What’s On The Horizon For Action Sports?
The action sports world is a tough place to be right now. Snowboard retailers report that winter clothing sales are down after another topsy turvy winter weather pattern in both Europe and the US, and as the ‘worst recession since the 1930′s depression’ continues, liftpass sales are down, ever more seasonaires are choosing to ski, and local seller sites and auction houses like eBay enable riders to swap perfectly usable kit at a quarter of its initial price.
One consolation: at least snowboarding isn’t surfing. The wave-riding industry’s list of bad news following the credit crunch goes ever on, with signs that fewer people are buying into the beach lifestyle. And those who do now have the option of walking into ‘genuine’ surf industry stores such as Rip Curl, Quiksilver, O’Neill and Billabong – brands who’ve used private equity cash to buy independent stores in order to increase their margins – or of turning on their heels and entering a shop such as White Stuff, Fat Face, Jack Wills or the Abercrombie and Fitch-backed Hollister, whose (ahem) ‘genuine SoCal’ clothes are sold using surfing’s imagery, history and soul, but don’t spend any marketing dollars on athletes or contests.
It puts the core surf brands in a tricky position. If their move to the high-street is going to pay off, they’ll need people who been there and sold the t-shirt. Little wonder that Billabong recently replaced its long-time surfer CEO Derek O’Neill with Laura Inman from the budget clothing giant Target. Who cares if she can duckdive or not? It’s whether she can out-wit the other retailers that matters.
And then there’s the fact that the surf media is going through a bone fide revolution. While Twitter and Facebook were hailed as saviours – catalysts even – for the Arab Spring, surf-company CEOs probably aren’t as enamored. For the past few years, an anti-surf-contest and anti-surf-industry movement has been growing online. What’s their beef? The bloggers, tweeters and trolls might not agree on all things, but the fact that there’s a finite amount of waves being increasingly fought for by a lot of surfers seems to be at the heart of the problem. And those online point out the paradox the surf industry faces: keep pushing for growth, and the waters can only get busier.
Which in turn demands the obvious question: just who is the surf industry catering for? Pro surfers yes. The surf industry insiders? For sure. But actual surfers? For every innovation in wetsuit technology a surf brand can claim, there’s a bus-full of newbies being ushered towards an already crowded beach that is increasingly difficult to justify to existing but frustrated customers.
The contest scene is in a similarly precarious state. As the recent Volcom Pro in Fiji showed, most viewers would undoubtedly prefer to watch free-surfers taking on the best waves of the day than to see surfing in its current time-restricted contest mode. Since Rabbit, the Bronzed Aussies and Shaun Thomson willed a world tour into existence (against the wishes of many at the time it must be said), the question of how to present surfing as a credible, competitive format has been long debated. There’s undoubtedly an audience for great surf imagery, but whether those moments can ever be captured by a World Cup Tour, or a one-off event – even one with a two-week waiting period – is a different question altogether.
So where’s the punchline to all this? Where will future action sports sales come from? It’s a genuinely hard question to answer. Will it be China, who according to the BBC sees three million new snowsports fans join the slopes each year? That’s a huge figure – especially “considering that fifteen years ago there was no Alpine winter sport at all in China,” says Ski Sunday presenter Ed Leigh.
Similar numbers of Chinese are getting into surfing too; witness the purpose built surf resort of Hainan Island having already hosted a women’s Association of Surfing Professionals surfing tour event. “China is a powerful athletic country,” reasoned former ASP CEO Brodie Carr. “A vast country and marketplace with a potential billion-strong audience for us.”
But with many economists predicting that China’s economy will suffer from a ‘hard landing’ sometime in 2012, – that’s to say it’ll join the rest of the world’s recession – there’s no guarantee that dizzying figure will continue. Or whether there won’t be a Chinese Volcom or Brixton copycat brand waiting in the wings with cheaper equipment that borrows heavily on the original; a problem Nike have already encountered, complete with copycat stores and ultra-similar product lines.
Maybe the Olympics will keep action sports growth up? Snowboarding’s jump from a niche sport to a mainstream hobby was undoubtedly aided by the Olympic audience figures, but as my colleague Matt Barr has been pointing out on his Transworld blog: it’s come at quite a price. With skateboarding and surfing being looked over by the IOC, whose to say that those sports won’t be dragged down the same path?
Perhaps growth will come from the fact that all those kids with mini-scooters might upgrade to a plastic skateboard? Certainly sales of the re-branded pop-out board suggest so, with Penny Skateboards, Globe’s Bantam and Brighton Skateboards being the trend-setter’s must have play thing to hang next to the fixed-gear bike.
Or perhaps an unforeseen Hollywood moment, such as Michael J Fox’s car-chasing antics in Back To The Future will turn non-board riders onto the possibilities of standing sideways? It worked in the 1985, but are there really people on the planet who don’t know about skateboarding anymore?
