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German 2021 Market Roundup

Still no light at the end of the tunnel? Austria decided to introduce a mandatory vaccination from February 2022. A similar discussion is being held in Germany, but is yet to be determined. Certainly, the Corona pandemic keeps our society busy and provokes new political regulations across Germany, whilst the Omicron version starts to grip the globe. Certain states have decided on a lockdown until the 13th of December with a potential to prolong. By Laurids Belle & Eric Bruweleit

Germany experienced an unprecedented increase in case numbers starting in early October. The documentation tools have changed from the R – Index to the hospitalisation rate, and a group of people is protesting in front of the health ministry of Saxony. The Christmas celebrations will probably be muted with restrictions only allowing a maximum of 50 persons in one place, but then only with the 2G (vaccinated or recovered) certificate. No surprise that the revenue generated from online retailers hit an all-time high with 23.1 billion euros compared to 19.7 billion euros in 2020. The 2G proof is necessary to enter retail shops, which is one explanation for the enormous increase in the online segment.

As Austria is labelled a high-risk destination, the German resorts will see a strong increase in visitors this winter, although the Zugspitze cable cars will run with only two-thirds of their normal capacity, and masks will be mandatory inside the cabins. Nevertheless, the authorities are positive because people have adjusted to the Corona situation. People seem to follow the rules, and the winter season should happen, which is at least a little relief for the local retail shops that had to close last year and missed out on the 20/21 season. Many retailers decided to sell the previous season’s boards with dramatic discounts to free up their storage for the new 21/22 snowboard hardware. “There wasn’t much happening last winter, although I kept some of the models, and I didn’t want to be part of the price war for last season’s boards with crazy discounts. The problem was a stop in production and late deliveries this year, so many shops had no backup stock. I am now one of the lucky ones who has some boards that can be sold from the previous season.” said Max Bechen, who runs the Stylefish shop in Winterberg.

The skate scene saw comparable impacts with late deliveries and increasing costs for skateboards. “Sales are still good, though prebooks for 2022 are slightly down,” says Jörg Ludwig from Urban Supplies in Wiesbaden, Germany. Overall, logistics became a problematic issue this year with home office, staying at home, and improved computer skills meaning the overall demand and e-commerce business grew immensely. This put further pressure on the global freight system. The result was a shortage in containers, a rise in shipping costs and consequently a translation of higher costs onto the consumer. This fact is confirmed by Jörg Ludwig: “We had price-increases, moderate though, for some US products and airfreight exports from the US is only about 10% higher now than before the Corona-crisis.” Nevertheless, the skateboard sector has been gaining momentum since this crisis although there Jörg is expecting a slow-down “due to the super supply shortage until spring 2021, shops have prebooked completes like crazy. The fact that then the summer was rather rainy, and sales slowed down a bit, has resulted in massive stock of completes in shops and online-retailers.” Streets, public places, and the urban landscape are the playground for the growing skate community with a slight decrease in demand expected for the upcoming year.

The summer went smoothly for the wakeboard industry, with appointment slots booked solid. The supply chains remained intact, and boards came in regularly. Anna Trinker of Wakeport in Raunheim mentioned that only a few small components for the wakeboards couldn’t be ordered by the retailers, although the orders of boards worked normally. International holidays were still limited throughout the warm summer months, and due to the uncertainty implied by the corona pandemic, tourists stayed in Germany. The summer holiday in Greece was replaced by an excursion to the north of Germany, resulting in busy beaches full of surfers and kiters. With the wakeboard season now coming to an end, and the sea becomes too fresh for many to kite, retailers can look back on a successful year with small supply chain issues and customers that adjusted to the current situation without cancelling their appointments in the round–cable park. Daniel Schöllhorn from Surf & Kite Hamburg recalls: “We were able to open the wakeboard facility only two weeks late, while the shop remained in click & collect mode. At the start, only 15 customers were allowed to use the cable at once but this figure grew, even the bad weather didn’t stop people from booking out the slots at our cable park.”

Germany has a strong surf community with roughly 2.5 million active surfers normally pursuing metre high waves worldwide. This year the endless possibilities for the surf community were limited to Europe. So, the standing wave at Eisbach in Munich and The North Sea coast were packed with enthusiastic surfers. Furthermore, Munich will soon become a major hotspot for surfing in Germany due to the construction permission given to the Surftown wave park in May. In 2023, the first waves are expected to pump in the 20,000 sqm artificial wave facility. The demand for all water sports is clearly strong and Stephan Güttinger from the wholesale division of Element Sports confirms this upward trend: “For us, the sales figures in water sports are very constant. There was a small slump due to the late start of the water-skiing season in the Covid year 2020, but since then we have seen a solid growth again. The demand for sports equipment and for the corresponding protection gear is on an upward trend.”

In general, much of the boardsport industry for example surfing, wakeboarding and skating has experienced growth in 2021. Especially the skate boom where complete boards are being sold despite rising prices. The upcoming winter season will reveal how the snowboard industry keeps up with its stock, old models, and shortcomings in supply chains. The ongoing lockdown in Austria unsettles German tourists and will greatly impact the industry if the lockdown is extended and another season cancelled.