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Swiss Market: Skate Sales Return to “Normal” After Covid Boom
At the beginning of this year the economic situation in Switzerland seems pretty good but the balance is a rather delicate one.
By Fabien Grisel
Although it may be to a lesser extent than in some of our neighbouring countries, the geopolitical situation causing the prices of oil and raw materials to soar is clearly affecting us as well and the effect on boardsports is starting to be felt here too. As is often the case, our currency is sheltering us from being as badly affected as others but this could change soon according to macro-economic experts. The price of goods is rising in almost all sectors and this is probably only the beginning with the current inflation not expected to subside any time soon. Obviously, wages will not follow as quickly, which will inevitably lead to a decrease in purchasing power.
In addition to prices, current uncertainties are mainly based around the ability to get stock. We know that the disruptions caused by Covid, and now the war, are having a major impact on production, transportation and traffic in general. So, as we have known for a while now, some sports have been particularly affected by equipment shortages and delivery delays and this is the case for the cycling as well as other sectors such as watersports and skateboarding.
The skateboarding industry has, like in many other countries, evolved enormously after the pandemic. There are two reasons for this, firstly due to the massive increase in demand, and secondly because distributors had to organise themselves differently when ordering from brands and factories. Today, more stock has to be acquired and more of it has to be pre-ordered than in the past. According to Markus “Soerfi” Schweingruber, the owner of the Illumate distribution and the online shop skate.ch, this situation has led to shops and distributors over-ordering and overstocking hardgoods for spring 2022. Shops received a lot of product at the beginning of the year and now have to sell it just as the frenzy of the last two years seems to be dying down a little bit. That said, for the moment it remains quite OK: as Soerfi says, we must compare what is comparable which means pitting the figures of 2022 against those of 2019 because the so-called Covid opportunities of 2020 and 2021 were exceptions. Today we are back to a more normal level, although higher than 2019, which is pleasing. So b2c sales have slowed down because of the return to normality while b2b sales have slowed down because of the large amount of pre-orders and resulting stock to sell.
When you look at the sales in more detail, you can see real progress in sales of protective gear, a type of product which was practically not even selling a few years ago. Once more according to Soerfi, it seems that “re-issue” decks, which consists of bringing back vintage-classic designs, are really popular with skaters and collectors alike, with both jumping on the trend. So in his case distributing Powell Peralta and Santa Cruz (and many others of course), you can easily understand that when it comes to reissues there are some really good opportunities to be had.
We find ourselves at a pivotal moment, prices are taking off and availability shortages can present real problems. Let’s hope that everyone manages to get through it successfully before the (late?) arrival of our winter products.
