Archery industry launches an optimistic business year - AMO Show 1998

Shooting Industry, March, 1998 by Carolee Boyles-Sprenkel

AMO SHOW 1998

The 1998 AMO Archery Trade Show was just what the industry needed to start the year - three days filled with new products, quiet confidence and lots of order-writing. After coming off the "high" from the Olympics last year, the archery industry seems to be settling into a period of more low-key but steady growth.

"What we heard from people at the show was that they were writing orders like crazy," said Dick Lattimer, president of the Archery Manufacturers and Merchants Organization (AMO). "I'm very optimistic about 1998. We're very pleased about the response to the show, and look forward to building on it for the future."

Marilyn Bentz, sales manager for Golden Eagle/Satellite Archery, agreed. "We wrote more orders at this show than probably any show in the history of the company," she said.

One big difference from last year was the weather. The 1997 show in Louisville, Ky., was plagued by hitler cold and a harsh north wind. Although temperatures in Columbus were cold, the combination of at least partial sun during the day, and an excellent shuttle system between the convention center and the hotels, encouraged visitors to slay at the show.

This was the second annual AMO show, and was considerably larger than last year's show. Exhibitors numbered 518, up from 447 in 1997. Dealer/buyers increased from 1,984 last year to 2,199 this year. One big surprise was the number of international buyers, which was up to 42. There were 3,148 exhibitor personnel, and more than 200 media representatives covered the show. In all, attendance pushed past 7,200, breaking the previous mark of 6,500. While this is certainly nowhere near the size of the SHOT Show, it is a remarkable achievement in an industry which, until a few years ago, wasn't large enough for its own trade show.

"I think it was time for the break from the SHOT Show," said Bentz. "This is a close industry, and even though the SHOT Show for several years has grouped the archery industry people together. it still gave the impression to our main clientele - the dealer - that the SHOT Show is just too large and there's too much there for him. This has more of a down-home feel and it's only archery. A lot of the shops we deal with do sell just archery."

Distributors also were pleased with developments at the show.

"This show looks promising to us," said Sherry Gorman, of Kinsey's Archery Products Inc. "We've had a lot of interest in our Internet access, where retailers can order from us and look at items. We've had a lot of people upbeat about the industry and what's going on. I think things have been a little flat lately but are starting to look pretty positive now. The one negative thing I've heard is that there's just not a lot of new and exciting things on the floor, but as far as selling and business as usual and hoping that things grow a little bit more, I think there's more enthusiasm than there has been."

On Saturday night, singer and songwriter Ted Nugent entertained attendees with a musical tribute to Fred Bear. Another highlight of the evening was the induction of the late William "Bill" Wadsworth into the Archery Hall of Fame. Wadsworth was responsible for starting the Bowhunter Education Program, because he believed that the future of bowhunting depended on effective education. Today, between 750,000 and 1,000,000 bowhunters have been touched by this program, a worthy tribute to a remarkable man.

On the show floor, there was one clear trend in bow manufacturing: the appearance of perimeter-designed cams. Almost every large bow manufacturer had at least one, although the particular configuration of the cam varies a good bit from company to company.

Browning has a whole set of new one-cam bows using the OnmiBurner Cam, Browning's version of the perimeter-designed cam. Models include the Backdraft, Ignitor, Mirage Prizm and OnmiBurner. Browning also is adding a line of recurves to its offerings. These bows are manufactured in Italy and include youth, hunting and target versions. The flagship bow of the line is the Wolf, a laminated-handled takedown recurve.

Game Tracker has come a long way since the company introduced its first product, made from a pill bottle. It's marking its 20th anniversary this year. Along with the obligatory celebration, Game Tracker is introducing several new products. These include a multi-tool designed for the archer and black powder shooter. It includes a knife, boning saw, 1/4-inch multi-bit for screw drivers and hex-head bits, can opener and nipple cleaner.

In addition, the company has a new carbon arrow shaft in three different spines called the Game Tracker Express. The shaft begins as an aluminum insert, which is then wrapped with carbon, creating a carbon shaft capable of taking an internal hock. Since the different spines are all built on the same size insert, they all take the same hock and other components.

After several years in development, Shannon Outdoors has come up with an addition to their Bug Tamer line of clothing, with a jacket and pants of no-see-'em mesh in Mossy Oak Breakup. It's a very fine mesh to keep sand gnats out, but still allows air flow through the garment.