Industry News
Serious buyers and orders written at Surf Shop '08
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 16 September, 2008 : - - Surf Shop 2008 maintained the event’s reputation as a serious buying show at Westpoint September 2 – 4, with good orders being written right across the show in spite of a particularly difficult summer season for the trade. Quality not quantity is something of an exhibition cliché but this proved to be the case at Surf Shop with serious buyers coming to put down orders and seek out new product and fresh ideas for their stores.
Richard Birchwood of J&R Sports, who returned to Surf Shop after taking a year’s break from the show, was there to see new and existing customers, and to launch the eagerly awaited new additions to the Renner Z series Pro range, Target helmet ranges and SEBA skate brand, in addition to selling their range of skateboards, bikes and scooters.
Richard commented, “We got a new account, reopened another and made a very promising contact with one of the majors in the first two hours of the show.”
Big brand names including Reef, Protest, Da Kine, O’Neill wetsuits and Etnies were busy writing orders throughout the show, and the smaller brands benefited from the buyers they brought through the doors. Neill Thompson of Ignite said “I’ve been pleasantly surprised, I’ve been busy with new and existing accounts at the show”.
The organisers brought in new features this year for buyers to see products in action on the King mini ramp and in a dedicated skate area where Street Surfing and Eightball ran demos.
Indoboard ran a busy demonstration area with offers for buyers at the show, plus Highland Streetboards brought world champion Max Maier to the ramp and found their first time out at Surf Shop to be highly beneficial for the brand, " We not only displayed our products, but had our riders show how the streetboard works with the back flips on the ramps causing more than a few jaws to drop!
The event was fantastic for generating new trade and networking with a number of new retailers stocking our boards, plus it was great to meet our existing retailers and let them see our latest products. All in all a great success and well worth while." Neil Thomson, director, Highland Streetboards Ltd.
Avalaan brought an art wall to the show as a backdrop for their new collection, and the organisers promise more similar activity and brands for 2009. Event director Lucy McPhail said; “Some of the bigger names we would have liked to be here this year have already contacted us about space for 2009, and we will be developing the features in the hall for next year – this was an experiment which went down really well with buyers and brands.”
Surf Shop will be taking place at the Westpoint Exhibition Centre in 2009, dates to be confirmed soon. If you are interested in taking part in Surf Shop 2009 please contact Lucy McPhail on 020 7973 6635 or email l.mcphail@hgluk.com for more information.
www.surfshopexpo.com
New Survey: Map Surfing’s future
New! B2B News ASBE-Surf | Receive News-Alerts
Updated & Revised European Surforecasts
More European surfing news available here
Catherine Warren
Industry - Surfersvillage
