What Happened to Sitka?

[thegoosano]

Having been wearing Sitka in some form since somewhere around 2014, I’ve gotten used to their marketing, advertisements, sales tactics, more recent “influencing”, etc. I can’t help but notice something is very different this year.

The first thing that I noticed was the huge abnormal sales like most folks were pointing out, I chalked that up to overstocking and a win for folks to get cheap high quality Sitka gear.

Second was their summer product releases. There has been almost ZERO marketing for anything they’ve released. They appear to have new shooter gloves, a new bino harness, and more notably brand new very expensive down gear tops and bottoms. I have yet to see a single email, IG post, influencer, etc promoting these pieces. Very very strange.

I’ve also heard from folks in the industry that they’ve had some serious changes in staff, with only one or two folks left from the recent years. I’m guessing one of those is barklow cuz I still see him here and there discussing Sitka.

And lastly, I just saw today John Dudley saying he’s leaving Sitka (and PSE) and will be getting new sponsors. He more or less discussed the staffing issue above and also change in senior leadership.

Maybe I have a tin foil hat on, but something seems off. Is Sitka changing? Are they going out of business? Is it still the Sitka we have all always known and loved?

Let’s see what folks know, think or hear. I’m super curious, because as a long time Sitka fan, I hope they aren’t going anywhere or changing too drastically.


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[Bump79]

Dudley is buddies with all the guys at Origin. Makes perfect sense that he'll likely move to them.

As far as Sitka the stuff I've seen on sale is the past years lineup. Some of it was pretty niche in my mind and probably didn't meet sales expectations and they are clearing it out.

That said - I love some 50% off sitka. It's the only way I buy it

 

[2531usmc]

I would suspect inflation and higher interest rates are depressing consumer spending to a higher degree. That may account for the sales and lesser rollout of new products

 

[Kurts86]

Every aspect of the outdoor industry is overstocked and on sale, Sitka is no different.

Sitka has always had some cringe worthy marketing and social media presence which is completely detached from the technical merits of their product. Not sure what’s new there.

 

[tracker12]

remember all these employees are in a job and when a better opportunity comes along they jump. I would not read too much into staff changes.

 

[Jason Snyder]

John Dudley saying he’s leaving Sitka

WTH is John Dudley, and why do I care who sponsors him?

 

[Gotcha_]

I suspect market saturation with the bust of covid $timmy checks. Less personal cash flow & a silent recession combined with enormous inflation make Sitka lower profit margins to maintain competitiveness within their market. Their margins before were just nuts, maybe the competition moves them to be more cost friendly.

 

[FAAFO]

WTH is John Dudley, and why do I care who sponsors him?

Well you must care because you want to know

 

[Jason Snyder]

Well you must care because you want to know

Just trying to figure out how and why the influencer du jour affects one’s clothing choices?

 

[SMOKYMTN]

I have no insight obviously, and am observing from a distance but I sense there’s a paradigm shift in the hunting clothing industry. I first noticed it when I was trying to grab a tall size Stratus in subalpine and it seemed to never restock. So I called Sitka and the rep gave me a very vague statement saying “just keep an eye out for a new Stratus like product in a new pattern this summer.” It seemed like after that, everything Subalpine went on clearance. I thought to myself, there’s no way they’re getting rid of Subalpine are they? Maybe they are in some products, who knows but with First Lite getting into the synthetic baselayer market, and dropping some new patterns, plus an entirely new Whitetail line coming on the 31st, I could see Sitka and the other companies getting ready to drop new product lines with new patterns. I will say that over the last couple of years I felt that Sitka was getting too niche with some in their products like the Evo Jacket, Ambient lineup, etc. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all great pieces and I know a lot of those technologies carried over from their Arrowhead line, but IMO they’re not practical for the majority of hunters. I know it’s an ever evolving market and manufacturers are always fighting for product market space, so I suspect Sitka is doing just fine and they’re just holding whatever is coming close to the chest.

 

[Sierra Hunter]

It’s across all industries related to Consumer demand, inflationary pressures, rising cost of add spend and CAC, SKU rationalization, freight is ticking back up again, tariffs on items coming from China, increase in borrowing cost, etc. it’s a tough time out there and if these companies are PE backed, expect that business to be run through the lens of making money.

 

[thegoosano]

Some good thoughts all around. I’ve been trying to justify the weird observations in the same ways. I’m sure they’ll be back in the groove shortly.

Really thinking about it, what I can’t wrap my head around is dropping all these new pieces a month or more ago and not having one bit of marketing behind them. No YouTube video, email, text, ads, etc. that just seems bizarre? But who knows maybe “the piece speaks for itself”? They usually market their new products pretty hard so it’s definitely out of the ordinary.


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[dirtshooter]

Dudley is one of Rogans boys, wearing Jockos camo. I'm surprised he is leaving PSE, now what with all of Rogans followers buy???

