SIA News 5.1

NEW END OF SEASON STATS AND PARTICIPATION STUDY The new SIA End of Season Summary Report recaps sales, participation, weather and trends that developed during the season. The 2009/10 season ended with excellent spring snow out West, a 4% increase in dollars sold, increased participation numbers, fewer units sold, diminished inventories, higher retail prices, increased retail margins, and some very interesting emerging trends. The full report is available to SIA Rep Members. Contact Patricia Grenke at P. 703.506.4222 or E. PGrenke@snowsports.org for information on SIA Rep Membership. Product Trends Alpine equipment: Skis with fat waists moved faster than skinny skis this season. Fat ski sales increased more than 30% in units and in dollars sold. Snowboards: Although reverse camber or “rocker” snowboards had a good run again this season, all snowboard sales were down in units and in dollars sold this season. Snowboard apparel: Snowboard apparel sales slumped, suffering a 6% decline in units sold and a 4% decline in dollars sold. Backcountry: AT/Randonee ski sales up 57% in units and 57% in dollars sold. Snowshoes: Sales up 7% in dollars with 117,887 units sold in snow sports shops Helmets: According to preliminary findings of the 2009/10 NSAA National Demographic Study, 57% of skiers and snowboarders wear helmets at U.S. ski areas. Helmet sales increased 23% in units sold to an all-time record 1.23 million helmets sold. Helmet usage among those interviewed nationwide for the NSAA Demographic Study increased 19% over the 2008/09 season, when 48% of those interviewed were wearing helmets. In 2002/03 just one in four skiers/riders wore helmets. Market Trends Inventory levels down - Inventories are down 9.5% overall at season’s end. Margins up - Retail margins were about 2 points higher this December compared to December 2008. Thirty-five percent of snow sports market sales happen in December. Overall, snow sports specialty shop margins were up 1.4% over last season.   The SIA Snow Sports Participation Study is now enhanced with full income, ethnicity, age and education level demographics for alpine, cross country, telemark, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing. More than 41,500 Americans completed this survey about sports and leisure activity. In addition to details about who participated in snow sports including those that consider themselves skiers and/or riders but did not make it onto the snow this season; you’ll get information about how educated they are, what age groups participate most often, how much income they earn and where opportunities are in minority markets. This type of information is invaluable in when targeting specific consumers. For example, did you know that a higher percentage of female alpine skiers have household incomes higher than $100,000 than male alpine skiers? Did you know that more than 1 in 5 cross country skiers have Post-Graduate degrees? Did you know that most female alpine skiers drop out of the sport at 55 years but continue to cross country ski past age 65? Click here for the topline reports. The full 2010 SIA Participation Study is $599 but FREE for SIA members. Click here for information on membership. The annual fee for a SIA Rep membership is only $75. Take some time to view the SIA Rep Member Benefits. Please contact Kelly Davis, SIA Director of Research at KDavis@snowsports.org for more information.

SELLING SALES SKILLS TO SALESPEOPLE: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR SALES FORCE TO GET RESULTS
As skiers and snowboarders become more value-oriented, the burden of raising revenues has shifted to your salespeople—the one’s in the greatest position to communicate value and identify the needs of your customer. Investments in sales training increase revenue, raise employee morale and lower turnover. Yet many snow sports companies struggle to figure out how to do it well. How to you get an independent and diverse sales force to buy into improving their skills? Worse yet, what do you do when your salespeople don’t think of themselves as salespeople? Whether the size of your sales force is 1 or 1,000 learn the keys to training and motivating your team for sales success.

“Selling Sales Skills to Salespeople: How to Train Your Sales Force to Get Results” was presented at the 2010 SIA Snow Show in Denver by Kelly Coffey, Marketing Copywriter. Click here to view the presentation.

“The seminar at the Snow Show turned out swimmingly. The audience was an engaged group of people whose questions sparked lively discussions,” said Coffey. “Everybody sells. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling a product directly to a customer or selling an idea to your boss. It’s about figuring out that selling isn’t about tricking people into giving you money, but about helping your customers solve their problems. If a manager can get their employee to truly understand that, then everything else falls into place a lot easier.”

Kelly Coffey is a sales and marketing copywriter with strong ties to the snow sports industry. When Vail Resorts needed to improve sales in the ski schools of its five mountains, they tapped Kelly to lead a multi-channel program that gave its 3,000 instructors access to the right tools and opportunities to improve their sales skills. Find out more at www.KRCoffey.com. 

SUMMER CHECK-IN WITH EVAN ROSE FROM BURTON
Evan Rose, Marketing Creative Director at Burton Snowboards, took some time out of his busy schedule to talk about his role at Burton, what guides his work and his summer plans.  

Evan was born in New Jersey and at an early age found snowboarding to be a perfect outlet for his rather excitable personality - so much so that he set his sights on applying all his time to get a job in the industry. He initially found opportunities with print publications and assorted media outlets and later found employment with manufacturers in both sales and marketing.  Evan currently lives in Burlington, Vermont.

