ISPO. More than 80,000 industry professionals from 120 countries came to ISPO MUNICH, the world’s largest sports business exhibition, held from January 24 to 27. Visitor numbers increased from Italy, Switzerland and Austria. There were also a large number of visitors from Russia and the Ukraine. The number of exhibitors also increased again: from 2,585 in the prior year to 2,645 exhibitors at this year’s event. The high share of foreign visitors (87 percent) emphasizes the international character of the trade show. The entire 180,000 square meters of exhibition space, covering 16 exhibition halls, were fully booked.

Klaus Dittrich, CEO and Chairman of Messe München, comments: “Following the challenging pre-Christmas sales conditions the mood was definitely better than expected. The plethora of innovations and new products presented at ISPO MUNICH further strengthened the confidence of the industry to be able to weather the latest challenges presented by climate and market structure changes.”

There were new exhibitors in all segments, particularly in Health & Fitness and Outdoor. The new hall distribution received positive feedback from both exhibitors and visitors.

The strongly growing Health & Fitness had more space at its disposal in hall B4 and once again proved that there are still more opportunities to be had for the sports industry in this area. This year’s Overall Winner of the ISPO BRANDNEW AWARDS—“Icaros”, the first virtual reality fitness equipment—impressively demonstrated the further digital development of fitness and new options to exercise in virtual worlds. Users of “Icaros” can fly through virtual worlds and play games with the help of a headset and controller. And at the same time almost all muscle groups are exercised.

For the first time, users of the new website ISPO.COM were able to follow the daily activities at the trade show online. In the future, the site will provide relevant industry information all year long. A special editorial team will manage the site and provide news and background reports from the world of sporting goods.

ISPO is not only appealing to international exhibitors and visitors; it also attracts prominent athletes and politicians. Among the prominent guests were FC Bayern Coach Pep Guardiola as well as the successful professional alpinist and this year’s ISPO Trophy recipient Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and the former Olympic weightlifting champion Matthias Steiner. Other sports celebrities included Philipp Lahm, FC Bayern Team Captain and speed skater Claudia Pechstein. Additional guests included the world’s best-known bike trial rider, Danny MacAskill and two-time Olympic champion and five-time ski racing world champion Ted Ligety.

The “Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry” (FESI) wishes to deepen the cooperation between the sporting goods industry and the European Commission. The federation represents 1,800 companies and thus about 85 percent of the European market. At ISPO MUNICH the organization held a meeting between CEOs from key sports business companies, such as Salomon, Nike, Adidas and Puma and representatives of the EU Commission, among them the Vice President and Commissioner for the Digital Single Market Initiative, Andrus Ansip. The entrepreneurs highlighted and shared their requirements in terms of the digital single market with the politicians.

Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Development Dr. Gerd Müller reported on the development of the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles, with the goal to improve the conditions in apparel manufacturing.

Many of the guests came from afar, such as the Brazilian Minister of Sports George Hilton. He reported on the developments in his country in preparation for the Olympic Summer Games, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in August.

The next ISPO MUNICH will be held from Sunday, February 5 to Wednesday, February 8, 2017.

For more information on ISPO MUNICH 2016 please refer to www.ispo.com and Facebook: www.facebook.com/ispomunich

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Exhibitor Statements ISPO MUNICH 2016

Martin Axelhed, CEO, Fjällräven, Sweden:
“The ISPO MUNICH 2016 offers the optimal platform on which we can position Fjällräven as a brand in a global environment. I have been a big fan of ISPO MUNICH for many years and every year look forward to in-depth and successful work at the exhibition. We are pleased with the large number of international visitors to the event. The 365-day-concept promises us a lot of potential—we want to use the services even more in the coming year. The special highlight for this year was winning two ISPO AWARDs.”

Kai Tutschke, CEO DACH, GARMIN, Germany:
“ISPO MUNICH 2016 could not have been any better for us. This was also reflected by the interest of the media and the orders from our dealers. ISPO has established itself as a fixed element of our trade show appearances for our company. We appreciate the important dialog with our retailers, journalists, athletes and opinion leaders. We were very pleased with the growing Health & Fitness market having received more attention both in the exhibition itself and with a larger exhibit hall, and we are looking forward to next year’s ISPO MUNICH.”

Sebastian Ditschler, Trade Show Coordinator, GoPro, Germany:
“Despite the new exhibit hall distribution ISPO MUNICH 2016 was a great success for us. Particularly the high amount of visitors to our booth on Sunday and Monday made us very happy. This year the focus of our exhibit booth concept was on virtual reality and this received great feedback from the visitors. ISPO is a very important exhibition for us, and we will certainly return in 2017.”

Polly Wu, Project Manager, Hyperbola Textile, Taiwan:
“The trade show was very successful for us. We not only gained new contacts and potential customers, we also met a lot of existing customers. As a get-together for the industry ISPO offers us the chance to get to know a variety of brands and their products. We are already looking forward to ISPO MUNICH 2017.”

