SEATTLE (BRAIN) — Following Vista Outdoor's sale of its firearms brands, completed Monday, REI said it will resume ordering products from the company. Vista owns Bell, Giro, Blackburn, CamelBak, Camp Chef, and other brands.
REI stopped restocking products from Vista brands in 2018, soon after a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. REI complained that Vista did not make a statement about the shootings or its support of the NRA.
"Today, we notified our merchants that we will resume orders with Giro, Bell, CamelBak, Blackburn and Camp Chef on the news that their parent company, Vista Outdoor, has secured a buyer for Savage Arms," REI said in a statement.
"REI does not sell guns or ammunition, and does not oppose hunting or the Second Amendment, but we believe companies that profit directly from the sale of guns have a civic responsibility to engage in the national discussion about gun safety, as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walmart and others have done." Besides REI, some specialty retailers stopped stocking Vista products in early 2018, as did MEC, a Canadian outdoor retailer.
Rival suppliers of helmets, hydration packs, and other Vista product categories said they picked up business because of the boycotts. But Vista executives downplayed the effects, noting that REI accounted for a less than 1% of its overall business.