Or maybe growth is gonna be really, really tough to find?
One lump of good news on the horizon: Quiksilver just posted losses of $5-million for the second quarter of 2012, and since they lost more than $90-million in the same period in 2011, at least the slowdown is – you know – slowing down.
One thing is for sure: in terms of growth, the horizon is looking pretty flat right now. So where’s the next swell coming from?
“grow or die” = the fundamental problem with capitalism. This goes way beyond action sports.
The world needs a shake up. Looking forward to seeing what happens.
Haha! That’s a bit like looking forward to seeing what happens if Hitler invades Poland. Agree the system is fucked but it wont’ be pretty in the short term Johno.
This is a very interesting point, because it seems that both snowboarding and surfing are enduring a seachange. Surfers and Snowboarders dont want to look like surfers and snowboarders, or even if they do, they dont want a logo endorsing it. However it seems, that more people are surfing for example, so if they want to do that they buy boards and tech products so that seems to be a bit of a change right there.
Those who come through these tough times in surf, snow and skate will rule the next 20 years, no question, and it will be down to a few brands, 5 per sport, who are putting in, taking out, and actually living it not like Hollister etc
One thing this article omits is that surf hardware sales (boards & wetsuits) are actually up. As is skate hardware. And snowboard hardware is beginning to recoup some sales from freeski. Split board sales are also up. So if ‘surf fashion’ sales are down maybe we should ask ourselves if our expectations were too high to start with. As Ed says, this problem goes way deeper than action sports, and we all know this industry goes through cycles. At least people are out shredding. When the participant levels go down, especially amongst the youngest, that’s when we’re all really screwed. Although we will have emptier breaks, parks and slopes of course…
So back to the original question: where might the growth in the sports come from? Or is it a cyclical thing, where we’re entering a period of ‘going back to the roots’ deal, where the general public might not be going snowboarding or surfing so much, but the core levels are still strong?
You got a link to those stats Jojo? Especially the freeski stuff. My understanding was that snowboarding was heavily losing out to ski?
It has been losing out to freeski but last winter it regained a tiny bit of market share (in Europe – according to the last sales analysis published in Source – it’s not online though soz).
I think the general public are still going out doing it, they’re just not buying the T-Shirt to do it in.
Afterall, they can get a cool T-shirt for a tenner in a high street store, get a next-season demo board thrown in as part of their chalet deal (avoid paying £50 board charges!) and wear last season’s jacket – it is a recession after all.
The growth would be fuelled by more competitive pricing. When (non core) people buy into boardsports clothing, they’re buying into the scene. I think the general punter is now more concerned about saving money than their exuding surf or snow cred.
With the biggest brands in our industry withdrawing advertising left, right and centre, it makes it impossible in our part of the industry to continue without running at a loss. But, where is the money going to come from? If they don’t have the money…they don’t have the money.
Maybe we do have to look to those countries far east, with their growing economies and developing middle classes for a serious injection into our industry.
Jon Weaver touched on it: “Those who come through these tough times in surf, snow and skate will rule the next 20 years, no question, and it will be down to a few brands, 5 per sport, who are putting in, taking out, and actually living it”.
Or will new sales come from some new gimmicky piece of technology? Just look at the SIA stats; 290,000 of the 395,000 snowboards sold stateside this year were reverse camber. Every brand is inventing their own version of the RC with their own spin on it. Down/Parka jackets are an ‘in’ product and were one of snowsports best sellers this winter.
What next? Where could we generate new sales from? No hi-backs will surely never take off to the same extent. The kids snowboard market is on the rise, with many brands now including grom set-ups in their lines. Maybe grom shops are the cash cow.
With snowboarding, it’d be great to have comprehensive participation figures and with relation to Europe especially. This would let us know who we’re aiming at, and would also end any confusion over the ‘kids are choosing to freeski instead’ debate.
The whole Hollister side to this…they’re basing their brand on an image/lifestyle that’s cool. On the other hand you get brands such as Vans and Rhythm that are cool because they represent a lifestyle. The fact that Hollister gives next to nothing back to the surf industry is ‘whack’. But, at the same time it’s what keeps trends and fashions going, right?
Surfer dudes will move away from anything that looks remotely Hollister and onto their next fashion; thus providing designers at the original surf companies with a new challenge and, ultimately, their next pay cheque.
In action sports we have a relatively short history, and history is usually where you find the lessons that propel you forward. Watch the new Bones Brigade Documentary and see skateboarding plunge into next to nothing and then re-bound. It’s startling to watch entire skateparks destroyed, but that’s when skateboarding went underground again. The competitive circuit was dismantled and skaters remembered why they started in the first place. Skateboarding changed and adapted.
I think the Olympics is the wrong place to look for growth. The Olympics is about consistency and perfection, endorsement deals and national pride. Surfers and Snowboarders have always been the boarder-crossers, the travelers, seeking new waves, new mountains, new adventures. That is a more global mentality.
