ITALY
The economic update for this issue is quite positive as every business besides night clubs were back working with tourism started from late June and had very good workload. July and August were even record-breaking months with lots of tourists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Benelux coming to Italy. Italians mostly travelled domestically as a positive side effect. The vaccination campaign is also doing well and so everyone hopes for a solid autumn / winter season as well. In Italy with the “green pass” you are allowed to eat inside restaurants and you can go to the cinema, theatre or to a concert. The green pass is available for people who are fully vaccinated, of course not everybody agrees this is the right choice in a democracy but the Italian government, under the guide of Mr. Mario Draghi is sure this is the only way we can avoid another lockdown. A lockdown which many boardsport retailers fear as we didn’t have a single ski resort open last year. With the green pass this should be possible this year and it’s something our ski & snowboard industry crucially needs, as otherwise many businesses reliant on winter tourism would go out of business. SWISS AUSTRIA PORTUGAL FRANCE UK GERMANY
Summer started off great, so skate and surf stores cannot complain about their summer business. Many tourists meant a lot of rental business for surf and a lot of good weather meant a lot of skateboarding hardgood sales. Skateboarding completes still do well even with a slight decrease when comparing to the 2020 season, also owed to the bigger offering from more retailers this year. Skate shoes are still decreasing in turnover for core skate shops as shoes from Vans and Nike are the leaders of this segment and many smaller stores don’t really get the chance to stock their best-selling models or are getting them only in limited quantities, due to buying restrictions. Clothing-wise, big baggy pants are back and skateshops can’t seem to keep enough in stock. Surf stores only complain about less stock availability from suppliers in terms of
MARKET INSIGHT hardgoods and wetsuits, which will only grow as a problem as we move into 2022 as the Chinese supply chain is making it tough already for FW21 deliveries, as we are told by many distributors nationwide. The heavy increase in shipping costs per container makes it really hard for distributors to import as their margin is eaten into by these huge increases. Stores from all over Italy are already complaining about their FW21 goods arriving late for this upcoming season. A price increase is not only noticeable in the boardsport business but overall as nearly all raw materials have had a huge increase, something echoed by the construction industry in their latest report. Retailers form the Milan area (who do not want to be named) say we have to now adapt and that customers often don’t understand the price increases in such difficult times. We need to relay to them that we have no choice in such matters during global crisis, which seems to be hard to understand for a younger consumer. Online sales are still growing for the boardsport industry but as Italy is not a lead state in terms of online business in the EU, many smaller Italian online stores face big competition from outside our country, which makes it hard for them to compete with the big lines and price competition with bigger online stores externally. But the importance of being present online is also something all retailers are aware of as the consumer wants to interact with their favourite stores digitally. Sadly in 2021 not many events or contests could take place as government regulations are still very strict for public events but we still saw some small contests organized by local stores to keep the scene alive and happy. Now we are heading into the winter season and everyone hopes we are not going to see another season of lockdowns. Fingers crossed and hopefully see you on the slopes! FRANZ JOSEF HOLLER 55
