Dang, that is an interesting development.
Am curious, has the show ever been cancelled before? Or, anytime in the last 50 years?

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Not sure if interbike has ever been cancelled before but I grew up going to CABDA with my dad. Didn’t that die and make a come back recently?

herbert,

in a few words, can you plse elaborate why you're not surprised? as a vendor i had thought of attending in the past but cost was prohibitive.

I am not happy about this, but you could see it shrink each year. It used to be a big buying event where shops would place their orders, and media would get to see all new things. But that really has changed. New product gets released when it is ready and inventory is in place. And the buying is also spread out over the year.

Plus with big brands abandoning Interbike and doing internal events instead, that put dealers in a pinch. How often and how long can dealers be gone from their store to look at products and mingle with peers?

Excellent observations. Trade shows are EXPENSIVE. And smart companies have to ask, "What's our return on trade show investment?" and "Is there a way to get better results for the same (or less) investment?" Apparently, the big manufacturers have figured out that they can avoid the competition if they put the same kind of money into private showings. They get the buyers, they avoid the buyers' contact with up-and-coming brands -- no direct comparisons -- and they gain the positive (lemming) benefit of multiple buyers placing orders at the same time and place. It feeds off itself.

Private showings provide an exclusive sales opportunity. By inviting their dealers to Interbike, they effectively invited those dealers to also see everybody else's products, too. If you're a "big draw," inviting people to Interbike was probably counter-productive.

It's a sad day for the little people, though. Trade shows are expensive but, for the little guy, they're the most target-rich environment they will ever see. Without the big names, nobody wanted to go to Interbike because "Bob's Bearings" was going to be there.

Seems like that move to Reno really paid off for it.

CABDA was resurrected in 2015 and has been growing every year. This year they have expanded to "CABDA West", out in San Diego.

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Anne Barnes
ABBikefit, Ltd
FIST/SICI/FIST DOWN DEEP
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abbikefit@gmail.com

They could have moved it to Vatican City or The North Pole - it wouldn't have made any difference. It just doesn't mesh with today's bike business. The dedicated brand bike shop model in particular, allowed for a "preaching to the choir" style presentation to the people who you KNOW are going to buy your product. No more time or money wasted on Looky Loos and non customers for the big guys and without them it wasn't going to draw -anywhere. There are a dozen other reasons but it's just another casualty of our "The times they are a changing" business world.

We all knew it had been going downhill.

They say this is the postponement for one year, but my guess is this is the end of it.

I get it as to why it's waned, and you summed it up nicely Herbert in another post here.

I personally have fond memories of Interbike. For me and what I did in the business, it was always a VERY important few days, that in someways set up the whole rest of the year.

What I really liked about it was that opportunity to meet face-to-face with the people that you would be doing business with in the coming year.

Another sign of the massive changes and transition that bike business is going through.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Herbert do you see the same happening at friedrichshafen ?

The beginnings are there with big brands pulling out

Fixed the statement....

Another sign of the massive changes and transition that SOCIETY is going through. Sad the interpersonal skills are going away......

Hey Fleck, long time no talk. Curious if you think a setup more along the lines of The Running Event might be better for vendors? Bring in shop owners and do a few days of education and training about making their business better, then release them to the show. Not sure if that's how TRE even operates anymore but in my days of going I enjoyed those operational seminars and trainings.

Just curious I guess. Hope you're well.

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Superfly Coaching
http://www.superflycoaching.com/eric

IL PIRATA VI GUARDA

Since dealers can place their orders and shop online (and they already know how bikes look like) they spent less time on trade shows (and hopefully have more time to ride) ..

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I guess it shows where the cycling industry is compared to say: Supplements. You have two major trade shows in the US and a bunch of smaller ones. And we just lost the only North American trade show? So when is EuroBike kaput?

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

There was a protest this year because of the earlier Eurobike date .. that's a good sign (the protest) ..

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This is just the end of one era. I started going to the show in the early and mid 1980's to seek sponsorships when I was a pro. De Soto Sport then became an exhibitor in 1990 when we shared a booth with QR (when slowman was the owner) and HED Wheels (with Steve and Annie Hed).

De Soto Sport exhibited there for 26 consecutive years making us one of the longest lasting supporters of the show. We started reading the writing on the wall when what used to be a sales show, were we used to write more than 75% of our yearly business, became a marketing and media show. Marketing and being in front of the media is important, but at what price? This is what really made us at De Soto Sport start to wonder at what point do we pull the plug on the tens of thousands of dollars we had to spend every year to be there.

