Did you hear?… SIA Nordic ski sales noted sales increases were simply percentages

Reality check: An alert reader pointed out that while SIA Nordic ski sales numbers noted sales increases from this year compared to last, the numbers were simply percentages and meant little unless compared to sales up to 10 years ago at least. We agreed, so we began a little digging and whoooa boy! An insider told us that The SIA Retail Audit reveals that 01/02 there were a total of 125,182 skis sold up from 100,760 in 00/01. We went scrambling to seek out 98/99 numbers in our files and found that there were 187,083 skis sold. Our math tells us that this represents a 33-percent drop between 98/99 and last season which was otherwise hailed as a great year in the news. Looking back at numbers reported to us during ’80s we see the industry actually topped 900,000 skis sold in a year. Ouch! SNEWS® View: Yet another reason why SNEWS® simply hates percentages touting sales increases without numbers and comparisons to back them up, and while we will continue to harangue anyone who tries that game. It’s even more reason why we typically insist on more than one year; history speaks volumes for sales trend information. What this also shows is another reason why SIA shows have slowed to a quieter pace over the years. It’s not about dates — it’s about sales and volume!