Pro Content

German Market Annual Roundup 2022: A Big Winter For Boot Sales & Tough Decisions For Next Season’s Pre-Book

Early snow, no snow, some snow… Discounts, early sale, Black Friday… 
By Toby Hammer

This Market Insight is actually just as full of suspense as most others in 2022. No one knows anything for sure. The world is still going crazy, and that’s also what the retail situation feels like. What a crazy but consistently good month for the German boardsport trade. At least according to the traders with whom I have regular contact, the turnover is very positive and at a good level, with figures similar to those in 2019.

The early snow and also the cold temperatures at the beginning of December contributed to a pre-Christmas sentiment here. December got off to a super positive start for the retail sector.

However, the impact of discounts and Black Friday was also still palpable. And these, incomprehensibly, also confused the end consumer. Why are hardgoods being offered at reduced prices at the end of November / beginning of December? Well, I’ve heard this question several times, but to be honest I have no answer. As a matter of fact, at such a moment in time no ski resort has opened yet. People can’t wait to do winter sports, and the prices get knocked down. The snow situation here in Europe was then very good with snow in the low mountain ranges and the Alps until mid-December. In some cases, ski resorts even started operating their facilities a week earlier. Excellent conditions for the sale of all winter-related goods. Outerwear, gloves, goggles, helmets and even hardware. A blissful feeling for the retailers.

Unfortunately, Old Mother Frost then decided to really hit hard in the USA with extreme snowfall and cold. The foehn wind swept across Europe, bringing warmer air and rain. As so often happens, many places thus had a green Christmas. Of course, this also affected the winter sports trade. Especially in the touring segment, many report a restrained buying behaviour, certainly due to the amount of snow. Without powder, there’s no point in going off-piste. All-mountain snowboards / boots, on the other hand, performed very well. Christian Meller, head buyer at Sport Bittl, confirms this: “We are satisfied here. Splitboards are still lagging behind expectations. But overall we are happy with the sales, considering that winter has only just begun.”

Snowboard boots are and continue to be a huge topic in the German snowboard trade, as it is quite clear that boots attract people to the good shops. That’s because boot fitting has become a big deal for snowboard boots as well. More and more, soles are also getting sold with the heat moulded boots. Service is the key to success here. Christian from Freerider in Hamburg, who focuses a lot on offering this service in the Hanseatic city, also confirms this. “I actually spend most of my day sliding around on my knees to keep customers happy. And these customers are very grateful and come to our shop for that very reason. This kind of expertise is not something you can buy online. “When asked which brands in particular stand out here, he replied, “ThirtyTwo as a core snowboard boot brand, Salomon, and Ride. They’re all brands that work with Intuition liners. There I can easily do a lot with heat moulding, like placing heel rings.”

I also had a quick chat with Dale Tayler, ThirtyTwo Sales Manager Europe. He confirmed that most of the ThirtyTwo stock is already sold out, although they had bought almost twice as much as in previous years. Sole-Tech is still owner-managed; ThirtyTwo is the biggest sales generator in the brand portfolio worldwide. ThirtyTwo is heading into winter 2023 with some carryover products. They are running a two-year carryover programme, which makes planning easier for both brand and retail. However, the same thing happens here as I’ve heard from some shops: early deadlines.

The deadline for textiles, especially for Gore-Tex products in this pre-book season, comes extremely early. That makes things very difficult for the retailers, as some have not even received their deliveries yet and already have to place a new order. This is also the case for Stefan at Switch in Straubing: “This doesn’t make things any easier. I will look at what we sell and then work with the brands that support us, even at the risk of not getting any goods. Which is what I’ve been hearing on the phone quite a lot lately.” He is very happy with the sales so far. “It tends to happen that some products just don’t get delivered and that’s why there’s less variety to choose from. December was very good, though, so we sold some vouchers.”

I also spoke briefly with Alex Schumacher, who is a mega specialist in both winter sports and water sports with his eponymous shop. I asked him how SUP sales went in comparison to the previous years before Christmas: “In the SUP area, there was some movement, but it is quite clear that the low-price set deals are now more a thing for summer supply purchases, which are thus also made in the summer. What has developed really nicely for us, however, is the wing and foil segment. We’ve had a lot of fun here. In the snow segment we’re unfortunately also having to deal with discounts and, at the moment, with the fact that there’s no snow in the Alps. So, of course, fewer people are coming.”

So, we now wrap up this crazy boardsports year 2022 and wish everyone a happy new year – hopefully on some board.

See you in 2023!