Action-Sports Retailers Find Confidence Is Up
SAN DIEGO—When Volcom employees dressed as clowns started juggling balls, riding around on unicycles and tossing stickers from their company’s booth, the tone of the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo was set for goofy humor. But the business at the show was nothing to laugh at.
Vendors and buyers said high retailer confidence made business robust at the trade show for surf and skateboard apparel and accessories manufacturers, held Sept. 10–12 at the San Diego Convention Center.
Such confidence might have been helped by the rebel spirit and cockeyed humor of the boardsports aficionados attending the show. Complementing Volcom’s clowns was Daniel Browning Smith (also known as “The Rubberboy”), a San Francisco–based contortionist who was near the Rip Curl Inc. booth. He demonstrated the elasticity of the company’s E2 wet suit to grimaces and cheers by dislocating the arms and hips of his 5-foot-8-inch body.
As for do-it-yourself entertainment, passersbys picked up electric guitars and drumsticks to churn out garage-band versions of rock and reggae favorites at the booth of Sonette Inc., a manufacturer of Flex-fit caps in Santa Fe Springs, Calif.
All this set the show’s tone for being the place to come for hip surf-inspired clothing.
“There’s a vibe. We’re still hot as an industry with the youth market, and that’s the main thing,” said Roy Turner, president of the Board Retailers Association, based in Wilmington, N.C.
Reports varied as to whether buyers were writing orders for clothes. Many vendors judged the success of the show by the number of appointments they booked. Quite a few vendors said they were overbooked—which is a good thing if you are trying to put products in front of as many eyeballs as possible, said Ian Kessler, vice president and general counsel for Sanuk U.S.A. LLC, a flip-flop sandal maker based in Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.
“To me a show is successful if, in addition to our scheduled appointments, we have a lot of walk-in traffic,” Kessler said. “This year, we had a significant increase in walk-in traffic. They appeared seriously interested in looking at the line and bringing the line into their stores.”
Attendance even
Kevin Flanagan, ASR’s show director, said the number of exhibitors at the September show grew more than 10 percent this year to 450 manufacturers. ASR had not released attendance figures by press time, but Flanagan estimated that 7,000 buyers browsed through an array of clothes that ranged from boardshorts to blazers. A similar number attended last year’s ASR show.
Buyers came not only from veteran specialty surf shops but also from department stores such as Macy’s West and Bloomingdale’s, luxury boutiques such as Jill Roberts of Beverly Hills, and Internet behemoth Amazon.com.
These buyers confirmed the spotlight on the world of boardsports is growing. The categor y made up 4 percent of the apparel market in 2004, compared with a little more than 1 percent in 1999–2000, said Marshal Cohen, chief apparel analyst for The NPD Group Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y.–based market research firm.
“Surf is becoming more appealing to a wider group of consumers,” Cohen said. “But it’s still in its infancy. It’s still finding its way.”
Future growth spurts could involve the manufacturing of clothes for people older than boardsports companies’ typical demographic, consumers between the ages of 14 and 19, or a concentration on lifestyle products, Cohen said.
Some of the show’s success was rooted in clothes favoring the California look, said Frank Delgadillo, founder and partner of Ambiguous Clothing Inc., based in Irvine, Calif.
“West Coast fashion is starting to make a surge again,” Delgadillo said, noting his apparel company more than doubled its boardshorts offerings, from six styles to more than 20 styles. “The dress-down look is big, and that plays big into the boardshort market,” he said.
Garth Cabral, founder of New York–based menswear company Cabral, said there is a new demand to dress up casual style.
“There’s more of an appreciation for fashion compared to the last show,” Cabral said. “Last year, there was more of a punk look. Men and women are dressing more eclectically.”
Eclecticism was a guiding inspiration for styles such as preppy- influenced, campus-cool track jackets; 1960s-inspired vintage surf T-shirts; fashion-driven boardshorts; and woven shirts with artsy embroidery, eccentric detailing and bright colors.
