Winter Trade Show Review

23 Apr 2008

Once again the annual Trade Show Circus rolled into winter, and Europe’s retailers left their favoured haunts of snowy mountains, deserted surf breaks and blustery skateparks and converged upon various trade halls and venues to find out what will be pulling punters through their doors in seasons to come. As always Source was on hand to gauge the reactions from the reactionary. Editor Director extraordinaire, Trey Cook, took on the double hitter of Ispo and Bread and Butter while By Benni Markstein took stock at Bright and JP Challinor surveys the feedback and opinion from UK’s Slide.


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WINTER ISPO 08 - MUNCHEN, DEUTSCHLAND
27-30 January 2008
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This year’s winter Ispo greeted boardsport retailers with a new floor plan that herded hardgood brands into A1, softgoods into A2, and surf brands into A3. Many brands’ perspective on buyers this year was less quantity, higher quality, and for the most part exhibitors seemed satisfied with these results. Adrian Willmott, Brand Director for Gravis and Analog describes it this way, “What rocked about winter Ispo 08? Moving from A1 to A2 and cutting the Burton apron strings. I reckon there were a few less visitors than last year, but the quality of visitor was good. We got a lot of interest from new accounts and the AG booth attracted a lot of buyers that had previously not looked.”

While Source is not normally a big fan of anything that keeps buyers out of exhibitors’ stands, I couldn’t help but head over to Volcom’s skate ramp a couple of times to watch the sessions. In the early hours of the show after what was no doubt a heavy night of partying, Independent’s Ally Barr and Krew/Supra’s Manuel Palacios charged the ramp in a display of ‘industry players keeping it real’ that was an inspiration for us lesser mortals. But beware of scoring space too close to the ramp next time. Prime position next to the ramp was held by Crème Skateboards who had to cordon off their stand and rally security to keep spectators out.

For the second year, Quiksilver and Ispo treated showgoers to Das Rail, a 27-step handrail sliding extravaganza at the ‘Haus der Kunst’ in the centre of Munich. Following a 90-minute Jam Session eight riders qualified for the final session. In the end Lucas Magoon stuck a bluntslide 50/50 to 180 to bring home the bratwurst.

You want numbers? Ispo has yet to come up with an accurate way to track buyer numbers for specific groups like boardsports or outdoor, but what they can tell us is that 64,000 trade visitors and more than 2,000 exhibitors were on hand at Ispo winter 08. Trade visitors from 113 countries represented 70% of the visitors. André Pierre Doucet from the French retailer association FPS commented, “We are at Ispo for the third time and brought 190 retailers with us. Ispo is as always the platform where the right brands meet the matching retailers.”

The determinant topics of the industry at this year’s winter Ispo were recycling and eco-friendly materials as well as sustainable production of sporting goods. And while the boardsports industry has a loooooooong way to go before anything more than marketing drivel is thrown at truly green initiatives, Salomon proved to be keeping abreast of developments when their Sick Stick earned a Volvo EcoDesign Award for its ecological and sustainable design. The show’s venue also lead by example - the Messe Munchen boasts the world’s largest roof-mounted photovoltaic system and 35,000 m2 of grass-covered roofs, helping the venue to reduce its CO2 emissions by approximately 7000 tons per year.


Fabrice Faurie, Global Category Manager Outdoor for Samsonite Corporation reacted favourably, “It was a very successful winter Ispo for Samsonite OutLab -with our great new team, great booth, great location, great visibility, to display great products! It was also an honour to have Jeremy Jones with us, talking and showing the products he worked on. For the concrete commercial side, we got many new business contacts from highly specialised independent outdoor/winter shops.”

Jenny Ahnell, Marketing Manager for Sole Technology also had positive things to say, “The ThirtyTwo booth experienced an excellent mix of visitors consisting of retailers, distributors and media and we saw an increased traffic to the stand on both the Sunday and Monday. It seemed that the new board show layout and categorisation between the halls worked well with more visitors moving across the three halls.”

Jens Hartmann, European Manager Sales & Marketing for Flow International summed it up this way, “We have been pretty happy with this year’s Ispo. The amount of foreign visitors increased and we had the feeling that dealers have been pretty impressed by the new collection especially the new Revolve rental binding with the PI technology, which made its debut at Ispo.. For us it is an important time for our customer service teams to meet there, they get to put a face to a voice and that helps make it more personal.”

