Issue 127 Out NOW!
The Trade Events Merry-Go-Round
The winter boardsports industry calendar has revolved around the winter ISPO trade show dates for fifty plus years. At its zenith there was one hall for snowboard hardgoods, one for softgoods and one for accessories plus a hall or two for surf and skate. Visitor figures were at the 80,000 level. So, the announcements of ISPO winter moving to Amsterdam, rebranding as a combined B2C and B2B event and the cancellation of summer Outdoor ISPO and its replacement by a new multi-faceted event on Lac Garda in Italy, has caused quite a shake up in the trade event calendar.
Today there is a plethora of winter trade events, all squeezed into the January window and driven by current order deadlines. So, working around the calendar; Slide/OTS has just moved to Liverpool, Winterpro has just moved to Tignes and last year Sport Achat Hiver moved to Grenoble and Shops 1st Try moved to Hochfügen. At the same time the on snow demo events have solidified their positions for snowboard hardgoods testing and community get togethers in the mountains. The functions of trade events stays the same: that real face to face benefit, to see what’s new out there and to connect with as many brands as possible, all at one event and best utilising resource, time and money. After the recent changes maybe the winter show calendar is finally bedded down and we can all concentrate on making the most out of the new dates and locations, not the easiest to organise with all this fragmentation.
With the winter season sell in time upon us, this issue of Source is loaded with winter product retail buyers guides, Including the all-important Snowboard guide. Our BigWig interview is with Tommy Delago co- founder of Nitro, he’s certainly experienced the change in the trade show calendar on his business. And on top we have a stack of company profiles to keep you informed on what brands are up to. As I finish this editorial, I am planning my packed four week January road trip. So see you soon at one of the many scheduled trade events!
Onwards, Upwards and Sideways but never Straight
Clive Ripley Publisher
