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Italian Boardsports Market Roundup April 2021
2021 started and not much changed. Economy-wise Italy is still struggling and especially brick and mortar retail together with hotels, restaurants and bars are the big losers of the continuous lockdowns. Italy has its coloured lockdown model. White means everything is open, yellow means only a few restrictions, orange means gastronomy is closed but retail stores are open but people are not allowed to leave their cities and red means pretty much everything is closed. During January it was still ok, but in February most regions turned orange and the end of March now sees a lot of regions in red as the infection rate increased again. By Franz Josef Holler
The vaccine is still the light at the of the tunnel but the number of doses arriving to Italy is not very promising and it should take until at least mid-summer before we reach a good percentage of vaccinated people. This is leading the Italian population to be disenfranchised with many simply tired and fed up with this whole situation, which seems to reach no conclusion.
It’s especially bad for retail as big inventory levels are hurting cash flow and not being able to plan makes life really hard for store owners when pre-ordering for FW21. Everyone has now started to market their goods on social media and tries to do some turnover with home delivery or click and collect, which is the same case for gastronomy so at least a part of the lost turnover can be recovered.
FW21 has been a disaster for pre-orders on outerwear and snow hardgoods and saw a heavy decline as shop inventory levels is still very high. Snow & ski touring saw some increases in pre-orders while it was the only means to ski or snowboard this winter as no single resort could open this past season in Italy.
Luckily skateboarding still stays very, very strong and distributors and stores see record sales during the lockdown months. US brands such as Deluxe SF or Baker remain high and so are many deck companies from Europe and demand for trucks and wheels from US companies are the product categories seeing the most shortages as also global demand seems very high. Completes have been very high in demand for a year now from different price ranges, so this should also lead to a lot of new hardgood sales in the future. As far as clothing goes, the revival of the baggy pant is here and it’s good so see as it reminds me of the good old days in the late 90s. Overall skateboarding styles gone a little rougher and is now workwear and outdoor inspired.
Many boardsport stores have updated their online presence and the digital evolution saw a real boost, which is notable in every business right now and the so called “lazy Italians” are not so lazy anymore when it comes to e-commerce. This is good on one side but also sad on the other side as the physical stores especially for our boardsport segment are crucial in keeping the scene alive and healthy. No skateparks will be built without the help of a store and no local contests will he held without the push of a good local brick and mortar store, which is still the meeting point for every skate crew in all the small cities throughout Italy.
Surf stores have a positive outlook for this upcoming 2021 summer as if things get better starting from May which we all hope, the season should even improve of the successful 2020 season as everyone is ready to get to the beach and have fun on and around the water.
The start of 2021 is a mix of fear and hope as everyone can’t wait to leave Covid19 behind and start heading towards a better tomorrow…