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BREAD AND BUTTER 08 - BARCELONA, ESPANIA
16-18 January 2008
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95,000 international fashion players sashayed into Barcelona for the Bread and Butter show and at times it seemed like they were all crowding into the aisles of the sport/streetwear hall. Show organisers claim a 20% increase in buyer numbers compared to last year with an even higher percentage of buyers coming from outside Spain. Mathieu Tourneur, European Marketing Manager at Revival Distribution confirmed this, “Spain still records the biggest attendance by far, especially the northern part, but France, Italy, Germany and the UK are getting closer each season. There’s also an emergence of eastern European visitors but US visitors have seen the biggest progression this season. Everyone should go. The mix between skate, street and fashion will give everyone a good overall vision of the market.”

One noteworthy new addition to the overall show was the addition of The Source – a new fabric and accessories supplier area that BBB management reported was quite popular. Given the number of such suppliers making the rounds at most shows it only makes sense. For July 2008 The Source (not to be confused with us, The OG Source) will be located on the upper level of Halls 6 and 7 with 200 exhibitors covering 26,000 m2 of floor space.

Back in the sport/streetwear hall, hardgoods are still unwelcome, which is the biggest stumbling block for BBB becoming a full-blown boardsports show. Softgoods and shoes on the other hand were well represented by brands fighting for more turf in the boutiques. Geoff Sykes, Women’s Project Manager for Quiksilver Europe sounded stoked, “Quiksilver’s new women’s line had a very successful European launch, with around 2000 visitors passing the stand to experience our first contemporary street/fashion Fall ‘08 collection. Around 80% of our guests were from Europe... with over 46% of the total visitors coming from independent retailers.”

Steve Veytia, Managing Director for One Distribution Europe (Krew and Supra) also seemed pleased with the turnout, “We had double the amount of people on the stand compared to the July show. We made sure to try and keep out the sea of designers frothing at the gate, whose numbers also seemed to double (from summer). The foot traffic was much more diversified than past seasons in terms of international clientele. We had more buyers from outside Spain and Europe.”

A big believer in the BBB concept is Martin Magielka of Magseven who in addition to organising the Untitled exhibit space each year, was also taking part as a distributor. “I think the BBB concept of free entrance for all visitors resulted in almost 100,000 people joining the show. We had retailers and interested people from all over the world and most of the time I felt hunted by retailers and press people, so let’s see what comes of it - I can’t tell right now.”


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BRIGHT WINTER 08
Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage, Frankfurt, Deutschland
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In many people’s eyes, Bright is still a ‘skate tradeshow’, although the show outgrew this limited view a long time ago. These days, Bright is segmented into four main areas, namely Skate, Streetwear, Sneakers and Street Fashion – all of which are sectors the organisers Marco Aslim and Thomas Martini know inside out. Therefore, other sports such as BMX are hardly represented at the show because according to Thomas Martini, “it is skateboarding that has had the strongest influence on modern lifestyles since the early 90’s. This is also reflected in retail.” And judging by this year’s Bright, the show’s formula is a big success!

For the sixth edition of the show, the third floor of the exhibition space was opened for the first time to exhibitors, which means that 90% of floor space was in use. More than 260 labels displayed goods, a number that represents 25% growth compared to last time. Another first this year consisted of fashion labels such as Levi’s and Lee that were on display next to smaller jeans brands such as Cheap Monday from Stockholm. Attendance was up to 3,750 visitors from 3,300 last summer.

The show also secured long-term support from the state government of Hesse, which has approved the former police station as the venue for Bright until at least 2010. There had been rumours that the building was due to be demolished this year, but the official green light ended speculation. “This was the most successful edition of Bright ever”, Martini also pointed out, “We’ve never had this many visitors, despite the fact that our dates were back to back with Bread and Butter in Barcelona and with Ispo right around the corner. Quality is a big factor for exhibitors and we’ve been able to step it up with our re-structuring of the entrance area. This was an important move on our part.”

