New Ulm, MN -(AmmoLand.com)- To celebrate its 20th year, the ATA Trade Show returned to the city where it started: Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1997, the event’s inaugural year, every major bow manufacturer was present and accounted for and, as if by design, the same was true in 2016 with the return of Mathews Archery, Inc. This year’s Show marked a year of milestones and none were more gratifying than the record number of archery shops attending.
Here are the main member categories for 2016, along with the downloadable tables comparing this year’s attendee numbers to numbers from previous years.
In 2016 there were:
- 1,168 retail and distribution buying companies
- 9,950 total attendees
- 631 exhibiting companies
- 228,892 square feet of brands, products and innovation
While the show continues to evolve and grow, ATA President and CEO Jay McAninch said its core purpose remains unchanged. “It’s a focused event, which is why we qualify everyone who gets a badge,” he said. “Everything is geared toward business and efficiency to maximize time and opportunity for companies attending.”
The efficiency has made the Show a fundraising machine. During the past decade, it’s provided nearly $13 million in funds, staff expertise, and resources to state agencies, city and county parks-and-rec departments, archery and bowhunting organizations and other well-vetted groups. Those funds and resources have been used for building archery ranges and archery parks, and operating after-school and community archery and bowhunting programs such as National Archery in the Schools Programs.
The Show also helped fund the creation and implementation of programs like Explore Archery, Explore Bowhunting, Explore Bowfishing and the Retail Growth Initiative.
“By attending the Show, everyone invests in our sports’ futures,” McAninch said. “Today, each Show generates net proceeds of about $2.2 to $2.3 million to help grow archery, bowhunting and the industry itself. And it’s working. Between 2012 and 2014, our sports grew from 18.9 million archers/bowhunters to 21.6 million, a nearly 15 percent increase. Since we began this effort, the number of Americans shooting bows and arrows has increased by nearly three times. Every ATA member should take pride in those numbers.”
The ATA’s focus on helping the industry to do business productively resulted in a Show that earned rave reviews from members.
“We’ve had a fantastic show,” said Joel Maxfield of Mathews Archery, Inc. “We’re glad to be back at the ATA Show and it’s been a phenomenal experience. We’ve been really welcomed and well-received. A lot of the manufacturers welcomed us back, too. The attendance has been great.”
Lance Potsma, a retailer from Top of Utah Archery in Logan, said the ATA Show is critical to his business.
“The ATA Show helps me maintain a good margin, and compete against a big box store that moved in four blocks away from us, and another big sporting goods store that’s two blocks away,” he said. “With the Show’s help, I’ve increased my profitability enough that I’m not worried about them being there. In fact I think it helps us.”
The Show has an unlikely sense of mystery too, thanks to the hopes and ambitions of entrepreneurs.
“You never know what will happen next,” said Malcolm Snyder, vice president and marketing director at Pape’s Inc. “You’re sitting in your booth, talking to a dealer, and you see a guy over there with a briefcase, waiting to meet you. You assume he’s got nothing, but what if he’s about to hit the next homerun? The dealer leaves, and the briefcase runs over and asks five minutes of your time. He opens his briefcase, you look, and you say, ‘Holy sh–! How many can you make and when can you deliver them?’ That happens more often than you think.”
Read testimonials from several ATA members, including archery retailers and manufacturers.
2017 in Indianapolis!
The ATA Trade Show returns to Indianapolis in 2017. Show dates are set; mark your calendars for Jan. 10-12! Indianapolis is a favored Show site among ATA members. In a 2014 survey by Responsive Management, ATA retailers ranked Indy as the No. 1 Show site.
About the ATA:
The Archery Trade Association is the organization for manufacturers, retailers, distributors, sales representatives and others working in the archery and bowhunting industry. The ATA has served its members since 1953. It is dedicated to making the industry profitable by decreasing business overhead, reducing taxes and government regulation, and increasing participation in archery and bowhunting. The organization also owns and operates the ATA Trade Show, the archery and bowhunting industry’s largest and longest-running trade show worldwide.
For more information, visit: www.archerytrade.org.