Thoughts on snowboarding and other 2010 stuff...Hooray to 2011, and see ya 2010. The Year of Great Uncertainty is gone, to be replaced by... another one? This is according to the mainstream media, who need a bit of woe to keep them on the go.
Article by Richard Fincher, Publisher
So, was last year a disaster for the ski and snowboard industry? Er, no and yes. The start of it was hard because the early part of the season was affected by vigorous down-talking the year before, but then it snowed and business picked up.
The Winter Olympics has their usual non-effect on the UK, apart from putting a load of people off going to Whistler. We could tell that sponsorship was well down because for the past two Olympics the cosmetic, booze and electronic industry sponsors usually try to max out their audience association and jump into our mags, online and generally wave their Olympic message about. Not a whistle this time, and the same went for other media in the sector.
Overall Fall-Line had an average year for advertising despite the downturn in non-industry spend, but Document Snowboard had a shocker, to the extent that we had to shut it down. Seen as the most UK-tuned of the snowboard mags, it was the second to close that season - Snowboard UK folded a few months before. Looking across the Atlantic to see what was happening with snowboarding, it was clear that it was taking more of a beating during the recession than skiing. However bad people may think magazines are, almost every specialist sector supports more than one magazine, which isn't the case in the UK any more.
It's worth having a quick look at the reasons why: some are down to demographics and others are because of what snowboarding is.
First off, the people who get hit hardest in recessions are the under 25s, because they either get laid off or simply can't find jobs in the first place. Snowboarding is hugely biased to the under 35s, so lots of those people will be out of work or finding it hard to make enough spare cash to spend on riding and gear.
Second off, we often forget what a mature sport skiing is. That's not just because it's 4000 years old, but because the people who do it are a lot older than we think. Average age of a skier in Europe? This is Fall-Line (average age - 33) so I'm figuring you think, like me, that it's around 30-40? Allowing for all those schoolkids, the punky freestylers, the young families and the few old boys rattling around in one-pieces, that sounds a fair punt.
Well, it's 53. That's the average. Allowing for all the yoof mentioned ealier, it is clearly SERIOUSLY outweighed by that old fella and his mates in the one pieces. Add in all the wealthy types in their 50s and 60s quietly clocking up slopetime and then retiring to chalets and upper end hotels, and you start to get the picture. These people are barely affected by recessions. And they don't snowboard, because over a certain age people don't like pushing along the flat and sitting on their arse in the snow.
They also don't buy loads of ski gear, opting for timeless style (???) over fashion. Apart from the loaded ladies, who do like to look up to date. When they do get the wallets out, it's a hard core spendathon. (So that's why Arc'teryx are aiming at the insulated skiwear market... (see last blog).) Anyway, the other thing people do during recessions is justify their spend. Which is why fashion spend collapses and technical gear keeps selling. Boardwear has had a disastrous couple of years in both summer and winter ranges, whereas backcountry clobber has kept shifting, despite higher ticket prices.
Another reason snowboarding is under threat is the bunfight that is online retailing. Because any rider thinks they can set up a snowboard and bindings (unlike with a pair of skis), trawling the web to save a few quid means most snowboards are discounted from the off. Do that for a couple of years and your shop's gone bust. Over the last eight years, almost without exception, the bad debts for Fall-Line's business have been from snowboard stores. Those that are left have done their best to resist the discounting trend. Or done it better than the others...
So, snowboarding has had a poor couple of years, also not helped by freestyle skiing taking some of the younger market share and freeride skiing making powder easy again for skiers. Couple this in, and you can see why ski harware has done OK at snowboarding's expense. After years of rental shrinking the ski retail market, increased rental prices and poor equipment selection if you want freeride gear has meant skiers are starting to look at buying their own again.
Snowboarding is far from past it, but it's a (semi) mature activity/sport/lifestyle choice which is now into the turbulence of going in and out of favour along with every other activity/etc/etc out there. And if I read another shoddily 'researched' feature which starts: "Snowboarding is the fastest-growing sport on the planet right NOW!!!" I will hunt down the 'journalist' and suffocate him or her to death with unsold board pants.
Other news: a saving grace for UK retail has been the exchange rate. A strong Euro means all those overseas sales to Brits in resort have thinned down and some sales have come back the other way, with Germans in particular looking to the UK for bargain gear. We have spotted bigger European retailers instantly knocking their own prices down to keep them in line with the pound from the start of the season, but this appears to be an attempt to keep trade in Europe rather than letting it drift over here.
Online retail seems to have stabilised, too. News from the States suggests the significant growth it's seen over the past five years has finally slowed right down, possibly driven by the younger buyers who are more prone to spending online having less money, and possibly due to saturation. We still expect to see growth over here, but good retailers seem to be growing steadily still, with bespoke products that are hard to find. This does apply to snowboard retail too. For too long it's been the easy place for anyone who wants to make a quick buck out of the wintersport market to dip in; with the need to have a proper product range, good customer service and real understanding of what makes snowboarders tick it'll be harder for the get-rich-quick mercahnts to pile in...
