Notes from the 2022 Dallas Safari Club Convention

Over the years I’ve been to more than my fair share of fishing-related trade shows and expos. Those include ICAST, the Bassmaster Classic Expo, local boat shows and flea markets. The first one I recall attending was the local boat/RV show as an impressionable 10 year old – where attendees were given the opportunity to wrestle a bear to win a cash prize. I believe the bear was undefeated. A few years later they replaced the bear with a boxing kangaroo, which ran afoul of local authorities and got the organizers arrested. Have no fear – he was replaced by “The Great Sebastian,” who made a living catching .22 shorts between his false teeth.

Despite that backstory, I had no idea what to expect prior to attending the Dallas Safari Club Convention in Texas this past weekend. Hanna and I were given an opportunity to help a friend’s business at the show, and we jumped at the chance to enjoy this new experience. In many ways, it was an absolute eye-opener.

Granted, we were only able to see a fraction of the show, and I have no idea if the state of the pandemic affected attendance or spending in any way (initial impression: probably not), but there are my observations, in no particular order:

Simply Massive

The show dwarfed anything I’d attended previously. I’m sure a show like the Consumer Electronics deal in Vegas is bigger, but in my world nothing (i.e., ICAST, Classic) comes close. Even after taking time to walk the aisles for brief periods each day, as we left on Sunday I saw things I’d simply missed. All of your senses were attacked at once, and it was hard to stay focused because there was something even more noticeable in the next booth or around the corner. If that’s your bag, it’s one-stop-shopping and you’ll definitely get your steps in.

Destination Event

While the Classic Expo is related to the bass tournament itself, this show was a standalone gathering that drew vendors from all over the globe and customers from a footprint nearly as wide. Hanna and I talked to people from Alaska, to Florida who had no direct “business” at the show, but came for the weekend or longer to take it all in. That’s a huge boost for the host community.

Money Flowed Like Water

Unlike ICAST, which is not open to the general public, or the Classic Expo, where people attend looking for deals, visitors to the Dallas Safari Club convention came with the intent of spending big bucks. They didn’t want rods and reels or discounted packs of worms – they wanted to spend tens of thousands of dollars on global hunts. No one thought twice about spending $500 on specialized clothing, and there were lots of shoppers who came intending to drop five or six figures on a hunt or three. One gentleman told me that he and two friends had just written a check for $100k for a whitetail hunt and another mentioned a sheep hunt (possibly in Kazakhstan?) that topped out around $200k. As such, a trip to the Amazon, Panama or Guatemala for $3,000 to $8,000 per person did not cause much hesitation.

Alcohol Flowed Faster than Water

The longest lines every day – at just about every time of day – were at the bars. Lots of beer bottles clinking, lots of mixed drinks sinking, non-stop. No one seemed to get obnoxious, and I’m sure it helps lubricate the checkbooks.

Breadth of Items

While the thrust of the show was hunting-related travel and firearms, that encompassed a huge range of products and experiences. There were of course fishing trips, too, as well as vehicles, endless clothing companies and all sorts of blinds/stands. Furthermore, there were jewelry booths, booksellers (never seen one of those at a fishing show) and all sorts of female-centric vendors.

But no Junk

Unlike the small-scale shows, while the booths were varied, there weren’t any that were irrelevant or obviously cheesy – no “Wonder Mop” or “As Seen on TV” items, at least not that I saw. The extensive real estate was used wisely and efficiently.

Huge International Presence

If the “Safari” name didn’t give it away, yes, there was a huge number of outfitters from Africa, but that wasn’t the only region represented. There were hunts all throughout Europe, South America, New Zealand, just about any place you can put a pin on a map. Sometimes the accents gave them away. Other times it was their clothing, but the bottom line is that all of that energy and all of that money is focused on American sportsmen – that says a huge amount by itself about our power around the globe, and I bet in a “normal” year there might have been even more visitors from more places -- their numbers may have been reduced by pandemic-related travel restrictions.

Is There a Limit on Camo Patterns?

I’d say a  good 50% of the attendees were wearing at least some camouflage – frequently a pretty standard pattern, but fairly often some oddball variety. It feels like people have seen the licensing success of companies like Mossy Oak, Realtree and Kryptek and see that as their road to riches.

Dressed to Impress

Obviously, every trade show has its own form of uniform and cultural signifiers. At the Bassmaster Classic, it’s college kids and club-level anglers wearing tournament jerseys or some specific hat. Here, they fell into a number of categories, including: all sorts of hunters, dressed in the appropriate but semi-citified garb; the titans of industry with something reflecting how they’d made their millions; the true Texans, with all manners of boots, hats and Wranglers. Among the ladies, there were also all sorts of signifiers from the “I am a real huntress, not an Instagram Barbie” look, to the “wife of a Texas land baron” profile. They had bling. They had furs and skins and all sorts of custom-made gear – and apparently there is no supply chain limit on silicone these days.

Space to Maneuver

Have you ever been in a popular booth at the Bassmaster Classic Expo mid-day on Saturday? It’s painful, with people camped out in key places, others trying to get them to move, and limited oxygen available to breathe. That wasn’t the case here. While most booths stayed busy with likely customers, they were never overwhelmed, nor did you have to wait a long time to speak to someone in a booth of interest. You could see any piece of art, taxidermy or clothing you wanted relatively quickly, and get answers to your questions in a timely manner. That felt nice.

Not Celebrity-Driven

While many of these shows depend on celebrities and “names” to draw in the crowds and keep them there, as far as I could tell that was not the case in Dallas. I saw no autograph lines, no celebrity endorsements (unless they were famous hunters I’d never heard of) or supermodels (despite the wealth of booth bunnies). People who were there were hard core into their passions, not star gazing. They wanted to spend money.

Not a Bass in Sight

If this was your first toe-dip into the American outdoors scene, you’d have little or no idea that the largemouth bass is America’s most popular gamefish. While I saw several booth devoted to Amazon peacock bass trips, the largemouth’s presence was limited – a pond-stocking company, some “On ‘Em” hats at the Boss shot shells display, and that was about it. We often think that our bass-world sandbox is huge, and while it’s certainly not insignificant, there are other worlds that are bigger, more lucrative, and more internationally-recognized.