Feature
Outdoor Toys
Spring into
summer
Outdoor Toys fared astonishingly well during the lockdowns and travel restrictions of 2020, and, coming into 2021, it looks like we may see a repeat performance of that success. Rachael Simpson-Jones looks at the social factors and toy trends driving sales this year and speaks to a selection of outdoor toy specialists about how they’re approaching the category.
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riting this, it’s the first day in a week that the temperature has been above 2°C, and although it’s nice the snow and ice has finally disappeared, the sheet rain I’m watching through the window is making it hard to imagine summer. Nonetheless, attention is already firmly on the warmer months following the latest lockdown and what has felt like a very (very) long winter. Experts in child development are calling on the government to support a ‘summer of play’ -primarily physical outdoor play - to help kids recover from the stress of lockdown and a year of Covid upheaval. PlayFirstUK, a group of academics, has highlighted increases in children’s mental health problems during the pandemic, as well as loneliness and reduced academic motivation. The group is calling for children to be encouraged and supported to spend time outdoors, playing with other children and being physically active. On top of this, holidaymakers are increasingly being urged to stay in Britain for their break this year by everyone except airlines; trepidation about foreign travel, even
if it’s allowed, is also impacting the overseas holiday sector. For the Outdoor Toys category, it’s a recipe for success, and there’s a raft of companies poised to help kids get outdoors, get fit and get happy in a way that supports their interests in a healthy and fun way. Coming into 2021 on the back of +15% UK growth in 2020, Sports Toys - which includes skates, skateboards and scooters – continues to be one of the strongest sub-categories within the overall Outdoor Toy market. There’s certainly plenty of innovation within this category for this year, with MV Sports, DGL, Hy-Pro, H. Grossman, Razor and more introducing new scooters, both electric and kid-powered, to the market. Wilton Bradley’s electric Xootz scooter range is seeing strong growth, as is its wider ride-on portfolio, as Ross Bradley, sales director, explains: “At the forefront of this charge are our Elements kids’ electric scooters, which have been one of our best-selling products across the group, as well as the award- winning Typhoon Power Drifter, created using in- house tooling and design. Our electric ride-on range has also been a success. This range of exclusive, officially licensed electric ride-on
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models allow kids to experience the thrill of getting behind the wheel of their very own electric ride-on car. Many of these products have been recognised for their design and innovation, bringing home some of the top awards in the industry.” Nat Southworth, founder of KAP Toys, is delighted to continue distributing Falk’s JCB push-along and pedal-powered ride-ons. Shipping rate increases, along with current challenges associated with container imports from China, mean Falk’s French manufacturing base offers a real point of difference for KAP. To support Falk’s newly updated JCB Excavator ride-on, as well as its other licensed lines, KAP Toys is working to create a basic level of content for all its lines, which can be further enhanced in conjunction with retailer support. Nat adds: “Significant price pressures due to the additional costs of shipping are making forecasting and retailer planning ever more important. I predict there will be stock shortages of key lines like Falk and I would recommend everyone gets in touch to lock down their requirements.” (No pun intended, we’re sure). Nat isn’t the only outdoor toy supplier urging
