Held at different venues in São Paulo and at different dates over the past three years, the two big consumer-oriented trade shows are going to be held jointly and simultaneously on Aug. 11-14 in the centrally located Ibirapuera Park of the Brazilian city, where many locals stroll, run, bike and skate. Each featuring some 250 brands or exhibitors, they will be accessible with one single ticket. They will also have a common new trade event for retail buyers.
The São Paulo Running Show was being held in that park in August, attracting about 20,000 consumers every year to a big event in which most of the major brands of running shoes operating in Brazil participated. This show will now be renamed Brazil Sports Show and broadened to other sports categories such as team sports, water sports and fitness. Specialist brands such as Arena will share the premises along with the likes of Adidas, Asics, Diadora, Fila, Mizuno and Puma.
Held at a different venue in the same city in September, the older Brazilian outdoor show got some 50,000 visitors last year, fewer than before, but it included for the first time a rather successful “buyers' club.” Described as the biggest event of this type in Latin America, it will keep the name of Adventure Sports Fair, or ASF. As before, the show will cover cycling, motorcycling, surfing, sailing, scuba diving, off-road vehicles, skydiving and other activities in addition to hiking, camping, climbing and other outdoor sports as well as adventure travel and other forms of tourism.
Some major international outdoor brands have stayed out of ASF until now, leaving the space to the distributors of numerous small and medium-sized brands of outdoor gear and many tour operators. However, the organizers say that big players such as Columbia Sportswear, Timberland and The North Face are now “really interested” in taking part.
Some actual or potential exhibitors at ASF resent the fact that the major Brazilian outdoor show is changing its dates and taking place immediately after the big American Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City. However, many hope to attract some of the 20,000-odd consumers and 4,000-plus retail buyers who are expected to attend the Pesca Trade Show, scheduled on Aug. 10-12 at another location in São Paulo. With more than 200 brands offered by over 70 exhibitors, this fair claims to be the largest sport fishing trade show in Latin America.
It has taken a lot of time and effort to reconcile different interests and to put together the two fairs again into a single event for the broader sports market in Brazil, returning to a situation that lasted for a couple of years after the organizers of ASF launched the running show in 2006. One reason for the reconciliation is no doubt the fact the Brazilian sporting goods market has been growing rapidly in the last few years, although it is protected by major import barriers that make it more difficult for foreign brands to penetrate it. It has also become more mature and more professional, and it will certainly get a major boost from the fact that Brazil is soon going to host the World Cup of football and the Summer Olympic Games.
The combination of the two trade shows had been in the planning stages for some time, and it has been made easier by changes in the shareholding of the two companies that were organizing the two fairs. Sergio Franco, who launched ASF in 1999 after selling his rights to a Brazilian fashion fair, has been a shareholder in both all along. A Brazilian publisher of various sports magazines, Esfera BR Media, took a 50 percent stake in the running show last November. Then, last February, Sergio Bernardi, who had launched ASF together with Franco in 1999, returned after a long absence and took the place of another partner. Under the new set-up, Promotrade, a company formed by the two Sergios, is the organizer of ASF. It is also a partner with the media group in the new enlarged Brazil Sports Show.
Officials of Promotrade insist that they are not competing against another event, called Sport Business, that will be held for 26th time in São Paulo next Aug. 17-19. This event has gradually evolved over the years from a show into a national convention is said to address mainly public procurement authorities and operators of fitness clubs, gyms, stadiums and other sports facilities.
