How much gear do day ticket window skiers buy?

[crgildart]

As the industry shifts farther and farther away from the old model of day tickets to bigger investment threshold passes and mega passes how does that impact overall gear sales? It's a given that people who buy resort passes and multi resort passes buy a fair amount of gear, a LOT of gear. What about people who ski occasionally but not anywhere near pass breakeven levels? They way day ticket sales have all but gone away, many online only and in advance, that segment is probably going away for the foreseeable future.

The take a few years off then decide to dip your toe back in the ski resort scene folks are likely soured by the shockingly higher price at the ticket window, assuming they can even buy a day pass there. If lift tickets were more affordable and accessible they'd likely be buying new gear with their return from retirement. Probably not happening in this newer model though.

It's a non issue for 95% of the regulars here, even I have some connections and insights to keep my lift access costs reasonable. But, to the folks oblivious to the current climate nd best practices, there may be some attrition, especially with regard to gear sales. Thoughts?

 

[raytseng]

i think there are multiple categories of the people who buy day tickets.

1 group that you're labelling as more oblivious or more casual will just rent/demo gear for their ski trips.

The second group will buy relatively inexpensive overstock gear from online stores or ebay and consider it a durable purchase. Or already have made the purchase so pull out those barely used skis and boots out of the closet for the next 10years. Those $299 boots and $299 skis you see on discount liquidator sale are getting bought by someone.

For softgoods, I think its new, but there are also lots of overstock or offbrand gooda on amazon to supply the 1week/season population. The 20,000 reviews on some noname brand skigoggles are not all fake.

 

[crgildart]

i think there are multiple categories of the people who buy day tickets.

1 group that you're labelling as more oblivious or more casual will just rent/demo gear for their ski trips.

Guessing the day ticket sticker shock will also impact the rental markets. resort based and brick and mortar ski shops..

Affordable lift tickets facilitate both those.. Price discrimination against walk ups definitely hits the rental shops too.

 

[crgildart]

It really seems to turn away the "occasional" skier.. i.e. 3-4 times every other season skier market is pretty devastated by super high walk up ticket prices. They're gonna say NOPE and not rent or buy gear.

Skiing's lift access model is moving to either all in for 10 days+ a year at the pass places or fuggataboutit! There will be gear sales attrition from pricing the occasional skiers out of the market. My question is how much? hardly anything??

 

[Jim Kenney]

At first it was hard for me to answer this question because I honestly no longer interact with many people who buy day-tickets. However, I realized I did have one up-close interaction with a day-skier this past winter. It was my oldest daughter. She flew out and skied with us for two days at Snowbird. She first skied as a five year old, but now at age 30-something she only skis once or twice every few years. She rented skis and boots for this visit. She borrowed some goggles from us. If I recall correctly, she used a legacy pair of ski pants and some old under layers. Her jacket and hat were newer, generic clothing articles that she owned for winter use off the slopes. She did fine without purchasing any new ski-specific gear/clothing for the trip.

 

[cosmoliu]

Yeah, this and other barriers worry me about new skiers coming in, and the long term future of our sport obsession. If the current affordability issues were around in 1984, I'm not sure I would have ever tried.

 

[slow-line-fast]

Assuming businesses need new customers, hard to see how it goes on like this.

 

[fatbob]

Assuming businesses need new customers, hard to see how it goes on like this.

Someone quoting the "nobody goes there it's too crowded" meme in 3..2..1.

Seriously though this is it. The ski industry might aleady be dead and just not know it yet at least in the US. I'd never quite pieced together the puzzle on the rise of superpremium skis etc but of course it's people who are saving money on skiing thru megapasses etc that have cash to spend on them. The world is certainly bificurcating into serious skiers and the ever more casual. It would be sad if that bifucation is largely or wholly on wealth grounds. A lot of the price insensitivity I see on this site though suggests it might be.

I only hope there's a thriving affordable scene at grassroots local hills to balance out the moarr $ everywhere else.

