Sport-Achat Hiver · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key takeaways

• Sport-Achat Hiver is the buying event for ski, mountain and outdoor retailers: three days during which sports shops, buying groups and purchasing centres come to see the collections for the coming season, decide their ranges and place orders.
• Organiser: Sportair, the event brand of the company Eurovet (Annecy-le-Vieux), led by Mathieu Kurtz. Sportair also runs Sport-Achat Été, the summer trade show for the outdoor sector, and public-facing events such as the High Five Festival and Rock On Snow.
• Next edition: from Monday 25 to Wednesday 27 January 2027, at Alpexpo, avenue d'Innsbruck in Grenoble. Opening hours shown for the previous edition: 9am-7pm on the first two days, 9am-6pm on the last.
• Results of the 2026 edition: 500 exhibiting brands spread across 264 stands, 22,000 sqm of exhibition space and attendance up 3% on a 2025 edition that had already grown by 10%. The organiser is using 4,000 outdoor professionals and 500 brands as benchmark figures for 2027.
• A trade show strictly reserved for professionals: professional identity is verified at registration, badges are personal and non-transferable, and proof of business activity (a Kbis extract) is required for on-site registration. Visitors who are neither retailers nor buyers can take part for a contribution of €90.
• The trade show has only been held at Alpexpo since 2024: it was previously based in Lyon, and its return to the Alps is the defining decision of the recent period.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

Sport-Achat Hiver is an order-writing trade show, not a demonstration event. The stands are occupied by ski and snow-sports equipment brands (skis, boots, bindings, snowboards), technical textile and mountain clothing brands, accessory manufacturers, lifestyle brands and point-of-sale solution suppliers. The organiser structures the offer into five sectors: equipment, textiles, accessories, lifestyle and point-of-sale.

On the visitor side, the target is narrow and deliberately so: independent sports shops, resort shops, chains and buying groups, purchasing centres, textile and equipment buyers. The late-January calendar slot is not neutral. It places the trade show in the middle of the textile ordering cycle and at the start of the equipment one, just after the period of on-the-ground product testing. It is this positioning within the buying process, more than the size of the event, that explains its attendance.

A dedicated space, the Fresh Zone, is reserved for young brands and emerging companies, with a specific rate and format. The 2026 edition featured twelve of them, mainly in the accessories, textile and cosmetics categories.

Notable exhibitors

The organiser cites as recurring visitors the chains and buying groups Sport 2000, Intersport, Au Vieux Campeur, Danisports, Ski Company, Snowleader, Spartoo, Ekosport, Blue Tomato, Globe Trotter, Hardloop, Chullanka, Espace Montagne, Running Conseil, Terre de Running, Alltricks and Groupe Rolland, among others.

On the brand side, the organiser's edition reports mention in particular Rossignol, Scott, Atomic, CMP, Sunset, Elevate, Columbia, Patagonia, Peak Performance and Amateis. The full list and the floor plan are published and updated on the brands page of the official website.

Quality of the audience

The trade show does not play the volume game: 4,000 professionals announced, in a scope where the great majority of visitors are buyers or product managers. Attendance remains dominated by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions, which is consistent with the geography of the mountain-shop network.

The notable shift over the last three editions is the opening up to Europe. In 2025, the organiser recorded around 70 foreign exhibitors (Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands leading) and 60 foreign retailers from six countries. In 2026, it reports a doubling of the number of foreign visitors compared with 2025, with Swiss, Italian, Spanish and Andorran retailers. This is the result of country-by-country prospecting work carried out with federations and shop groups, presented as such by the trade show's management.

Events & community

Conference programme

The conference programme runs on a dedicated space, Monday to Wednesday. It is not just window-dressing: the 2026 edition featured nine sessions, with speakers from the Union Sport et Cycle, Domaines Skiables de France, chains and brands.

The themes covered in 2026 give a sense of the positioning: seasonal-worker housing, the transfer and takeover of a sports shop or a brand, French and international retail growth models, resort-shop profitability, winter-season figures, patronage and engagement with the 1% for the Planet movement, prospects for mountain territories between the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games and those of 2030, and the use of artificial intelligence in shops. Two former champions, Marie Martinod and Jean-Baptiste Grange, spoke there. The 2027 edition's programme had not been published at the time of writing.

Spaces and activities

Three set-ups complement the stands. The Fresh Zone showcases young brands. The Kermesse du Retail, designed with Mission Retail Design and set up at the entrance to the trade show in 2026, offers exchanges between retailers and merchandising advice. The Moodboard, set up in the relaxation area, presents next season's trends through sketches, Pantone colours, materials and product selections.

On Monday evening, a party organised with Niveales extends the day on the conference space: the trade show's and exhibiting brands' after-work events are cited by the organiser as a factor in attendance.

Community & networks

Sport-Achat Hiver has a summer counterpart, Sport-Achat Été, which is also held at Alpexpo and covers outdoor sports for the warmer season. The next edition is scheduled for 7 and 8 September 2026, with more than 250 exhibiting brands.

The organiser Sportair belongs to Eurovet, which also runs professional fashion and lingerie trade shows, including Interfilière Paris. Sportair also produces public-facing events around mountain culture: the High Five Festival, Rock On Snow and Premières Traces.

