Dec. 18—MOSCOW — Candid pictures of trips from around the world reveal the success of a strategy David Blue has pursued as a top executive at Northwest River Supplies in Moscow to make the company the most sought-after name in paddling sports.

In almost any paddling photograph on social media, in printed publications and from friends, he can spot at least one piece of NRS gear, regardless of how mundane or exotic the location, said Blue, chief operating officer at NRS.

The frequent appearance of items such as NRS rafts and life jackets is tangible proof of how the company has nearly quadrupled in size in the last 10 years to become the No. 1 brand in paddling and rafting sports, he said.

"You can sit next to a stranger on the airplane, and, when they say, 'What do you do?' and you say, 'I work at NRS,' they say 'Oh my God, I know your brand. I love your company,' " Blue said.

The prominence of NRS in the industry comes after decades of hard work by employees at all levels of the business, he said.

The company is marking its 50th anniversary this year, thriving on the foundation built by its founder and president, Bill Parks.

Parks no longer is involved in the day-to-day activities of NRS. But he still meets with all new employees at catered lunches.

His ethic of treating dealers, vendors, outfitters, retail customers and employees in the way he would want to be treated remains a guiding principle of the company, along with his spirit of innovation and frugality, Blue said.

--------In the early 1970s, when Parks founded NRS with $2,000 from his savings, river rafting was in its infancy, with boaters jerry-rigging their own gear from whatever they could find. Rafters tied rafts to their cars with rope, and attempted to keep food dry in military surplus ammunition cans.

NRS provided an alternative to rope when Parks sewed anchor buckles onto nylon webbed straps. The inexpensive, sturdy, easy-to-manipulate straps are a staple for paddlers at all levels, Blue said.

The market has diversified over the years, with the straps finding their way into the inventories of home improvement and sporting stores, where customers buy them to help move furniture or transport all-terrain vehicles. A high school student fashioned a prom dress from the straps. A scientist tied equipment with a strap to an iguana for an experiment.

"They're almost a status symbol," Blue said. "There are so many people that use the NRS strap as a belt, just to say, 'Hey, I'm a boater.' "

About the same time NRS introduced its now-iconic straps, its first dry bag hit the shelves and solved the challenge of how to prevent gear from getting soaked when vessels were deluged by waves while navigating rapids.

Parks found a good deal on orange truck tarp material and went to Seattle, where he slept on the couch of an inventor while they collaborated and figured out how to weld the material.

"To this day, it's what everyone uses on the river to put all your clothes in and whatnot, and it's called Bill's Bag," Blue said.

Parks' creativity extends to the business side of NRS too.

He typed the first NRS catalog, pioneering direct-to-consumer sales, an innovation that put NRS in the front seat when internet sales boomed. The catalog would sit on coffee tables in customers' living rooms, where it would be easy to consult as they planned their rafting outings for the season.

--------That catalog was still key to the company's approach when Blue joined NRS in 1999 part time to take orders. His start date was Feb. 1, just before the annual catalog hit customers' mailboxes on Feb. 15, a date that was the same every year.

So Blue hit the ground running.

"There's a lot of questions you didn't know the answer to, but you sat in a room with people within 3 feet on every side of you (who helped)," Blue said. "It just rocked for about three months after that and then that was the year."

Even though Blue wasn't a boater, he was such a good fit for NRS that he was soon working full time.

He'd stuff a duffel bag with as many NRS shoes, gloves and wetsuits as possible before flying to work a sales circuit of rafting stores and other customers in California, where he still had college friends.

At the time, stores typically expected to have a 50% margin on softgoods, but that wasn't normally possible with rafting gear, Blue said. NRS was among the first companies to price high-quality products at levels that allowed businesses to do more than break even, he said.

"We offered a unique value proposition just by providing goods that were a reasonable value to the consumer and a good margin for the dealer," Blue said.

--------As receptive as his clients were, the NRS product line was less than robust. About 70% of what it sold came from other labels. Now about 85% of NRS sales are from its own brand, which includes rafts, clothing and inflatable paddle boards.

One of the most important products was a life jacket designed for anglers, who have a tendency to shun flotation devices because they lack places to carry flies, lures and small tools like pliers, Blue said. That life jacket debuted in 2007.

"The thought was, if we can allow them to put that stuff on their person, they'll actually wear the life jacket and stay safe on the water," Blue said. "Our timing was amazing, because not long after that, the kayak fishing boom happened. We were the ones that did it the best. We rode that wave."

In the last five years, the introduction of new products has grown even more, with NRS adding five employees to what had been a team of two.

Fishing remains an emphasis.

"It's a bigger market than paddle sports," Blue said. "People know our brand already. They've been using our rafts. We already have a good solid start before we really get going."

--------The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated work already underway and created higher demand. NRS still has a 12-month wait for its rafts.

"It was huge for us, as it was for everybody (in the recreation industry)," Blue said. "We were out of stock and having record sales for three straight years in a row. We're still seeing some of that, (but) things are starting to slow down."

A softer economy likely will present different kinds of opportunities for NRS, Blue said.

In the past, families have opted for multiday rafting excursions a couple of hours from their homes in periods when they couldn't afford more expensive trips.

At the same time, NRS is gaining ground in new areas, such as flood, swift water and ice rescue markets.

"There's more and more government money coming into that because they want to be prepared for these situations," Blue said.

As that future unfolds, Blue is looking forward to what happens at NRS — in no small part because he's seen early versions of products that will be released in the next three years.

"We're really excited," he said.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.