Preview: Next Summer Returns For 2nd Edition, June 19-20

Next Summer, the summer edition of Sport Achat, is the essential meeting place for French out-door sports retailers to discover all the latest innovations in the market.

Traditionally scheduled for September, Next Summer now takes place for the second consecutive year at an earlier date, from 19-20 June. With this move, Next Summer is positioned at a more relevant date in the calendar for the industry, resulting in the event bringing together a greater number of professionals from the outdoor sports industry than ever before. The positive feedback from the last edition, with many brands who had not been present in recent editions returning, demonstrated that the date change was supported by the industry and was a necessary requirement to meet the new order deadlines for retailers. At the same time to further reinvigorate the show after 18 years in Lyons, the location has been moved to the Savoiexpo in Chambéry which offers a location right in the mountains, the natural environment for most of the sports exhibiting at the show.

The two-day event will be open from 9AM – 7PM on the Monday and 9AM – 6PM on the Tuesday. The show covers five categories Cycling, Climbing/Mountaineering, Trail running, Hiking Bivouac and Lifestyle. These will be supported by specialist exhibition areas to help retailers discover inno-vative models such as the Shoe Expo, a shoe wall located at the entrance to the show and a tent village with all the latest models on display. Additionally, all the new brands will be grouped together in the Fresh Zone, so visitors can see what this new wave of brands has to offer. Between your ap-pointments you can visit the food truck village where a wide choice of culinary delights awaits you.

The presentation schedule kicks off on Monday with each of the Fresh Zone brands & start-ups presenting their concepts and one of their flagship products, this will be led by Daniel Ronzeau Head of Ski Training Development at CNPC Cycle. On Tuesday, there will be two conferences, one on the positive impact of product repair, and the second on the importance of good preparation of your feet and the maintenance of equipment in Trail and Ultra Trail. The positive impact of prod-uct repair talk will be led by Eolia Masson, CSR Project Manager at Millet Mountain Group, Solenne Beart, Co-founder of Goodloop, Tom De Louis from the Espace Montagne Shop, Benjamin Couton, Project Manager of Sidas Academy and Gilles Marquette, Orthotist in podiatry and sports boot fit-ting.

On the Monday from 6:30PM in the Food Truck Zone the show’s party will be held, and all exhibi-tors and visitors are welcome to share in cocktails and a buffet.

Last year, 575 retailers and 205 brands attended. This year, at time of going to press, over 1,000 visitors had registered and over 200 brands had booked 7000 sq meters of exhibition space. New and returning brands to the show include Loop, La Sportiva, Lagolight, GB Diffusioon, Cousin Tres-tec, Veja, Hastko, Rywan, Pures Sensations, YY Vertical, Aureleo Agency, Caprin, La Dauphin Li-bere, ON, Brandfusion, Fischer, Sun Valley, Felisaz SAS Plum, Wilma, NEO sunglasses, Mascot, Tecnica, Aigle International, Atom, Fluuchos, Legsline Mustang and Ponoature.

Chambéry is well connected to the motorway network and the Geneva and the Lyon Saint Exupéry airports are easily accessible. Trains from the direction of Lyons, Grenoble and Albertville all stop in Chambery.

Next Summer is a key event in the French boardsports B2B calendar so if your active in this mar-ket, make sure you’re there to see all the latest trends and test all the latest products whilst network-ing with your peers.