Though other world responsibilities kept us from the IFTD show in Reno this year, we’ve been chatting with a small army of friends and enemies who attended this year’s shindig in Reno.
To the man (and woman) they applauded AFFTA’s efforts and felt the show went off as expected – very well.
Most of the clan we’ve talked to were impressed as hell with the cadre of quality folks involved in fly fishing, their devotion to it and bonds of the fly fishing brotherhood.
Perhaps less importantly, they also (everyone I’ve talked to) were impressed with a theme of ever-escalating premium prices for what are no doubt premium products. Even Kirk Deeter appears to be impressed with Sage’s ONE Elite rod, sporting polished titanium and other finery for a cool $1,295 MSRP and Simm’s $800 G4Z waders (yawn).
Another factoid that reverberated most significantly with friends attending the show was who wasn’t there. As an example, multiple sources have reported that both Simms and Orvis estimated that roughly 10% of their dealers were there; more than one observer suggested those were highly optimistic, beer-goggle type numbers.
Every conversation we’ve had with folks drifted at some point to the fact that this very well was likely the last IFTD show of this kind – for a variety of reasons, something supported by this post on the AFFTA blog (excerpt below) –
Dead? Well, we all know it’s been sick for some time. If you’re a retailer sitting this one out at home, you’re not alone. Simms and Orvis both told me today that roughly 10 percent of their dealers are in Reno now. What keeps the other 90 percent of retailers on the sidelines? It isn’t lack of execution. The show has been planned and performed flawlessly. It’s still a heck of a party. I love being here, because I’m hanging around with some of my favorite people in the world, talking about one of the things I love to do most. The seminars are great. The off-record discussions are interesting.
But from a business standpoint, there aren’t many deals happening here. From a media standpoint, I haven’t seen many products in Reno that I hadn’t at least heard about weeks before now. The manufacturers who are here have limited their efforts… smaller booths, fewer events, and on and on.
For what it’s worth, and that’s arguably not anything at all, we’d join the chorus of those calling for the show to link up with Outdoor Retailer (even recognizing that SLC may very well lose it’s long held grip on OR over space considerations after the 2013 event).
There are a host of synergies that could be developed within the greater outdoor retailer environment, not the least of which is linking efforts with like-minded groups to push habitat protection and restoration efforts as well as reaching out to some of our non-fishing outdoorsy friends to show that fly fishers can play well with others (and win some converts along the way).
Marketing that $1300 fly rod and $800 pair of waders is important, mind you, but there are some bigger fish to fry.
