Robert and Richard from CityROCK visited the Outdoor Tradeshow in Munich from 30 June to 3 July.
The 2019 Show has moved from Friedrichshafen to Munich which made access to show slightly easier for us. A simple flight and a short train trip and we were at our flat for the week. We stayed close to the city centre and hired bicycles via an app that we found. This allowed us to ride the 8km to the show each day getting some exercise as well as seeing the city.
We had a series of great meetings with the brands we import which allowed us to see the exciting new gear that is launching in 2020 as well be able to talk about how we can optimize the way we are importing the gear.
The new ranges of micro cams from DMM, Black Diamond and Wild Country are going to be very interesting. To see our review of the DMM Dragonflies click here.
One of our favourite meetings was with Lutz from Vaude who showed us how they are making amazing gear while doing everything they can to protect our planet. Their Green Shape Label offers Functional, Environmentally friendly products made from sustainable materials. We have a range of Vaude Packs, sleeping bags and tents in stock and are looking forward to widening our range next year.
On our last day in Munich we went and had a look at the Globetrotter and Sport Shuster retail shops. These shops are absolutely massive. There were multiple levels of gear and clothing. It was slightly overwhelming and we had to move through the stores slowly to make sure we didn’t miss anything. We did note that the layout of the stores was quite strange – they both had the hiking bags next to the books and In Globetrotter the walking and running shoes was downstairs next to the water sports which was a strange place to have them (In hindsight we realized that they were there so they were close to the storerooms). It was great to see all the brands they offered and be able to compare them next to each other. We did comparisons between the ropes, shoes and belay devices; their prices, look and feel and the way they had been displayed.
We also made a trip to BoulderWelt which is a popular Bouldering gym in Munich, They have 2 branches in Munich – East and West. We visited the East branch as it was 5 min by bicycle from where we were staying. The gym was amazing, they have used the floor space brilliantly and designed it so that the problems were well spread out and all the grades were available on the different wall shapes (there were some easy overhanging problems). Their grading system was all on grip colour (circuit bouldering) so Robert and I knew that we were aiming to climb all the white problems.
Overall, our trip was very successful. We had some great meetings with our suppliers are we’re very excited about the direction the brands are moving in.
-Richard