This news hit us this morning and has kicked off a flurry of social media commentary and phone blowups with the news. We anticipate plenty of lamenting, reminiscing and pontificating on the future of shows (full disclosure, we’ve already done our own pontificating in the socials…:-).
During Kenji’s time working for the shows, Winter Market was always the ‘strugglier’ of the two shows. Launched in 1990, the show was a response to being shoved to the back of the SIA show floor (a separate ballroom if I remember right), and being lost behind the ballooning ski fashion scene featured in Vegas. In our first visit to SIA in 1988, some print photos exist of booth babes, fashion shows with moon boots, and Elvis impersonators on the show floor. We won’t talk about how Kenji got the ‘Mr. Vegas’ moniker… a story for a different day.
Why would a juggernaut show like OR fold up quietly and go away? Wasn’t this the epicenter of the wintersports industry at one point not long ago?
Some of you have heard our rants about shows, momentum and the false concept of a ‘fortress’ event platform. Essentially, shows are more like Orchids than they are Fortresses – incredibly sensitive to soil chemistry and sun angle and tiny fungal parasitic orgs and such. This has proven true with OR Winter, once the fastest growing and powerful show in the wintersports global scene and the industry’s latest casualty. At its peak, OR Winter was the 36th largest trade show in the country, while OR Summer occupied the 29th slot alongside NAMM and other large international gatherings. Together, they broke into the top 15 shows nationwide (measured by sold square footage, not attendance metrics). The critical mass brought an international cadre of designers, investors, inventors, non-endemic brands, sales reps and media together.
The history of relevant outdoor shows going away has lessons to be learned, and they are spaced widely enough apart to make it difficult to analyze; only ‘lifer’ industry stalwarts will remember that history well, and very few were intimate with the inner workings of the shows themselves.
What is to become of the wintersports industry(ies)? Will that sector follow the cycling industry in simply not having a single epicenter to amplify from? Is there value in a central epicenter event for a broader swath of the outdoor markets?
These questions aren’t easy to answer, but no matter what it will take leadership to create new solutions that capture the opportunity to bring more people along a responsible, sustainable and powerful movement. We at Kenji Consults will be doing our part to explore the edges of what is possible and drive a bigger vision of who we are and where we belong.
Some good threads to follow that are pertinent to this conversation:
- Peter Sachs (LOWA North America GM) comments on cancellation of OR Winter
From The Rock Fight Podcast – https://www.linkedin.com/posts/colin-true-b4152011_outdoorindustry-tradeshows-activity-7242533443748667392-_Btf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
SES Interview with Show Director Sean Smith
What are Your Thoughts on Industry Shows and central national/international events for Markets?