Maximilian Nortz, Managing Director International Business Europe, Blackyak, Korea:
“Even though we have exhibited at ISPO MUNICH for the last three years and are among the biggest fans of Messe München, ISPO MUNICH 2016 is a milestone for the Blackyak brand in many respects. It is not just the launch platform for our global collection 2016, which we have developed over the last two years, and thus the starting shot for our operational activity in Europe, but also the foundation. Therefore we are even more pleased that we did not just receive grandiose feedback from the retail side, but also impressed the ISPO AWARDs jury at our debut. Thank you, and we look forward to ISPO MUNICH 2017!”

Ariane Vorwald, Marketing Manager, Johnson Health Tech, Germany:
“This year our highlight was winning not one but two ISPO AWARDS. Product of the Year in the Health & Fitness category: Matrix—In-Trinity and Gold Winner in the Products category with the S-DRIVE PERFORMANCE TRAINER. In addition, we were able to use ISPO MUNICH again to maintain contact with our existing customers, and are also happy with the quality of the new contacts. The newly created Health & Fitness area offers an extraordinary platform for our company to present our new products. We will certainly return in 2017.”

Rolf Schmid, CEO, Mammut, Switzerland:
“For many years ISPO MUNICH has been the international hotspot in terms of new technology in the sports and outdoor industry. Networking with our global partners is essential and ISPO MUNICH offers the ideal conditions in a comfortable atmosphere. Our exhibit booth was very well frequented and our product highlights from the Avalanche Safety, Ski Touring and Freeride segments were under intense scrutiny from interested visitors. All in all, ISPO MUNICH is always an inspiring and motivating start to the new business year.”

Andy Schimeck, Managing Director, Marmot, Germany:
“The redistribution of the exhibit halls had a positive effect on us and resulted in increased visitor activity at our booth. A special highlight this year was the very positive impact of the premiere of ExOfficio’s participation in ISPO MUNICH 2016.”

Elena Frigerio, Trade Marketing Specialist, Oakley Sport International, USA:
“ISPO MUNICH is and remains the get-together for the industry. ISPO offers the ideal platform to start a dialog with the right customers. During the first two days we welcomed a number of national and international visitors. We are very pleased with the way the trade show worked out for us, and will definitely be back in 2017.”

Norbert Kessler, Head of Brand Management, UVEX Sports, Germany:
“ISPO MUNICH 2016 was extremely successful for us and is the most important exhibition for winter sports contacts for us. In addition to a number of new products our success was dominated by the ISPO AWARD GOLD WINNERs UVEX Variotronic and P.8000 Tour. The award is a special highlight for our 90th company anniversary. We are looking forward to 2017.”

Bernhard Ritzer, Global Brand Director, O’NEILL, Netherlands:
“We are very positively surprised by the frequency of visitors. ISPO simply is the industry get-together, and very important to revive old and gain new contacts. The exhibition is very interesting, compact, and you get the perfect overview of brands and innovations.”

Hilmar Bolle, Country Manager, Rossignol Ski, Germany:
“We received very positive feedback from retailers and customers this year. The high number of visitors is a great success and validates the concept of this year’s open, unrestricted and communicative exhibit booth. Skiing is still a topic that spawns great emotions. We are looking forward to the next Come Together in 2017!”

Reiner Gerstner, Group Brand & Marketing Director, Salewa, Italy:
“The ISPO’s reach has changed tremendously in the last few years. We live in a globally networked world that focuses completely on Munich on four exhibition days. On the other 360 days we reach our target group with the help of the digital services provided by ISPO. At the trade show itself we meet our key stakeholders and maintain a dialog with the industry and players such as Greenpeace. This is important so we can satisfy the wishes and demands of our customers. Only if we understand the challenges of the future we can work together and change the world to the better for the long term.”

Giacomo Bertocco, Marketing Officer, Tecnica Group, Italy:
“We are very pleased with the exhibition and definitely reached our goals. It is a must for us to come to ISPO MUNICH; we can look back on many successful years at this trade show. It simply is the most important exhibition in the sports business—in the world. Of course we will be back next year.”

Oliver Brandes, International Sales, Thermore Group, Italy:
“We are very happy with how the exhibition went for us, and we were able to gain a few new and promising contacts. ISPO MUNICH is very important for us and we are planning to be back in 2017.”

Dr. Antje von Dewitz, CEO, VAUDE, Germany:
“We can look back on an ISPO MUNICH 2016 with a very high frequency of visitors and exhibitors. This year, the topics of sustainability, social and ecological products as well as production have become much more relevant to the target audience. It makes us happy to see that due to our involvement VAUDE has taken on a pioneering role, also at ISPO MUNICH 2016. We were very pleased by the direct and positive feedback from customers and journalists.”

Hannes Asam, Marketing Manager, X-BIONIC, Switzerland:
“As a high-tech brand ISPO offers us the optimal platform to present technical innovations. ISPO distinguishes itself with the large variety of exhibitors and provides us with the opportunity to launch new partnerships.”

Press Release
ISPO
Wednesday, 27. January 2016