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Snow & Rock Snowboard Buyer Discusses Current Winter Biz + Need For Carry-Over

The UK is facing a particularly difficult winter season ahead for snowboard retailers with the majority of the island’s snowboard community usually travelling to the Alps for their fix. Combining this with the uncertainty of the impending Brexit, we spoke with Sam Clark, head snowboard buyer for one of the UK’s biggest snowboard shop chains, Snow & Rock for some insight.

What were some of the best things brands have done for you since the start of the pandemic?
Increased carry forward from AW20/21 into AW21/22, and shared this information upfront, as it “de-risks” intake on these lines more than non-carry forward lines. A lot of brands also reduced their production. Whether this was a conscious decision or an artifact of factories shutting down due to COVID, it will help limit overstocks and avoid flooding the market in season with cheap product. We’re also in a world where retailers buy from brands, but brands are also talking directly to consumers through their own webshops. Brands being open and transparent and sharing their planned B2C promotional activity for the season can be a massive help when planning in branded marketing activity for the season. The main thing though is it’s been easiest to work through everything this year with the brands that have kept in touch regularly, picking up the phone once every couple of weeks.

How do you expect brands to drive consumer demand with zero events?
Spend those marketing budgets wisely! Make sure marketing activity is a combo that focuses on both brand awareness but predominantly on driving sell-through. Sell through & limited margin erosion is the way to ensure sustainable business and good orders next season. Whilst events are great and keep the industry buzzing, realistically, budget spent on digital marketing often goes much further. Don’t forget about the events though when we get through this season!

What are you hoping/expecting to see in product lines from brands for 21/22?
More carry forward! I’ve been a big supporter of carry forward on key lines for a long time. It works in the outdoor industry, fashion industry, cycle industry etc. Even the ski industry have been using carry forward on key lines for decades. Why change a best selling black boot/jacket/pant/binding simply for the sake of making the same thing the next year with a different colour logo? Or doing a slight change on the ankle strap of a binding to make it “new”, when to most customers it looks identical to the model from the past three years. It puts retailers in a position where they need to discount product to clear through, make less margin and eventually be less profitable with brands. I believe mainline products in mainline colours should be run for 2-3 years alongside seasonal colour collections – get to the end of the season and prices can be held on carry forward lines whilst seasonal colours are discounted to clear through. This strategy also ensures a more premium position for the brand, with less markdown product in the marketplace. Products should then be updated when it is genuinely something new and the benefit can be easily communicated to the end consumer, not just a tweak to a product that most customers won’t notice (just don’t put year codes on product packaging).

A lot of brands have been scaling back their ranges for the last few years – it’s a tight line to tread, keeping your business lean but also offering options suitable for all markets. Most companies we deal with have done a good job of scaling back their SKU count and incorporating some element of carry forward, but there are still a few companies that could do with reducing the width of their ranges and ensuring the core products are bang on and can be run for multiple seasons.

On the flip side to this, there’s still definitely the need for newness and developments to keep the industry fresh and exciting for both people in it and the customers in the shops. Newness needs to be just that, though….new. Not small tweaks to existing products!

Sticking your finger in the air… how do you expect this winter to unfold?
Optimistic thinking? The government have put the UK into lockdown now to get cases under control pre-Christmas and allow people to gather in some form. Whilst the next general election isn’t for some time and people tend to forget a lot over the years, I truly believe the Conservative government doesn’t want to be remembered as “the Government that cancelled Christmas”!

People aren’t thinking about leaving the UK for the mountains yet – Christmas seems to be the first milestone to get to and through for most. After a lack of summer travel and holidays, people are hoping to travel freely with minimal concern over the infection. Assuming global cases are under control and the vaccines are approved, I believe we will see a strong desire to get away once we hit the new year, with a subsequent uplift in sales. If things stay under control (and snow conditions stay good) I think we could have a long tail to the season.

Pessimistic thinking? Even if all the above becomes true, we will have lost a large part of the in-store selling season before lockdown ends and sales can really ramp up. We can hypothesise until the cows come home on what will or won’t happen, and how different segments of the market will be more or less affected by different factors…there’s been too much negativity this year though, and so I’ll leave it there.

Looking at skate and surf as examples, retailers struggled with supply issues (not enough wetsuits and skateboard hardgoods and therefore had to work with completely new suppliers!). Should by some form of miracle, we experience the same boom in the snowboard business this winter, would you have any problems with working with new distributors/brands?
Not at all. Brexit does potentially throw up possible supply chain issues, with some freight forwarders already getting overbooked in the run up to Brexit.