I admit this, yes - here in Jersey, I've always seen posts about "such & such a product dropping at Sea Otter" or "big news from Sea Otter" or "so & so was a Sea Otter" but rarely any results or race coverage; maybe I wasn't looking hard enough?

My failure, absolutely

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

not a failure. just a geographic reality.

sea otter is a race or, precisely, a series of races throughout a 3 or 4 day span. the expo was an adjunct to the racing and because sea otter has expanded to become a road, MTB, gravel and whatever else event the expo has gain in importance.

sea otter will have an industry day for the first time, the day before the public racing starts, and it never intended to be a trade show. it morphed into a de facto show for the industry - or, just a get together for the industry - upon the demise of interbike.

sea otter set itself up for this by paying attention to its expo. look at this page. where is the analog to this on IM's site? because sea otter is now owned by life time it's not really that different from IM in that it's got a lot of events, it sells partnerships, both individually and series-wide, and it's got expos. the difference is in how this expo is treated. it's an open expo; no protected categories; and it's just a kick ass event. this makes it that much more appealing to partners. i would guess that sea otter takes in as much revenue with the expo as IM will take in with its entire IM oceanside 70.3 event. that oceanside expo could take in a half-mil in revenue but i think you see the difference in the importance sea otter places on its expo versus the presence IM has for its expos on its public facing content. maybe i'm naive but to me either sea otter is right or IM is right. i don't see how they can both be right.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Certainly both. There is an unreal amount of racing for all abilities, all in a relatively compact area. Though mostly MTB racing for the highest level of athlete. Fantastic spectating because there's always something going down. And the spectators don't care if it's a 35+ Cat 5 race. It's on.

I'm headed to Sea Otter. Looking forward to it.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

Me as well with a bunch of mates - first time in 4 years so really looking forward to it

Sea Otter, once Interbike was gone and especially since COVID, took on a pretty important role in terms of how the public found online expo content. see Cyclingtips'/Pinkbike's former "Pond Beaver" coverage.

I want to give a shout out to Sea Otter. Being a self-funded start-up bike part manufacturer who has only been shipping product since Oct 2022, I was pretty blown away when I called to speak to Sea Otter and was told they have a program where industry people in my position can attend for free (two free passes for the company), receive free industry/retailer credentials, attend Industry Day for free, and carry around some product with a company shirt/hat on and that's all viewed as A OK by Sea Otter.

Now, I will not be soliciting, but if someone wants to see a product, I'll gladly show them outside of booths and being respectful to booth vendors - The Sea Otter rep shared that that's what they expect and their mentality is that if I see the value this year, I'll be back as a paying exhibitor in future years. I think that's a wise and evidence-based marketing mindset on their part. I'd love to see Ironman make way for startups - I love to race Ironman races, but their expos seem-to-me filled with venture funded nutrition/recovery products staffed by non-triathlete, non-founder temp hires.

I do miss going to Mrs. T's, Memphis in May, St Anthony's and John Cobb, Steve Hed, founder of Nimble wheels, etc would be there in person. Not too long ago, at a mtb expo, Scott Nichols of Ibis was wrenching on demo bikes.

I'll take the feedback and look into Unbound and SBT expos - great to learn they're top notch.

We'll have our new road/gravel saddle on a tricked out Rodeo Labs TD4 in the Campy booth at Sea Otter courteous of Stephen of Rodeo Labs.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

I want to give a shout out to Sea Otter. Being a self-funded start-up bike part manufacturer who has only been shipping product since Oct 2022, I was pretty blown away when I called to speak to Sea Otter and was told they have a program where industry people in my position can attend for free (two free passes for the company), receive free industry/retailer credentials, attend Industry Day for free, and carry around some product with a company shirt/hat on and that's all viewed as A OK by Sea Otter.


That's a great offer from Sea Otter.

Of course they have the scale that they can do something like this. They may also be Sold Out of actual booth space so even if you did want to buy a booth - they would not have one for you.

I know that many have gone to Kona in recent years and been "disappointed" with the Expo in Kona at the IMWC's. Keep in mind that Kona may be the most expensive place in the world to be a vendor when you factor in all the extraordinary costs - the "expensive" booth fee, actually is the least of your concerns!

