Ski Press World Inc. - Index

Ski Press World Inc. - SIA Day 1 - Index

cover story
That sobering statistic makes these three families the kind of people purveyors of snowsports
paraphernalia should covet, coddle and pursue with a passion. So exactly who are
these families? Here’s an overview.
THE SKIERS
The fi rst family, let’s call them the McAlpines, are diehard skiers. Born Boomers, Bill and
Gayle McAlpine have grown older assuming their world will naturally be shaped by and
refl ect their take on life. They grew up skiing in leather boots and beartrap bindings, put
their children in ski school at their local mountain as soon as they were old enough, and
spend most winter weekends at their condo.
They joined in a growing generational experiment when their 27-year-old, Gen-X son
moved back to the family home after completing graduate school. Their daughter, in her
senior year of high school, splits her weekends between family skiing and group trips with
her school’s ski club.
Though they’re both still fi t, active and keen, the McAlpines have watched friends their
age give up skiing. And while they’re loath to acknowledge it, they’re aware their own
preferences have gravitated toward shorter skis with more sidecut and less stiffness. “It hides
the quickness I’ve lost getting around in moguls,” Bill jokes. They’ve also found themselves
embracing other trends geared toward comfort, not speed: warmer, easier-fl exing boots;
more stylish and insulated outerwear; and softshell anything.
Their son has embraced everything backcountry and spent most of his spare time in
the fall dropping shameless hints about new gear for Christmas and cajoling his father
about getting in better shape to join him. For their daughter, aside from the social
implications of skiing — read boys — it was the marriage of the outerwear and fashion
industries that reignited her waning interest. In the terrain park or on the street, her
look is skier grrl.
THE SHREDDERS
Not far from the McAlpines lives a family belonging to the clan of Shredders. Why not
call them the Parkers? Snowboarders since their fi rst slide on snow in their twenties, Chris
and Kat are quintessential Gen-X pioneers. They’ve made their livings at various keyboard
jobs, working for others and themselves. They comparison shop and do their consumer
due diligence online. They consider themselves hip parents who want to make sure their
kids have ready access to alternative lifestyles.
36 SNOWPRESS DAY 1 skipressworld.com/snowpress
Photo: Courtesy of SIA/Kevin Arnold
With two children straddling the demographic crevasse between Generation Y and Gen
Next, they fi t, as a family, the demographic profi le outlined in the 2007 SIA Intelligence
Report. They seem to remember riding about 10 days last season, they’re both “making
do” with snowboards they purchased in the late 1990s, they’ve spent more the past few
seasons on apparel and accessories than any other category and, like they do for so many
other purchases, they’ve been scouring the Internet to fi nd the new snowboards they’re
contemplating purchasing this year.
“It’s a maybe thing,” they say, like the 10% of snowsport participants who slide into winter
thinking they might talk themselves into buying new gear this year. While they don’t
believe their current gear is beyond its useful life, they’ve read magazine stories about the
advances in all-mountain boards and have come to believe new equipment would be the
quickest avenue to enhancing their riding ability.
Regardless, they’ve already committed to new gear and outerwear for their children, who
have physically outgrown the second-hand gear they got a few seasons ago and, as their
tween daughter never lets them forget, is almost embarrassed to be seen wearing something
so “last century.” Their teenage son’s fashion and lifestyle sense is informed by local
skate culture off-mountain and the prevailing trends in the terrain park when he’s riding.
THE WALKERS
On a nearby street, in the same neighborhood, a family best called the Walkers are still
perplexed by the whole ski hill scene. “What’s the attraction?” is the question John
Walker asks most frequently. Though he has an admitted latent bias toward adrenaline
rushes, he just can’t see the attraction of yo-yoing lifts and sliding down mountains.
This is not to say he and Red, his wife of 30 years, aren’t attracted to the mountains.
Winter and summer, both are avid hikers and campers, trekking into the mountains —
on snowshoes, aging Nordic touring gear or both — to winter camp. They’re also avid
cross-country skiers who enjoy the solitude and contemplative nature of the sport.
They last purchased Nordic equipment in the early 1990s, switching from well-used,
wooden skis and three-pin boots to step-in bindings and waxless skis. They’re excited, if
confused, by the exploding specialization of Nordic equipment and plan to upgrade their
gear this season. John, a distance runner, is also giving serious thought to skate skis.
Having raised their daughter, 22, and son, 17, to love the mountains, they’re not entirely
surprised to discover she’s fallen in with a group of backcountry telemark skiers. Nor does
their son’s nascent interest in backcountry alpine touring gear seem anything but a logical
refl ection of his age and growing love of rapidly descending snowy slopes.
So what will these three families fi nd that whets their interests and gets them to whip out their
credit cards? For the next three days we’ll tag along as these families of skiers, snowboarders
and winter trekkers grapple with what to buy, and from whom. — G.D. MAXWELL
ACCORDING TO THE 2007 SIA INTELLIGENCE REPORT
• About 5% of Americans participate in winter sports
• 13.3 million individuals, age 7 and older, participated in some type of snowsport
once during 2006, down from 14.7 million in 2005
• The typical snowsport participant is a 28-year-old male or a 31-year-old female
who participates in a winter sport 11 days each year, had a college degree
and average household income above $100,000/year
• $2.1 billion was spent on snowsports equipment in 2006/07
- $629 million in equipment
- $813 million in apparel
- $680 million in accessories
• Internet sales, measured for the fi rst time, were $341 million
• Apparel accounted for more dollars than equipment for the first time in
2006/07
- Sales of alpine equipment decreased 5% in value
- Sales of snowboard equipment decreased 13% in value
- Sales of nordic equipment decreased 22% in value
- Accessory sales were essentially fl at
BY THE NUMBERS
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