California Apparel News

The Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo in recent years has expanded its juniors offerings, launched a Back-to-School show and taken its action-sports concept overseas.

ASR Show Director Kevin Flanagan helped develop ASR Fall, the show’s Back- To-School event, and helped launch ASR Europe in Anglet, France. Flanagan, who joined the ASR team in 2002, is no stranger to the actionsports world. A former director of international marketing and director of European marketing for Oakley Inc., Flanagan most recently served as vice president of marketing for Globe International Ltd. and the Broadband Interactive Group, producer of BlueTorch TV, prior to joining ASR.

As organizers prepare for the show’s Sept. 10–12 run at the San Diego Convention Center, California Apparel News Fashion Editor N. Jayne Seward caught up with Flanagan to gain some insight into the action-sports market and learn what’s next for ASR.

What are some key areas of growth in action-sports apparel?

After steady growth in juniors, now we’re seeing some upside in men’s, especially on the creativity. I wouldn’t say in tremendous volume, but just as far as pushing the limits on the creativity. It’s not like kite surfing has all of a sudden spawned a bunch of new brands or fashions or styles. The three core sports—surf, skate and snow—are still the foundation. Motocross is starting to have a little bit more impact on clothing. Fox has always been kind of the de facto apparel line, but now Alpinestars is really getting a good line together. So there is probably a handful of clothing companies that have spawned from motocross. We’re seeing that menswear is getting a little bit more sophisticated—it has kind of evolved past just the boardshorts. I think three years ago, the story was that the surfing industry was doing good denim, but now the cut-and-sew [business] has gotten even better with the treatments, the washes, the fashion and styling of the shirts. Cut-andsew has really evolved. It’s not about the wooden button anymore. That was the surf shirt for about 10 years.

Is juniors apparel still playing a prominent role in the overall growth of action sports?

It has been the driving force in the actionsports market for the last three to five years, and I think it continues to be. I don’t think there are bigger developed brands that don’t have a strong juniors line. Juniors and the evolution of the juniors market has really powered many of these brands for the last three years. Now we’re also seeing some sophistication on the men’s side, as well, which is great.

Has there been a shift in merchandise and attendance now that the show is in San Diego instead of Long Beach, Calif.?

The September show has always been our largest show and has always been the de facto action-sports show in the world. Now that the show is held in San Diego in January and September, what we’re finding is a lot of people compare the two shows. So everybody says, “Oh, the September show was so big,” and then they go to the January show, and they say, “Is the industry shrinking or something?” The fact is that now they’re just in the same venue but they’re two different shows. They’ve always been independent of each other. Depending on when people break their Fall lines and their Summer lines and their Spring lines, the January show can fluctuate in size. There are now comparisons between the two shows that are really direct. So what we as show organizers need to explain is that they are two different seasons and two different markets.

What was the strongest category at ASR Europe?

Surf is really dominating at the moment. Especially with all the media attention that it has been getting from movies. We had the premiere of “Riding Giants” over there—that really spoke to everybody. All of the Europeans really related to it and were really excited about it. I think surf is really the strongest of the three sports right now. Skate has definitely plateaued. Skate was a driving force for the past few years, but now surf has really taken over.

Is ASR Europe a growth opportunity for action sports?

Overall traffic was up about 20 percent. And we’re still developing that show. We still see all kinds of room to grow and to get other segments, not just surf. We want to get the skate markets more involved and get the outdoor market involved. We really see this as still the beginning of ASR Europe. We still see a lot of room for growth over there. We’re looking to attract the windsurf, snowboard, skate and motocross markets. In surf, we’ve got 95 percent of the market.

Has ASR Europe affected the growth of ASR in the United States?

That’s a great question, and I wish I could quantify that. Intuitively, you would think that with all of the exposure that ASR is getting throughout Europe and all of the ads that we run and all of the correspondence to all of the retailers, that that would heighten their awareness of ASR and bring more European retailers to the U.S. So following the show, I’ll have to do an analysis to see if it increased the retail presence. From the exhibitor side, yeah, we’re getting a few companies from Europe to come over to the U.S., but that’s just beginning.

Are more Europeans lines attending ASR San Diego because of your presence in Europe?

We’re getting brands like Insight, who had a great show in Europe and then made the decision to come to the U.S. just based on that show. They said, “We had an amazing show— do you have space for us? We want to come with our full line. We’re going to ship our whole booth over there.” So, that’s an example of how it works. Last year, Pacific Motion was a European brand that came to our show for the first time. So it is starting to work in both directions, not just the U.S. brands going over there.

Has ASR Europe increased the interest in the California lifestyle?

I really think that the big upside to the European show is that it allows U.S. manufacturers to showcase their lines in an authentic setting in Europe with other likeminded brands. So it has really been effective going that direction. And we’ve had some reciprocation—we’ve had some European brands come to the U.S. But really what the Europeans are excited about is that whole California lifestyle. That’s what they’re really attracted to—the idea and the fascination with surfing and the laid-back lifestyle.

Are you seeing a shift in retailers who are attending ASR?

All of the core is there, but you are also starting to see a higher-end buyer. With the sophistication of the lines, it’s starting to attract the more sophisticated boutiques that have an appreciation of and an affinity for these brands. A small boutique in Manhattan Beach [Calif.], for example, will come to the show and really look at what are the more sophisticated lines that they can sell to a consumer who is not necessarily surfing everyday but who goes to work casually or works in an environment where fashion is appreciated.

ASR has recently added fashion shows to the lineup. What is the purpose of the September show?

In the 23-year history of ASR, we’ve done quite a few. But then we had not done some for a while, and we did it last show, and it was really well received. So, we’re doing it again. The nice thing about doing the show is that it really allows us to spotlight swim, which is a strong segment of our show, and it’s really well received. You get a sense for the strength of the swim industry when you put the show on, and all of a sudden all the buyers come and watch the show. So it’s important.

What is new for ASR September?

We have a new show guide called the ASR LineUp, which is a terrific resource to research some of the brands and what’s going on. It has most of the lines that are showing at ASR. It’s pretty insane. It has three letters from our different associations who support us, a list of new exhibitors, facts about San Diego and future show dates. We are also having some fun special events. We’ve got the swim fashion show like we did last year. There is also going to be a skate contest called the “Es Game of S.K.A.T.E.,” which will be going on all day on Saturday and will have all of the best pro skaters from around the world who will be competing. It’s a really exciting event. We did it in Long Beach [Calif.] outside a year and a half ago, and it was a huge hit. The public will be invited this time—normally nothing is open to the public. There is also a game show type of event testing skate trivia called the “Skateboard Feud,” the Sector 9 $1,000 dodge-ball game, the Fender stage, a bunch of really good seminars and auctions for charity.