Finally in 2015 on the last day of the show that year, we decided we would not return in 2016. Smartest decision of 2016 for me. Interbike had turned into a shwag show of sticker/poster/autograph collecting fools. It was a party, it was fun, but I would prefer to go to that party and be one of those fools, than to foolishly throw away that kind of money.

We all make decisions based on physical, mental, emotional, and financial conditions. That is what Interbike has done too. All good things must come to an end, and whether we wanted it or not, most of us in the industry saw this coming.

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Emilio De Soto II
Maker of triathlon clothing, T1 Wetsuits, & Saddle Seat Pads and AXS since 1990
emilio@desotosport.com http://www.desotosport.com

Hey Fleck, long time no talk. Curious if you think a setup more along the lines of The Running Event might be better for vendors? Bring in shop owners and do a few days of education and training about making their business better, then release them to the show. Not sure if that's how TRE even operates anymore but in my days of going I enjoyed those operational seminars and trainings.


I've never been to TRE - I hear and see that it's been pretty successful. I know that the founder, Troy Leonard, who years ago I believe worked for the company that then owned Interbike, recently sold the show to someone else.

I sense TRE emerged out of the need for a running focused Trade Show - neither Interbike, nor Outdoor Retailer were a good fit.

As you had hinted at much of the event is focused in Retailer education, knowledge and enrichment, and less so on traditional trade show buying/selling. That may be the key to it's success right there.

It may also be the fact that the running business is much bigger - more people run, than cycle for fun and fitness. And while numbers of runners (based on participation rates at running races/events) has flattened out, it's not down substantially the way cycling/triathlon participation is at the same level!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

"I told you so"

not you... but rather everyone that thought reno was a great place to put it.

Nail meet coffin.


*yeah yeah, usual caveats about this being the natural trending nature of trade sho... blah blah blah.

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
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I have been to TRE. We exhibited there for 4 years. On the standpoint of a brand, this too is mostly a marketing show. From the outside and from the side of the retailers, it looks like a success, and many really go to run, listen to seminars, and well, to party. Running retailers are hurting like cycling retailers. TRE will be hard pressed to get cycling brands to show up given they require much more booth space. One bike takes up the same amount of volume space as some shoe brands' entire line.

The big running focused shows used to be NSGA in Chicago and SGMA Super Show in Atlanta. Both the associations no longer exist. There are also a number of shoe shows too.

These days a lot of business gets done around some of the biggest marathons (Boston, NYC, Paris, London) and triathlons (like Ironman in Kona and Roth in Germany).

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Emilio De Soto II
Maker of triathlon clothing, T1 Wetsuits, & Saddle Seat Pads and AXS since 1990
emilio@desotosport.com http://www.desotosport.com

not you... but rather everyone that thought reno was a great place to put it.


Clearly, there had been a sense of optimism that the move to Reno would be a bit of a shot-in-the-arm for the Show.

Unfortunately, due to a change in my Race/Event Announcing work Schedule this year I could not make it to the Reno version of Interbike. I was interested in going for curiosity sake - to see what it was like in the new location. I heard from colleagues that it was even smaller than the previous year in Las Vegas, and the 2017 show in LV, was a HUGE drop from the year before!

Many had a Love/Hate relationship with Las Vegas. It's the LAST place that I would ever want to purposely go to - other than for some kind of trade show, convention or business purpose. It did actually check some boxes - Easy and relatively inexpensive to get to for many. Ample and reasonably priced accommodations. To name two that come to mind.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

My first meet up with you, ever, was at TRE in 2013. Alex Poon introduced us.

TRE's interesting in that you have the educational component the first few days, followed by the trade show. They go hand in hand. And most of the brands still follow the M.O. - a well-lubricated buyer is a happy buyer, and a happy buyer buys more. I have some stories from my time there about what we had to do to make sure a buyer at the time did not purchase any more product...

Anyways. TRE had been flattening out over the last couple of years, especially with the massive expansion with Fleet Feet and the showings that they had privately developed. That being said -- there's still enough value in TRE that people will go -- you can still knock out some key booking, see brands you otherwise wouldn't have a relationship with, and collaborate with your peers.

I have also done exactly as you've said -- gotten a bunch of deals done around Boston Marathon time. That said, most marketing dollars are already booked by that point, so trying to lock down sponsorship can be a tough sale there. There's also not much "new" product to preview at that point -- usually not seeing that until June.

This is, I think, why TBI works - we get down to work, we get educated, we get some deals done. Could it be partnered with some type of expo or preview of certain product in the future? It's plausible. Especially with Interbike going on hiatus, I think it's probably an opportunity.

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