Pro Content
UK Market Insight, Autumn 2020
What a summer! It’s left a lot of people in the boardsports industry a bit speechless. Nobody saw it coming. Whilst the world around us appeared to be imploding we received the gift of more participants, new participants and returning participants. What a blessing!
As COVID continues to wreak havoc with so many aspects of our daily lives it also appears to have driven a whole new generation of board loving souls to our doors. Whilst not all these new board members will stay for the whole ride we will undoubtedly take many with us for the journey – they’ve added a new dimension to their lives, a dimension that we all know will keep you on board if you get hooked. Fingers crossed for our growing tribe.
What’s ahead for us? That’s the biggie… I’m writing this at the end of September and the nerves amongst the UK winter boardsports industry is palpable. More so perhaps in the UK than the EU. Will the winter sports enthusiasts be allowed to travel to Europe to get their fix? Will they have the confidence to go? Flying certainly does not appeal much to me right now!
We are currently trying to put together a deal with Eurotunnel and are in talks with their PR Company to try and make sure that they focus on the winter sports customers, to highlight the fact that flying isn’t the only option. Driving is easy and means that people can take their own kit… an opportunity to drive sales in the UK.
Jeremy from TSA has already fully taken this concept on board and has produced a couple of videos to be released online via the TSA website. There’s a clue in the titles:
- How to drive to the Alps
- Snowboarding in Scotland
Jeremy explained, “the goal is to make people realise that COVID does not put an end to snowboarding. We have snow resorts in the UK and they’re a lot more accessible than people think. I can leave my house at 5am and be on the slopes by midday. I’m going to show people how easy it is.”
And for those that want to go to the Alps? “We’ll cover all the bases and show how easy and cost effective it can be. Resorts in France and Austria are putting their own protective measures in place, but the bottom line is they are still open. That’s the message we need to get out there. Driving is not that difficult and in many ways it’s a better alternative to flying.”
But just how is Jeremy feeling about this coming winter? “Nerves are in play – of course they are. But I think we will come out alright and we’ll get through it OK. We just have to go back to the 80’s and make it easy. So far the summer sales of boards have been the same as last year – I take that as a good sign for the winter.”
Ian from Boardwise Cannock also has some jangling nerves. “After the most amazing summer where we did a year’s turnover in less than 4 months, we are now facing an unknown winter season.” I pressed Ian on the summer first. “It was incredible – we could not keep up and we ran out of products in some areas. Windsurf, surf and SUP were crazy busy. Wakeboarding was up a lot as well. If the supply chain had not been slowing us down, I can’t begin to imagine what we could have done. I’m super optimistic about watersports and am looking forward to 2021 but I just don’t know where this winter will take us.”
During the conversation Ian mentioned that he had booked a family snowsports holiday. “Yep – we’re going. Whatever happens we are getting on the snow.” I suggested that this determination and enthusiasm for snowboarding would be emulated by the buying public. “Yes, perhaps, but….” the conversation tailed off. I could sense the concern.
To try and encourage Ian further I brought up the Ski Club of GB survey. 19,000 respondents and 96% of them said they were going to hit the slopes this winter. There’s further evidence from the Fall Line Magazine survey – the number of positive respondents were high, and the best quote returned in the survey was “Life is too short.” Not a bad mantra.
Ian was not convinced and summarised his views: “From a personal perspective I am very optimistic. From a business perspective… I just don’t know.
So let’s face it – when you are on the slopes you are outside, wearing goggles, gloves, perhaps a face covering and probably a helmet. You are pretty well protected. Then the après ski… well that’s up to individuals but if you want to stay socially distanced you will be able to. We all need to get the message out there to the customers… driving is a good alternative to flying, it’s a safe way to go on your holiday… and, of course, you’ll be able to take your own kit that you bought in the UK. Fingers crossed that I’m right.”
And “fingers crossed” is how Darren at The Snowboard Shop / The Skateboard Shop ended his conversation with me. But he started it quite differently when I asked him how things were. “Busy, really busy,” but by now you will realise that this response was not unexpected. “The summer has been great. Selling skateboards and SUP’s all day long”. OK, so we were not talking about winter and Darren was bullish: “Yeah- skate has been great with new customers and girls in particular – there’s lots of girls taking up skating. Busy online and in store… we’ve never sold so many completes and it’s a real good mix of customers – new and old! Completes and components – it’s all selling – all good!”
I didn’t want to put a dampener on things, but I had to ask how he felt about winter. “Ask me in a few weeks,” was his response but I needed something now. “It’s really tricky. We’ve started to sell hardware and some boards have moved through but we’re not where we’d like to be.” And soft goods? “Not selling at all. Customers are interested in getting to the snow, they want to get out there, but the bottom line is that nobody knows whether they will be able to. And that’s the issue. Fingers crossed!”
By the time you are reading this you will know, or have a much better idea, of how it’s panning out. Personally, I am confident that if the Great British Boarder is allowed to get to the snow – they will. One way or another they will make it out there or up there. They’ve been starved of their fix. They’re hungry for some boardtimes. If they’re not allowed to go then… well… fingers crossed, eh!