Dutch suppliers of ice skates enjoyed outstanding sales last year, as cold weather conditions in the country enabled hundreds of thousands of Dutch people to skate on lakes and canals for 10 days in a row during the Christmas holidays. The notoriously skate-crazy Dutch leapt at the opportunity to hit the ice, and after 12 warm winters all Dutch skaters under the age of 27 required new skates. It was estimated that the three leading stock-keeping suppliers of ice skates in the Netherlands sold 600,000 pairs in December – compared with about 30,000 pairs in a warm winter. This estimate combines Viking’s speed skates with Wintersports’ hockey and figure skates, and Zandstra’s speed, hockey, cross-country and long-distance skates. ING Bank even reported that the craze generated revenues of about €80 million, although this was based on a somewhat unrealistic average price. There is still hope that ice-cold weather will hit again in February, enabling the Dutch to organize their famous Eleven Towns race, last held in 1997 and won by Henk Angenent, a grower of brussels sprouts who became an instant Dutch hero. Similar increases in skating could be detected in Sweden and other European countries.

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