ASR and Crossroads Make a Deal; What a Surprise!
This is good news because it makes things easier for the retailers, which I may have said a time or two is what trade shows need to be about. Crossroads needed retailers, which ASR can help supply, and Jamie Thomas doesn’t want to have to manage the logistics that will be required if Crossroads grows. ASR needs the skateboard industry. I don’t think Andy Tompkins wants ASR to be thought of as “a surf show” when apparel, style, and fashion are so much a part of where the whole action sports industry is going (has gone?). Hmmm. By that logic, Surf Expo should consider changing its name. And ASR would like to bring back the additional exhibitors and revenue that the skate industry represents.
This is being billed as an experiment over the next two ASRs. I’m guessing, especially when the economy improves, that it will be extended and the relationship will become closer. At some point, I expect to see the skate companies back in the convention center if the economics can be made to work.
It’s kind of an open secret that there have been some disagreements between the skate industry and ASR about how the show could best serve the skate industry. When times were good, those disagreements were easy to paper over. But then things got tough and, to some extent, the Crossroads show was the response. I’m glad to see them working out their differences in the interest of the industry and the retailers.
