping for, affiliate marketing online, website positioning technique, social-media administration, and plenty of different companies. The firm now serves greater than 100 outside gear and way of life manufacturers, from Smartwool to Thule to Eddie Bauer. It’s credited with serving to develop manufacturers comparable to Yeti from area of interest startups into mainstream smashes.
But it didn’t turn out to be this profitable accidentally. Growing right into a powerhouse required years of cautious choices and laborious work, beginning with these early burials.
The First Big Break
Depending in your level of view, it’s both remarkably unlikely—or no shock in any respect—that the strongest media company in the outside business was created by a pair of guys who began their careers in enterprise and finance, obtained sick of it, and struck out on their very own (with little expertise and no cash) to strive one thing new.
The story begins in the 250-square-foot basement of Peppino’s Pizza in Carbondale, with a pair of Walmart telephones and a fax machine.
Newhard had an enormous determination to make in 1997 when his former employer, Climbing journal (later bought by Outside Inc. in 2021), was offered to a big writer. Newhard had labored as director of promoting alongside his colleague Lisa Raleigh at Climbing, and neither needed to stay round after the acquisition.
“Lisa had labored for Shell Oil as a hydrologist, and I had labored on Wall Street, so we knew what the company world was like,” Newhard stated. “We have been each fairly anti-corporate. We had been kicking round this concept of beginning a public relations firm, however I used to be fairly nervous.”
Newhard defined to Raleigh that he and his spouse had simply had a child, and he wanted the safety of a gentle paycheck and medical insurance.
“Lisa checked out me and stated, ‘C’mon, noodle boy, get a spine,’ and I believed that may make a terrific title,” he stated. “Maybe I’m only a sucker for a private problem or being insulted, however…the concept gelled and we determined to go for it.”
Penn Newhard (rear) and Backbone media strategist Kenzie Genest mountain climbing in Moab (Photo: Backbone Media)
Using the contacts they’d made at Climbing, they began reaching out to outside gear corporations. One of their first shoppers was Bibler, which made tents for Black Diamond. That connection led to touchdown Black Diamond itself as a consumer, and the cash from that account was sufficient to deliver on their first worker. That’s when Nate Simmons, the firm’s present CEO, got here into the image.
Simmons had simply graduated from an MBA program in France, and was in search of a job in the U.S. outside house, however was assembly with resistance. “I actually needed a job in the outside business, however sarcastically, having an MBA was a detriment,” Simmons stated. “It was considered as too company. Outdoor corporations needed to learn about first ascents and epic adventures, not lame enterprise faculties.”
Simmons realized about Backbone by way of his roommate, who was Newhard’s cousin. Emails have been exchanged, and shortly Simmons was understanding of the Backbone workplace in the pizza store basement, being paid a variable wage month-to-month, based mostly on how effectively the enterprise did.
“After the first month, Penn stated he might pay me $1,000. It was greater than he [Newhard] was going to take residence, however I used to be in,” Simmons stated.
With the Black Diamond account secured and Simmons on board, the firm was rolling.
Two Steps Forward…
Backbone’s subsequent large break was a contract with Polartec, which the firm first invoiced in late 1999.
“We had executed some work for Bibler, which laddered up into work with Black Diamond,” stated Simmons. “We have been a little bit bit confirmed. Still, it was most likely a very daring and scary transfer for the advertising and marketing folks [at Polartec] who selected to rent us at the moment. We have been a excessive threat.”
But the dangers, at the least for these first years, simply stored paying off. The subsequent contract was a small upstart out of Steamboat Springs, Big Agnes, which signed on with Backbone in 2000. The firm would go on to turn out to be one of the powerhouses in the sleeping bag, pad, and tent markets, however at the moment, it was so small that Newhard and Simmons needed to drive out personally to satisfy the model’s founder, Bill Gamber, alongside the freeway between Carbondale and Steamboat so they might see and contact the firm’s merchandise.
All was effectively—with income rising quick—till November 2001. That’s when Malden Mills, then the dad or mum firm of Polartec, declared chapter. Some of the checks it had despatched to Backbone have been returned for inadequate funds. At the time, the account represented about 40 % of Backbone’s enterprise.
But slightly than ditch Polartec fully, Backbone caught with them by way of the chapter, which they ultimately pulled out of. Because Polartec is an ingredient model, Backbone’s work for them concerned rather a lot of coordination with different necessary manufacturers in the outside house—a life raft, it turned out, as the Newhard and Simmons scrambled to make ends meet with almost half of their enterprise gone in a single day.
