OUT OF THE GATE
Positive moods prevail at 2011 SnowSports Industries America show BY BRYCE HUBNER Good Snow, Good Show
From Jan. 27 to 31, the 2011 SnowSports Industries
America (SIA) Snow Show hit Denver’s Colorado Con-
vention Center on the heels of some very welcome
news: December 2010 set a retail snow sports goods
sales record of more than $1 billion.
Each year the monster SIA show gives brands, retail-
ers and consumers a chance to explore and hype the
industry’s latest and greatest products. And last month,
the overall vibe was decidedly more upbeat than in re-
cent years, which had been mired by the down econ-
omy.
“The general mood was great at this year’s show,” said
Geoff Curtis, the director of marketing at Völkl/Marker.
“Obviously, in a good snow year we tend to look our
best. It makes it fun when you have a collision course
of companies’ inventory being pretty clean and a good
snow year.”
Curtis says that Völkl and Marker unveiled a slew of
products that will be available to consumers for the
2011-12 season, and he was particularly excited about
some race-related products for junior skiers.
“We introduced a new 14-millimeter slalom plate that
[the market really needed for a variety of technology
and FIS control reasons],” he said, adding that they also
debuted the first junior ski with our Speedwall technol-
ogy, which had only been available on adult models.
“On the freestyle side,” said Curtis, “we’ve added our
Extended Low Profile — or ELP — rocker technology
SIA 2011 by the
numbers
$1 billion of snow sports
goods were sold at retail
in December, giving the
January tradeshow a little
bounce.
19,000 attendees
including manufacturers,
retailers, reps, athletes
and personalities from the
snow sports industry
893 snow sports brands
including 112 new
exhibitors
150 brands participated
in the subsequent Jan.
31 and Feb. 1 On-Snow
Demo/Ski-Ride Fest at
Winter Park and Devil’s
Thumb Ranch, an
industry-only, two-day
event filled with demos,
races and parties.
