If you ever wondered what skateboard companies were about to release next you will generally find all of your answers at annual trade shows. Skateboarding trade shows have been around for years, the American based ASR show tends to bring out every corner of the globe and Europe also hosts these huge industry get togethers showcasing next seasons products to retailers and other potential sales outlets.
Over the last few years the UK has had various trade shows on offer in London and in Manchester but generally the lifestyle and fashion element of it has taken over leaving the core industry to cough up ludicrous amounts of money in exchange for minimal space to meet potential new clients.
Every industry has to mingle. With this in mind, August 2008 saw the introduction of The Bay Rumble, a new trade show put together by Bay Sixty 6 skatepark owner Paul McDermott who has run the park in London for the last 11 years. The focus was for core UK skate industry distributors to meet, rollout their stands, discuss the products and book in orders for the seasons ahead from new and established skate shops. Asked about how this all came together Paul recalls…’The idea came from Revival Distribution who asked me if they could organise one in the skatepark at the beginning of the year, but they felt it would be wrong coming from them as a distributor, so I said I would put it together for them and others.’
The result was a gathering of the UK’s most important distributors that included leading skate brands such as DuFFs, Globe, Supra, DVS, Osiris, Circa, Dekline,Girl, Royal, Matix, Chocolate, Karma, Darkstar, Enjoi, Tensor, The Harmony, Plan B, Landscape, Heroin, Death, Blueprint, Mystery, Zero, Fallen, Independent, Creature, Santa Cruz, Alien Workshop and many more.
Adam Wood – I-Five – ‘The Bay Rumble was like a breath of fresh air for the UK skate trade. I am sure UK skate dealers will see the benefit of any future shows. It was so great to be part of the first trade show for skateboard products only and no one was trying to sell some fucked up extreme skate/scooter contraption!’
Joe Burlo – Faze 7 (Blueprint, Fallen, Mystery etc) – ‘A skateboard only trade show is long overdue. Most Skateboard brands were represented at the trade show and it allowed skateshops to focus solely on skateboarding. The Bay Rumble was an affordable and unformal show which allowed us to conduct business without all the normal unnecessary and expensive trade show distractions. We do not need a massive PR machine to email all of our accounts. All they need to know is when and where. We can learn a lesson from the ‘Bright’ trade show in Germany. It started off like this one and has now been hijacked by all the large clothing and show companies which has jacked the price up by nearly 400% to cover all the magazine advertising and PR that the larger brands demand from trade show organisers.’
Jerome Loughran – Shiner LTD – ‘Good to see a distribution show that brings in the Core ethics of skateboarding , bringing back where it belongs, with next years idea of a shop team comp I am sure it will go from strength to strength‘.
‘Overall, the feedback was very good, everybody said it felt right and was about time, so we are currrently all looking to build on it for next year. We will chat with everyone to get the right dates in mind for a Winter show somewhere else and another summer one. Potentially there could be several shows around the country as well as London but right now the fact is that the core of the UK skate industry is pulling together and that has got to be healthy for skateboarding.’ – Paul McDermott
