Color defines our world. Research shows that visual factors, not physical feel, are the most important for consumers when purchasing products. When asked about the importance of color in the process of purchasing products, 84.7 percent of the total respondents said that color accounts for more than half among the various factors important for choosing products. If we're purchasing a product, oftentimes, color is the defining factor in our subconscious mind.
Walk the showroom floor at the Outdoor Retailer trade show with an eye for noticing colors, and you'll start to see certain shades reappear from brand to brand. At their Ranger Station, creative consulting agency This Is Range featured panels dedicated to color forecasting for Spring 2023, and after comparing their research with what we saw, these are the colors we're going to see everywhere next spring: soft pastels in lilac, olive-green, pale yellow and cool blue.
Read on to find out which brands are on the mark for next spring.
Hydro Flask
Hydro Flask is a color-based brand; its insulated bottles are updated every season with fresh colorways, as opposed to new silhouettes or technology. For spring '23, the brand hit the nail on the head with their color choices.
Fjällräven
The iconic Fjällräven Kanken backpack comes in a mind-blowing 56 color options, but for spring 2023, the brand decided to highlight the pastels forecasted to win the season. Pale lilac and yellow caught our eye on the showroom floor.
Rumpl
Rumpl's capable outdoor blankets come in myriad color options, combinations and prints, but it was spring 2023's pale purple and lilac that the brand decided to highlight on one of their displays. Color trends can show up in solid, all-over iterations like Hydro Flask's water bottles (above), or they can appear within prints, as seen on Rumpl's Puffy Blankets.
Bn3th
Gaining traction for their comfortable and capable underwear and baselayers, Bn3th also gains points for their color direction, utilizing spring 2023's olive green in their merino wool base layer set.
United By Blue
Sustainable outdoor apparel and accessories brand United By Blue has definitely taken a more lifestyle-oriented approach in the last few seasons — and judging by its Spring 2023 display, which highlighted lilac as its main color story, the brand is continuing its trend-forward approach to the outdoors.
CamelBak
CamelBak's icy-blue new soft coolers make use of color theory and our attraction toward color — by picking the soft, cool blue set to dominate next spring, the brand gives their new coolers a leg up in the market.