 

[slow-line-fast]

It seems the chase is on to woo existing skiers. I happen to really like skiing but can’t imagine that I would get into it now, if I weren’t already into it.

 

[Wendy]

Yeah, this and other barriers worry me about new skiers coming in, and the long term future of our sport obsession. If the current affordability issues were around in 1984, I'm not sure I would have ever tried.

When I learned to ski, I was asked to be a regular chaperone for my high school’s ski club. (I was a teacher). So I got a free season pass. Were it not for that, I never would have learned to ski on a teacher’s salary. Now I can afford trips, etc, but still, I think about the price increases and cringe, and feel sad for younger folks who don’t have 6 figure incomes.

 

[Quandary]

You can buy an EPIC day pass good at all the Vail resorts. One day is $95, if you buy 7 days it works out to $81 per day. There are ways to make skiing reasonable affordable.

 

[fatbob]

You can buy an EPIC day pass good at all the Vail resorts. One day is $95, if you buy 7 days it works out to $81 per day. There are ways to make skiing reasonable affordable.

It's a fair point but the nature of purchase constraints make it very much like a season pass for those that are planned ahead. If you restrict yourself to the less aspirational eastern properties non-holiday it can get as low as $45 for a single day

 

[crgildart]

You can buy an EPIC day pass good at all the Vail resorts. One day is $95, if you buy 7 days it works out to $81 per day. There are ways to make skiing reasonable affordable.

5 ski resorts in NC, 4 in VA. Last time I checked 0 accept IKON or Epic Pass. So south of PA you're SOL on either... There is an indy pass that gets you like 20% off those places though.. for a couple hundred dollars upfront..

Main point is still that even in places where those are good, folks who ski less than 5 times a season are facing that super high price, MUCH higher at destination places that DO accept those passes at the window...

 

[crgildart]

As for impact to gear sales overall... Is it fair to say that folks who ski more than once but less than 5-6 times a season would still prefer to have their own gear instead of renting? Seasonal rentals are a pretty good option, but renting AT the resort sucks considerable ramp up and ramp down time out of your ski day, especially on weekends and holidays when it's crazy busy. "Oh they can just rent" isn't all that easy as it sounds.. This comes from scout troop ski trip experience.. Renting at the resort is a huge pain in the ass. Add on a $150 walk up price for the lift ticket and another $50 to stand in line for an hour getting the gear.. Ya unless people get so excited that they go all in on a mega pass (assuming that's even a viable option) those folks are not coming back, if they did bother to try it once..

 

[crgildart]

Middle school ski clubs and spring learn to ski lift/lesson/rental packages were pretty effective marketing tools back in the day. Can't say that I've heard of either or met folks on lifts from those types of things within the past 5 years. Are they going away too?

 

[Philpug]

We just attended a ski sale, of the people that I talked to, I would say 4 out of 10 didn't have passes and were buying gear.

 

[crgildart]

We just attended a ski sale, of the people that I talked to, I would say 4 out of 10 didn't have passes and were buying gear.

Sounds about right.. The retired occasional weekday skiers are still getting reasonable walk up same day rates. People who aren't fully aware of the recent window price increases are also out there buying gear without realizing what awaits them. And some just don't care.. Willing to pay $150 at the window to ski MLK Day and would rather have gear than stand in line to rent it.. That's ME!

 

[Philpug]

would rather have gear than stand in line to rent it..

THIS was the main reason people wanted to buy, they were done with the rental lines.

 

[markojp]

Middle school ski clubs and spring learn to ski lift/lesson/rental packages were pretty effective marketing tools back in the day. Can't say that I've heard of either or met folks on lifts from those types of things within the past 5 years. Are they going away too?

They still are at our mountain.

 

[Wilhelmson]

My sister skies a few times a year and replaced her gear last year. Our friends, a family of 4 buy day tickets and have their own gear. Another family does the same same thing. Money is not a big object for these people. Actuall, another family without lots of expendable have their own gear, but buy used. So thats pretty much the day ticket people we ski with, and they all have their own gear.