The Trentino based company moves forward the presentation of most of the SS21 innovations to safeguard the dealers. Delladio: “There are very high warehouse stocks, we don’t want our sales network to suffer”.
The emergency caused by the spread of the COVID19 epidemic does not appear close to an immediate solution, consequently La Sportiva, after having decided in advance on the times established by the Government for the closure of the Ziano di Fiemme factory, and after the conversion of part of the production plant in favour of manufacturing masks and sanitary devices for the Civil Protection of Trento ( la Protezione Civile di Trento), now adopts an important measure in support of the dealers and its worldwide sales network.
Considering the fact that the prolonged closure of most Italian and European stores, which began right at the initial phase of the spring/summer 2020 season, will lead every operator in this market sector to face very high warehouse stocks of products that in most cases have not even had the chance to be presented to the market and therefore cannot be considered “outdated” in a few months, La Sportiva has decided to postpone the launch of almost 90% of the 2021 summer clothing collection and most of the new footwear.
The aim of this decision is to preserve the value of the products in the current collection, in the company’s warehouse and in the stores in a “slow fashion” perspective that will allow partners to continue offering the goods without having to “devaluate” them and provide more breathing space in the coming months.
The new apparel collection that will be presented to the world sales network in May and which will be in the stores in Spring 2021 (around 74 markets served), will therefore re-propose a large part of the current 2020 collection, enriched with some capsule products added to the collection and not substitutes of previous products. The same decison has been taken with regards to several new projects relating to the Footwear Mountain Running® and Climbing collection, with the same objective of not creating large quantities of obsolete products that are unsold due to the prolonged closure.
“At this difficult time for many of our shopkeepers all over the world, it did not seem responsible to present, as we usually do and as the market normally dictates, dozens of new products that would have immediately weighed down the assortments of our dealers, in a year where the amount of unsold items will tend to be high. – Says Giulia Delladio, Strategic Marketing Manager at La Sportiva – Our company will therefore undertake to invest the Marketing resources by supporting in every way possible a correct and complete process of sell-out of the collections already currently in our partners’s warehouses.”
This is a strong signal that the company has decided to launch in the firm conviction that it can help the whole supply chain to create the best possible conditions for a prompt recovery in the post-emergency period. The corporate motto of these days is always the same: “United, even if divided, we will also climb this peak”.
