SAM Magazine-Denver, Feb. 2, 2011-The energy level was high at the 2011 SIA Snow Show here last week, reflecting a record-setting retail season that has drawn down inventories to the bare-wall level for many city and suburban stores. The shelf cleaning coincides with a major shift in hard goods, with rocker skis and snowboards on the rise, along with the yearly flood of product innovations and improvements.

The 320,000-square-foot show was sold out. There were about 900 exhibitors, including 110 new ones. Final attendance figures aren't yet available, but SIA expects the final tally will include more than 19,000 retailers, manufacturers and decision makers. Most attendees felt that attendance was up from last year.

The snowboarding section was the most energized, as usual, but the aisles and exhibits in the ski section were unusually packed throughout the first three days of the show, and the disparity between the two areas was much less than in past years. One reason for that may be the growing excitement around sidecountry gear. Though it's still a small part of the overall business, most major suppliers and numerous niche brands-both ski and snowboard-are pushing the concept.

The Growing Participation breakfast at the show, aimed at increasing the winter sports market, drew a large audience. Panelists represented a cross-section of the industry from incoming SIA chairman Tim Petrick and NSAA president Michael Berry to Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month founder Raelene Davis of Ski Utah and retailer Paul Prutzman, past head of the National Ski and Snowboard Retailers Association.

The breakfast demonstrated the uneven growth of the industry over the past decade. Petrick and Prutzman bemoaned the decline in gear ownership and the challenges to specialty retailing, respectively, while Davis and Berry described the growth of beginner business and of the resort business generally.

Note to areas: the audience was mostly retailers, many of whom had no awareness of the LSSM promotion. This could be a fertile group of partners to tap in the future.

The rental process is a key part of any effort to increase trial and retention of newcomers, and it has received increasing emphasis at the show, too. Several hard goods suppliers ramped up their rental exhibits. The Backshop + Rental + Uniform exhibit, which SAM staffs, saw increased visits compared to last year. A roundtable discussion of renting to first-timers drew an audience of about 50, a significant showing that reinforced the industry's growing awareness of the importance of bringing newcomers to skiing and snowboarding.