“For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter that only by wintering through it will your heart survive.” 

So wrote the poet Rainer Maria Rilke in the early 20th century. But those words could easily describe the state of the snowsports industry as the 2023–2024 ski and snowboard resort season ends.

Late snow (and a lack of snow in usually stable environs like the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia), overstock issues stemming from COVID-era demand that slowed down, and timing challenges as this year’s models become obsolete in the ramp-up for next season’s innovations, all put pressure on the industry.

But really how bad was it for an industry that has always dealt with the whims of the weather? And what did brands and retailers learn that could help them prepare for success next season?

“In terms of retail sales and revenue, yes, absolutely it was a bad winter,” said Kim Miller, CEO of Scarpa North America. “Regarding snowfall, it was somewhat average in my view but it started late, and some areas never really got going.”

Miller has seen winters like this and worse before, however. The brand, which sells ski boots as well as climbing, hiking, and trail running gear, has built the uncertainty of the season into its business plan. Its multi-faceted strategy includes delivering on time and early, helping retailers start selling before anyone knows if it will be a good winter or not, adopting what Miller dubs as a “sell-out versus close-out” mentality when planning inventory, avoiding too many model changes, and providing plenty of support to dealers as well as connecting consumers with retailers.

The brand operates under the assumption that “ski seasons will become shorter, snowfall will become much more unpredictable, and temperatures will continue to rise,” Miller said. “The snowsports business has changed forever in many ways, and there are more changes to come.”

Late-season Snow Bounty, Cautious Consumers

While copious snow in November and December that coincides with the holiday season and vacation planning is the main ingredient for quick sell-through of winter goods, it’s not the only factor. And 2023–2024 wasn’t that bad of a winter, weather-wise.

Big storms in March and April encouraged many resorts across the country to extend the season. On the East Coast, Vermont areas Jay Peak, Mount Snow, Stowe, Sugarbush, and Killington operated well into April. Park City In Colorado, Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, Breckenridge, Winter Park, and Copper Mountain will all be open into May. While that does not mean an uptick in retail revenue, it is good news for the sport—people want to ski and ride even in the spring.

Despite a slow start many ski and snowboard areas like Colorado’s Eldora Mountain Resort made the decision to extend their seasons. Photo Courtesy Eldora Mountain Resort

“Thanks to nearly seven feet of snow in March alone, we decided to extend Eldora’s season a week beyond our originally scheduled closing date. The four-foot storm we received in mid-March set us up for an amazing spring, and conditions stayed superb until the end,” said Sam Bass, director of marketing at Eldora Mountain Resort in Colorado, which stayed open until April 21, the latest closing date in its history.

The extended season may have been good for ensuring visitors kept coming up to the mountain but it was not a panacea for retail on-mountain.

“Economic headwinds made consumers across the country less willing to open their wallets this winter, and like many American resorts, Eldora saw reduced revenue in its retail operations, though overall visitation and revenue were strong throughout the operating season,” said Bass.

Retailer Strategies to Drive Snow Sales in Slow Times

Retailers who have been in the game a long time were not taken off guard by the early slump, and the savvy ones made up ground with the late snow.

“Bro, there is never a bad winter!” said Brendan Madigan, owner of Alpenglow Sports in North Lake Tahoe. “Some just aren’t as epic as others. Last year we were stone-cold drunk off the powder chalice for seven months straight, so this winter was never going to be that. True, it was a tough start—the worst fourth quarter I’ve seen in 20-plus years—and the holiday shopping season was weak. But business has been fantastic since the snow turned on for real at the beginning of January.”

Madigan doesn’t just rely on snow to boost sales, however. He also utilizes solid business practices such as hosting events that raise money and bring people into the store, keeping a tight leash on cash flow, and other strategies.

“We supplement our business with events with the hope that it gives the community a compelling reason to support us,” Madigan says, “Having said that, you can only have so many short and/or long-term plans as a business that is essentially unsubsidized farming. We are ultimately reliant on snow for overall health, and if the weather doesn’t deliver, it always hurts.”

“I do believe, however, that if a specialty shop is run well, with super knowledgeable and friendly staff, who are user-based experts, all you need is for people to come in the door,” he added. “Even when the weather is tough, this mentality generally works things out. When times are difficult, we have to be nimble and fierce when it comes to buying decisions to protect cash flow and payroll—those are the only two real dials you can turn to protect against a bad season.”

Playing a game of chicken with the weather by staying the course on pricing also proved to be a strong tactic to deal with the slow start to the season.

