Winter Market or Snow Show? Let us help you decide.

Hello friends,

I want to share some information about the national shows staging soon: Winter Market in November 2019 and Snow Show in January 2020. I hope to help sort the choices so that you, your business and the industry can enjoy a healthy, invigorating and productive season.

WHY “TWO SHOWS”?
There’s Winter Market and there’s Snow Show. Both have existed for nearly 30 years and serve their distinct markets – outdoor and snowsports. They are now in the timeframes that both industries have asked for, based on our research in 2016 and the conversations that followed. Winter Market and Summer Market are at the beginning of the sales cycle for the outdoor industry and Snow Show is after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend.

Let’s take a closer look:

WINTER MARKET | November 5–7, 2019, Denver, Colorado
Established: 1990
Primary audience: Outdoor buyers and brands

Winter Market is the launch of the winter OUTDOOR season and serves outdoor buyers. Outdoor is a powerful industry (we all know the stats, but they bear repeating). It deserves a global launch event to come together to strategize, connect, learn and celebrate. Think CES, but with dirt.

In 2016, we announced that we were going to move our Winter Market show dates to November and our Summer Market show dates to June. We did this based on our research (please take a look here) around the industry’s request for the shows to be more in line with sales cycles and for the national show to be the launch, where retailers could see everything the industry has to offer before order deadlines. That’s why Grassroots Connect co-locates with Winter Market and once space allows, will co-locate with Summer Market as well.

SNOW SHOW | January 29–31, 2020, Denver, Colorado
Established: 1953
Primary audience: Snowsports buyers and brands

Snow Show is the peak of the snowsports season. Snow Show serves snowsports and resort buyers as it has since 1953. The volatility of the weather makes this show’s timing critical – and late January is the EARLIEST timeframe that makes sense for buyers, which is why SSL and SMC co-locate here.

WHO’S GOING TO BE WHERE?

EXAMPLES OF RETAILERS AT WINTER MARKET
Appalachian Outfitters, Art’s Cyclery, Backcountry.com, Bass Pro Shops, Bob Ward & Son’s, Canadian Tire Corporation, Champaign Surplus, High Country Outfitters, JL Waters and Company, Kittery Trading Postm Moosejaw, Mountain Equipment Co-Op, Mountain Hardware Supplies, REI, Sports Basement, Sportsman & Ski Haus, Tooth Of Time Traders, Tradehome Shoe Stores, Uncle Dan’s and Whole Earth Provision.

EXAMPLES OF RETAILERS AT SNOW SHOW
Aspen Ski & Board Co., Berg’s Ski & Snowboard Shop, Bill & Paul’s Sporthaus, Boyne Country Sports, Christy Sports, Kittredge Sports, McGhie’s Ski, Bike & Board, Mountain Sports, Peter Glenn Ski & Sports, Princeton Sports, REI, Ski Haus, Ski World, Sturtevant’s, Round House Sports and Sports Center, Tahoe Mountain Sports, The Ski Barn, The Ski Hut, Vail Resorts and Viking Ski Shop.

I hope this information helps. My team in standing by if you’d like to talk more about it.

Thank you for your time and we appreciate your support.

Marisa Nicholson
Vice President and Show Director
Outdoor Retailer