Outdoor Voices is a brand we know and love for its top-quality and fashionable apparel geared towards an active and outdoorsy audience. Yet, there’s a lot more to this company than just the items it’s selling! For instance, the Outdoor Voices marketing strategy deserves to be in the spotlight for its unique, community-centered approach.

In this overview, we are focusing on determining how the Outdoor Voices’ disruptive marketing strategy has brought it to become one of the major players in athleisure and explaining how exactly it stands out from the competition. Read ahead to find out more about OV and gain useful insights you can apply to your outdoor business!

About Outdoor Voices

Outdoor Voices is a US-based American clothing company founded in 2013 by Tyler Haney in New York City. It now has headquarters in Austin, Texas, with 12 stores in major cities across America, as well as a growing online store.

Unlike many other athleisure brands, OV doesn’t emphasize performance. Instead, it encourages the consumers to have fun during their activities, appreciate their surroundings, and find what feels good. When Outdoor Voices launched, this was a novel concept that clashed with the intense and performance-based marketing from bigger industry players like Nike and Adidas. 

Introducing a new philosophy was a risk the company took that clearly paid off in the long run. Let’s take a closer look at the brand’s marketing strategy and explore why it turned out to be a great success.

OV’s Unique Approach to Marketing

An outdoorsy and active lifestyle is trending nowadays, and so is athleisure. In fact, it accounts for approximately 20% of online apparel sales. Thus, athletic apparel brands like Outdoor Voices have to navigate their way in a highly competitive environment. OV has managed to build a brand that masterfully balances fashion and activewear and has been showing steady growth throughout the years.

Let’s examine the key pillars on which the marketing strategy of this company is built:

1. A Mission That Speaks to All

Outdoor Voices is on a mission to get the world moving and spread the idea that fitness shouldn’t be focused solely on performance. On the contrary, it starts with having fun and generating endorphins. The company is targeting recreationalists and aiming to make them feel strong and confident. 

OV is known for its hashtag #DoingThings, which promotes the idea that it’s enough to do sports and outdoor activities without having the ambition to be the first or the fastest.

This philosophy made the brand relatable for both athletes and people leading an active lifestyle, helped the company build a community of like-minded “doers”, and received a lot of press coverage.

2. Strong Values

Outdoor Voices claims to play the long game in becoming the Resource for Recreation by sustainably reinvesting in the business to have the greatest global impact.

Its three core values are:

• People. OV knows they are working with humans, not superhumans, so the brand puts real people at the center of everything it does, supporting equality and human rights for everyone. 
• Planet. Outdoor Voices designs the products and business operations through a lens of circularity and longevity for the sake of minimizing environmental impact. 
• Product. The company prioritizes the quality of its products and collaborates only with top-notch manufacturers that are in sync with the brand values.

3. Community Building Initiatives

Like many D2C companies, Outdoor Voices started as a digital-only brand. However, it quickly realized the importance of retail stores for building a strong community.

Yet, even in its brick-and-mortar locations, Outdoor Voices chose an uncommon path, positioning them as physical touchpoints for the OV community, gathering spots where clients can socialize and “do things” rather than just places to shop.

Every physical location of Outdoor Voices has a field marketer who organizes fun events on a regular basis.

4. Digital Content That Stands Out

Outdoor Voices has a distinct style that can’t be mistaken for any other outdoor brand. It’s present across all its marketing channels, from the company website and Instagram page to the Facebook account and The Recreationalist, OV’s community magazine.

The abundance of coherent digital content generated by Outdoor Voices promotes brand awareness and consumer engagement.

5. Ambassador Program

Outdoor Voices also works with brand ambassadors called “Doers”. Their goals are community building, social promotion, and community engagement. 

To join the “Doing Things Network”, OV’s customers need to be active, action-oriented, and go the extra mile — on and off the trails. The candidates have to fill out the application, after which they are checked on whether they’re a good fit Outdoor Voices brand. 

Working with brand ambassadors is one of the most beneficial marketing practices among outdoor companies - learn more about it from our detailed guide.

6. Crowd-Sourcing New Product Lines

Since 2018, Outdoor Voices has worked with customer input on social media to launch new products. With each survey typically getting approximately 1,000 responses, OV collects plenty of information and references like links to fans’ favorite products, preferred materials, and desired designs.

Bottom Line: the Secret to Outdoor Voices’ Marketing Success

Outdoor Voices’ marketing strategy clearly stands out from the competition, proclaiming that sports and an active lifestyle don’t necessarily have to be result-oriented and can be done just for fun. Guided by the mission of getting the world moving and doing things, the brand has not only released multiple successful product lines but also managed to build a strong community of loyal clients and like-minded people.

The Outdoor Voices marketing strategy has been successful throughout the years due to a combination of factors, including its focus on regular folk rather than professional athletes, a positive and sustainable philosophy, and consistent content creation.