The move will enable the publisher to sell and manage ad inventory across the Backcountry ecommerce platform and share in the resulting revenue. The agreement, signed in September and set to launch by November, marks one of the first formal collaborations between a media company and a retailer in the outdoor category.
“This is an extension of our business,” Phung said. “We always try to be creative with new strategies without pulling focus away from our core competencies. For Backcountry, its strength is retail. For us, our strength is building content and advertising.”
The arrangement offers a blueprint for publishers looking for innovative ways to expand their audience reach at a time in which many outlets are seeing audiences dwindle due to platform shifts throttling search and social referral traffic.
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It also gives Backcountry an instant foothold in the booming retail media business—one that most retailers take years to build—while AllGear Digital gains access to lower-funnel inventory that complements its content and audience data.
AllGear Digital, the portfolio of which contains editorial brands like GearJunkie, signed a similar partnership in January with the backpacking fitness app AllTrails. Through these tie-ups, the media company will be able to offer advertisers a combined monthly reach of 60 million outdoor enthusiasts, including touchpoints across every stage of the consumer journey from discovery to purchase.
Publishers find new footing in retail media
Publisher-retailer alliances remain rare, but they are increasingly attractive as media companies search for alternative growth channels.
With referral traffic from search and social platforms in decline, retail media represents a revenue stream grounded in commerce outcomes rather than impressions.
For example, Best Buy and CNET struck a similar partnership in April 2024,, as ADWEEK first reported.
The tie-up between Backcountry and AllGear Digital resembles that deal in that it connects a publisher with an endemic marketplace and allows the publisher to sell into that inventory, though no editorial content from AllGear Digital will run on the Backcountry platform.
The CNET-Best Buy deal was heralded as a first-of-its-kind data collaboration between publisher and retailer. The AllGear-Backcountry tie-up applies the same logic to an enthusiast vertical, leveraging the credibility of relevant content alongside the conversion potential of retail advertising. This deal also introduces advertising to Backcountry for the first time.
“Backcountry is giving advertisers something different: the chance to reach consumers right at the moment they’re deciding what gear to buy,” Kevin Lenau, interim President of Backcountry, said in a statement. “Being that close to a purchase makes campaigns naturally more focused and effective.”
Building a full-funnel network
AllGear Digital operates AGD+, an ad network spanning media brands and digital partners catering to outdoor enthusiasts.
Adding Backcountry—alongside platforms such as AllTrails and Teton Gravity Research—extends that reach beyond the open web and into apps and retailers, adding reach and diversification of platform.
The advertising capabilities on Backcountry will roll out gradually, beginning with standard display ads before expanding into more advanced retail-media formats, according to Phung.
AllGear Digital, which was founded in 2018, is on pace to see its ad business grow 137% in 2025, buoyed by new distribution partners and strong demand from outdoor brands, Phung said.
The company employs more than 50 staff, is profitable and cash-flow positive, and projects up to 70% additional ad-revenue growth next fiscal year, Phung said, adding that the company’s annual revenue is in the “eight figures.”
The deal also offers a blueprint for publishers facing a new era of platform volatility and compressed margins.
Rather than relying on traffic-driven advertising or affiliate commissions, media companies can now extend their influence deeper into the commerce funnel—especially when working with category-specific retailers that share audience DNA. Many publishers offer advertiser experiene and consumer insights that retail networks are looking to capture.
“The timeline of Backcountry building an advertising business from scratch would be years,” Phung said. “Being able to work with us allows them to turn that lever on from day one.”