 

[Bump79]

I will say that over the last couple of years I felt that Sitka was getting too niche with some in their products like the Evo Jacket, Ambient lineup, etc. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all great pieces and I know a lot of those technologies carried over from their Arrowhead line, but IMO they’re not practical for the majority of hunters.

I agree. This is what I'm saying - I like them personally but it's niche. The ambient, evo and especially the 120 merino was niche and overpriced IMHO. At $83 bucks and free ship I might pick one up though.

 

[Hnthrdr]

Just trying to figure out how and why the influencer du jour affects one’s clothing choices?

Agree, large % are narcissistic douche nozzles… who cares what they wear or shoot. Are they going to come hunt your tag for you? Just weird quasi celebrity worship

 

[journeyman713]

Sitka stared going downhill when Jason Hairston dumped it
Kuiu all the way

 

[thegoosano]

For all the folks thinking the OP was focused on dudley or influencers, it was only added as another data point that a large industry brand (yes nock in is a brand, not just some “de jour” influencer) is leaving Sitka for stated reasons matching up with some separate observations made, or rumors heard from folks in the industry.

In no way am I saying that I care who or what nock on promotes or wears. It just aligns with some of my other points so it was worth adding. If you ignored all other points and just focus on the Nock On comment…you’re missing the intent of the original post.


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[MT_Wyatt]

I'm just going to say with Big Game, they've gone through waves. In the recent past, they went 2-3 years without anything significant, and then actually trimmed a lot of their options (which was a good thing) as they refined the line. As they expanded everthing else, they really cooled off on big game development. Kuiu has done the same thing, they've really expanded in other areas, and "maintained" a lot of their mountain hunting line to coast along. But with Sitka, there's been YEARS without anything significant happening on the big game front.

Weird cases:
Rain Gear: stormfront just disappears, and turns into a special release? So big game is dewpoint or thunderhead, no gortex pro line.

Baselayers: core series has been going since 2016-17ish. It's great, but has there really been no development in construction techniques or fabrics since then? Washes?

Camo: for all of the big deal on the concealment front they used to make, now we're taking sub-alpine into whitetail as special edition piece releases?

Ambient: they hit a gold mine with a good piece, and all of a sudden, we've got 15 different versions, blankets, etc - who in the hell decided that was a good idea?

Tarp: where did that go? Why?

Mega Puffy - they killed the WS Down way before replacing it with this new piece. And then you get on the website and they can't even tell you fill power on anything? It's sad when FL is more deatailed with product specs.

I like some Sitka stuff, dislike their fit on a lot of other things - JB said he's overall product manager now, and not just a category manager, which is likely good, but obviously there's been some shifting around, and some $ driven decisions on product side.

This is what happens when you sell to a megacorp?

 

[Jason Snyder]

Are they going to come hunt your tag for you?

I don’t want them to hunt my tag. I just want them to buy the gas and PBR.

 

[SMOKYMTN]

I'm just going to say with Big Game, they've gone through waves. In the recent past, they went 2-3 years without anything significant, and then actually trimmed a lot of their options (which was a good thing) as they refined the line. As they expanded everthing else, they really cooled off on big game development. Kuiu has done the same thing, they've really expanded in other areas, and "maintained" a lot of their mountain hunting line to coast along. But with Sitka, there's been YEARS without anything significant happening on the big game front.

Weird cases:
Rain Gear: stormfront just disappears, and turns into a special release? So big game is dewpoint or thunderhead, no gortex pro line.

Baselayers: core series has been going since 2016-17ish. It's great, but has there really been no development in construction techniques or fabrics since then? Washes?

Camo: for all of the big deal on the concealment front they used to make, now we're taking sub-alpine into whitetail as special edition piece releases?

Ambient: they hit a gold mine with a good piece, and all of a sudden, we've got 15 different versions, blankets, etc - who in the hell decided that was a good idea?

Tarp: where did that go? Why?

Mega Puffy - they killed the WS Down way before replacing it with this new piece. And then you get on the website and they can't even tell you fill power on anything? It's sad when FL is more deatailed with product specs.

I think you hit it on the head. I think KUIU has done a good job at maintaining some fundamental pieces while introducing new pieces in and around those cornerstone items. There is no rhyme or reason to how Sitka does it. I'm still waiting for the succesor to the Kelvin Down Jacket, which I don't think the HyperDown is. At least I hope not. I also think Sitka makes too many unnecessary changes to some of those really good fundamental pieces. Prime example was the Territory pant. It was great pant for a long time, for many applications including everyday and hunting, it was reasonably priced and practical, then they changed the design and fit for no reason whatsoever and everyone hated it. It became one of the worst rated items on the site, so much so that they pulled it from the lineup altogether. Why?