Once again, a number of side events also enhanced the show’s value, including break-dancers and free-runners in the front area, as well as tons of skateboard action. The annual bowl contest is by now a solid fixture of every instalment of Bright, and this year David Martelleur from Belgium took the crown. There was also a small street course for a quick 3-3-3 contest, where competitors had to pull three tricks on three different obstacles in one line. After a heated battle, Kerem Elver from Wiesbaden emerged as a clear winner. The ‘Best Booth’ competition is another Bright classic, which, for the first time, allowed visitors to vote. The clear winner was Suenos, a small label from North Rhine-Westphalia specialising in creative bedclothes.

Vice magazine once again demonstrated their expertise in generating a solid buzz for their party. Especially since tickets were limited and the party-hungry crowds were searching high and low for a way to get in around closing time on Saturday night. The party itself was a blast and whoever couldn’t get in just kicked it outside on the kerb. All in all, Winter Bright 08 was a smashing success that has everyone looking forward to the next summer edition.


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SLIDE, MANCHESTER CENTRAL
17 – 19 February 2008
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The UK snowsport industry’s annual trade show was held at Manchester Central for three day. Given the state of the UK economy and the problems created by last years season many retailers and brands arrived in not the most positive mindset.

This year, exhibitor’s individual style was stamped all over as brands and were once again given the freedom to design and build their own stands – last year’s uniform experiment having been quietly faded out. Atomic went all out and drove a double-decker red bus into the hall! Meena Rajput of Protest UK commented, “although quieter and smaller than previous years we still reaped the sales benefits of exhibiting at Slide 08. The influence to cut stand costs/size came from us also exhibiting at the new Snowbaw Tour which was a great opportunity for us to showcase new products to both new and existing retailers, before exhibiting at Slide and confirming orders. Our customers know what we represent and they know our product - we invite customers to Slide to place their orders and to do business. So, yes, Slide was successful for us.”

In addition, the new products for autumn/winter 2008/09 were unveiled, with the best championed in the Slide Awards. Judges voted on their overall impression of each product in terms of how attractive it would be to customers. The winners were as follows:

• Hardware Category: Salomon Custom Shell
• Software Category: DB Leisure (Thaw LTD) Bamboo base Layer
• Accessories Category: Noble Custom Ortovox S1 Avalanche Transceiver

The Fresh Prince of Covent Garden?
The new focal point for this year’s show was an area called Fresh! A central feature that showcased new design, talent and product. First time exhibitors, Highland Streetboards were pleased with their reception, “being our first trade show we didn’t know exactly what to expect from Slide but we have greatly exceeded our best expectations with a good volume of sales at the show and since. Plus the opportunity to meet and talk with like-minded business people is hugely beneficial in so many ways. This excellent networking opportunity has resulted in NASS hosting the World Streetboard Championships in June, which will be the biggest streetboard world championships ever! With a product like ours that needs to be seen and experienced, shows and demonstrations are the key to growing the sport of streetboarding. We will definitely be a regular exhibitor at the Slide show from now on”, explained director Neil Thomson.

Although visitor numbers were down, the quality of visitor was as high as expected with many brands and retailers alike happy with the workload and order writing that went on... It seems that the halcyon days of turning up with an exercise bike and a sofa will result in a successful show – the boring stuff like appointments and budgets need to be planned well in advance.
 
As Jeremy Sladen from TSA said, “We got a lot of work done over the show, it was busy throughout and I was pleased with what we achieved.” Santa Cruz’s Vince Pawley concurred and found the show “a good platform for servicing accounts in the North of the UK, but there was little new business around, so unless you had pre-booked appointments with existing customers, you were probably relatively quiet.”

Though quieter then previous years, Slide still serves as a focal point for the UK snowboard industry, a one-stop destination for all. As Damon Street, K2 Sales and Marketing Director commented, “Slide continues to be the pinnacle action sports and lifestyle show. There is no doubt that it has its place in the trade show calendar and provides the final opportunity to view and order from the leading brands. Of all the shows we attend, Slide is the most productive.”

Rumours abound concerning Slide’s future in terms of venue, size, layout and organisers will be unveiling plans for next year in a few weeks time, obviously we’ll keep you posted.