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Switchback at TRE, December 1-3, 2026 in San Antonio, TX
Behind almost every new ski, backpack, trail shoe, and rain jacket on the shelves of a gear shop is a sales rep who helped get it there. Sales reps spend their days introducing new products to retailers, educating buyers and shop employees, merchandising displays, and serving as the bridge between outdoor brands and the stores that sell their gear. Without them, even the best-designed gear would struggle to find its way onto store shelves.
To understand what the job actually entails, we asked one sales rep to recount a recent whirlwind tour. Based in Golden, Colorado, Sam Hoyt has spent the past 25 years working with action sports brands—15 years running his own agency, Maple Street Associates, representing brands like Melin, Skratch Labs, Scott Sports, and Ultimate Direction.
For one week in July, Hoyt visited 23 retail accounts across Utah. Most mornings began the same way: a few cups of black coffee, a final game of Tetris as he packed product samples into his Toyota Tundra, and a drive to the day’s first retailer. But no day is ever the same.
Directly from his perspective, here’s how the week went.
I spent the two weeks before my trip scheduling 23 meetings, which probably took somewhere around 50 to 75 emails/phone calls. When I got all the meetings set, I pumped them into my Gemini bot and asked what’s the best geographical order to see all these accounts. Then I built out my calendar from there and had a general idea of what samples I’m gonna need to show. I partner with six different brands in the action sports industry selling to specialty retailers all the way to national retailers. So it’s kind of a lot.
In my car, I have four huge duffel bags of samples, two helmet bags, two rolling racks, six apparel garment bags, and two hat displays for the brand Melin. I know people think catalogs aren’t printed anymore, but I had a lot of catalogs and then I had a lot of swag too.
I left at 7 a.m. and my first account was at 9 a.m. I showed them the line, and of course that went an hour late. When you’re hitting on the road and even when you’re prepared, it’s not gonna be handed over to you. It’s not gonna be easy. You’re gonna get in traffic jams and all kinds of stuff, but things are going to happen in your favor.
So I’m driving, I’m an hour late, it’s 100 degrees. I need to do a 2.5-hour drive in 45 minutes, from Eagle to Moab. As I get in the car, the guy from Moab calls me and he says he’s gonna be late. I’m like, oh thank god. I asked him why and he said because he was in Grand Junction. I’m like, I’m in Grand Junction! Can I meet you? So we met at a random park.
From there, I had a 4.5-hour drive. Most of that drive was without cell service. That’s when I kind of space out, recoup, rebuild a little bit. I often do it in silence or listen to music. Also as I’m driving through these little towns, I’m looking, did they have a new store come up? There’s a town called Price. I just hadn’t rolled through that town in a long time. So it’s like 4:30. There was a bike shop, I went in, I handed them some information and then I left.
One of the big unknowns is where am I gonna end up? I never really prebook hotels. I kind of have an idea. I was planning on staying at this hotel in Lehi. But I ended up staying in Provo because I was too tired and there’s a restaurant there that I like. And there’s a coffee shop in Provo that opens at 5. There are a lot of reps and sales people who can work at night. But I would rather just go to bed and wake up super early.
My first meeting was 9 a.m. at a store. I walked in and they had double booked. There was another rep there from a bike distributor who was giving a clinic, and he brought a bunch of coffee and bagels. So as I sat and waited for him, I had some coffee and bagels, sent some emails. He’s a friend of mine so we talked afterwards. And then I did my showing.
And of course, now I’m running late. You can be pretty honest with people, like hey, I live in Denver, I’m seeing as many accounts as I can, I’ve gotta go fast. Everybody is so nice, wants to get through stuff, make some money, do right by themselves and their family.
Then I have to race to another meeting. It’s probably 100 degrees out, so I change my T-shirt and take some samples in. The guy starts off the conversation with, “I’m way over inventoried with all of your competitors and not really interested in bringing this in.” In the middle of our meeting, he took a phone call from another rep and he had a conversation with him for like 10 minutes where I just sat there. The funny thing was out of respect for him, I left my cell phone in my car so I couldn’t even look at my own LinkedIn.
A day in the life of a rep is accepting people for who they are and giving them as much love as possible. My job is to make people feel safe but also make people money. That’s it.
From there, I’ve got to go to another shop, one I’ve been trying to get into forever, and they’re really excited to see the brand I’m showing. But the owner, who is the decision maker, was not gonna be there. I had to rely on his staff. Which worked out.
At this point, I’ve seen three retailers, gone through two or three T-shirts because I’m carrying in all my samples. Then I race four hours to Salt Lake City to visit with buyers at Backcountry. I’m hungry, tired, so sweaty. I run inside, use the bathroom, get myself in a different space, haul in all my samples. We booked the same room three hours in a row, so I was able to stay at the same place and they came to me. Fingers crossed that a few samples I shipped made it. They did. And it’s fine, I don’t mind this, but the buying team already opened them up and picked out the samples they wanted that I kinda needed to take the rest of the week. But it’s like, you roll with the plays. You’ve gotta give these guys love. I’m generous enough to receive so I’m generous enough to give.
Then it’s 4 o’clock. Traffic is bad. I had to drive to Logan, Utah, which is a big deal to me because in 2017, I was driving there with all of my samples, everything I had, probably $100,000 worth. And I rear ended a semi, broke my entire face, broke a bunch of vertebrae, broke a bunch of ribs, exploded my car. My wife was eight months pregnant with our third child. I was actually at a trade show the next week. You just keep moving forward in life.
Remember how I said every once in a while, on the road you get rewarded? I looked up this hotel and it was $300 bucks. Kind of a lot. I try to keep it around $150. But on my Hyatt app, I had a free night. Bam! So I didn’t have this pressure of spending more money. Gas is expensive in Utah. There’s no expense report for me. This is just my money. When I checked in, I still had a decent amount of stamina so I worked for a couple hours on my laptop, dealing with stalls on different orders, following up on meetings, maybe even writing proposals. About 20 of those emails takes about two hours.
Woke up and it’s literally Groundhog Day. I do it all again.
I was in Heber City for my last meeting. I got in the car. It’s like 3 o’clock, I have an 8-hour drive home. First of all, there’s a ton of construction. So I’m driving and I’m calling my wife. I was literally just being like, hey, on my way home. She’s just filling me in on everything in life. I’m just listening to her. And I got pulled over. The police officer comes up to my driver’s side. He’s like, Hey man, you were kind of swerving. I’m like, man I am so sorry, I’m exhausted, been on the road since Monday and I’m getting ready to drive home. He’s like, well what do you do? I was like I’m a traveling sales person. I was at Gravity Coalition. I sell them a brand called Leatt. He’s like, I bought a pair of kneepads from them! So I give him my expired insurance card and ID. He took it, came back. He’s just like, drive safe. And so I drove and got home at 11 p.m.
It’s an office day for me. A lot of contractors and independent reps work from home. For a long time, this whole entire industry was run from home offices where people have garment bags, all kinds of stuff in their own personal home space.
After a while I got really tired of having that personal space taken up. My family was growing. I got a showroom near a bunch of other reps during Covid. About 25 of us got together and developed Outdoor Market Alliance. That’s where I work now.
Check out our upcoming webinar, “Between Brand and Shelf: What Outdoor Sales Representatives See Coming Next and What That Means for Your Store” on Thursday, October 8 to dive deeper into what sales reps are seeing now, and how can we build on these partnerships to move the whole industry forward
