With over 40,000 visitors, not even the cold weather and snow could keep people away from this year’s ISPO Munich. As well as one clear theme which is guiding many new product releases, one sport is showing a dramatic rise. And what of the trade show concept itself? How well is ISPO reflecting the change in the status of trade shows? In their roundup, our Editorial Team brings you the main industry trends, changes, pinch points and challenges that they observed at this year’s ISPO Munich 2023.
There has been, and is still, a lot of movement in the sporting goods and outdoor industry and the crisis has not left it unscathed. We had many conversations with players from the sporting goods and outdoor worlds who talked not only about cost savings and budget reductions but were themselves made redundant, told of colleagues who had been made redundant, or spoke of structural changes that led to significant staff reductions. This applies to small, medium-sized and large companies alike.
A lot of discussions then – both formal and informal – were about adapting to this ongoing movement and how to meet consumer needs and stay dynamic without compromising on a brand’s core values and identity.
“Sustainability” replaced with circularity
The Sustainability Hub of ISPO Munich 2023 had “Circularity” as its topic this year, but the theme was visible way beyond Hall A1. In fact, it seems like the former buzzword of “Sustainability” has been swapped out by many brands for “circularity,” with the word and the accompanying infinity symbol appearing on the stands of many brands.
It’s no surprise, given the introduction of the EU Green Deal is drawing ever closer. But also, “circular” is somewhat more clearly definable than sustainable, incorporating stages such as repair, resale, and end-of-life recycling.
As a testament to this shift, both Vaude and Polartec – in cooperation with Houdini – presented materials that are bio-based rather than fossil-based in their production and are also renewable when used in their pure form.
With Biolon, Polartec has developed a non-GMO plant-based nylon, which will be used first by Houdini. While this development is still at the project stage, Biolon will be sold in the first products as early as 2024. Houdini, for its part, does not attach any importance to exclusivity in the use of the new plant-based nylon but wants to encourage the entire industry to follow suit.
Vaude’s solution is a “BioMeg” to replace monoethylene glycol (MEG) resin traditionally derived from petroleum. A collaboration with UPM Biochemicals, UPM BioPura is a renewable drop-in solution that is an equivalent replacement for fossil-based MEG. It is produced from sustainably sourced hardwood sourced in the German forest.
The industry can be proud that it is often addressing the big issues that are not yet being considered mainstream. This was best demonstrated by the session on biodiversity hosted by EOCA. Great takeaways were also available when listening to Mammut’s practical assistance to help their supply chain improve its social responsibilities and finding a solution to the elusive search for a PFC-free zip.
Circularity: The appetite is there, but brands need help
Although there is enthusiasm and visible progress within product development and end-of-life solutions, three major challenges were repeatedly mentioned by many industry players in the area of sustainability and circularity:
1. Regulations – both a curse and a blessing
On the one hand, many different industry players, for example, from the brand side such as Antje von Dewitz from Vaude or Ben Blischke, Project Manager for Product Sustainability and Innovation from the retailer Intersport, see the need for industry-wide standards, regulations and laws. On the other hand, it is a major challenge for the industry to implement the regulations coming with the EU Green Deal.
Jérôme Pero, FESI Secretary General, said in the SGI Europe talk “License to operate: Navigating EU sustainability policies through the lens of information requirements” that the more than twenty regulations that will be introduced in the coming years will be “disruptive” for the industry.
Diego Antončić, Senior Manager Government Affairs at Adidas, emphasized – as did all those mentioned above – that these adjustments can only be managed collaboratively, within brands but also within the industry as a whole.
But Jesper Danielsson, Head of Design from Houdini, put it like this: “We in the design process grow by restrictions.”
2. A missing link
The sporting goods and outdoor industry is particularly dependent on political support for the final step in the area of circularity: Recycling. This is the “missing link.”
However, there were many approaches on display at the trade show, from product design to repair and rental solutions, which showed that many industry players are developing solutions in areas that they can influence. “We are not allowed to wait until politics comes up with a solution,” said Houdini CEO Eva Karlsson.
3. Communication is the crux
Many (ingredient) brands are also concerned about the challenges of communicating with consumers. Chris Blackwood from Gore-Tex, for example, said that it is important for them to train retailers well so that they can, in turn, provide customers with correct and valuable information, which is itself very challenging.
Debbie Read, Head of Corporate Communications and CSR at Equip Outdoor Technologies, said: “Sometimes the retailer just asks us, ‘Can I say that this product is green?’” This is not differentiated enough and not very technical. But technical and sometimes difficult-to-understand material innovations should be conveyed and the customer must have the opportunity to make an informed purchase decision. Retailers should act as a kind of filter here, according to Blischke of Intersport.
ISPO Munich 2023 in numbers
- 2,400 exhibitors
- 57 percent more exhibitors participated versus 2022
- Exhibitors from 54 countries (up 64 percent versus 2022)
- 93 percent international exhibitors
- 93 start-ups
- Ten stages
Brands’ distribution channels are diverse
Coming back to our theme of movement in the industry, we’re seeing shifts in distribution channels. However, this depends on how brands set up their distribution strategies and the picture here is very heterogeneous. Super.Natural, for example, relies on retailers as its “backbone,” with the brand selling directly to retailers or via wholesale. The brand’s own website is seen as an important touchpoint. DTC sales are possible but are not the main focus; it is more about being able to display the entire collection.