“The work we did with Polartec…we have been advertising and marketing their new merchandise by way of all their companions,” stated Newhard. “They had an unbelievable Rolodex of all the greatest manufacturers in the business. We have been displaying new Polartec merchandise from Arc’teryx, Marmot, Mountain Headwear, The North Face, Eddie Bauer, and Cabela’s.”
Nate Simmons, now the firm’s co-CEO, on a float journey (Photo: Backbone Media)
Those relationships helped maintain the firm afloat, however it wasn’t the finish of their difficulties. Raleigh left the firm in 2003. And it wasn’t till 2005, when Backbone employed Greg Williams, one of Newhard’s outdated colleagues at Climbing, that the company made its first foray into a brand new supply of income that may show key for the future: media shopping for.
“Greg in a short time began championing the want for us so as to add media planning and shopping for companies,” stated Simmons. “We determined to go for it, and it’s now grown into 45 % of our enterprise. It was one thing that basically fueled the progress of our company.”
An Object in Motion
After that, it was off to the races. By 2007 the firm had landed Sitka and Simms, getting the consideration of different looking and fishing manufacturers. In 2008, the company began media planning and shopping for for the brewing firm New Belgium. By 2010, they have been working with Eddie Bauer on the launch of the attire firm’s First Ascent assortment.
Then got here 2013, when a sure cooler firm based mostly in Texas reached out, asking for assist with the launch of its new drinkware and soft-side collections.
“I want we might take credit score for Yeti’s insane rocket ship experience,” Simmons stated, including that, although the model was based in 2006, it nonetheless retained its startup really feel by the time Backbone obtained concerned. “We simply went together with the experience and it’s been superb.”
Simmons stated that whereas “one hundred pc” of Yeti’s meteoric success might be attributed to the instincts of founders Roy and Ryan Seiders, Backbone did introduce them to Corey Maynard, who would turn out to be Yeti’s VP of advertising and marketing at a essential time.
“I feel Corey performed a giant function in the genesis of the group and content material method, so possibly there have been moments we will take credit score for, however that was simply lightning in a bottle,” Newhard stated. “Yeti’s success was definitely good for our enterprise. But when folks ask if we will do for his or her firm what occurred for Yeti, we at all times say, ‘No guarantees.’”
The Pandemic Hits
Like so many others, Backbone took successful to their backside line in March 2020 as COVID shut down the nation and the world. “We have been getting fired day-after-day in early 2020,” Simmons stated. “Every time we picked up the telephone, it was a punch.”
If Newhard and Simmons had operated in some other business, there’s no telling what might need occurred, however the pandemic was unusually form on the outside house. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Backbone’s enterprise got here roaring again, after which some. The firm went into 2020 with about 60 workers; right now it has 130 and remains to be hiring.
In 25 years, Backbone’s group has grown from two folks in a basement to 130 workers unfold throughout 14 states. Here, the firm gathers in Moab. (Photo: Backbone Media)
Backbone now has two places of work, in Carbondale and Denver, with distant employees in 14 states. It introduced in September that Williams—the early champion of the firm’s media-buying efforts—is being promoted from vp to president, with Simmons and Newhard now sharing the CEO title. It’s a logical subsequent step for the firm, Simmons and Newhard stated, as Williams already manages over $75 million annually in promoting purchases for the firm, together with digital, social, influencer, SEM/website positioning, affiliate, and analytics.
“We’re not a PR agency at this level,” Simmons stated. “We have diversified our enterprise. PR is lower than half our income. We proceed to develop our media shopping for, social administration, affiliate gross sales, and website positioning and SEM companies. If a consumer wants one thing we’re new to, we will now rent somebody with that talent to do it. We simply attempt to learn the river and determine it out.”
The Next 25 Years
Ultimately, for all of its strategic strikes and luck over the years, Backbone’s founders say the firm’s success is principally because of their genuine love of the open air. It has earned them no scarcity of respect in the house.
“I’ve recognized Penn and Nate earlier than they began Backbone, they usually’re simply nice guys,” stated Rick Saez, who began one of the business’s hottest podcasts, the Outdoor Biz Podcast, in 2017. “They’ve at all times been about telling good, correct tales and sustaining high quality and integrity in the outside house. They have a pleasant quiver of manufacturers and have been an actual asset in educating prospects about these manufacturers and the open air normally.”
As for Newhard and Simmons, they’re proud of how far they’ve come, however they’re not pausing too lengthy to have fun their quarter-century of success in the market.
“We’re not nice at trying again,” stated Newhard. “It’s like being in the open air. You draw on previous experiences and challenges to maneuver ahead. But questioning what’s round the nook is what retains us engaged.”
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