How we turned a flagship retail store into a place for like-minded hunters to call home — no matter what corner of the map they’re from.
SITKA is a leader among a wave of hunters who believe that humanity is an integral part of every ecosystem, and that forging deep, holistic connects with nature is the path to a better life. For the SITKA hunter, the wild is their first home. And when opening their first brick-and-mortar store in Bozeman, SITKA had the opportunity to build them a second home.Â
SITKA’s brand strategy is centered on understanding, welcoming, and serving their community of conscientious hunters — a group who they refer to as “students of nature.” When launching the Depot — the physical embodiment of the SITKA story — we understood that creating an experience that was philosophically rooted in the brand and audience’s unique point of view was paramount.
Our audience is happiest when they’re gathered with like-minded hunters around a fire, sharing stories and wisdom with one another while passing around a bottle of whiskey. What if we recreated and elevated that experience with this event?
For this community of hunters who are so much more than hunters, we needed to throw a party that was much more than a party. Bringing together a group of ambassadors ready to share their knowledge with one another, the event became as much about storytelling and thought leadership as it was about celebration. We called this confluence of people, stories and expertise “SITKA Converge.” Themes of convergence and gathering — lensed through our inspiration of hunters gathered around a fire — inspired every touchpoint throughout the event. Presenters told educational stories with the audience circled around them. Fire-inspired food and beverage vendors refreshed and fueled attendees. Portable campfires and circular seating studded the environment.Â
We knew that each vendor and partner sourced for Converge had to have a rightful seat around the SITKA fire. Our circle of local and like-minded partner brands included YETI, Treager, 2% for Conservation, Leopold, and more. Each brought stories of their own to share, and unique reasons to call Bozeman — and now the SITKA Depot — their second home. Imagery of gatherings and convergences in nature drove the graphic treatments. And the weekend culminated in an intimate live performance from Jordan Davis, enjoyed under a starry Montana sky.
After months of planning, the week of the event, a group of five SixSpeeders flew to Montana to transform the SITKA campus into our audience’s new second home. Duties included dusting off the welcome mat for all of the event’s ambassadors, vendors, and VIPs. The team also kept busy keeping key players informed, putting up signage, picking up musicians at the airport, getting presentation content looking and feeling cohesive with the event’s themes, and — crucially — running to the store for more Busch Light. If it needed doing, it got done.
It’s clear that Converge was the homecoming that the SITKA community was yearning for. Spiritually, the event successfully launched the Depot and Bozeman as the SITKA hunter’s second home. Many of the estimated 1,000 attendees commented on how excited they were to be part of The Depot’s launch, and how important it was to them that SITKA was establishing their roots even deeper in Bozeman with a thoughtful experience that circled this community up in a familiar, organic way.
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