I made it to the second annual Action Sports Conference the other day, another Group Y/Fuel TV event that was entirely successful with a sold out crowd. The event was in Huntington Beach down the street from the US Surf Open and timed perfectly with the Surf Open, X Games, Maloof Money Cup, Agenda trade-show and ASR trade-show all occurring with in a 2 week span.
I went there by myself not really knowing what to anticipate. Found it easily, valeted my dirt encrusted Subaru and joined a business conference full of Vans wearing business entrepreneurs. Whether they founded a skate company, or were the first to do a 900 in competition, they were all entrepreneurs in some way. It was an honor to be in such a respected but passionate audience.
Somehow I ended up in the best seat I could have hoped for. I saw a lonely fellow and figured I would join him and start a conversation. As the room filled in, I learned that I was sitting next to Kristin Cusic, VP or marketing for 686 and one of the most influential women in the action sports industry; the founder of EVOgear.com; Erik Leines, a pro former pro snowboarded I had once asked to autograph a poster back in my snowboarding days; and Josh Lewis, my former boss from Malakye.com. I don't think there was a bad seat in that room, but I was pretty content with my seat and the conversation that came with it.
Grete Eliassen speaking about her personal brand as an athlete.
I learned a great lot, but since that day, there are some things I am still left wondering. I'm a skier at heart. I still love snowboarding and skateboarding and all the other amazing things that my fellow passionate friends do, but where was skiing in all of this? The only ski company represented in that room was Armada. With the lifestyle that skiers lead and who our friends are and the way that the freeskier environment has changed in the last few years, certainly freestyle skiing can be considered in the same genre. Armada figured this out, so where was Line, Orage, or Moment? One may think it is because we still seem less welcome and that snowboarders are the primary and skiers just an afterthought. But this was not the case. Grete Eliassen was one of the Panelists and had plenty to say about skiing as a main contender. Nike 6.0, Evo, and Backcountry had some nice words to say as well. The skier lifestyle is easily aligned with the other action sports and it was disappointing that there was hardly any representation in the audience.
There was so much talk about growth and expansion and where endemic brands fit in. But in all of this, there was no talk of growth in the women's market. Women make the majority of retail purchases in the world, yet only 1/3 of action sports purchases are made by women. There is still a stigma on the industry that the women involved are tom boys. It isn't that women have less of a desire to be involved with these sports, its that we think, feel, and behave differently than men and therefor need these things to be marketed differently to us. I'm not saying women will ever take up a 50% share. But imagine turning it into 60%/40% where the men's market stays the same. There would be an overall profit and audience increase of around 17%. In a 2 billion dollar a year industry that's 340 million dollars the industry could be getting. I'm not saying 60/40 could happen with in the next few years or even next 10 years, but it is definitely an area for growth that deserves some attention.
Overall the conference was very positive. The main points hit were there needs to be more mainstream growth for endemic growth. There needs to be endemic growth for the ASI image to remain. A brand can grow and remain authentic at the same time. And finally, growth has be be addressed carefully and can not be done with out the assistance of more mainstream businesses.
*Image by Jerry Kasai, from Shop Eat Surf.
Grete Eliassen speaking about her personal brand as an athlete.
I learned a great lot, but since that day, there are some things I am still left wondering. I'm a skier at heart. I still love snowboarding and skateboarding and all the other amazing things that my fellow passionate friends do, but where was skiing in all of this? The only ski company represented in that room was Armada. With the lifestyle that skiers lead and who our friends are and the way that the freeskier environment has changed in the last few years, certainly freestyle skiing can be considered in the same genre. Armada figured this out, so where was Line, Orage, or Moment? One may think it is because we still seem less welcome and that snowboarders are the primary and skiers just an afterthought. But this was not the case. Grete Eliassen was one of the Panelists and had plenty to say about skiing as a main contender. Nike 6.0, Evo, and Backcountry had some nice words to say as well. The skier lifestyle is easily aligned with the other action sports and it was disappointing that there was hardly any representation in the audience.
There was so much talk about growth and expansion and where endemic brands fit in. But in all of this, there was no talk of growth in the women's market. Women make the majority of retail purchases in the world, yet only 1/3 of action sports purchases are made by women. There is still a stigma on the industry that the women involved are tom boys. It isn't that women have less of a desire to be involved with these sports, its that we think, feel, and behave differently than men and therefor need these things to be marketed differently to us. I'm not saying women will ever take up a 50% share. But imagine turning it into 60%/40% where the men's market stays the same. There would be an overall profit and audience increase of around 17%. In a 2 billion dollar a year industry that's 340 million dollars the industry could be getting. I'm not saying 60/40 could happen with in the next few years or even next 10 years, but it is definitely an area for growth that deserves some attention.
Overall the conference was very positive. The main points hit were there needs to be more mainstream growth for endemic growth. There needs to be endemic growth for the ASI image to remain. A brand can grow and remain authentic at the same time. And finally, growth has be be addressed carefully and can not be done with out the assistance of more mainstream businesses.
*Image by Jerry Kasai, from Shop Eat Surf.
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