Representatives from European Outdoor Group (EOG) members gathered ahead of ISPO for an update on the association’s key projects. During the EOG Winter Meeting, Christian Schneidermeier was introduced as the organisation’s new director and addressed members, setting out his vision for the EOG. He will formally take up the role in March 2025.

Scott Nelson, EOG managing director, outlined the main themes that will inform the full EOG programme of activity in 2025, which will be presented in full to members at the EOG Annual General Assembly early next year. Members of the executive team provided updates on the EOG’s core projects, and external partners were also given the opportunity to speak about some of the collaborative work that they undertake with the association.

During 2024, the EOG has recruited a record number of new members. Over the year, 17 organisations have joined the association; La Sportiva, SGS, Luhta, Tambu, Prolong, Aludesign/skylotec, Btwentyfour, Retraced, valorSummits, SAB Europe, YETI, The Everyday Co, The New Zealand Merino Company, Darn Tough Vermont, Sportair & Like That, Odlo, and The Action Sports Translator. The EOG now has 144 members, comprising brands, retailers, technology brands, national associations and other organisations in the value chain.

Market insights

2024 has been a transitional year for State of Trade (SOT), the long-running project that is the outdoor industry’s most comprehensive report on sell-in (wholesale) data. Working with market research partner Sporting Insights, the EOG has been revising and enhancing the SOT platform, in order to: Improve the quality of data; reduce the distance to the data; make it easier to submit data; and improve the structure of the data. This work has involved moving the data contributors across to a new platform. This process is taking time, but good progress is being made, and the report on 2024 data will be released as early as February next year. However, as a result of the work currently being done to SOT, only limited figures for 2023 are being released this year, and a gap analysis has not been possible, which further limits the range of robust figures that can be included.

Currently, over 60% of the prior report’s contributors have been fully moved to the new system, with a further 28% in process to be completed by the end of 2024 (bringing the total to 89%). On the back of the improvements to the system and its better alignment to OMIS, the EOG’s aim is to bring in more contributors than previously from across the European outdoor sector.

For those brands that have previously contributed to SOT and have so far reported data for 2023, the figures show an overall year-on-year decrease in wholesale value of -11.5%. It is worth noting that figures for 2022 had shown a year-on-year increase in value of 11.5% compared to 2021. For 2023, the camping (-24.7%) and equipment (-32.6%) categories saw the biggest drops, while the largest regional market decreases were in DACH (-16.2%) and Scandinavia (-20.6%). Germany, Fance and the UK/Ireland remain the three biggest outdoor markets in Europe.

The revised SOT platform will, in time, present historical data as far back as 2019, and the full suite of material will be available to all brands that contribute data. As part of the update to SOT, it is being more closely aligned to the Outdoor Market Intelligence Service (OMIS), the EOG’s sell-through/sell-out retail data project, using the same product taxonomy, categories and sub-categories. OMIS delivers real-time retail data and proof of concept was achieved through a successful pilot in the UK.Subscribers to OMIS are now able to access that live data via the platform dashboard. The project will be rolled out in France and DACH next year.

To discuss the EOG’s market insights programme in more detail, contact hannah.piatok@europeanoutdoorgroup.com.

CSR and sustainability

The EOG’s key CSR and sustainability focus areas for 2025 will be:

• Development of working groups and round tables

• Scaling up of decarbonisation projects

• Policy work on advocacy, business readiness, and implementation

• Elevating sustainability communications to deliver one voice for the outdoor sector.

The EOG will be working to raise awareness of the Impact Accelerator Fund (IAF), a project to decarbonise supply chains, under the a new message – ‘Working together to find a new route’ – which will drive a proactive and sustained communications campaign. The Winter Meeting was presented with details of the first project that is being supported by the IAF, a renewable energy transition initiative in Taiwan.

Following the recent announcement of a new partnership between the EOG and Fair Wear, members learned more about the background to this, in relation to human rights due diligence (HRDD) and imminent legislation. Alexander Kohnstamm, executive director of Fair Wear, addressed the meeting and explained how the partnership will open up all of Fair Wear’s knowledge and resources to EOG members.

A year after the EOG Extraordinary General Assembly voted to make it mandatory for members to commit to join a Race to Zero initiative, the meeting heard that very good progress is being made in achieving that goal. The EOG’s CSR and sustainability team is working hard to support members as they explore the best project to join.

To discuss the EOG’s CSR and sustainability programme in more detail, contact katy.stevens@europeanoutdoorgroup.com.

New concept for OutDoor

Following the recent launch of the new concept for the OutDoor show platform, members were updated on the positive response from brands, retailers and other organisations in the value chain. A growing list of brands have booked exhibition space or committed to doing so, while retailers around Europe have committed to attend. Working closely with the team at Messe Munich, the EOG continues to engage with companies, to discuss OutDoor in more detail and explore how organisations will participate in the event,. OutDoor now offers a much greater range of options to book space, backed up by the ‘20-20-20’ pledge to reduce costs and increase the number of brands and retailers that participate.

To discuss the new concept for OutDoor and how to participate, contact Lena Haushofer on lena.haushofer@messe-muenchen.de.

Partner updates

During the Winter Meeting, three of the EOG’s key partners gave updates on their recent work and plans for the future. These included presentations from Perry Laukens, president of the It’s Great Out There Coalition and Dan Yates, executive director of the European Outdoor Conservation Association. The EOG helped found both organisations and they lead on work to encourage participation in outdoor activities and to preserve nature.

In addition. Jerome Pero, general secretary of the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI), addressed the meeting. The EOG works closely with FESI on public affairs issue, in particular at the heart of EU decision making in Brussels. Pero spoke to the meeting about the results of the recent EU elections and the implications of those for the sporting goods industry. He outlined who FESI will be engaging with in the new parliament and the key areas of policy that they influence.