SIA: How did you get started in the industry?
Evan: Right place at the right time. When I first started getting paid for being involved with snowboarding, not that many people even did it. I’m not claiming to be a snowboarding pioneer in any respect, but I was part of the early 90’s explosion.

SIA: What is your role at Burton?
Evan: To oversee the creative direction of the Burton marketing department.

As their Marketing Creative Director, I can initiate concepts and guide them into feasible ideas. Working for Burton is a phenomenal experience as the resources in both team and product is well established, as well as being part of the future heritage of the brand.    

SIA: Are you involved in product development? If, so what inspires you?
Evan: Not so much with the physical nature of the product, but I get involved with developing marketing stories around technical features and various bells and whistles. Burton makes incredible product, so there is never a shortage of stuff to sink your teeth into.

SIA: What does a normal day at the office look like for you?
Evan: I don’t like to travel too much, so I’m generally behind a computer. I pounce through a grip of emails every day and spend a good amount of time working with designers and creative types.

SIA: How can the industry work together to do better business?
Evan: The snowboarding industry can work together to remind people that skiing is (still) not that rad.

SIA: What overarching goals/values guide your work?
Evan: Not to sound cliché, but having a good time doing something I’m ultimately passionate and stoked about.

SIA: What does your summer plans include professionally?
Evan: Archiving

SIA: Personal summer plans?
Evan: Yelling, complaining, laughing.

SIA: What do you never travel without?
Evan: Sedatives

BIG CHANGES FOR SKIING MAGAZINE
Skiing Magazine is about to make some significant changed to its format. The 65-year-old brand has decided to reduce the number of annual issues from six to two. With this change comes the launch of their major initiative for Skiing that will transform the magazine into an all-new 360-degree multimedia platform with multiple channels of distribution from print to the iPad to smartphones.

Below are some details from Merri Lee Kingsly, VP of Group Publisher at Skiing.

While our print products will still come out prior to the majority of the on-snow ski season, our digital magazines will be truly in season, giving our readers useful content they can take straight to the slopes and giving our marketers a short-lead-time vehicle to deliver their unique messages.

Here are just a few of the new things you’ll see in the new digital editions of Skiing:

• Interactive Boot Problem Solver, in which the user mouses over a boot where he or she feels pain to receive solutions from top boot fitters.
• Our exclusive interactive room finder will let users choose their most important lodging criteria and then provide a list of the best lodging choices, complete with slide shows of the property and user reviews.
• Our personalized interactive instruction will give frame-by-frame technique breakdown controlled by the user and include a useful problem solver. Topics include: How to Ski Bumps, How to Ski Steeps, How to Ski Powder and more.
• Skiing’s Interactive Guide to Ski Country’s Best Parties: The Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of maximizing fun in ski towns.
• Interactive History of Skiing, which will provide year-by-year pop-ups on notable happenings in the sport.

This first-of-its-kind program will spark creative, unique advertising opportunities for those looking for highly engaged readers by delivering the personalized and interactive experience readers love.

It will also expand distribution, reach new markets and offer more innovative programs than ever seen. This is just the latest move to better serve the brand’s readers and the needs of marketing partners in the ski industry.

SIA WAREHOUSE, PROLOGIS, TESTS SOLAR PANELS TO SUPPORT GLOBAL ROOFTOP RENEWABLE ENERGY PROGRAM
Last month, Denver based ProLogis, a leading global provider of distribution facilities, unveiled their Rooftop Photovoltaic (PV) Test Site. ProLogis is the first and only real estate company to have a solar test site to support its global rooftop renewable energy program. SIA uses this warehouse year-round to store materials for our SIA Snow Show, exhibits for our members, snow sports equipment from our Snow Sports Recycling test program. The warehouse is also where SIA performs the first phase of the recycling process on the equipment before it is sent off to be compounded.

The Denver test brings together seven of the newest thin-film solar technologies — which are lighter and potentially cheaper than traditional silicon panels. The panels are created by applying a layer as thin as a hair to a lightweight substrate.

“We are excited to be a part of this global rooftop renewable energy program with ProLogis. Being ‘green’ is not a new concept for SIA,” said David Ingemie, president of SIA. “The snow sports industry has always been comprised of conservationists; it’s part of our heritage, our livelihood and passion for winter sports. Snow sports require a healthy environment and SIA is dedicated to do its part. Using a warehouse that uses solar paneling is just a small way for SIA to do their part in conserving energy and protecting the earth that we love so much.”

The solar module manufacturers partnering with ProLogis in the Test Site are Thornton-based Ascent Solar; two California companies — MisaSole and Solyndra; Michigan-based United Solar Ovonic; Ohio-based Xunlight; Chinese manufacturer GS-Solar; and Arizona-based First Solar, the biggest thin-film producer. An eighth company, Georgia-based Suniva, is also part of the test but uses a polysilcon solar cell.

