PTC holds first meeting of 2026

January marked the first of four scheduled meetings of the Paddlesports Trade Coalition’s best practices committee, in which they lay the groundwork for brand cooperation within their aquatic ecosystem. During this meeting, collaborators highlighted goals for 2026, along with putting an emphasis on the importance of supporting both retail and community organizations in the coming year. The “Phase 1” meeting focused heavily on an individual brand's role in the market and its responsibility to support sellers at the heart of the industry. 

Officially, the Paddlesports Trade Coalition is a registered 501(c)(6) non-profit made up of brands, vendors, sales reps, and others oriented at guiding collective strategy and industry success. Within this larger non-profit lies the best practices committee made up of members whose main goal is to set a cohesive vision for how to collaborate within the paddlesports industry. This committee is spearheaded by partners from across the paddling landscape, including brands like Level Six and Aqua Bound. Led by these orgonizations the first meeting of the committee introduced a new brand self-assessment, an aptitude test of sorts for brands to measure their transparency while also leveraging community engagement to hear from both sales reps and retail partners.

Credit: Ian Patton

This self-assessment centered around five key gold standards: lead with transparency, act fairly across channels, empower partners, supports callberation, and be flexible and supportive. Clearly, throughout the meeting, the guiding thread was support and communication, focused on revitalizing a struggling retail environment, which saw the closure of iconic paddlesports shops, including Next Adventures in Portland, Oregon. 

Throughout the course of the meeting, the coalition also gauged the tone of the attendance, asking several questions regarding both friction and collaboration between brand and retail. Surprisingly, these conversions offered a large amount of consensus where retailers expressed the issue of both direct-to-consumer sales undermining their business, and rapid and uncommunicated breaks in pricing. Additionally, the brands and retailers also noted that areas of collaboration are important, highlighting the future value of both grassroots events and brand storytelling in creating a prosperous and powerful ecosystem. The next meeting of the best practices committee is set to cover similar topics, but focusing on the role of retailers and setting gold standards for success in a changing retail market.