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Swiss Boardsports Market Insight February 2021

So here we are in the midst of a second wave at the start of January and the Swiss are trying their best to hold their own. Just like anywhere else, it is extremely difficult to know what to do with this pandemic period, we’ve already endured this uncertainty for over 10 months but this time around we are in the middle of the winter season with high stakes for the Swiss boardsports business. Here are a few lines to take stock of the situation. By Fabien Grisel

Switzerland, unlike its neighbours, did not decide to lockdown its population like it (semi) did in springtime but the situation is changing so fast that it might well have already changed by the time you get to read these lines. Our government took measures based on the gravity of the situation for each region and that created huge disparity between the cantons despite the small size of our country. Some shops, restaurants and other cultural and sporting activities pulled through quite well while others struggled. Another particular of our country was that our ski lifts remained partially open during the holiday period and again, not in every canton and of course with protective measures in place, but we were able to go out and enjoy winter sports in any case. As for restaurants, they have been closed for a few weeks.

Despite all this, some people have managed to work pretty well. Obviously online shops got raided and came out big winners from this crisis, while some retailers with physical shops were also able to work pretty well considering the economic and sanitary situation. Restrictions are still in place but the desire to consume is strong. Specialist shops that are focussed on sales have managed to maintain good figures up to this point. However, everyone is in agreement that while sales aren’t seeing a steep decline, the same can’t be said for rentals, which are posting some worrying results. The target market for the big players on the rental market are occasional customers who normally wait and see the snow arrive on the mountaintops before going to rent their equipment. Nowadays these same people are waiting to see what a ski resort might look like during a pandemic before looking into renting equipment. This had a clear impact on rentals and they were well down on previous years by the end of 2020.

Max Lecomte from On the Mountain in Haute Nendaz personally reported the same outcome; a lot less interest in rentals but good results in sales. The lack of tourists in resorts is one of the main reasons for the significant drop in rentals for shops located in the mountain resorts.

Something else of note this season, is the the explosion in splitboard sales we’ve seen, as foreshadowed this summer by what happened to outdoor activities in general, a similar “COVID” effect took place for splitboarding. This phenomenon is mainly due to wanting to avoid the crowds through fear of contracting the virus and/or fear of ski lift closures in which case this activity would then stand out as the best solution to continue to ride this season. Whatever the cause, splitboard sales have seen an unprecedented upsurge. Most brands providing boards, bindings or skins found themselves short of stock in November already.

Although the snow conditions are pretty optimal, it is clear that the crisis we are enduring will leave its mark, either in the short term or for the seasons to come.