Despite flat numbers of skiers over the past decade and diminished wholesale prices and market size, endemic equipment companies have a newfound optimism about the future. Multi-resort season passes, and a strong snow season in 2018-19, are resulting in growing numbers of sport participants, and with it, stronger sales of skis, boots, clothing, goggles and more.
The ski equipment industry grew up in the European Alps, where family companies blossomed into global brands. Today, industry companies have integrated, often spreading their brands across multiple product types.
Consolidation has brought many brands together, plus fostered growth for large scale aggregators like Amer Sports, with notable ski lines including Austria’s Atomic and France’s Salomon brands. The venerable Rossignol brand, which dates to 1907 in France, continues to be a global leader. Vermont-based Burton, founded by the late Jake Burton Carpenter, pioneered lifestyle marketing around marquee athletes such as Shaun White to literally create the market for snowboarding. Today it remains the dominant global brand.
As an industry based on manufacturing, supply chain dynamics and changing consumer behavior, companies face challenging swings. Both the market size and wholesale prices have shrunk. But growth in the resort world is helping forge a new direction.
“The evolution of pass products is changing the pattern of the dedicated skier,” said Jon Rucker, USA winter sports president of the Austrian company Head/Tyrolia. “Today, equipment sales are directly proportional to skier visits — five years ago I wouldn’t have said that.”
“The phenomena of Epic and Ikon is giving access to a broader range of people — making the sport more affordable,” said Francois Goulet, Group Rossignol president, North America, of the innovative season passes from the two leading resort companies, Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company. “We need to watch if it is bringing in new participants or increasing the frequency.”
Buoyed by good snow conditions, overall sales in 2019 saw a 4% dollar volume uptick to $556 million, with specialty shops accounting for 58%. Internet sales continue to grow, but are only 11% of the total.
The number of participants in snowboarding, which saw a precipitous climb in the 2000s, has declined, dropping from 39% to 34% since 2011, primarily on the continuing rise of skiing. But snowboarding saw its biggest boost of participants in a decade with 9.4% growth in 2019.
Sales of cross-country skis have been flat. But a series of good snow years and enhancement of snowmaking resulted in a 30% boost in skier visits last year, according to Cross Country Ski Areas Association Director Reese Brown. Sales of gear for backcountry skiing climbed 81% in two years, with the sector now worth over $64 million.
“Our company really looks at the way the consumer consumes the sport. And there are some really profound changes,” said Mike Adams, Amer Sports’ vice president of winter sports equipment.
Adams acknowledged that specialty shops account for the majority of sales, with general sporting goods stores going away. “Equipment is being acquired closer to the point of use,” he said. “We’re losing specialty stores in some city markets.” Goulet of Rossignol added that rental and demo was becoming a more important factor for companies.
While Rucker also cited some city-based specialty stores closing, he was bullish on those that remain. “There are many very good specialty stores across the country,” he said. “We want those stores to be healthy. We also want to recognize that everyone who buys a pair of skis is also going to buy a lift ticket at a resort.”
Under the new leadership of Nick Sargent, Snowsports Industries America, the industry’s equipment trade association, sold its annual Snow Show to Emerald Expositions to focus more on education and research for its members.
That move resulted in a single trade show with Outdoor Retailer’s Outdoor + Snow Show every January in Denver, burgeoning to over 1,000 exhibiting brands (290 new) with 10,000 buyers and over 800 media.
Long viewed as a trade show company, SIA is leading its industry in a new way. With a growing sales market in China, SIA has been heading trade missions to generate new markets. Climate change has become more of a focus, engaging SIA members with their Washington delegations. The association also is broadening its reach, welcoming resorts into its fold as well as partnering with the National Ski Areas Association, Outdoor Industry Association and others to help grow the sport.
SIA is drawing a closer direct engagement on growth through an aggressive Generation Snow initiative. SIA and its member brands are providing funding to the nonprofit Share Winter Foundation, supporting programs to bring and sustain 100,000 new participants by 2028. In 2019, Share Winter reached 38,000 youth in 21 states.
Head/Tyrolia’s Rucker has been a key in galvanizing broader support from both sides of the industry.
“Entry to the sport and retention of skiers in the sport need to coexist,” he said, citing an 18% probability that a new skier will become a long-term participant.
“Three or four years ago things were trending in a bad direction,” Rucker said. “But today I see a really optimistic future in America.”
