Spain Market Insight Autumn 2025 – economic rebound looks strong on paper, but retailers report a more cautious reality.
Spain’s economic growth is making international headlines for its steady and healthy pace. Inflation has eased, which is supposed to support a recovery in real incomes and enable higher savings and lower debts, especially considering the increasing employment rates happening at the same time.
If yours truly sounds sceptic, it is because this does not match the sentiment of the retailers and consumers I have talked to. Unemployment remains well above the European average, particularly among young people. Energy and grocery prices may have fallen, but with housing costs blown out of proportion, cost of living pressures outpace wage growth. So, even if there are more jobs, and energy and food prices have decreased, household budgets remain tight, and quite sensitive to any variation in everyday expenses or income. In this context, consumers have become more selective in their spending, a trend clearly felt on board sports retail floors.
Board sports users feel economically restricted, and even if the interest in the practice of these sports remains steady, the purchasing rate has stagnated at best. Reports from retailers interviewed for this article indicate that there are more practitioners, but less sales of new product, with increasing demand of second-hand kit and repair jobs. “If you look at Wallapop, there are thousands of boards. This creates sports culture, but contributes to less sales”, explains David Martínez from HolaOla Surf Shop in Galicia. Summer has been relatively good, but sales in autumn have slowed down. Overall results for the year could be modest. Apparel is the best-selling category, but it is mainly concentrated in peak consumption periods and discount events, and winter collections are challenged by warmer than expected autumn weather. “I am noticing a decrease in winter clothing sales, whereas summer clothing sold well”, says Lucía Calderón from Dreisog, a surf, skate, and snowboard shop in Fuengirola.
Surf seems to be the strongest sport in terms of popularity and sales, and the main support for multi-brand, multi-sport shops. Skateboarding and snowboarding have experienced much more migration of their customers to online platforms. The few remaining specialised snowboarding shops are on the mountain, where the footfall depends greatly on the weather conditions. Business is especially good for shops who own a surf school. “The school offers an experience, an adventure, not a product, and is perceived as a much more valuable expense”, says David Martinez. Also, schools do not suffer the competition of the digital sphere, as (so far) there is no other way of learning to surf than taking to the water with a specialised instructor. Most shops have their own online stores, but these serve more as a catalogue, far from becoming a relevant source of income.
The market colonisation of big corporate online retailers and brands’ own e-commerce sites cuts any chance of competition to practically null. This aspect of the business is the most difficult one for brick-and-mortar retailers. The direct competition has shifted the traditional relationship between brands and shops form a personal, mutually supporting one to a more distanced, numbers-oriented approach. “We used to have sales reps who we had a personal relationship with. That is lost now, it is all online through order forms”, says Lucía. Stores live off repeating customers that keep going back for the personalised attention they receive. It is much harder to create customer loyalty online, and this is not only bad for stores, but ultimately for brands too.
Specialised retailers draw their resilience from their passion for the sport and the experience of introducing someone to it and witnessing their progress over time. This is the sort of human connection that grows the sport and the brands that support it. As enticing as the D2C margins are, they serve short term gains, endangering the longevity of the sport. The situation calls for a rethinking of how online and physical retail can synergise for the common good.
Rocio Enriquez.
