Some quick thoughts from the Summer Trade Shows.
Over the past couple of weeks OOO have been lucky enough to attend Outdoor by ISPO in Munich and the Outdoor Trade Show in Liverpool. Here are our quick general observations from both shows.
Less impact product is the baseline. No one has ‘and these are our green products’ areas any more. If a product doesn’t consider impact then it has no place in the industry.
2. Talking about sustainability isn’t sustainable. The industry, quite rightly, is continuing its journey away from the language of sustainability and instead talking in terms of impact. This is a good thing. Commercial activity has environmental impact, and in its current form isn’t sustainable – so this change of language is necessary for an industry aiming to be at the vanguard of the climate movement.
3. Real innovation. Sometimes trade shows are full of ‘innovation’ which doesn’t really innovate; products which are a tiny bit lighter, or products just in a new colour. But this year, from our point of view, there was evidence of real advancement in many areas. So we tip our hats to the product teams, innovation isn’t easy.
4. A sense of determined optimism. We’re not going to open the current global geopolitical can of worms – it’s enough to acknowledge that there are lots of factors making trade quite tough. However, many people we spoke to seem to have adopted a mantra of ‘it’s tough, but we’re cracking on’.
5. A quiet buzz. The shows weren’t packed, but the people which were there were busy. Conversations and meetings were everywhere. We had a sense of business carrying on and deals being done.
6. The coffee at trade shows is still terrible. So as an industry we can pioneer circular economy running shoes, but we can’t provide a decent latte? Room for improvement.
7. When placed together, lots of brands look exactly like each other. This should absolutely terrify any decent brand manager or marketeer. The industry has to do better at creating brand distinctiveness (cough – we can help there – cough).
8. Having outdoor shows inside is necessary but still weird.
9. Brexit sucks.
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