Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, the national organization focused on independent specialty retail, reports that its retail members generated a 29 percent increase in 2021 sales that included a 22 percent gain in Q4 and 18 percent in the prior quarter.

“For both Grassroots retailers and vendors, the only constant over the last 12 months has been the revolving door of business challenges,” commented Rich Hill, president of GOA. “Every week has been a new adventure, but fortunately this is a remarkably resourceful community that clearly thrives when things get tough.”

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance has 99 retail members. Those retailers experienced a 19.1 percent traffic increase in the Oct.-Nov. 2021 window and November (+36.2% y-o-y) and December (+15% y-o-y) each posted double-digit traffic improvement.

During 2021, GOA hosted its first buying show in more than 700 days, went live with a group-owned specialty retail data tool in June and recently launched IndieOutdoor (www.indieoutdoor.com), a national initiative to strengthen U.S. specialty independent outdoor retailers through data and marketing support.