Sporting goods buyers benefit from shows' new timing; in trying to compete with Europe, NSGA moves show even earlier - National Sporting Goods Association

Discount Store News, July 16, 1990

Sporting Goods Buyers Benefit From Shows' New Timing

In Trying to Compete With Europe, NSGA Moves Show Even Earlier

CHICAGO -- Although a twice-a-year show schedule is faltering in consumer electronics and housewares, it appears to be flourishing in sporting goods.

That is especially so now that the National Sporting Goods Association has gotten a jump on competing European shows by moving its World Sports Expo to the summer from fall. It moved last year's show to mid-September from October. Now it has moved it up again to July 30 to Aug. 2 in Chicago's McCormick Place.

American sporting goods buyers now can get their first look at next spring's merchandise at home, the NSGA claims, whereas they previously had to visit European shows that start in September to see it.

In a 1985 retiming, the NSGA moved up its show to the fall from February to avoid conflicts with the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), which was cranking up its own February production, the Super Show.

The 1991 NSGA show is set for July 22 to 25 and for the next three years will be held the first week of August.

The NSGA show got a boost last year when the SGMA merged its fall show, once held in New York, into the NSGA show. The SGMA Super Show, in Atlanta, is thriving, and both trade groups claim their shows are the world's largest sporting goods expo.

By most measures of vitality, World Sports Expo is also booming:

* It expects to draw as many as 90,000 attendees this year, compared to 83,722 in 1989; * The vendor waiting list grew to 600 this year from 400; * Nike is taking all 75,000 square feet of the upper mall of McCormick Place East; * Wilson, Rawlings and Bike all have moved their exhibits to ballrooms, freeing 12,500 square feet for others; * Net square footage of exhibit space increased to 520,000 from 424,500 in 1989.

Buyers can expect to find a continued surge in new licensed, cross-training and fitness equipment employing air resistance technology.

To accommodate the increase in licensing, the World Sports Expo has added a satellite pavilion on the Showcase level of McCormick East.

With sales softening in '90, buyers expect to find a lot of special buys and closeouts from over-stocked vendors.

"Shoe vendors are killing each other," said Joe Koricki, vp of Irving Sports Shops, Springfield, Va. "Shoes are all over the place."

With sales soft in all categories, "a lot of vendors are overstocked," Koricki said.

Since Irving's has kept a tight rein on inventory for its 19 stores, "we'll be in a position to buy," Koricki said.

Modell's Sporting Goods, New York, also will be seeking special buys and closeouts for its 32 stores, said Mitch Modell, coo. Modell's is especially interested in two categories that drive its business, hockey, football and college licensed goods and exercise, he noted. "Moving the show to July from October was an important step," Modell said. "We can now get our first look at next spring's footwear early on. By October, everything already was in place."

In footwear, look for L.A. Gear, No. 3 in size, to introduce its answer to Reebok's Pump, an inflatable sneaker it dubbed the Regulator. Another L.A. Gear introduction is expected to be a bounce-technology, catapult shoe to compete with Nike's Air shoes.

Other new products are:

* Splash Dunk, a moveable basketball system that features a 60-gallon water tank as an anchor, from Huffy Sports; * Star Puck, an NHL-licensed hockey puck that features a color photo of various hockey stars, from Star Puck; * Pump It Up line extension to cross training, running and tennis shoes, from Reebok; * High Tech basketball that features a polyurethane coating that protects the leather from wear and tear on asphalt, from Wilson Sporting Goods; * Ultima Classic Gold, a high-visibility, yellow volleyball for indoor play, from Spalding; * Spotlyte, lightweight basketball, baseball and running shoes, from ASICS.