Sea to Summit is a global leader in technical outdoor gear built for backcountry travel and vehicle-supported adventures. Known for its durability, sustainability, and innovation, the brand designs gear that balances weight, packability, and performance, engineered to thrive in the world’s most remote environments.

Purple Orange partnered with Sea to Summit to execute a series of multi-day press events aimed at deepening relationships with editorial, affiliate, and SEO-performing media, amplifying product storytelling, and reinforcing the brand’s leadership across key gear categories.

The Challenge

As media attendance at large-scale trade shows continues to decline, many outdoor brands are shifting their focus toward more intimate, hands-on experiences that create deeper engagement and more meaningful product storytelling. Sea to Summit aimed to replace conventional event tactics with experiences that more effectively demonstrated product performance and drove meaningful media outcomes.

The Challenge:

• Replace the declining impact of trade shows with immersive, high-value experiences.
• Showcase product innovation through real-world testing in remote, rugged environments.
• Build lasting relationships with editorial, affiliate, and SEO-savvy media.
• Generate earned media across top-tier outlets.
• Reinforce Sea to Summit’s positioning as a category leader in innovation.
• Expand brand awareness among new, strategically aligned outdoor audiences.

Our events strategy focused on curating immersive, multi-day press experiences that aligned with forthcoming product launches and highlighted performance in real world environments. Strategic brand partnerships with complementary brands like Osprey, Smith, HOKA, Ibex, Free Fly, Isle, Solo Stove, and others helped draw in editors, defray costs, and expand storytelling opportunities. Media guest lists were carefully balanced across high-profile gear testers, affiliate-focused publishers, and priority SEO publications. Event timing was carefully coordinated with editorial calendars, awards cycles, and seasonal commerce windows to maximize impact.

Execution

Over two years, Purple Orange produced 6 custom press trips across the western U.S. and one invite-only brand opportunity with Outside Magazine.

• • July 2022: Overland Trip | Leadville, CO
  • Oct 2022: Outside Gear Summit | Santa Fe, NM
  • June 2023: River Trip | Fisher Towers, Moab, UT
  • Aug 2023: Overland Trip | Breckenridge, CO
  • Oct 2023: Backpacking Trip | Grand Staircase Escalante, UT
  • July 2024: Backpacking Trip | Cliff Creek Falls, Jackson, WY

Each trip gave editors the opportunity to field-test Sea to Summit equipment in the environments it was designed for. Purple Orange managed all event ideation, logistics, media relations, product integration, and post-event follow-up, ensuring each activation was seamless, brand-aligned, and media-ready.

Results

• 89+ media placements attributed to event attendance to date.
• 3B+ in UVM and $27.7M+ AEV earned over two years through media coverage driven by trip participation, long-lead features, and post-event pitching.
• Significant gains in share of click (SOC) across key categories, including +19% in Tents, +17% in Sleeping Bags, and +11% in Dry Storage.
• Coverage across gear testing, outdoor lifestyle, travel, affiliate, and SEO-performing outlets.
• Strengthened editorial relationships across Backpacker, GearJunkie, Men’s Journal, Field Mag, Wirecutter, Travel + Leisure, Popular Mechanics, Field & Stream, and more.

Key Takeaways

In a highly digital world, immersive press events remain key to the development of high-quality, in-depth product and brand media coverage. There is no question that when gear is tested in inspiring and contextual outdoor settings, it leads to richer storytelling and more impactful media outcomes. By incorporating both affiliate-focused and SEO-savvy outlets, we successfully secured full-funnel brand visibility within the media outcomes of these trips. However, none of this could be accomplished without thoughtful trip planning, clear communication, and editorially minded logistics, which laid the foundation for positive brand experiences and fruitful long-term media relationships.