Retailers exhibiting at the Outdoor Retailer Summer show at the Colorado Convention Center said Tuesday this year’s version is smaller in every way.

But they also expressed gratitude a live show was able to happen at all, albeit months later than the usual June time frame – which usually gives retailers time to take orders then roll production before the season is over.

“It’s usually busting at the seams on opening day,” said Rob Martin, program director for Outdoor Sports Insurance. “Even though it’s like half the exhibitors, people want to get back here and talk business face-to-face.”

Martin’s company has been attending Outdoor Retail shows for 25 years, and followed it from Salt Lake City to Denver when it moved in 2018.

“We’re hearing from our retailers and brands there’s a supply chain issue,” Martin said. “Outdoor recreation was huge last year during the pandemic, but there was also a massive disruption in the shipping – especially from China and places where factories had to shut down.”

Bertha Duek Santero, co-founder of Santero Apparel based in Mexico, said it was their first time as a retail exhibitor – her and co-founder Jacob Romano usually came as participants to try and find retailers to carry Santero Apparel.

“There’s less booths, and less people, but everyone is fun and hopeful,” Santero said.

When the show was in June, they were able to take orders and produce product accordingly. But this year, they just pre-bought fabric “not knowing how much we would need.”

“It was a leap of faith,” she said.

“There’s been a shortage of yarn and fabric,” Romano said.

The company’s most popular item is called a “malinche” – a pull-over sweater with both a neck gaiter and a hood.

“This right here is the industry itself, so we had to be here,” said Nathan Struck, marketing manager for Phoenix-based Fireside Outdoor, which makes a “pop-up fire pit” – an aluminum and steel-mesh box to build camp fires in. “We briefly considered not coming, but only briefly.”

There hasn’t been an Outdoor Retailer Show in Denver since January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered all large in-person gatherings for more than a year. The convention pulls together thousands of retailers in the nation’s growing outdoor industry.

The Outdoor Industry Association estimates there are 5.2 million direct jobs nationally. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates the industry accounted for 2.1% ($459.8 billion) of current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP) for the nation in 2019.

And while the Outdoor Retailer at its pre-pandemic levels used to have an estimated $57 million impact on Denver’s economy and more than 25,000 registrants, this year’s show was scaled down for several reasons.

There were more than 11,000 registered for the show, and some 4,900 retailers, according to Emerald Expositions Events Inc. of California, which owns the show.

Emerald officials are already planning for the January 26-28, 2022, Winter Show and next summer’s Outdoor Retailer June 9-11 in Denver.