Surf Expo was busy on Friday, and was most likely another record day considering that the show was up almost 40% over last year’s attendance on day one.
“Today is typically the strongest day, and from the looks of the floor today, it’s packed,” said Surf Expo Trade Show Director Roy Turner while walking the floor.
One thing that stood out was the large standup paddle section. Roy said there were 80-plus standup paddle manufacturers showing.
There was also a substantial skate/lifestyle section.
“It seemed like there are a lot of more items I would buy compared to other years,” said Ryan Clements, who helps run and buy for Skatepark of Tampa.
Roy said skate manufacturer numbers were actually the same as previous years, but there were more street and youth culture lifestyle brands showing for the first time.
For example, this was Brixton’s first Surf Expo show, and when I walked by their booth, they busy writing orders.
The mood continued to be positive all day long. I talked to a variety of retailers who all said that their holiday season was solid, especially a few days before the 25th of December.
“Black Friday was great, then it slowed, then we had a big blast the two weeks just before Christmas,” said Thomas Hogan who owns Warm Winds in Rhode Island.
It was a pretty common theme from everyone I talked to, and most people were excited about future bookings.
“I talked to Seth and Aaron (of Agenda) this past week, and if they have a good show, which they did, the positivity transfers from their show to our show to wherever everyone goes next, so it’s great,” said Roy.
“If you look around, everyone is writing orders, so we’re all pretty happy.”
We have lots of photos from the show floor on Friday, above.
See photos from Thursday here.
