Italy European Market Insight

ITALY

Italy is awake again, after some difficult months during the beginning of 2021 our social life and economy has finally come back to life. After some more lockdowns during the first months of 2021 this May saw Italy re-opening nearly every business, only night life, bigger events and also cinemas are still on hold. Tough times especially for retail, gastronomy and hotels as they suffered the most due to the heavy restrictions. Now with a good percentage of vaccinated people and low infection rates most regions are fully operational again and tourists are again allowed to travel to Italy which is a really important step for our economy as tourism is a main economic source for our country. Everyone is happy now and enjoys staying with friends, doing sports and so on but one concern still remains as we are still not sure if the virus will hit us again in late autumn with different variants spreading bad news in the newspapers on a regular basis. Shop owners are confident again but the long-term planning and pre-ordering is still their biggest fear, also the price increases are something store owners and consumers are really not happy about as salaries don’t increase put prices from food to clothing are rapidly increasing. The difference between rich and poor is increasing in Italy and many are unhappy about this happening as people lack money but prices for apartments and houses still rise which tells us that a few rich own too much. Boardsport retailers are still doing very well with hardgoods, as do skateboard completes, boards and accessories all still doing really well with US brands performing particularly well. Baggy pants for skaters are the new must have and more and more girls are on board, hitting the streets. The skateboarding scene saw the first Supreme

store opening in Milan and over the weeks of SWISS AUSTRIA May many Supreme pros where spotted skating SPAIN the streets of Milan and especially the plaza of FRANCE Milano Centrale. UK GERMANY Surf is also up again but mostly on hardgoods and neoprene wetsuits rather than clothing. Snowboarding by far took the biggest loss as resorts in Italy didn’t open in the 20/21 season and so sales saw a historical low and so did the pre-orders for 21/22 season as most of the stock is still on shelves. A situation which puts under pressure on brands and distribution as they need to give support to the stores to make them survive. Let’s hope for a regular season this year as that is much needed for ALL stores nationwide. Happy news from Frisco store out of Brescia, a store founded by the two Tognoli brothers which has now seen the opening of 2 brand new skate shops in Milano and Torino and some more stores are in the making. A great job from the crew and a very positive sign for boardsports in Italy. Another big push for skateboarding was the Skateboarding World Cup which took place at the end of May in Rome where we saw some of the biggest names in the game battling the course and saw Yuto Horigome from Japan taking 1st place, with Nyjah Huston in second. It was a very well organized event which hyped many kids around the country. Temperatures are already starting to rise and people are spending as much time as possible outside which means good business for stationary retail and sports in general as people are inclined to spend more money than ever on their free-time and outside activities. Hopefully there will be no more lockdowns and everything will be fine. Peace & Out.