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UK Market Insight – Spring 2026. Politics in Boardsports

Forecasting. Predicting the future. Some may call it guessing… even gambling.

That’s what this is really. We have to understand what consumers are going to do, what buyers are going to do, and how suppliers are going to perform. Will they get the product right? Will they deliver on time? Get the marketing right?

At every step of the ‘food chain’, someone, somewhere is playing the ‘guessing game’. What is really about is reducing the margin-of-error as much as possible. “The black and the white always sell well… be safe and stick with them.” How often do we play it safe?

Given all the guessing game at every level of the process, it’s amazing that we ever get this right. It’s hard enough with all the moving parts…. and then…. throw Donald Trump into the mix. The “leader of the Western World” (not in my name) appears to be totally unhinged.

I hear you: “There’s no room for politics in boardsports.” But when politics like this impact every part of life for every human being in the world, it does touch us all and our customers. This impacts brands, sales, transport, travel, manufacturing, and above all, confidence.

The impact of Trump’s war is going to resonate through all corridors of our industry. There are suppliers in the Middle East. Transportation routes are being impacted, and of course raw material prices are going to go through the roof whilst confidence goes through the floor.

The vagaries of the boardsports industry pale into insignificance when compared to what is going on in the world, but still we continue. Amongst all the headwinds, we continue to make headway, against all the odds.

So our guessing game just got harder. Future bets are more critical than ever. But did it really get harder?

Here we are at the back end of one of the best seasons for a long, long time. “Best snowboard sales for 10 years.” This is Chris Sturgess from Snowfit, Norwich. “It really has been great. It had a feeling like the early 2000s, and we saw lots of old faces coming back into the store that have not been seen for a long time, some bringing in their teenage kids.”

Anything in particular selling well? “It’s all areas, really, clothing was sometimes a bit hit and miss but still ended up good. Boards, boots and bindings all did well, exceeding expectations and increased interest in the new binding technology helped. It’s all been above expectations, and we achieved our season’s goals six weeks earlier than anticipated.”

So you’re confident about the coming season? “As confident as we can be. There was a point when I was ready to send out emails cutting back on my orders for next year, but luckily I got so busy that I forgot to send them, which is just as well. I’m really looking forward to the coming winter. It’s going to be a good one, I’m sure.” And what about the summer, any thoughts on what that might bring? “Yes, a rest!”

It’s so nice talking to people who are having a good time and are confident about the future. Chris reflects what appears to be consistent across the marketplace. Winter has ended strong. Confidence is high for the coming season. Order books are full. And all this despite the doom, gloom, and low consumer confidence, just proving that snowboarding (and wintersports in general) is resilient.

Too early. Too late. No matter where Easter falls someone is never happy. Too late and it stalls the start of the summer season. This year it was “too early” – but the mini heatwave around the Bank Holiday weekend caught people off guard. A lot of wake parks were not ready for weekday opening, expecting the early Easter to be a write-off. That’s one thing we are really not able to second-guess, the weather!

It’s been and gone and we’re off (mid-April). The season is underway and confidence is high… or at least higher than it has been. It’s been doom and gloom for watersports for a long time now – but cautious optimism pervades. Stocks are lower, pre-orders have come in at higher levels than have been seen for some time, still not back to where we would like them to be – but heading in the right direction.

Watersports has taken much longer to gather momentum after the “pause,” but something is happening as Joe Turnbull from O’Neill confirmed. “Like the rest of the EU there is an East West split in the UK, Surf has recovered and is back to near-normal but wind and wake are taking longer to recover, it will come. There’s still a glut of other brand wetsuits in the market but we’re happy with our full price sales and pre-orders. For O’Neill it certainly feels like we are back to normal”.

What are the issues? “Biggest issue on the horizon is pricing. Raw materials have shot up in price, shipping is more expensive, regulations are costing more – it’s all beyond the point of absorption so prices will, for sure, be increasing – that’s about the only certainty in the market”.

Optimism is also high with retailers, and Angelo from S2AS (Surface 2 Air Sports) in Poole: “Yeah, super optimistic. It’s going to be a good one for sure. For summer, you get out what you put in, and we work hard to win the business. The more you put in, the more you will benefit.”

Any ups and downs? “I see a decline in kite and wing sales. Not in participation numbers, but there’s so much used kit out there. I see it being a tough area for some time to come. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I’m not counting on it. Otherwise, I am investing for growth.”

S2AS is also strong in wintersports, so how has that been? “Strong, super strong. We’ve had a really good season, which follows on from previous good seasons. I see nothing but growth for snowboarding, and whilst there are some harder areas, like soft goods, we are again investing for growth.”

One observation that Angelo did make is about our consumer base: “They want their ‘fix’. Amongst all the $£*t going on, they still need their ‘fix’, come hell or high water they will sacrifice other things in their lives to get it. Thank God for that.”

Of course, he’s right. Our customer base is loyal to their ‘religion’, and they will continue to come to our church so long as we have open doors and can offer them what they want.

So there you have it, politics and religion in one article. Given that Trump appears to see himself as the messiah, given that he’s making such a pigs-ear of it all, we should perhaps steer away from both and simply go back to guessing.

Place your bets.

Gordon Way