Sports Specialists Limited (SSL), a retailer-owned specialty buying group for the snow sports, action sports, bike, outdoor, and casual outdoor furniture industries, will be attending Interbike 2007 in pursuit of new synergistic extensions to its buying, merchandising and marketing services.

Already representing a collective bargaining clout of over $300 million from 55 unique retailers with more than 150 storefronts across North America, SSL has offered increasingly successful retailer and supplier programs in the snow sports industry for over 30 years.

“SSL has strong relationships with numerous cross-industry suppliers including Easton Bell/Giro, Descente, Smith, UnderArmour, Bolle, Carrera, Swix Sport (Pedro’s) and Scott,” commented Steve Rogers, SSL President and CEO. “Our strategy is to build on these relationships in order to develop the kinds of programs and services we are so successful with in the snow category. We already have 18 storefronts currently in the bike business, so we have an advantageous head start in this market.”

According to the National Bicycle Dealers Association, in 2006 there were 4,600 specialty bike retailers representing 49% of the $5.8 billion (and growing) U.S. bike industry. Approximately 14% of those stores already carry snow sports merchandise.

“This is an excellent and obvious growth strategy for SSL because the bike industry shares many of the same manufacturers and retailers that are already part of the group” agreed Alan Davis of Princeton Sports in MD. “By expanding our reach into the bike industry, SSL retailers can achieve better financial balance, stability and growth during the non-snow seasons, as already evidenced by the increased profitability of our casual outdoor furniture retailers.”

Held September 26-28 in Las Vegas, the Interbike ‘07 tradeshow is the ideal venue for SSL President Steve Rogers to speak one-on-one with manufacturers and retailers about why the competitive advantages extend beyond simple profits, on de-bunking the myths of ‘buying groups’ and, upon request, providing detailed analyses of what partnering with SSL could do for an individual’s business.

To this end, SSL also recently joined the National Bicycle Dealers Association, a non-profit association promoting the interests of every specialty bicycle retailer in the United States.