Interestingly, the most stable area for growth in the surf industry right now is in hardgoods. This means that participation among the sports most passionate continues, while the mainstream public has grown bored with the way that the big surf companies have communicated their brands and products. Meanwhile, fast-fashion sales are up, capitalizing on the exact styles that our boardsports culture introduced to the world.
Adapt or perish.
A range of interesting points have been raised in this article some which I agree with some of which I strongly don’t. The reference to the birth of the ASP tour by the first surfing professionals Rabbit Bartholomew etc is a little negative these guys helped dispell the image that surfers were all drug using hippies creating a credible world surf competition circuit giving the iconic surf brands we know today a marketing channel worth millions in sponsorship, I truely believe without them we wouldn’t have a surf industry worth talking about today. I also don’t believe you can ever take the soul away from surfing however many competitions there are and even if it makes it’s way into the Olympics, waves will always be riden by soul searchers alike.
Since the recession some of the bigger action sports brands are beginning to spend their soft goods budgets wisely producing fewer items in their collections but ones of better quality than the vast quantities of poorly designed garmets which crept through into the decade from the 2000′s that we currently see on the rails of TK Maxx, massively diluting their brand image. Some of the smaller action sports brands have been able to make an impact during their gluttanous period producing products with edgy designs collaborating on projects with young modern designers and artists. I believe the survival of brands and growth of the industry will come down to the way they connect with their audience and promote the lifestyle we’ll soon be bored of shouty brands who offer a status symbol and opt for those which offer quality and respect for the sport we love. Action sports brands stay with us through our lifetime unlike high street fashion brands you tend to grow out of the older you are if action sports brands can appeal to all ages and promote themselves as having a genuine knowledge of their sport they’ll be likely to succeed.
No serious action sports participant will give the Hollister California surf range a second look I’d only start worrying if they start to brand their own surfboards and wetsuits, luxury brand Paul Smith only just managed this their Burton Vapour collaboration! Action sports are becoming more and more popular and with user generated content saturating the web there’s no stopping it. I’m a surfer, snowboarder, climber and skateboarder and I’m also currently working for the London 2012 Olympics. I don’t believe action sports will ever become mainstream they are hard, tough and require dedication and commitment to progress. If anyone takes up these sports seriously it should be a right of passage and should be embraced.
Hi all,
Thanks for the comments! So just a few points to clarify my position. First of all I am absolutely in awe of what Rabbit and the 70s surfers did to start a competitive tour and to change the image that surfing had. I’m a huge fan of Rabbit, he’s an absolute legend. I totally agree that without his and others contribution, surfing wouldn’t be what it is today.
I can say all that though and still say that competitive surfing just doesn’t seem to be that interesting, and viewing figures, audience numbers on the beach, and column inches in magazines suggest that others agree.
There are probably a million theories as to why pro surfing hasn’t captured the public’s heart, but here’s my take on it: I love to go surfing, and I like to see surfing in magazines and to see horrific/beautiful waves on youtube, but I’ve sat through enough surf comps to know that genuinely interesting sporting moments are few and far between. Football holds people’s attention – it’s a proper contest, it’s simple to understand, and you root for one side – competitive surfing has a million logistic problems that football doesn’t have. That is not the same thing as saying that surfing is not interesting (it is, it’s life-changing) nor that it’s useless to a spectator (sit on the cliffs on Maui and watch Peahi/Jaws, or watch surfers getting tubed at pipe and it’s a beautiful day out) I guess I’m just saying that format seems to be wrong-headed. In skating, the Street League and Maloof Cup are both successful examples where the organisers have thought about what the audience wants (tension, drama, great courses, innovation etc…) and worked backwards from there.
I hope that clears my stance on this up!
As to whether real surfers, skaters or snowboarders will ever buy Hollister – I guess what I’m trying to show is that young kids who might once have bought Quiky backpacks, or a Rip Curl t-shirt to identify with the scene are now pouring into Hollister. Whether they do actually ride a board isn’t the point I’m making. I guess what I’m saying is that money going to Abercrombie and Fitch’s take on surfing means less money for the core brands. The figures back this up. Head to a ski resort and count the number of seasonaires wearing Jack Wills. All action sports brands are selling an idea. Now there are other well-financed, large companies on the scene selling the same idea, but without having spent any money creating that scene. Surf brands have gone high street, now they’ve got to fight it out with the rest of the competitive high street retailers. Are they ready, willing and able?
I also believe that board sports are undoubtedly mainstream now. The snowboard pipe finals got the highest viewing figures at the 2010 Olympics; Hawk, White and to a lesser extent Slater are household names, and board sports brands are mostly owned by private equity firms. Why? Because the growth figures looked attractive: as far back as 2001, Brentwoods Sports Chainstore founder Bill Barnum said that “by 2010, over 30 million teens will be living in the U.S. Demographics are shifting away from traditional ball sports and more toward board sports.”
