Snowsports Industries America’s decision to move the Snow Show up by two weeks to a mid-January/Saturday start beginning in 2013 has upset a number snow sports dealers and at least one retail trade association, who say the earlier dates fall a week before they hold their first mark-down sales of the season.


In 2013, the Snow Show will take place from Saturday, Jan. 12 to Tuesday, Jan. 15 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, one week prior to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and approximately two weeks earlier than the current show dates. That means retailers will have to leave for the show without having any data from mark-down sales, which usually determines how much inventory they carry over into the next winter, said Brad Nelson, chairman of the National Ski and Snowboard Retailers Association (NSSRA).


“Martin Luther King weekend for many of us begins the mark-down cycle that transpires over the next eight weeks,” said Nelson. “Going to the trade show after that allows us to estimate our orders for the next season more accurately.”


Nelson acknowledged that “there are no good dates” that work for all the industry’s stakeholders and credited SIA with bringing together all the Snow Show stakeholders at the last show to discuss how to grow snow sports. Still, many mom and pop retailers will find it difficult to travel the week before the holiday, which is also typically one of the top three weekends for ski resorts. As a result, NSSRA is considering options that might better represent the interests of specialty snow sports retailers.


“The big retailers have staffs of buyers who can send their buyers to the show, but the vast majority of retailers are guys like myself,” said Nelson, owner of Hi Tempo Ski Snowboard & Sail in White Bear Lake, MN. “I open the door, I work behind the register, I order product and I lock the door at night. Clearly, the dates are picked for the vendor community without consideration for what is happening for us, the customers of the show.”


SIA President David Ingemie said the trade group, which represents vendors, did not have time to consult retailers, reps or other stakeholders because the Colorado Convention Center in Denver only gave them six days to decide which dates it wanted for 2013 and 2014 after another show expressed interest in the earlier dates. News that 2012 Ispo Munich had been schedule to run Jan 29 to Feb. 1, overlapping the first day of Snow Show 2012, also created pressure to move  the show up to maintain its status as the first major show of the season.


When Ingemie brought the scheduling issue to the SIA executive committee, members split 50/50 a shift to the earlier dates. Some noted they were under pressure to secure orders earlier to ensure timely delivery due to rising commodity prices and disruptions to their global supply chains. The committee opted to analyze seven scenarios to determine how different dates would impact members and their dealers.

 

Then SIA conferred with the U.S. Commerce Department, which confirmed that the global supply chain was coming under tremendous pressure as demand from developing economies like Brazil, Russia, India and China increased competition for raw materials and factory capacity.
“The U.S. was number one for a long time,” said Ingemie. “That's no longer the case. Now a lot of raw materials come out of China or Australia and it’s harder to get that stuff.”


Nelson said he is concerned that changes are being driven by a handful of large retail chains that need their winter goods delivered by Aug. 1, long before most independent shops want to take deliveries.
Regardless, SIA’s executive committee concluded that an earlier show would allow vendors to finalize pre-season orders earlier without sacrificing accuracy.


“Nobody is trying to hurt anyone here,” said Ingemie. “There was no great decision to be made. We would have loved to have had time to sit down with retail advisory groups, but we did not have time.”