SIA Releases 2008/09 Snowboard Intelligence Report
mike lewis
- September 16 2009
- 995 views
- 4 comments
While the ‘08/09 snowboard season was bleak for many, there were some surprising silver linings according to SnowSports Industries America 2009 SIA Intelligence Report. Here are some of the highlights from the report and stay tuned to our November issue as SIA and TransWorld Business provide an in depth analysis of the data going into the season.
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September 21st, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Are there any stats available on soft goods/accessories sales?
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:01 am
Bill, you can get very detailed and robust stats from SIA. Just like with the ActionWatch market tracking program for surf/skate, retailers can get the snow industry data for free when they participate and suppliers can purchase it from SIA.
September 24th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Any clues on why snowboarding participation finally stopped dropping? An uptick in snowsports generally, a shift away from skiing, a lot of people taking up/returning to snowboarding, measurement error, something else?
September 29th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
We received the following insight from SIA's research guru Kelly Davis explaining the growth in snowboarder visits:
Participation was up across the board for 2008. It correlates with the 60.5 million (a new record) skier/rider visits to resorts reported for the 2007/08 season when La Niña conditions brought record snowfall to alpine resorts across the U.S. According to the NSGA Sports Participation Study, alpine skiing participation was up almost 19% and snowboarding was up 16% for 2008. The sample for the NSGA study is a bit small so we triangulate the results with the Kottke Skier/Rider visits report issued by NSAA and another participation study SIA sponsors along with OIA, SGMA, tennis, golf, NCPPA and others that includes 41,500 responses. We have two seasons of data from that study and cannot use it yet to trend participation, however, for now it serves as a good check on the trends reported by NSGA and a better view of the actual number of snowboard participants. Additionally, that study looks at participation by season rather than by year. The NSGA and the larger SIA Participation Panel study correlate well:
NSGA Participation Study (participated at least 2 times in the given year) – 5,063,000 riders in 2007 and 5,854,000 riders in 2008
SIA Participation Panel Study (participated at least 2 times in the given season) – 5,874,000 for 2006/07 and 6,099,000 riders in 2007/08
So, my hypothesis is – a good snow year means more participation. We’ll see how last season looked around April 2010 – my guess is (based on the 57.4 million skier rider visits reported in the 2008/09 Kottke End of Season report) that participation in alpine skiing and snowboard riding was down slightly in