Alpexpo also hosts the other major professional event for the mountain sector, Mountain Planet, dedicated to the development and operation of ski resorts. The two trade shows do not overlap: Mountain Planet addresses resort operators and local authorities, Sport-Achat addresses retailers.

On site: what you need to know

For detailed access, halls and parking, see the venue page: Alpexpo, avenue d'Innsbruck, 38100 Grenoble.

Specific to the trade show: parking is free, a point consistently noted by exhibitors and foreign visitors. By public transport, tram line A serves the Pôle Sud-Alpexpo stop from Grenoble railway station, complemented by the Chrono 3 bus (Alpexpo stop) and by the Chrono 6, C8, 65 and 67 lines (Grand Place stop). Paris is under 3 hours away by TGV from Gare de Lyon. By car, the Alpexpo exit on the southern ring road puts Grenoble at around 1h10 from Lyon, 1h03 from Annecy and 1h24 from Geneva. The usable airports are Grenoble Alpes Isère, Lyon Saint-Exupéry and Geneva Cointrin.

On site, three catering options coexist: a food-truck area, a food court operated by Nomad Kitchens, and a sit-down catering area offering an all-you-can-eat buffet at €35 incl. VAT per person. The organiser publishes a list of accommodation near the venue.

Registration is done online via the trade show's visitor area. The badge request platform closes the evening before opening, on the Sunday; after that, registration is done at the visitor desk, with proof of business activity. First-time visitors go through the trade show's team, by email or phone.

How much it costs to exhibit

Preparing your visit

For the exhibitor

• Return the booking form before 25 September 2026: after that, the surcharge is €20 to €21 excl. VAT per square metre depending on the package (see the official price list), i.e. around €400 to €420 on a 20 sqm stand.
• Choose the package based on storage needs. The difference between Équipe and Confort mainly comes down to the storage room and display modules, two key points for a textile brand presenting collections.
• Plan ahead for the open corner: it is charged at €275 excl. VAT as an option and becomes included from 36 sqm.
• For a young brand, consider the Fresh Zone rather than a standard stand: the format is designed as a springboard for prospecting and press visibility.
• Plan for Wednesday. The organiser acknowledges lower attendance on the last day and is working to boost it, but the team needs to stay engaged for all three days.

For the decision-making visitor

• Come as a team. Retailers who give feedback to the organiser describe a group visit, textile and equipment buyers together, to decide ranges on the spot.
• Time the visit to your own ordering cycle: the trade show is positioned in the middle of textile ordering and at the start of equipment ordering.
• Request your badge before the platform closes, on the Sunday evening before opening. Otherwise, bring a Kbis extract or proof of business activity for the visitor desk.
• Book accommodation early: Grenoble's hotel capacity is stretched by both the trade show and the season.
• Block out time for the conferences: the programme serves as a benchmark for season figures and for the underlying issues of the mountain trade.

Policy & CSR initiatives

Sportair does not publish an environmental commitments page specific to Sport-Achat Hiver, nor a consolidated CSR policy at Eurovet group level that is publicly accessible. The only operational commitment identifiable in the trade show's official documents is waste treatment, included in the stand price regardless of the package chosen, and free listing in the online catalogue, which limits printed materials.

The CSR dimension does, however, come through clearly in the trade show's editorial content. The 2026 edition devoted one conference to environmental patronage and the 1% for the Planet movement, with the association's director and seven committed brands, and another to the transition of mountain shops with the Mountain Change Makers collective. This is a programming choice, distinct from a measurable organisational commitment.

The venue provides the most verifiable layer. Alpexpo states an eco-responsible approach structured around encouraging soft mobility, monitoring water and energy consumption, improving waste sorting and treatment, promoting responsible local businesses and welcoming people with reduced mobility, with the whole site accessible to people with reduced mobility and disabilities. The venue states that its activities are undergoing ISO 20121 certification, the responsible management standard applied to event activity: the process is under way, but certification has not yet been obtained.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The defining fact of the recent period is the relocation. After around twenty years in Lyon, Sport-Achat Hiver moved to Alpexpo Grenoble in January 2024, with new dates and a format tightened into a single large hall. The bet was geographic: bring the trade show closer to the Alpine massif and to the network of resort shops that forms its core target. Three editions on, the figures published by the organiser point the same way: attendance up 5% in 2024, 10% in 2025, 3% in 2026, and exhibition space up from 20,000 to 22,000 sqm between 2025 and 2026.

The number of brands, meanwhile, has stayed stable at around 500 to 520 since 2024, with the number of stands ranging between 264 and 270. In other words, growth is not coming from a broader offer but from denser attendance and higher-end stands, with several major brands choosing to invest in more elaborate set-ups that are reused from one edition to the next.

The second shift is European. The trade show is positioning itself as the continent-wide professional event for ski, and has built its overseas prospecting methodically since 2024. The doubling of foreign visitors in 2026 validates this trajectory, without yet making it a fully international trade show: the base remains overwhelmingly French and Alpine.

Two points of concern remain open for 2027, both identified by the organiser itself: the correlation between the increase in floor space and the increase in attendance, and Wednesday attendance, the last day of the trade show, which the incentives put in place in 2026 were not enough to turn around.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (sport-achat.com).