Flylow’s Moxie Women’s Bib Pant won several awards in 2023 and epitomized the brand’s resonance with ski town locals and people passionate about the sport. Photo Courtesy of Flylow

“We were still able to grow 7.5% year-over-year for 2023 but we had some dealers trying to go off-price earlier than we agreed,” said Dan Abrams, president and co-founder of apparel brand Flylow. “Our strategy was to be patient and not break our MAP or allow our dealers to do so, knowing that at some point it was going to snow. Sure enough, when the snow started falling, sales picked up.”

“That being said, some of our larger dealers over-ordered in 2022 and were still dealing with that excess inventory for 2023,” he added. “So, our strategy for 2024 is to decrease inventory purchases and get back to sell-through or out-of-inventory in Q1 2025.”

Conservative Buying Pays Off

Smart buying and a deep understanding of what drives underlying trends kept retailers solvent even if they were feeling the pressure of overstock.

“Conservative buying and patience are the key here. We based a lot of our preseason fiscal 2023 orders on 2018–2019 pre-COVID sales figures knowing we had reached the end of the boom,” said Raleigh Burt, business development manager at Kristi Mountain Sports in Alamosa, Colorado, which carries Scarpa among other brands.

“All fall orders were reviewed and modified before shipment to make sure we didn’t end up getting auto-shipped products we already had on hand,” he said. “If that meant we lost preseason discounts and dating, so be it. Losing a couple of percentage points or 30 days of dating is nothing compared to being stuck with thousands of dollars in product we don’t need. Better to sell out than to be stuck trying to dump excess inventory.”

Abrams of Flylow agrees with that conservative approach, especially for independent retailers who are the brand’s bread and butter.

“I think the important thing is for dealers to be careful and only order what they can sell and not what they hope to sell,” he said. “Independent dealers with a fixed amount of hanger space are better at this. But online retailers can get themselves in over their heads.”

Hold Price or Discount?

For those with inventory on hand, keeping to pricing, while a bit scary, could pay off.

“I think a lot of winter sports retailers feel uneasy when we have a warm November/December and the start of the season is delayed,” said Burt of Kristi Mountain Sports. “After New Year’s there is an underlying feeling that seasonal inventory starts to lose value, which can make any retailer nervous.

“But be patient – January, February, and March still hold a lot of winter, and a lot of travelers may have intentionally avoided the slopes during the holidays,” he said. “If snowsports sales in Q4 are relatively slow, typically we see the following Q1 perform well.”

The big worry for retailers as the season closes is that they find themselves stuck with product that they can’t sell as manufacturers launch and build buzz around new product for winter 2024–2025. As the season fades, prices plummet as consumers expect late-season deals or decide to wait for next season’s models.

“Right now it’s a race to the bottom price-wise,” says Burt of Kristi Mountain Sports. “You can sell a customer last year’s model a lot easier if there was only a graphics change and everything else under the hood remains unchanged versus when the line has been completely revamped for next year.”

“Adding insult to injury, a lot of these brands are already advertising next year’s model online and on social media so the end consumer already knows last year’s ski/board is ‘obsolete’ and is going to expect rock bottom pricing on the outgoing model,” he added. “We feel a little hamstrung right now and it sucks to see how much control the big retailers have over the vendors.”

This is exactly why Miller has slowed down the new model rollouts for Scarpa and brands like Flylow are rethinking how they prepare for the upcoming season.

Ordering Conservatively for Next Season

“Preseason orders for Winter 24/25 are slightly down for us,” said Abrams of Flylow. “What I learned is that we cannot build excess inventory for stores to reorder in-season as we had during the pandemic and that dealers trying to grow too fast need to be tempered.”

Retailers would be wise to be bearish as well when it comes to next season’s pre-books—no matter the weather.

“We’re booking approximately 15-20% less based on our realistic projections for next winter,” said Madigan of Alpenglow Sports. “I don’t think we’ll ever see the circus numbers we saw during COVID, so we’ve averaged our annual sales from 2016–2019 and added a multiplier onto where we think things will land.”

In the long run, despite all the weather weirdness and inventory mess, skiers and snowboarders are a hopeful bunch. They have seen droughts and deep powder days. The ones who do best will be those who keep their wits and don’t overreach.

“Our tactic for next year is placing conservative, realistic pre-books—much smaller than prior years,” said Burt of Kristi Mountain Sports. “We will review our inventory situation in the fall before the orders ship and add (or) subtract as necessary. If the vendor is already sold out of additional items we want, we’ll decide if we can get through the season without them, or source a comparable option from another vendor.”

“The goal for this entire industry needs to be finding equilibrium again, not year-over-year growth,” Burt said. “It’s not sustainable. Hopefully, vendors are getting the hint that they need to ratchet back production so we can all work through this glut of inventory and get back to profitability.”