No, not the Genesis album, but still, it has the makings of another impactful chapter. And it is appropriate given songs like Snowbound and Follow You Follow Me (to Salt Lake City, maybe?) on the 1978 effort from Phil, Mike and Tony.
Nation’s Best Sports (NBS), the nation’s oldest and largest sporting goods buying group, will be joining the Snowsports Merchandising Corporation (SMC) and Sports Specialists Ltd. (SSL) buying groups for the 2024 Winter Sports Market (WSM). The 2024 WSM will take place from January 25-27, 2024, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, UT.
WSM is an invitation-only winter sports trade show servicing the industry’s best ski and snowboard retailers by bringing together top Vendor Partners to present their new products and market strategies for the upcoming season.
“We are excited to join forces with SMC and SSL to bring our Members new opportunities and an enhanced show experience,” said NBS President Jim Chandley. “We are focused on the growth of our Members businesses and believe that this combined event will provide more opportunities with the high-caliber Vendor Partners who attend WSM each year.”
“SMC is thrilled to have NBS join us at Winter Sports Market,” said SMC President Gary Fleming. “Going into our third year of WSM, we now have the three major buying groups participating and are providing suppliers with the best ski shops in the country in one venue. This is truly a positive step for the ski industry.”
NBS previously held a Winter Specialty Market each January but will now focus on bringing their Members and Vendor Partners to the established WSM show.
The Winter Sports Market was first held in 1998, making it the longest continuously running trade show for specialty wintersports retailers in the U.S. WSM had traditionally aligned the show dates with the former Snowsports Industry Snow Show and until 2019 with the Outdoor Retailer + Snow Show. Emerald Expositions, parent of Outdoor Retailer, acquire the SIA Snow Show in 2017 for a reported $16.7 million.
With the combined OR + Snow Show moving to early January in 2019, WSM said at the time it was in the best interest of its retailers to hold the show later in January, allowing specialty shops to provide more accurate orders to suppliers.
The one missing component was the NBS buying group, which is home to some of the largest snow sports retailers in the U.S. The move to Utah will enable snow sports vendors to focus on early regional rep shows and one consolidated national event for writing business.
“This partnership between the industry’s three major buying groups will further strengthen our individual independent retailer Members and create new opportunities for mutual benefit,” Chandley continued. “In addition, this joint venture provides significant economy of scale for our valued Vendor Partners.”
This is not the first effort to consolidate the three groups’ efforts. They announced plans in March 2019 to join together to hold their hardgoods committee meetings in Park City, UT in late October of that year, a move that was applauded at the time by the vendor side of the business.
“This is great news,” Francois Goulet, president of the Rossignol Group, said in 2019 when discussing that initial joint hardgoods committee meetings. “Our industry needs to be more efficient during the selling process so we can invest more in consumer-centric initiatives and get more people into skiing or snowboarding. Reduced traveling and shipment of samples also means a step forward in reducing our carbon footprint.”
This new move just took the snow sports industry to the next level. And one could assume that Outdoor Retailer will find it difficult to see a return on their investment in the SIA Snow Show.
Let’s hope it’s not a reflection of the opening track on the aforementioned album, Down and Out.
Photo courtesy SMC/Tom Horrocks
