Industry: Slide Trade Show 2012
Outdoor Industry halting economic Slide?
After a tough 2011 for the outdoor industry, how is 2012 shaping up? Alex Fordham walked the floor to find out more...
T
elford International Centre was the location for Slide, the annual wintersport trade show from the 12-14 February. Over 230 brands were represented, showcasing the latest products that will appear in the stores this coming autumn. Established brands such as Oakley, Salomon, Patagonia and Oakley were present alongside a host of other up and coming outdoor brands.
The number of exhibitors at the show stood at 103, a slight decline on last year’s 105. For Slide’s Lesley Beck, these figures represented an achievement and a testament to the confidence and optimism of the industry in general. “To have the number of exhibitors on a par with last year is a real positive for the wintersports industry. We were expecting a large decline on last year’s figures and the numbers show the confidence of exhibitors despite the tough conditions that the industry has had to deal with in the past year.”
Beck makes a valid point. Conditions have been very tough in the past 18 months. Last year saw a bumper start to the winter with favourable weather conditions but a very mild winter followed. This left retailers with large levels of excess stock moving into this season and so are less likely to invest in large levels of new stock. The show was slow to jump into gear with a very quiet Sunday reported from a number of suppliers. Thankfully business picked up on Monday with reports of more visitors and a positive vibe from the majority of exhibitors. When speaking to SGB, Kozi Kidz boss Tomas
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www.sgboutdoor.co.uk
Torstensson commented that “Business really picked up on Monday after a slow start and the show was certainly worthwhile overall.” Along with the Slide Award Winners, there were a few products that really caught the eye of those on the floor. One such product was the Satellite Tracking System from G Trek. The G Trek is a small tracking device that can be placed in a pocket or pack and it will travel with you
throughout the day. All car, bike or snowsport enthusiasts can then relive the day and the route taken by downloading to a computer and their subsequent route overlaid on a 3D terrain image. The subsequent images really have to be seen to be believed!
Aside from the G Trek, the latest additions to the Dare 2B range and the simple but effective Help 4 Heroes socks from Horizon proved to be
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