Industry experts estimate that the global snowboard market will remain more or less stable with sales of about 600,000 boards by the end of this winter season, excluding private labels and smaller snowboard brands. Adding these two factors, sales are expected to reach about one million boards. The European snowboard market was said to be weak, while sales in Russia, China and South Korea are on the rise.
In the last two to three years, big snowboard brands like Burton have reported strongly decreasing sales. While some small new snowboard brands have moved into the market, some long-standing specialists are looking for new ways to win back former customers who have adopted free-skiing and other snow sports. They are also introducing new types of products and innovative sales concepts.
The Nidecker group, which includes the Jones, Yes, Slash, Now and Nidecker brands, expects to sell about 75,000 to 80,000 units for the season, an increase of 15 percent compared with the same period a year ago. About 25,000 boards will be sold under the Nidecker brand, up by more than 15 percent as compared to the previous year.
The Swiss snowboarding group recently introduced a special concept for a dozen selected retailers from the U.S., Europe and Japan, who act as partners of the Nidecker brand for the introduction of the new “snow-surf” product segment, called Capsule. The new product segment is for snowboarders, aged 30 to 45, who simply want to slide down the piste.
For every board that is sold online via the brand's website, the margin will be split among the participating retailers. The selected group of retailers will help to push the product, which was presented for the first time at Ispo.
The snow-surf boards will be available in partner stores from the second half of February. With this new product segment, Nidecker is trying to get former customers back to the sport.
For its part, Nitro expects to sell 75,000 snowboards by the end of this winter, stable compared to the same period of the previous year. The brand also re-launched some old snowboard shapes at Ispo, such as a series of longboards, in order to attract again the 30-45s group of snowboarders.
