Luxury Camping Gear Makers Drive Sales Through Envy-Creating Events

Each year, between summer’s arrival and the onset of autumn, a Japanese camping and clothing gear company called Snow Peak gathers its most loyal customers from across the globe at four locations across the U.S., for an unusual camping experience.

The events, two in Washington state and one each in Utah and upstate New York, are dubbed “Snow Peak Way.” Instead of its participants siloed off into their own campsites with their own fire pits and picnic tables and parking spots, these campouts are held in large, verdant, and open fields. People set up their sites wherever they can find a free space.

As they stroll from camp to the bathroom or to the series of programmed events—from matcha-making workshops to paper-airplane contests—participants ogle their neighbors’ setup, from stylish tarps and tents to Takibi grills and kitchenettes to canvas butterfly chairs. Only the tents are required to be Snow Peak (there are rentals available), but these brand loyalists typically showcase a dozen or more of the company’s products, on display for everyone else.

The Snow Peak Way is about community building, a nod to the brand’s successful resurgence after sluggish sales in the 1970s inspired company leaders to engage more directly with its customers and get a clearer sense of what they wanted out of camping gear. But these events are also a clever marketing tool, as they tap into a psychology that is perhaps best described as “gear envy.”

As the fans meander from site to site, they’re taking mental notes, seeing the company’s newest product offerings in action, imagining what their next upgrade might be.

“People walk around these sites and see others doing things differently or better,” says Noah Reis, Snow Peak’s vice president and chief operating officer. “When people go camping and see these different setups, they see the possibility of what their camping lifestyle could be.”

The best outdoor brands today know that online ads, Google reviews, and brick-and-mortar displays all pale in comparison to the effectiveness of the age-old word-of-mouth. Increasingly, companies are working to create Snow Peak Way-like conditions, encouraging their customers to keep up with the Joneses. Snow Peak’s in-person events buttress an online fan base, where the brand’s enthusiasts gather in Facebook and Instagram groups to share their setups and trade advice. “It takes on a life of its own,” Reis says.

iKamper, which sells a line of rooftop tents and other associated gear, also holds “campout” events in various locations where hundreds of attendees buy tickets, set up their rigs, and enjoy live music, product demos, and food, says Erik Flink, the company’s director of marketing and eCommerce. These events also allow participants to show off their elaborate overlanding (adventure traveling in remote destination) setups.

“With rooftop tents, it’s really vehicle-specific, and people want to know how this fridge is hooked up, how you built in the cabinets, what’s the battery system, how are you doing the lights,” Flink says. “We have a strong community,” many of them connected via a Facebook group that now boasts 22,000 members.

Though the stated purpose of these gatherings is to have a good time, there’s a clear impact on sales, too. “It really builds brand loyalty. Our customers buy not just rooftop tents but the awnings, the stove, the cookset, the utility bags, trash bags, mattress, and sleeping bags,” Flink says. “They become brand enthusiasts.”

This summer, Snow Peak opened its newest of 15 campgrounds around the world, a 25-acre luxury facility on Washington state’s Long Beach Peninsula. There’s an Ofuro Spa modeled after traditional Japanese bath houses, with a sauna and cold plunge, and 48 field sites, eight tent suites, and 14 small cabins called “Jyubako Suites,” each with its own portable fireplace, table, and folding chairs.

Tapping into a sense of scarcity can help inspire gear envy, too, says Hazel Rogerson, who does media relations for Snow Peak. “It’s a relatively new brand in the U.S., so people who knew about it became passionate about it and that created some collectors who would go to Japan or special order products,” Rogerson says. “There’s an entire Reddit community dedicated to rare Snow Peak finds.”

Helinox is a company that began with lightweight camping furniture, inventing a one-pound chair in 2012 that resolved the compromise camping chairs had previously always made: too light and uncomfortable or cushy but clunky. By employing aluminum alloy tent poles as the structure, the company broke new ground and has since branched out into tables, cots, and other spry gear.

Azul Couzens, the company’s global CMO and president, says Helinox has keyed off two customer segments. One tranche is the backpacker, in search of ever-lighter gear. The other is the FOMO, or fear-of-missing-out, buyer, inspired to make a purchase by a friend with a better piece of gear.

“It’s like where car culture meets outdoor culture,” Couzens says. “If you’ve been to a car show, it’s all about parking your vehicle out and letting people come admire it.”

Couzens added that “beautiful rigs” that are developed are showcased at Overland Expo, the gatherings of overlanding enthusiasts held across the U.S. each year. “There’s a weird intersection of these beautifully crafted pieces of art meant to go over all terrains, how you can plug in all this gear you need into the most thoughtful bento-box styling and live in it. It definitely creates FOMO.”

At Dometic, the Swedish company that makes electric coolers and other camping gear, the challenge is to introduce customers to an entirely new way to camp, ice-free. Electric coolers’ early popularity came in parts of Australia and Europe where ice was harder to find, or where people tend to camp in remote areas where it’s harder to restock when it melts. The way Dometic reaches customers who might prefer a powered cooler is at overlanding events.

“I’m guilty of looking at how these vehicles are built out with their aftermarket racks and offroad gear. It looks really cool. At the end of the day I’m not overlanding every weekend, but I want my vehicle to look like I could do that if I want to,” says Jeff Diamond, Dometic’s global head of product. “That goes not just for vehicles but also your gear. So we have influencers using the product to raise awareness, because the way for us to really drive this is through other people using it and sharing their experiences. “

Luxury Camping Gear Makers Drive Sales Through Envy-Creating Events

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