Posted by Dickie Fincher - Tue, 04/01/2011 - 2:27pm
Hooray to 2011, and see ya 2010. The Year of Great Uncertainty is gone, to be replaced by... another one? This is according to the mainstream media, who need a bit of woe to keep them on the go.
Article by Richard Fincher, Publisher
So, was last year a disaster for the ski and snowboard industry? Er, no and yes. The start of it was hard because the early part of the season was affected by vigorous down-talking the year before, but then it snowed and business picked up.
The Winter Olympics has their usual non-effect on the UK, apart from putting a load of people off going to Whistler. We could tell that sponsorship was well down because for the past two Olympics the cosmetic, booze and electronic industry sponsors usually try to max out their audience association and jump into our mags, online and generally wave their Olympic message about. Not a whistle this time, and the same went for other media in the sector.
Overall Fall-Line had an average year for advertising despite the downturn in non-industry spend, but Document Snowboard had a shocker, to the extent that we had to shut it down. Seen as the most UK-tuned of the snowboard mags, it was the second to close that season - Snowboard UK folded a few months before. Looking across the Atlantic to see what was happening with snowboarding, it was clear that it was taking more of a beating during the recession than skiing. However bad people may think magazines are, almost every specialist sector supports more than one magazine, which isn't the case in the UK any more.
It's worth having a quick look at the reasons why: some are down to demographics and others are because of what snowboarding is.
First off, the people who get hit hardest in recessions are the under 25s, because they either get laid off or simply can't find jobs in the first place. Snowboarding is hugely biased to the under 35s, so lots of those people will be out of work or finding it hard to make enough spare cash to spend on riding and gear.
Second off, we often forget what a mature sport skiing is. That's not just because it's 4000 years old, but because the people who do it are a lot older than we think. Average age of a skier in Europe? This is Fall-Line (average age - 33) so I'm figuring you think, like me, that it's around 30-40? Allowing for all those schoolkids, the punky freestylers, the young families and the few old boys rattling around in one-pieces, that sounds a fair punt.
Well, it's 53. That's the average. Allowing for all the yoof mentioned ealier, it is clearly SERIOUSLY outweighed by that old fella and his mates in the one pieces. Add in all the wealthy types in their 50s and 60s quietly clocking up slopetime and then retiring to chalets and upper end hotels, and you start to get the picture. These people are barely affected by recessions. And they don't snowboard, because over a certain age people don't like pushing along the flat and sitting on their arse in the snow.
They also don't buy loads of ski gear, opting for timeless style (???) over fashion. Apart from the loaded ladies, who do like to look up to date. When they do get the wallets out, it's a hard core spendathon. (So that's why Arc'teryx are aiming at the insulated skiwear market... (see last blog).) Anyway, the other thing people do during recessions is justify their spend. Which is why fashion spend collapses and technical gear keeps selling. Boardwear has had a disastrous couple of years in both summer and winter ranges, whereas backcountry clobber has kept shifting, despite higher ticket prices.
Another reason snowboarding is under threat is the bunfight that is online retailing. Because any rider thinks they can set up a snowboard and bindings (unlike with a pair of skis), trawling the web to save a few quid means most snowboards are discounted from the off. Do that for a couple of years and your shop's gone bust. Over the last eight years, almost without exception, the bad debts for Fall-Line's business have been from snowboard stores. Those that are left have done their best to resist the discounting trend. Or done it better than the others...
So, snowboarding has had a poor couple of years, also not helped by freestyle skiing taking some of the younger market share and freeride skiing making powder easy again for skiers. Couple this in, and you can see why ski harware has done OK at snowboarding's expense. After years of rental shrinking the ski retail market, increased rental prices and poor equipment selection if you want freeride gear has meant skiers are starting to look at buying their own again.
Snowboarding is far from past it, but it's a (semi) mature activity/sport/lifestyle choice which is now into the turbulence of going in and out of favour along with every other activity/etc/etc out there. And if I read another shoddily 'researched' feature which starts: "Snowboarding is the fastest-growing sport on the planet right NOW!!!" I will hunt down the 'journalist' and suffocate him or her to death with unsold board pants.
Other news: a saving grace for UK retail has been the exchange rate. A strong Euro means all those overseas sales to Brits in resort have thinned down and some sales have come back the other way, with Germans in particular looking to the UK for bargain gear. We have spotted bigger European retailers instantly knocking their own prices down to keep them in line with the pound from the start of the season, but this appears to be an attempt to keep trade in Europe rather than letting it drift over here.
Online retail seems to have stabilised, too. News from the States suggests the significant growth it's seen over the past five years has finally slowed right down, possibly driven by the younger buyers who are more prone to spending online having less money, and possibly due to saturation. We still expect to see growth over here, but good retailers seem to be growing steadily still, with bespoke products that are hard to find. This does apply to snowboard retail too. For too long it's been the easy place for anyone who wants to make a quick buck out of the wintersport market to dip in; with the need to have a proper product range, good customer service and real understanding of what makes snowboarders tick it'll be harder for the get-rich-quick mercahnts to pile in...