KORE Awarded Shop Local BC Funding Grant
The Kootenay Outdoor Recreation Enterprise (KORE) has been awarded a grant by Shop Local BC to showcase the craft gear makers of the Kootenays at a Makers Market in Kimberley on February 12, 2022. There will also be a corresponding media campaign showcasing the people behind the craft gear from here.
The Market is to be a one-day event held in Kimberley’s downtown platzl and will feature over a dozen makers from the Kootenay Region involved in the snow sports and outdoor industries. It will take place between 11am and 5pm and admission will be free. Local band Leather Apron Revival will provide the entertainment throughout the day.
The overall goal of both the event and the media campaign is to inspire the local consumer culture to learn more about the outdoor gear made here in the Kootenays and to shop locally.
The Shop Local BC media campaign concentrating on the Kootenays will be created by the Mountain Culture Group, the creative agency of Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine, and will include photography of every member of the KORE collective, creating a repository of images for them and for KORE to use in perpetuity. The campaign, which will begin rolling out in early 2022, will also include videos of each maker as well as subsequent online articles, advertisements, and social media content.
About Shop Local
Funded by the Government of Canada and delivered through provincial and territorial chambers of commerce, the Shop Local initiative provides grants for programs and campaigns that encourage Canadians to shop local to help businesses navigate through and beyond the pandemic. The BC Chamber of Commerce is delivering the Shop Local initiative in British Columbia, ensuring that the program is inclusive, and funds are distributed equitably across seven economic development regions.
About KORE
KORE is an economic development and diversification initiative managed by the Kootenay Outdoor Recreation Society located in Kimberley, BC. It is an industry alliance of outdoor recreation gear manufacturers and designers in the Kootenay region and has brought together a network of 40+ craft gear makers and designers who have organically started up production manufacturing and designing within the Kootenays. KORE’s mission is to foster growth within the alliance through education, collaboration and connecting businesses to resources, grants, financing and capital, and to attract outdoor recreation product manufacturing and designers into the region to relocate or facilitate new entrepreneurial start-ups.