Elho, on the other hand (which is celebrating its comeback after around 30 years), is focusing on a DTC strategy and wants to capture market share in this way and thus secure a higher margin. Wholesale is more of a way to grow awareness of the brand.
Uppervoid is also new to the market. The Chinese-Canadian outdoor brand has been around for two years. It is now set to launch in Europe with wholesale and a dealer network.
In collaboration with selected retailers for this season and expanding capacity for the 24/25 season, the new brand Doubledeck, launched last year, is offering a “Let to rent” rental system for its new snowboard. With its recyclable Motherboard + CPS (convex pressure bow) system construction, the board – spearheaded by former pro rider Terje Haakonsen – also seems to be the first major snowboard tech innovation in quite some time.
Maddie Oelhoft from Elastic Suite understands all of the strategies. What’s important is that all brands have their products digitally accessible, well-described and displayable so that they can be sold well, whether that be B2B or DTC.
Shift in sports motivation powering one category
As usual, ISPO Munich provided a touchstone for trends in the sporting goods industry, both from the expert presentations and the informal chats with brands. One sport cropped up again and again as the biggest growing category: Trail running.
Florian Lamblin, Executive Director of UTMB International, described the sport as “booming,” especially in France, Italy, Germany, the US, China and Japan, during a panel on sports brands and destinations. The number of trail running events is now bigger than the number of road running events. In the same discussion, Marcos Fernández, Sponsorship Manager Joma Sports, said that Joma had changed all of its branding for the trail running category because it is so special and unique.
At the Runner’s World Symposium, held on the second day of ISPO Munich and this year within one of the halls, figures revealed that 31 percent of runners surveyed in Germany were planning on engaging with trail running in the next 12 months. And Charles Dallain at the Oboz booth felt that much of its very busy ISPO had been due to the brand’s “Fast Hiking” category shoe.
What’s behind this? Insights from both Urs Weber of Runner’s World and the much broader sporting goods analysis of McKinsey’s forthcoming Sporting Goods Report 2024, presented by Alexander Thiel, point to a change in people’s motivation for doing sport. Gone are competitively driven goals; instead, people are motivated to exercise to have fun, enjoy a more holistic experience, and are drawn to more accessible sports that can be started as an adult without too much specialist equipment, training or the requirement to join a club. This also accounts for the continued growth of the sport of pádel.
Ongoing evolution of ISPO did not go unnoticed
Coming back to where we started, with the idea of movement in the industry, the same also applies to trade shows themselves. Since the Covid years of event cancellations from 2020–2021, there have been those asking, “What place do traditional trade shows have now?” Certainly, there is a sense of the gatherings having to evolve to survive.
The organizers of ISPO have certainly done something right, as the number of visitors to the event and visitors to the booths was reportedly very high on day one and still satisfying on day two. But there is a mixture of both clarity and confusion as the event appears to be moving away from its traditional trade show roots towards what it describes as a “festival feel.” Contributing to that this year were, among others, numerous prominent sports personalities who took to one of the many stages at the show to answer questions on a wide variety of topics, such as the US American football player Colin Kaepernick, who spoke about his fight against injustice.
One head of marketing at a fitness brand said this sense of an event in turnaround was clear, giving ISPO a “mixture” vibe this year; with a shifting public in attendance and an obviously shifting target group. More than one person said that they felt that the many (and very interesting) stage presentations, panels and talks in hall B1 affected the traffic at the booths in the other halls and that the event should be either a conference or a trade show. The sheer volume of discussions left some getting in the steps as they “dashed from one end of the Messe to the other!” This brought back memories of former parallel events to ISPO, such as the Volvo Sports Design Forum at the ICM in the mid-2000s. Maybe separate events would be worth considering – also to expand the target audience.
After all, it often makes sense to refresh past concepts. As seen at this year’s Zeitgeist by ISPO, a kind of re-envisioned ISPOVISION – more compact, more stylish, less pretentious, with many creative brands from the sports, fashion and outdoor sectors, a small basketball pitch, inspiring capsule catwalk shows, a stage and a bar with a networking area.
Head of ISPO Group Tobias Gröber had this to say about the evolution of ISPO: “Just as the sports industry is constantly evolving, we too are continually integrating new formats such as masterclasses, innovation labs, conferences and pioneering partnerships such as those with the German Sustainability Award, Laureus, Yunus Sports Hub and Change Now – and we’re doing all this without forgetting our roots in the sporting goods industry.”
The further development of trade shows – not just ISPO – in relation to the changed market situation, processes, etc., will definitely continue to be the focus of interest. And there will always be supporters and critics.
Next on the Munich show calendar is OutDoor by ISPO from June 3–5, 2024 – this time at the ISPO exhibition center in Munich-Riem.