I’m not posing the question of whether this is a good or bad thing – I love the fact that my little boy is growing up in a world where his daily exercise choice is between playing football, hitting a tennis ball, or going to the skatepark, with each sport being equally accepted by teachers, family, friends etc. I’m just saying that have we reached a plateau?
Maybe growth will come from action sports brands branching out into other sports and lifestyles? Vans recently announced the launch of the LXVI line “No longer does the notion of an action sports athlete invoke the traditional idea of rebellion, ” said Vans President Kevin Bailey, “as the kid who rides home from basketball practice on a skateboard; or hangs up his cleats once the snow falls to focus on snowboarding becomes evermore common.”
My question – and it is a genuine question, is this: action sports have enjoyed incredible growth for the past 15-years, but with the headwinds I’ve written about above, where is future growth going to come from?
Maybe as a few have pointed out, it’ll be back to basics for a lot of brands: selling quality core products that simply work well (I hope this is the case – my favourite brands these days are the ones who make simple stuff that works well, which is why I love climbing brands like Arc Teryx, Patagonia, NF etc, and why Burton’s AK range has always been the one I’d opt for) but this isn’t growth, and for a lot of the current brand owners, refocusing on the core equipment sales is going to translate into smaller companies and less profit. They ain’t gonna be happy about that.
So the question remains – where’s growth gonna come from? Be really interested to hear everyone’s opinion!
Apologies if any of my comments came across as fierce I’m very protective of my action sports interests
Aside from going back to their roots and consistantly being original I think a large part of growth within the industry will come from international sponsored and collaborated events promoting the lifestyle and showcasing their products in real-time. I recently attended Red Bull’s Empire of Dirt and was suprised at the number of young children watching one of whom asked the competing riders what make of BMX they suggested his dad bought him for Christmas. From what I could see the event looked to be a great success especially considering the weather. The event was credible with international riders and drama something which for Red Bull is to be expected considering their huge budgets!
There’s a few action sports brands which have not learnt from the past, how many of us have thought about buying a snowboard from a smaller brand but aren’t convinced by the quality of the product and choose the bigger brands instead because they have international status and stronger links to the lifestyle they promote. Brands need to move with the times and recognise the audience now has a hugely influential voice on social media platforms and ask them what makes them tick. Action sports promote individualism I believe this will be key to their international success.
One thing I continue to hope for is the bigger brands keep influencing smaller brands with their socially responsible campaigns like Patagonia’s 1% for the Planet and Volcom’s Give Jeans a Chance, to appeal to the next generation to recognise that the product choices they make will effect the environment and in turn the sports they love.
I’m afraid I’ll agree to disagree about action sports being recognised as mainstream though, as much as skateboarding and snowboarding have become hugely popular sports with increasing airtime – team sports played in schools such as football, rugby and cricket will always have committed international fans who spend thousands buying their products and following their teams around the world and will always be the front runners in the sports industry.
Now I’ll get back in my box!
I think the growth must come from the green side of things that LauraJane Fort touched on. With every company now having to re-think their marketing strategy, production process and general green footprint it has to be a part of our industry which will grow in years to come.
Which means that another growth area will be the companies that evaluate the ‘green-ness’ of a company. Companies such as Greenroomvoice will have brands queuing up to pay them money to give them their stamp of approval.
As to whether boardsports have become mainstream…I like both Chris and LauraJane’s thinking behind it.
Who knows…But, Kelly Slater is the most accomplished athlete to have walked the face of this planet. That’s pretty mainstream.
With regards to the mainstreaming (is that a word?) of the sport i think we could well start to see a division within our sports. Whilst shaun white is now a household name, how many people in the “mainstream” have heard of back country guys like Gigi Ruf or the dedicated street riders like LNP. Obviously with its introduction to the Olympics slopestyle riders are going to become more well known in the mainstream as well but i think riders and the more dedicated fans will always find a place to be more underground as it plays such a large part in the history of most board sports. As hard as travis rice tries to make films mainstream there never going to be as popular or as easy to watch as the x-games or Olympics, and as hard as they try to pull in the more underground sections of the sports with events like the x-games street or real snow contest the big crowd pleasers are always going to be the pipe, big air and slopesyle because they are the easiest to understand from a mainstream perspective. Anyone can count the spins and tell a 10 from a 12 but how many people in the mainstream can differentiate between a back lip and a front board?
I think in the future we could well see the big contest side of the sport catering to the desires of the mainstream with bigger and bigger tricks and huge TV and social meida coverage whilst the filming side of the industry focusing more on style and progression in the form of more innovative spots rather than bigger tricks which will provide for the more dedicated boarders out there.
just my two pennies worth.