The Test Site totals 11 kWp DC of power generation capacity from 99 modules and eight different module manufacturers. Already generating power, this phase-one study highlights side-by-side comparisons of several module technologies, including monocrystalline, glass-on-glass thin film and membrane-applied thin film modules.

ProLogis will apply the information gathered about the performance of the solar panels to its growing renewable energy program worldwide. ProLogis has solar projects on 32 buildings throughout France, Germany, Japan, Spain and the United States. The installations currently cover more than 10.6 million square feet of roof space and total 24.6 megawatts. For more information, visit Prologis.com.

THE WORD ON THE SLOPES
Summer plans? Keep SIA in the know of what is going on in your company, shop and/or territory. Send in your press releases, story ideas, employee highlights, pictures and news to PR@snowsports.org.

Official news: SNOWBOARDER Magazine Announces Superpark Sunday Presented by Gatorade. SNOWBOARDER Magazine has brought the world's top snowboarding talent together for their annual Superpark event for over 14 years running and every year the staff is inundated with more amazing content than they know what to do with. Click here to read more… In celebration of their official re-launch into the North American snow and ski racing markets, Briko USA - a wholly owned subsidiary of Briko S.r.l (Milan, ITA) has again named the Mt. Hood Alpine Racing Center as their exclusive summer home. Click here to learn more… Longworth Industries, parent company of Polarmax and PMX technical base layers, is proud to announce they have formed a partnership with Dean Cummings and H2O Guides, based in Valdez, AK, to be the official base layer for all H2O Guides sanctioned activities through spring 2013. Click here to learn more… Mostly positive skier/snowboarder visit reports are pouring in from across the nation and the Vermont Ski Areas Association announced yesterday its annual meeting that the state hosted 4,125,082 skier/rider visits for the 2009-10 season. Click here to read more...Spyder, the skiwear brand that’s outfitted the U.S. Ski Team in performance race suits and training outerwear since 1989, entered into an agreement with America’s most successful ski racer, Lindsey Vonn, to promote consumer sales of Vonn-inspired custom graphic alpine downhill race suits. For the 2009/10 season, Spyder worked with Vonn to develop a unique suit design for each stop on the World Cup circuit to honor her 2008 and 2009 World Cup overall titles (she has since won her third consecutive title). Click here to read more… The North American Ski Training Center (NASTC) is one of the few small businesses that has decided to continue its Chilean operations in the aftermath of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile earlier this year. The earthquake caused tremendous destruction throughout much of central Chile. Click here to learn more… The Beaver Creek/Vail 2015 bid committee, comprised of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, Vail Resorts and the Vail Valley Foundation, celebrated Thursday as the International Ski Federation (FIS) Council voted to award the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships to Colorado's Vail Valley. It will be the first time the Championships will be staged in America since Vail hosted in 1999. Click here to learn more… Celerant Technology, a leader in the retail software industry, was recently named a 2010/2011 Microsoft Certified Partner for the Mid Market Provider Competency.  The title of Microsoft Certified Partner is given to companies that demonstrate a proficiency in Microsoft products and deliver a great service to their client base.  Click here to learn more… crazeeHeadsUK became a licensed distributor of crazeeHeads® helmet covers in the United Kingdom and Austria. The effort to expand distribution in both areas will be headed by a successful businessman, Andrew Kendal. Mr. Kendal, who has an extensive marketing and business development background, started skiing at 5 and has never stopped. Click here to learn more… High Sierra Sport Company, a manufacturer of innovative bags and adventure travel luggage, is pleased to announce the appointment of Josh LeBaron as National Sales Manager for its Sporting Goods Division. Click here to learn more… Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) today announced that the Company has acquired Mountain News Corporation (MNC), which operates the world’s most visited online snow sports portal, OnTheSnow.com. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Following the acquisition, Chad Dyer will remain with MNC, continuing to oversee the operations as global managing director. Click here to read more…. FUEL TV, the only network dedicated to the lifestyle of action sports, is excited to announce an HD channel is now available in the Apple iTunes store specifically formatted for the iPad. This channel takes FUEL TV podcasts to a whole new level of HD quality. Click here to read more… In New Zealand Innovative Ski Lease Programme helps snow sports lovers in tough times. Click here to learn more….Checkout The Washington Post Second Glance Gallery, Hit the slopes! - May 30, 2010…. Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) announced that its 22 member resorts, which include nearly all the state’s mountains outside of Vail’s resorts, hosted an estimated 6.74 million skier visits during the 2009-10 ski season. Click here to read more… USC Ski Team teams up with 4FRNT skier Finn Anderson at Mammmoth Mountain. Click here to learn more… The International Ski Federation has voted to create a women's ski jumping World Cup circuit starting with the 2011-12 season. Click here to read more.

Send us your news, press releases and stories to PR@snowsports.org, SnowSports Industries America. 

Please feel free to forward this message to anyone who is interested in the growth and further development of the snow sports industry, and continue to do your part. Let it Snow!