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Swiss 2021 Market Roundup

What a strange year…2021 was full of twists just like 2020, there was kind of a return to normal, but one fraught with uncertainties. In Switzerland, the end results weren’t as bad as they were in neighbouring countries, resorts were open, and the relative freedom permitted by our authorities meant that tourism and sporting activities could operate almost normally. Let’s look at what happened in more detail. By Fabien Grisel

It actually went relatively well for the snowboard market and the close of the winter season. Of course, the number of ski and snowboard rentals were down because of the limited traffic between countries but the Swiss customers, keen to spend some time in the mountains and escape the dreary vibe of the towns, helped to maintain decent figures. This relative success meant that the number of pre-orders was better than hoped for in spring. For snowboarding, it seems like the 21/22 pre-orders remained pretty much the same as levels before Covid, which seems quite crazy when you look at what has happened in the last two years. Shops were confident and so took a chance on ordering normal quantities, fully aware that the health situation might throw a spanner in the works.

The spring and summer season also proved troublesome with the first problems to supply becoming apparent, early signs of a turbulent future for the various chains. Almost all sectors are affected. At home in Switzerland, we’ve seen huge problems in delivering and restocking cycling, skateboarding and watersports equipment, especially wetsuits. So despite the weather, which was worse than dull, the demand was there. You couldn’t always please everyone but at least the desire hasn’t dissipated, and the shops were well-visited. Biking continues on its really strong rise. Skateboarding hasn’t been forgotten about either and is still really popular – as it has been for the last several years – building on this momentum, irrespective of seasons or weather. Watersports are expanding as well; wing foiling continues its impressive progress with landlocked surfers getting into it, quenching their thirst for gliding through water. Alaia Bay, the Wavegarden I mentioned in the last edition hasn’t been any quieter despite the sharp drop in temperature, continuing to attract people from across the whole country and from our neighbours.

As for autumn, game hunting season has become a time for another kind of sport: merchandise hunting. We already knew about this, but it does seem particularly difficult to get supplies, most brands have had significant delays to deliveries if not straight-up cancellations. Delays to manufacturing were down to a lack of raw materials and because the various transportation channels, land, sea, and air, were hard to put in place, subject to long delays and also being very expensive. So the shops that placed their orders nice and early are super happy, requesting highly-anticipated deliveries from the few brands that managed to get their materials in before the summer rush. Generally everything is late, but thankfully for now, shops and their customers seem to be sympathetic and are waiting patiently, let’s hope that this wait won’t be too long and it transforms into some good sales. In any case, those who already received their goods in October were happy to start the season but talked about a drop in interest compared to the same time last year, to be continued…