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Swiss Market: Wing Foil Keeps Market Optimistic, Skate Continues To Plateau
Winter 22-23 has really taken its toll. After being absent for most of the season, the cold returned and there were eventually some regular snowfalls at altitude in April. This provided some nice end-of-season sessions for all the freeride aficionados who had been left wanting until then. But that wasn’t enough to save the season since most of the ski lifts were already closed.
By Fabien Grisel
Some resorts, however, were able to stay open longer, attracting riders who had been frustrated by the lackluster winter. This was the case for Verbier, Les Diablerets and Crans-Montana among others, with some managing to postpone their closing days until early May. We saw some renewed motivation for spring riding in Switzerland this season given the good conditions at the time but obviously from a business point of view that didn’t really help.
Sales in 23-24, as well as observations in the field, showed a slight revival of freestyle snowboarding in Switzerland. The snowparks were busy, social media feeds of up-and-coming Swiss snowboarders were loaded with freestyle and the brands were pushing in this direction. We’re seeing more freestyle items appearing on offer and the numbers of pre-orders confirm this demand, at least in part. It’s a logical development and a good sign for the future given that powder snow is becoming increasingly scarce.
This mediocre season has not spared everyone. We regret to see a number of retailers in Switzerland going bankrupt this winter, most of these consisted of small structures that were sometimes ‘side-businesses’, but it’s never a good thing. A page is being turned on them and on a part of the industry that’s still fairly dependent on small specialist shops. For the others, it’s not all rosy either – payment problems are frequent, if not truly worrying, and the lack of liquidity is real because revenues have not matched up to expectations. It’s not just the lack of sales that’s causing problems but also the fact that certain deliveries have been delayed, creating a need for liquidity at an unusual time, which is exactly what happened with the bike business, being so delayed that retailers were forced to take on goods and cash out at times when they shouldn’t have to worry about it.
The dicey spring weather didn’t really help to kick-start the summer season. Footfall in shops was not great and consumer spending in general was below par. Inflation in Switzerland, estimated at 2.5% in 2023, in addition to well below-average growth may also explain the reluctance to buy anything at the moment. Generally speaking, we can see that the skateboard market has been relatively stable since the drop off in 2022 while the water sports market is clearly struggling to get off the ground in the gloomy weather. However, we can foresee this changing quickly, as the highly encouraging success of wing foils in 2022 suggests that there is still real potential in this area and that sales of neoprenes could go along with it. The booming bike market in the Swiss mountains should also help some of our retailers enjoy a good summer, or at least that’s what we’re hoping for.
