Outdoor Show Season Kicks In With Solid Traffic

 

The week kicked off with the annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday and closed in Salt Lake City on Sunday as the bi-annual Outdoor Retailer show presented its Winter Market format.  The week ahead should prove to be just as hectic for many as vendors break down their OR presentations and move on to the annual SIA Snow Show, which will make its Denver debut Jan. 28-31.

Based on the traffic and upbeat mood at the two shows last week (despite an FBI sting operation and cold, wet weather in Las Vegas), the outdoor market is poised to post another solid year as the evidence continues to mount that the consumer is gravitating into outdoor lifestyle products in a bigger way.

There were storylines abound at the 2010 SHOT Show hosted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, but unlike last year, when the story revolved around a “perfect storm” of sorts that found many vendors and retailers posting double-digit margin growth due to a combination of the “Obama-factor” and, to a lesser extent, an economy that spurned firearm and ammunition sales, 2010 was marred from the start with a high profile FBI sting on Monday that ended with 22 people being charged as part of a two-and-a-half-year undercover investigation into a bribery scheme (see full story, page 3).

In some ways, the sting was a fitting kick-off to a week that saw a rare string of cold, damp days in normally sunny Las Vegas, because the mood within the Sands Expo & Convention center was equally dampened for many attendees as hundreds of miffed exhibitors were crammed into cramped quarters in the bowels of an aging facility that was painfully over-utilized. One frustrated representative for a major knife manufacturer estimated the company would lose $40,000 from the arrangement, while another representative of a private hardgoods manufacturer vowed never to return as long as the show was held at the Sands.

 

Likewise, exhibitors for the tactical segment of the show were scattered throughout various rooms within the cavernous convention center and Venetian ballrooms, making navigation difficult for the roughly 60,000 attendees who registered for the show.

The show is committed to the Sands through the 2012 show and committed to Las Vegas for the foreseeable future after both retailers and exhibitors alike made clear to NSSF that the Vegas was their clear destination of choice for the show.  The venue is clearly a challenge for the size and magnitude of the show.

Still, the majority of visitors and exhibitors took a “go-with-the-flow” approach with the acknowledgement that an overflow of attendees is far better than the alternative and is a testament to the ongoing strength of the firearms, shooting and hunting business in the face of a brutal recession. At the State if the Industry Dinner Tuesday night, NSSF president Steve Sanetti called the state of the industry at the start of 2010 “about as strong as I’ve seen it,” and noted that the industry was “staving off the challenges [of a tough economy] as we take advantages of the many opportunities we have with millions of new firearms owners that joined our ranks just since last year…we will all make (the) difference…in this historic effort.”

Hardgoods remains strong for the shooting industry – especially firearms – but manufacturers and retailers don't seem to be expecting to match the margins of last year.  In footwear, many manufacturers are going lighter and more “athletic” silhouettes with hunting boots – very different from the traditional, clunky leather boots that most people associate with hunting boots. And Sports Executive Weekly noted that predator hunting continues to be a growing interest as coyote, bobcat, and fox numbers continue to surge. People like predator hunting because it's relatively easy, inexpensive and can really be done in many different regions of the country.  Under Armour continues to make waves on the apparel side and a packed booth was testament that their 2010 lines looked very promising.

At Outdoor Retailer Winter Market is still the place to go for anyone doing business in the active outdoor lifestyle markets. Many attendees that spoke with SEW speculated that traffic at last week’s OR Winter Market to be down slightly, but the traffic that was there was good traffic.  Weather played a part in some of the traffic patterns as well as the West Coast was battered by storms that kept many from California and Arizona at home or delayed as heavy winds and rain grounded planes and snarled air traffic.  Those same storms had a bit different impact on the traffic by week-end as retailers and vendors alike played hooky from the show to hit the slopes around Salt Lake City for what many saw as the best fresh powder in years coinciding with the show dates.

The mood around the Salt Palace was positive and optimistic about the year ahead, a far cry from the somber mood of a year ago and the “cautiously optimistic” mood at Summer Market.  Most retail attendees that spoke with SEW were a bit more upbeat about business after a solid Holiday season at specialty retail that looks to be setting the right tome for spring 2010.  Retailers were dropping paper on Spring ’10 even as they looked at new goods for the fall season. Vendors focused on the quality of the traffic rather than the numbers in attendance.  One exhibitor put it best when he said, “The right buyers showed up and business was done.”

While sales were helped by the arrival of cold weather early in the season in many parts of the country, improved sell-through during the fall and early winter have made retailers more confident regarding 2010 inventory positions.

That confidence has spread to vendors, many of which indicated that 2009 came in better-than expected due to replenishment orders.
Some clear trends seen on the floor reflect the mission of Outdoor Industry Association to expand the definition of the outdoor industry to include other outdoor pursuits besides the traditional climbing, backpacking, camping and paddling business.  The show, managed buy Nielsen Business Media and endorsed by OIA, is the now the clear go-to event for running specialty and is starting to pick up other footwear- and apparel-specific vendors as well. 

The active outdoor lifestyle market is apparently appealing to a broader consumer audience as outdoor footwear and apparel silhouettes start to take a bigger slice of the sport footwear and sport apparel markets.  These trends are creating a new group of retail attendees to the show as well as a number of family footwear, independent footwear, mid-tier department stores and other mall retailers were spotted in the aisles this year.