And then back to scale - There is a a limited number of people who are in Kona, so it's fairly exclusive and relatively small. Whereas, I believe the total attendance at Sea Otter is well over 70,000 people!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I'll be curious what has more impact:
- in person expo attendees
- in person industry connections
- online media exposure of the expo

I assume the 3rd factor is maybe most important, but I'll be curious to see.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

I'll be curious what has more impact:
- in person expo attendees
- in person industry connections
- online media exposure of the expo

I assume the 3rd factor is maybe most important, but I'll be curious to see.


Back when I was in the wholesale/retail part of this business myself - I always loved Trade Shows. I took the time to prepare for them. If there was an opportunity to book meeting time with key prospects and clients I would spend considerable time in advance of the show trying to do that. Then at the Show - tried to make the most out of every formal and informal meeting. Then of course once at home, or even before, at the airport and on the flight home with a thick stack of business cards I had gathered, start the follow up process with EVERY person I spoke to sending out the Follow Up emails.

That's Old School Business Development. These days there is probably some bot or AI Solution or App that does all that work for you! :-)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Replying to the last line.

They can both be right for the business models that they are looking to develop and entertain out of the expo. For IM, it appears that they really want to be the only game in town -- their retail store, their preferred bike shop, the host area, a couple of pop-up food options and...that's it. To be fair, in certain towns that winds up being of even greater benefit to the local bike and run stores on race week (looking at you, Lake Placid). In others, I'd imagine it looks more like a desert -- but as long as IM is selling a metric crapton (obviously superior to imperial craptons) of their wares, they are OK with it.

Sea Otter, meanwhile, is more of a showcase for everybody else, and now the default "big bike show" in the world. They just serve different purposes.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

In my opinion, the current strategy of big events are drying the market.

Big expos are part of the show/event. People like to be there, to be able to see/touch what it is in the market, and if the prices are ok, buy stuffs (some of them not available in their local stores).

Current situation is that the expos are small, with little offer, and very expensive. So you cannot even buy last time stuff. The balance is difficult but as it was already said, Kona expo was disappointing. But I was in Ironman Austria in 2022, and also it was sad to see.

In my opinion, if they allow to have a big offer, with good prices they will sell really a lot: - If I can find my "personal choice" for nutrition, spares, etc.. at a good price, I would not travel with it maybe. If they have big tents, I could tast an "exotic new flavour"... if I can find the latest stuff at its price, I could see if it worth and buy...

This is my opinion only, maybe, but expos have changed from " a must" to a "I hope that there is another place in town to buy what I forget to bring".

I don't know if it's hurting the marketplace -- IM registrations, if anything, seem to be ahead of 2022. And from a business perspective, we made significantly more money at Rev3 events when we had the only shop versus those that had a larger expo -- and it wasn't even close. And that included years where race registrations were significantly lower year over year.

I think it's a better athlete experience to have a bigger expo -- and I personally prefer them. But I also get why you might decide to tighten it up.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

You may be right, number are numbers, and my opinion is only a "n=1 opionion". I think that it may be different when there are few shops (less rivalry/alternative offers) but you still sell "at your best price" than you take your position to sell even more expensive.

Appreciate your thoughts on this. thank you.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

Race local and you don't get the corporate BS that IM commits to its partners.

Expos are dead.

Sea Otter was a race? Because I never heard of until 2019. And all the coverage on this site seemed to be about the trade show. So I figured it sort of like TRE...except mountain bikes.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

we don't cover the racing because those events weren't of particular interest to our audience. there's a LOT of racing there but it's mostly club-level. 5 different MTB specialties + road and the road is broken down into abilities, age-graded, lots of events. the pro prize list for each event is $1,500 per gender. nothing that's going to bring top racers in. but if there's a larger assembly of club racers in one spot for one weekend anywhere i'd like to know where that is.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Good to know, sounds like it could be a rad weekend.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Don't have much else to say other than that the expo for the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach a couple a weeks ago was large and vibrant with a bar and tons of vendors. Hope it becomes a trend.