According to the preliminary SIA Retail Audit for the first five months of the 2003/2004 winter season, total sales for the winter sports market increased by 1.5% to $1.35 billion compared to $1.33 billion in 2002. Unit sales were up 4.6%, signaling some price erosion. The report, compiled by Leisure Trends Group for SnowSports Industries America, measures retail sales August through December.

At Specialty ski and snowboard shops, sales for the season were up 1.1% to $1.06 billion, compared to $1.05 billion last season. The price deflation trend that has been plaguing the market held back growth even as unit sales grew 5.2% in specialty stores versus LY STD.

“This was an incredible holiday season for the ski and snowboard industry. Snowboard equipment and apparel did very well in specialty stores,” said Julie Lynch, director of market research for SIA.

Free-heel ski hard goods sales continued their upward trend. Nordic equipment gained 36% over last year with $20.2 million in sales. Telemark ski equipment growth slowed somewhat with a 51.5% sales increase over 2002 to $3.6 million. Telemark boots and bindings seem to be outpacing ski sales by nearly three to one. Boots showed a 79.6% increase to $1.5 million; bindings grew by 83.3% to just under $1 million, but skis only grew 25.0% to 1.2 million. This could be a sign that alpine skiers are trading in their old fixed-heel set-ups and just mounting tele-gear to their old alpine skis.

December was a big month for apparel in specialty stores. Sales for the month hit an all time high of $158.2 million. For the season to date, apparel sales grew 8.0%. Softshell sales drove numbers up with a 76.1% gain is sales to $8.3 million. Fleece sales were up 170%, and women’s apparel outsold men’s by nearly $10 million.

Snowboard apparel was up 13.7% to 63.7 million. Bottoms grew 3.5% in dollars and 10.2% in units, yet another category showing price erosion; softshell pants sales were up 70.3%.

Chain store sales were up 2.7% to $289.9 million for the season to date compared to $282.4 for the same period lat year. Unit sales tracked only 3.3% ahead last year, demonstrating that the chain stores are actually increasing the average selling price of goods.

Based on these numbers, it looks like the specialty stores are the ones competing on price and selling at lower margins, while the chain stores are selling more full-priced merchandise.

The trend of specialty stores slowly losing the alpine ski market while gaining ground in the snowboard market seems to be continuing. Chain stores are certainly picking up the customers that the specialty store has lost. Alpine equipment sales were up 5.1% in chain stores, while they fell 12.3% in specialty.