SIA is reporting that snow sports sales declined 2.7% in January 2009 compared with January 2008. Retailers reported heavy discounting and lower margins in an effort to attract customers who are quickly becoming accustomed to 70% off sales.
These most recent numbers published in the SIA Retail Audit conducted by the Leisure Trends Group indicate that consumers are still buying items like hats, gloves, and goggles, but they are a bit more hesitant to buy higher price point equipment.
“We lost of lot of business because people are holding off on their ski vacations and are just not buying big ticket items. They are buying accessories for $30 but they wont spend $500 for a new jacket or new equipment. One piece of equipment they are buying is reverse camber boards, we should have quadrupled our order on those,” Bill Langlands from Darkside Snowboards told SIA.
The biggest shift in technology in the SnowSports industry this year is clearly reverse camber technology, which could redefine the way boards are manufactured, muck like the shaped ski did for the ski industry in the 90s.
