For three consecutive years KORE Outdoors has proudly taken part in the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, both on-site during the nine-day celebration in Banff and as part of the World Tour. Each year, KORE’s mission has remained the same: to elevate outdoor gear makers based in the Kootenays and to shine a spotlight on our region as one of the most creative, rugged, innovative, and adventure-rich regions in British Columbia and the world.
From the Festival Marketplace at the Banff Centre to stages around the glove, KORE has helped bring Kootenay craftsmanship, culture, and identity to tens of thousands of outdoor-loving audience members around the world. Below is a recap of KORE’s involvement with the Festival in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Representing Kootenay Makers at the Festival Marketplace
At the heart of KORE’s presence in Banff is the booth in the Festival Marketplace. It’s a space where outdoor enthusiasts, filmmakers, athletes, guides, and international visitors come to discover what’s new in gear, materials, and mountain innovation. Over the past three years, KORE has showcased an impressive and ever-growing roster of Kootenay companies whose talent and creativity rival the outdoor industry’s biggest global brands.
In 2023, 2024, and now again in 2025, the marketplace lineup has included:
- Shishka Outdoors
- Minus 90 Ggear
- Ghostrider Equipment
- Apres Skied
- Six Seasons Hiking
- JTak
- Snowden Equipment
- Passage Hat Co
- Ski Fels
- Durston Gear
- GOSO Cookware
- Slopeside Design
- Lynx OGT
- Wolverine Snow Products
- Enercheez
- Jackalope Bikes
- Six Mile Bikes
- Zapped Outfitters
- Wildelore Apparel
These makers represent the full spectrum of the region’s outdoor innovation: technical equipment, apparel, custom hats, headlamps, tools, cookware, winter gear, and award-winning hiking and camping systems. Each booth appearance has not only promoted their products but also connected them to thousands of potential customers, industry collaborators, retailers, and media partners.
The scale of the Banff Festival Marketplace across 2023 and 2024 underscores why the event is so valuable for Kootenay makers. In 2023, the Marketplace expanded to over 50 exhibitors spread across two floors, creating one of the most dynamic trade environments the Festival had ever hosted. Building on that success, 2024 saw the Marketplace grow again, featuring 61 exhibitors, global brands, non-profits, experience-based organizations, and two full conference halls, drawing over 6,000 Marketplace visitors across the weekend. It was its busiest year on record.
Impressions from the Festival
Across both 2023 and 2024, KORE witnessed the Banff Mountain Film Festival continuing its rise as one of the most influential gatherings in global mountain culture. In 2023, the Festival attracted approximately 15,000 attendees, representing a 34 percent increase over 2022 live attendance. The year featured over 80 events, including 46 live shows, a two-floor Marketplace with over 50 exhibitors, and strong online participation with more than 66,000 digital film views. Overall, 2023 topped 10.4 million digital impressions, with the festival trailer alone being viewed 92,000 times.
The momentum carried into 2024, which saw attendance climb again to over 16,000 people, marking a 13 percent year-over-year increase. That year also included many free events and activities and a digital footprint that expanded dramatically:
- 287,000 trailer views
- 138 million total media reach
- and 224,000 webpage users, including 171,000 new visitors
Viewed together, the two years demonstrate a festival that is not merely growing, it is accelerating. Live attendance, online engagement, and marketplace activity all increased, giving KORE and the Kootenay makers an unparalleled platform to connect with an increasingly global, engaged, and enthusiastic mountain community.
Building Connections That Strengthen the Kootenay Outdoor Economy
One of the most important outcomes of KORE’s three-year partnership with the Banff Mountain Film Festival has been the depth of relationships formed through the Marketplace and on-site festival in Banff. Across 2023, 2024, and 2025, KORE collaborated directly with these Kootenay companies that had representativies in the KORE booth:
- Ski Fels
- Dark Horse Innovations
- Ambler Apparel
- Mountain Culture Group
- Trapper Snowboards
- Durston Gear
- Shishka Outdoors
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These collaborations have had ripple effects well beyond the festival itself. Many brands have strengthened their manufacturing relationships, gained wholesale partners, and collaborated on co-marketing initiatives that extend the reach of Kootenay-built products across Canada and beyond.
KORE has also built meaningful partnerships with key non-profits such as the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) and the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG), two organizations whose combined membership exceeds 20,000 dedicated outdoor enthusiasts. Discussions are already underway about how KORE’s network of makers can support guides, instructors, leaders, and recreationalists with high-quality, Canadian-made gear.
Major for-profit industry players have also found themselves in KORE’s orbit thanks to the Festival. A standout example is the connections made with Arc’teryx and its ReBird program, which helped shape the design philosophy of the KORE Re-Hub initiative. Insights from Arc’teryx’s repair-and-reuse ecosystem helped informed how KORE supports makers in building more circular, repairable, and sustainable product systems.
A Growing Presence with a Growing Impact
As KORE enters its fourth year at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, the momentum is undeniable. The organization has been established not only as an ambassador of Kootenay ingenuity, but as a partner in the global celebration of mountain culture. Being part of the Banff on-site festival and its worldwide tour has amplified the voices of dozens of rural British Columbia makers, helped build a stronger and more resilient regional manufacturing ecosystem, and created connections that will continue to drive innovation for years to come.
In 2025, the Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary, and KORE hopes to step into that milestone year with a growing network of makers, a stronger presence in Banff, and a powerful story to share about the creative engine that is the Kootenay region.
The partnership with the Banff Mountain Festival is a component of the Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure Program (REDIP), which is overseen by British Columbia’s Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development, and Innovation. KORE Outdoors gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.
