WELCOME
Welcome to the Winter Market Rep Show.
There is no doubt that the past 12 months have been challenging for retailers due mainly to Mother Nature not cooperating. At the time of writing this, the weather forecast for the 4th day of December is 14 degrees. Not a record the historians say; that happened in 1972 with a balmy 20 degrees. I wasn’t in the industry in 1972 so I cant tell you how the retail season was but judging by the stories I hear from the likes of Bob Millar, you couldn’t help but make money back then. Skiing was all the rage; Jake
Burton Carpenter and his buddies were bucking the trend and trying to figure out how to get down the hill faster on a Snurfer, years before he created his own snowboard designs. It obviously didn’t matter how warm it was in ’72; Consumers were buying gear as fast as the industry could make it. There’s no room left for doing things the way they have been done before. Now is the
time to embrace change and seek out the new opportunities that are created from the way people are recreating outdoors today. If you take a look at the brands on the floor of the show, you’ll see an almost endless array of product that is innovating and addressing the needs of today’s Outdoor demographic. The fusion of technical fabrics with high street style allows consumers to recreate closer to home in between the new-world work patterns. I see a great amount of passion in the independent channel. Rub a little of this passion off on your customers and they will reward you with their business. I’m totally convinced that the opportunity to differentiate your service offering and providing a more fulfilling recreational environment to consumers will deliver the ROI you both expect and deserve. This will be the biggest show we have ever produced. Please; Shut the store if you
have to but plan to spend no less than 2 days at the show. Seriously; take the full three days to check out every corner of the show, every booth in every aisle - and every story that you hear. These will be some of the most productive, thought provoking and eventually, lucrative days you will spend investing in the Fall ‘13/Winter ’14 retail season. If you do, success will be inevitable. I look forward to greeting you at the entrance to the show as usual and to chatting
with you about your successes. In the meantime; I wish you a prosperous retail holiday season of business.
Regards
Robert Lauder Show Manager
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